Nomination Form
Farmer’s Delight was part of an 18th-century tract for which George Washington and Lord Fairfax once served as trustees. The Loudoun County estate boasts a mansion patterned after Tidewater Georgian plantation houses. One of the county’s oldest brick dwellings, it was built ca. 1791 for Joseph Lane who served in the General Assembly and was a lieutenant colonel in the Whiskey Rebellion of 1793. The Flemish-bond brickwork is highlighted by a belt course and gauged brick jack arches. The interior preserves Federal woodwork typical of the region. From 1856 until 1919 Farmer’s Delight was owned by the Leith family. It later was acquired by horseman Henry J. Frost, Jr., who added the wings. In 1948 the Farmer’s Delight estate was purchased by George C. McGhee, former ambassador to Turkey and Germany, who developed an extensive garden and arboretum here designed by landscape architects Boris Timchenko of Washington and Meade Palmer of Warrenton.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
