About

Californian Henry T. Oxnard developed Blue Ridge Farm as a horse-breeding operation in 1903 in Fauquier County, the heart of Piedmont horse country, when the county was emerging as a popular rural retreat and "hunt country." By the time of Oxnard's death in the early 1920s, his operation was recognized nationwide. Following the prolonged settlement of Oxnard's estate, Rear Admiral Cary T. Grayson—former physician to Presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William H. Taft, and Woodrow Wilson—purchased the farm in 1928 with his horse-racing partner, Samuel Ross. Located on 517 acres of rolling Blue Ridge foothills, the property consists of a circa-1791 two-story rubble stone farmhouse known as Fountain Hill House and its associated outbuildings; a 1935 one-story Colonial Revival–style stone house, and its associated outbuildings and formal landscape features; and two circa-1903 tenant houses. Many buildings are associated with the farm's horse-breeding activities, including three circa-1903 large broodmare stables; two circa-1913 stud barns; some training stables, and an implement shed. The Blue Ridge Farm is thought to be the oldest continuously operating horse-breeding farm in Virginia.