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There was nothing to suggest disquiet on a crisp spring morning at Oatlands Historic House and Gardens in Leesburg late last month. Birds chirped and a light breeze fluttered through the handsome trees lining the long gravel driveway leading to the mansion on this property, a national historic landmark that dates back almost 220 years.

But the bucolic tranquility masked a simmering battle over money and vision that boiled over in March when Oatlands Inc., the private nonprofit organization that operates the 400-acre site, filed a lawsuit against the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns the property and its endowment of about $7.8 million.

Each side in the partnership — or co-stewardship — accuses the other of not meeting its obligations or responsibilities when it comes to maintaining and preserving the property. Instead of seeing eye to eye, they’re going toe to toe with charges and countercharges about what is or isn’t being done to preserve Oatlands and how to pay for costly repairs, including fixing a leaky roof and a rotting balustrade.

Caleb Schutz, who was named chief executive of Oatlands Inc. in 2018, said his group wanted the suit to settle whether the nonprofits charged with operating and maintaining historic sites such as Oatlands in partnership with the National Trust have autonomy to make decisions over the use of their endowment funds and to make deals to ensure the venture is financially viable.

Schutz said the National Trust has offered little in the way of guidance and stepped on efforts to refurbish the site and finance it properly. “I have never been asked by the Trust, ‘How can we help you get things done?’” Schutz said recently in an interview at Oatlands. “Their whole orientation is defensive. It’s, ‘We don’t have to give you anything.’”

In its 125-page lawsuit, which seeks about $3.7 million in damages, Oatlands Inc. says the National Trust has breached its contract and “has strangled the resources available to Oatlands.” It also accused the National Trust of vetoing repair proposals, undermining fundraising efforts and blocking Oatlands from entering a conservation easement that would provide a tax benefit. As a result, Oatlands Inc. said it has had to “deplete its reserves in order to attempt to provide necessary maintenance to the property, which has pushed Oatlands to the brink of insolvency.”

The annual operating budget for Oatlands is just over $1 million, Schutz said. It receives about $346,000 per year from the National Trust endowment. The rest is supposed to be paid for through a combination of visitor fees, fundraising and events.

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Oatlands Farm, a beloved historic site in Loudoun County finds itself in federal court over a land dispute.

Oatlands Historic House and Gardens was a plantation in Leesburg, which housed people who were enslaved and slaveholders. Now, it hosts weddings, high teas, and history buffs. The space typically draws over 24,000 people year-round. 

The former owners donated money to the National Trust for Historic Preservation — all specifically designated to keep Oatlands in “pristine condition.”

Now, the nonprofit managing Oatlands says the National Trust is denying them access to that money. Oatland Inc. filed a lawsuit against the Trust in state court for $3.5 million. CEO Caleb Schutz says if the court decides against Oatlands — it could hurt every philanthropic organization in the country.

“If a donor gives $5 million to a hospital system and says, ‘I want this hospital to have a cancer ward,’ and the hospital system says ‘Super, we need that, we’re taking the money,’ and then when the hospital goes to get the money for the ward the hospital system says ‘no, we’re going to use it to build a resort for doctors,'” Schutz explained. 

The manager of a national historic landmark in Leesburg and the site’s owner, which stewards other properties in D.C. and Northern Virginia, are embroiled in a lawsuit over contractual rights and obligations concerning the management of the land and a related philanthropic endowment.

Loudoun County “may lose this important historic site altogether,” Caleb Schutz, CEO of Oatlands Inc., the nonprofit that oversees Oatlands Historic House and Gardens, said in a March 22 press release, implying that its owner, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, may sell the property.

But Katherine Malone-France, the Trust’s chief preservation officer, dismissed that claim. “Of all the options we would consider, selling the property is not one of them,” she said in an email to the Washington Business Journal Monday. More likely, the Trust would simply manage the site directly, as it does elsewhere.

The Trust’s site includes an early 1800s-era mansion and surrounding properties, principally comprising over 300 acres at 20850 Oatlands Plantation Lane and 40040 Little Oatlands Lane. The Trust also manages certain funds dedicated to the property’s maintenance. Oatlands Inc. operates the site under a $10-per-year long-term lease.

Oatlands Inc. believes it’s been stiffed in the Trust’s management of the site’s endowment funds, to the detriment of the landmark’s upkeep, and filed suit against the Trust in the Circuit Court of Loudoun County in February. It wants roughly $3 million in damages, saying in the suit that it’s been “forced to deplete its reserves” and pushed to “the brink of insolvency.”

The Trust recently asked the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, now overseeing the case, to dismiss it. The Trust reasons, among other things, Oatlands’ contract always required the nonprofit manager to carry out its charge under its own financial steam — through fees it charges to visitors, weddings, galas, and the like — without depending on the Trust’s endowment.

Norman K. Styer @ Loudoun Now

A four-decade-old partnership governing the stewardship of the historic Oatlands property south of Leesburg is in jeopardy after the nonprofit that manages the former plantation filed suit against the National Trust for Historic Preservation, which owns the real estate and controls the endowment established to ensure its upkeep.

Oatlands Inc. last month filed a seven-count breach of contract lawsuit in Loudoun County Circuit Court alleging the Trust has improperly restricted the nonprofit from accessing funds intended for its use and obstructed other initiatives that could generate income for the property. The case this week was transferred to Federal District Court.

The Trust issued a statement saying it has concerns that the local organization “is not fully meeting its responsibility to properly support and manage” the property. … …

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By Kari Pugh @ Inside Nova

Managers of the circa-1800s Oatlands plantation near Leesburg have sued the National Trust for Historic Preservation for withholding at least $3.5 million in funds to maintain and preserve the decaying mansion and grounds.

The 360-acre former wheat plantation is owned by the National Trust and operated by a nonprofit, Oatlands Inc., through a co-stewardship agreement, with the trust managing a $9 million endowment established by the Eustis family, the last private owners of the property.

The suit seeks damages of $3.7 million from the National Trust for breach of contract and seeks the removal of the trust as trustee of the endowment. It was originally filed earlier this month in Loudoun County courts then transferred to U.S. District Court in Alexandria. … …

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