4 minute read
A NEW OLD GRANDSTAND FOR UPPERVILLE
A NEW OLD GRANDSTAND FOR UPPERVILLE
Photos by Crowell Hadden
By Tommy Lee Jones and Vicky Moon
When legendary sportsman Harry Worcester Smith judged the Upperville horse show in 1905, it was hard to tell what pleased him most: the lunch break at Rozier Dulany’s Oakley or the best mint juleps in Virginia made by the butler. Or perhaps it was that the show committee had moved the grandstand to its current location, cutting down the dust from the Winchester Pike along what is now Route 50.
Elegant female equestrians glide past the grandstand for the Ladies Side-Saddle class, adorable eager children await the results of the highly competitive lead line class and, in days gone by, a high jump competition was the featured Saturday afternoon highlight.
Richard Thomas remembers it all. His grandfather, Reed Thomas, had Box 9. Richard was five years old and presented the trophy to the winner one afternoon in the mid 1960s. He cherishes the memory.
In the early 1980s, the grandstand was held together by cables spaced along the length of the building. A cable ran from the bottom of a post on the front edge through the floor to the back header just holding the rafters. A second cable went from the front header to the other cable about midway. Groundhogs undermined the support beams that sat on concrete filled casks.
Charlie Risdon, who went to work for Theo Randolph straight out of high school and ran her carpenter crew, had devised the cable works and then did the work to stabilize the underpinnings and repair the front post.
Ty Payne and Maria Moore
Robert Smith bought the 500-acre Heronwood Farm next to the show grounds in 1983. It included 30-plus acres of the horse show grounds, later donated to the show. Soon after, one of his engineers developed a plate to strengthen the roof system, adding brace pieces and doubling the rafters. Then the cables came down. In 2007, the floor and supports were replaced. The outsides and the roof were kept but you could drive a truck from one end to the other inside the grandstand.
Every time there was a report of a wreck on Route 50 near Middleburg, horse show management held its breath worrying that some semi had not gone off the road and through the grandstand.
In April, 2023 that actually did happen, though luckily it was a pickup truck. The horse show had just installed a new fence and the post only allowed the vehicle to get through the general admission benches in back of the grandstand and not the coveted box seats.
During August and September of 2023, the iconic grandstand at the Upperville Colt and Horse Show was renovated by B and D Builders of Paradise, Pennsylvania. In October, friends and board members gathered to celebrate the renovation.
In addition to Joe Fargis, president of the show, and Emily Day, show secretary and executive director, the group included Ty Payne, whose mother Barbara “Tippy” Payne was inducted into the horse show Wall of Honor in 2009. Maria Moore, Tippy’s niece, traveled from Amsterdam, Netherlands to attend the event at the show grounds.
RECENT RENOVATIONS
Utilizing the existing wall support structure, a new standing seam roof was installed, along with a whitewashed tongue and groove wide plank ceiling finish. There are upgraded fans, better ventilation windows, new ADA accessible access ramps and new seating. There’s also more storage space. The iconic Upperville green color, which includes drops of black paint, remains in use.
