Apr 18, 2018
The countryside of northern Fauquier County will come alive on April 22-23 for this year’s Historic Garden Week. The extraordinary and always anticipated tour will feature four spectacular properties. From an iconic federal-period mansion to a French stone farmhouse, visitors will be delighted by the diversity of these grand estates and landscapes that celebrate the open spaces of Virginia’s Piedmont.
OVOKA
Ovoka is an excellent example of American Federal architecture and embraces neoclassical elements of design, including a graceful front portico. It is an iconic image as one travels near the Ashby Gap in Paris.
Nestled against the Blue Ridge Mountains and commanding sweeping views of the Crooked Run Valley, Ovoka Farm is a stately and picturesque federal manor house and estate.
Ovoka is of tremendous historical significance. It was part of the George Carter land patent of 1731, deeding more than 3,000 acres to the son of Robert King Carter by Lord Fairfax. George Washington, who surveyed this land in 1769, later purchased acreage adjacent to Ovoka. The property also served as a temporary headquarters for both armies during the Civil War.
Ovoka is a vibrant family home, with comfortable and elegant furnishing and antiques. The owners raise prized black Angus cattle on their working farm, which is under conservation easement. Numerous agricultural outbuildings, including an early-19th century carriage house, orchards, mature shade trees and magnolias and boxwoods, complete the bucolic setting. The entrance and terraces surrounding the house are planted with spring bulbs.
Source: Fauquier Times