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Oral History – Working at Oatlands
Stilson Hutchins Hall was employed at Oatlands for several years before the Eustis family purchased Oatlands in 1903. Hall lived in a small cottage on the property, along with both his parents and his brother. Today, we call this quaint building the Bachelor’s Cottage. The two-story structure stands to the west of the mansion, and behind the greenhouse (still in existence, and the second oldest in the country).
Hall had firsthand knowledge of the extensive property renovations required to convert the dilapidated former plantation house into a country estate home fit to host honored guests, including a United States president!
What was it like growing up in the Oatlands community in the early 20th century? Working at Oatlands offered some special opportunities for one local working class boy. The following excerpt is taken from an interview conducted by Architectural Historian Thomas N. Slain, of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, on July 27, 1973. Hall describes what it was like to be a young boy and meet President Theodore Roosevelt!
“Mrs. Eustis sent us to Washington to meet Theodore Roosevelt when he was President and he took us into his study…He talked with us quite a while. He gave each of us a blank cartridge he got on the Russian-Japanese battlefield. I have mine at this time. Theodore Roosevelt talked to us like his own children. He had all kinds of guns, ammunitions and trophies that he had himself shot and mounted in his study. I didn’t at the time, but of course I realize now that he was so gracious to us because Mrs. Eustis had sent us there. Mrs. Eustis was a lady who usually got what she wanted. That is not critically speaking—she knew what she wanted.”
During Hall’s lifetime, the community of Oatlands was largely agricultural and consisted of a busy blacksmith’s shop doing repair work for farmers–fixing their wagons, small machinery, and shoeing horses.
He describes Edith Eustis as being a woman who was very connected to the community and wanted ways to bring people of the community together. She built and paid for the parish house at Oatlands and was largely responsible for getting a minister to preach in that parish house. Edith was also very interested in education and personally supplemented the salaries of the teachers of the Mountain Gap School for a number of years in order to ensure that students benefited from college educated teachers.
Hall and his brother received their early education at the Mountain Gap School. The one-room school house stands along route 15, just north of Oatlands. He advanced to the Leesburg High School around 1908.
Hall mentions in the interview, “…every time I set foot on Oatlands I think I’m setting foot on ground that’s hallowed to me. I was very young when I went there, I never associated with rich people…or seen them at least… And to get to Washington to see the President of the United States…well, I had a high regard for the President of the United Sates, at that time. I was thinking he was king…and a man of morals…”
We’re lucky for all the interviews and oral histories collected for Oatlands through the years. The bank of our knowledge depends on the accumulation of their experiences to better interpret our 200-year-old history.
Revitalizing The Oatlands Garden
The end of the Civil War marked the decline of the Carter family plantation era, which utimately resulted in Oatlands being turned over to new homeowners. William Corcoran Eustis, and his wife Edith Morton Eustis, purchased Oatlands in 1903. Since then, Oatlands has been a home full of creativity and art.
William was the grandson of William Wilson Corcoran. Edith was the daughter of Vice President Levi P. Morton. The Eustis family gave new life to the tired house and gardens by converting it into a charming country estate. Oatlands was their country home away for the hubbub of their residence in Washington D.C
Today, Washingtonians continue to flock to Oatlands to capture some of the peace and artistry that Edith was so devoted to express in her garden through the use of landscape design, sculptures and focal points.
Edith was a fan of famed garden designer Gertrude Jekyll. She used Jekyll’s theories when renovating the Oatlands gardens in the Colonial Revival style that was popular at that time. The result was Edith’s Rose Garden. The design includes two long borders, a cedar post and chain support for the Dorothy Perkins—climbing roses—along the tall boxwood.
In the late 1930’s, Edith built a reflecting pool. At the north end of the pool, stands Attilio Piccirilli’s sculpture, The Fawn, with the garden Tea House elegantly displayed just ahead of the statue’s gaze.
The garden Tea House and the sundial are two focal points that are very popular with visitors today. The Tea House is a beautiful structure that dates back to the early 1900’s. Edith included this space in her formal terraced English garden as a way to create “rooms” and areas of interest for her guests. Just a few feet from the tea house is a whimsical sundial that the Eustis family bought in Italy in the 1920’s.
Two memorials remembering Edith’s daughters are preserved on the garden grounds. In the shelter of the old Box Grove is the statue, “Vierge d’Autun,” a memorial to a daughter who died at the age of 24. The Memorial Garden, featuring a small pond, honors her other daughter Mrs. Anne Eustis Emmet. The Oatlands property would stay with the Eustis family until Edith’s death. Daughters Anne Eustis Emmet, and Margaret Eustis Finley inherited the property, choosing to donates their childhood home to the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1965.
Edith’s flare for design makes this National Trust site a favorite for horticulturalists, landscape architects, gardeners, photographers and those in search of peaceful places to wander. Oatlands continues the oral tradition of preserving history, art and culture through an association of dedicated Interpretive Guides. From plantation to country estate, the history of Oatlands has something that everyone can enjoy.
Remembering the Enslaved of Oatlands
If you are looking for a place where you and your family can learn and discuss more about our American history and the impact of slavery, we invite you to visit Oatlands Historic House and Gardens. Oatlands has been a cultural hub in Loudoun County through its historical association with powerful names like Carter, Corcoran, Eustis, Roosevelt and more. Some of the most impactful people are those whose names are forgotten—but whose presence is evident if you take a closer look.
We encourage you to visit and take an Enslaved Tour, part of our ongoing initiative dedicated to sharing the stories the enslaved African American community was denied to tell.By 1860, the Carters were the largest slave owners in Loudoun County. They owned 133 enslaved men, women and children. These men, women and children were responsible for building an agricultural enterprise that gave Carter great success. Just one visible example of the enslaved community’s labor is the brick that make up a great deal of our landscape.
The brick structures that were built by enslaved labor include the historic mansion, the Dairy/Bachelors Cottage, the Smokehouse and the Carter Barn—the hub of all plantation business.
Today, the one-story Smokehouse where the enslaved stored and preserved meat products is where we preserve and give light to the Reclaim Your Story exhibit, a project funded by the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation with support from the JPB Foundation.
We ask guests to consider the skill and effort a person would have had to go through in making the red bricks that have lasted over 200 years. When you touch the walls of the brick buildings, you are touching the same brick that was handled by an enslaved person. An enslaved person dug the clay meant to make thousands of bricks. An enslaved person stacked the bricks to construct the mansion, the Smoke House the garden buildings, two barns and the large grain mill on Goose Creek. When you touch one of these bricks at Oatlands, you are touching a piece of our collective American history!
On April 11, 2015, Oatlands partnered with the Unitarian Universalist Church of Loudoun (UUCL) and the Loudoun Civil War Sesquicentennial Committee to dedicate two Civil War Trails markers focusing on the enslaved at Oatlands. It was a chance for the descendants to share stories and fill in some of the faded names of their family tree. And has turned into an enlightening annual reunion at Oatlands. Sadly, this reunion was cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
If you are looking for a place where you and your family can learn and discuss more about our American history and the impact of slavery, we invite you to visit Oatlands Historic House and Gardens. Oatlands has been a cultural hub in Loudoun County through its historical association with powerful names like Carter, Corcoran, Eustis, Roosevelt and more. Some of the most impactful people are those whose names are forgotten—but whose presence is evident if you take a closer look.
