Greenvest

The Colchester Road – which ran between the old tobacco port town of Colchester on the Potomac River through Loudoun County to Williams’ Gap (later called Snickers’ Gap) in the Blue Ridge – disappeared about a century ago, when it was renamed “Braddock Road.”

The land was formerly owned by controversial developer Greenvest, which wanted to build about 15,000 homes on the land. However, after supervisors rejected its plans several years ago, the company was unable to maintain its $130 million loan, and the land went into foreclosure. In August, a company called iStar Financial bought the land in auction for $69 million. The company has not yet revealed its plans for the property.

“Going once, going twice, sold!” announced auctioneer William Casterline Jr., striking his clinched hand onto a notepad, thus finalizing the sale.

The large swath of undeveloped land is scheduled to be sold off in four sections that range in size from 1,980 acres to 427 acres, according to legal advertisements that appeared in The Washington Post in early August.

Hidden in a small grove of bushes and trees at the end of Jennifer Val Court in Kirkpatrick Farms is a family cemetery dating back over 150 years. Typical of the small burial grounds found near old homesteads and villages, the Foley Family cemetery has a number of gravesites marked by simple native stones, as well as two marked stones, each with a story to tell.

When is a neglected historic structure considered beyond repair–especially when its preservation was part of a proffer between a developer and Loudoun County?