Erika Howsare

Robin and Mary Felder like to call their place Monte Piccolo, meaning “tiny mountain.” That’s in deference to Thomas Jefferson, whose home was, of course, the “little mountain.” And while it may not be Monticello, there’s nothing small about the view from this elevated site in Ivy; you can see all the way to Wintergreen, […]

Anyone with a fondness for Staunton—its well-kept, homey neighborhoods, walkable and engaging downtown and intact historical fabric—can appreciate the appeal of living a couple of blocks uphill from the center of town. Imagine it: You emerge from your house on foot and all but roll down to Beverley Street to partake of whatever pleasure (cappuccino, […]

Buildings reflect priorities. In 1949, when Jennifer Greenhalgh’s house on Park Street was built, kitchens were not the centerpieces they’ve become today. She and her husband Blake bought the colonial-style dwelling in 2008 and immediately set about making the kitchen more relevant to their contemporary lifestyle. “The kitchen was much smaller,” she remembered, standing with […]

The earliest image Jim Rounsevell and Carol O’Connor have of their house, from shortly after it was built in 1920, includes food. The aerial shot shows chickens and pigs behind the house, along with rows of garden veggies. Almost a century later, the current owners love cooking and entertaining; food is important in their lives. […]

It’s appealing to imagine building anew on open land—making one’s mark on untouched acreage. But one couple in Rappahannock County took on a more unusual challenge. Lynn and Pam Pittinger bought a 93-acre farm and set about adding a modern house to an existing cluster of buildings. In the midst of this timeworn set of […]

If anybody around here understands how locals prefer to drink their beer, it’s Mandi and Taylor Smack. The proprietors of Afton’s wildly popular Blue Mountain Brewery, the Smacks bought South Street Brewery in July and hired Wolf Ackerman to help them put their stamp on it before reopening it in November. And though lots of […]

Everybody talks about marrying old and new, but there are different ways to do it. You’ve got your fixer-upper farmhouses, into which you can insert contemporary elements like stainless steel dishwashers. You’ve got your new builder homes that nod to tradition with way too much crown molding. Here is something totally different, and very unusual. […]

In Fauquier County’s hunt country, the views are long. Roads gently rise and fall through open fields, passing horse barns, ponds and board fences, and in the far distance, the Blue Ridge draws a curving horizon. It feels like a place where the long vistas suggest a connection to the past. In this iconic setting, […]

What could be loftier than Monticello? Well, at least physically, Montalto is—by 410′. The neighboring mountain was once part of Jefferson’s holdings, and these days, after decades in private ownership, it’s returned to the fold. In 2004, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation bought the mountain and the grand house, called Repose, that sits atop it. To […]