Green Pastures National Register of Historic Places Listing

Green Pastures is no ordinary farmhouse. Located near The Plains in Fauquier County, this estate pinpoints a specific era when ultra-wealthy elites swarmed into Virginia's horse country during the 1920s and 30s to buy up older agricultural properties and reshape them into playgrounds for the rich. They wanted a romanticized version of southern gentry life, complete with fox hunting and mint juleps. Architect William Lawrence Bottomley took a modest, early 19th-century brick structure and completely swallowed it up in a massive 1931-1932 colonial revival renovation. He created a sprawling mansion. Bottomley was the go-to designer for Richmond and Middleburg elites who wanted instant prestige, so he gave the house classic Georgian proportions, heavy classical moldings, and an imposing entry.

Actually, the outside matters just as much as the bricks. Legendary garden designer Charles F. Gillette laid out the formal grounds, carving structured outdoor rooms out of the rolling Fauquier turf. He used brick boxwood parterres. These manicured gardens blended seamlessly with the working equestrian facilities, including a massive stable complex and carriage house built to keep up with the local Hunt Club events. You also get a collection of tenant houses and guest cottages scattered around the property. This level of survival is rare. A pure time capsule. Instead of getting chopped up into suburban subdivisions, the property retains its original boundaries and historical layout, giving us a raw, unaltered look at how the Great Depression-era elite spent their fortunes on horse-country fantasies.