Birchwood Estate - Where the English Arts & Crafts Tradition Meets the Blue Ridge
- Hunt Country Sotheby's International Realty
- Feb 13
- 14 min read
Updated: Feb 19
Some properties announce themselves the moment the front door opens. Birchwood Estate announces itself a full mile before that — along a winding drive that passes beneath a canopy of rare conifers, between meadows of native grass, and alongside Catoctin Creek, a Virginia State Scenic River that has carved its course through Loudoun County since long before any deed was recorded.
Situated on approx. 40 acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, minutes from the National Historic Landmark village of Waterford and less than an hour from Washington, D.C., Birchwood is not a house with a garden. It is a landscape with a residence — one that was conceived, from the very beginning, as a single composition of architecture, horticulture, and land.
This is the story of how it came to be, what it has become, and why it matters.
A vision planted in Virginia soil
The story of Birchwood begins in the late 1980s. A husband and wife living in Dallas decided that as they approached retirement, they wanted to return to the East Coast — not to a city, but to a landscape. They were looking for a place that combined the pastoral beauty of the English countryside, where they had vacationed for many years, with reasonable proximity to Washington, D.C. and access to top medical care.
In 1991, they found it: 160 acres at 13223 Loyalty Road, in the rolling farmland west of Leesburg, Virginia. The land had previously been part of a large equestrian estate owned by an heir of the Johnson family, and consisted primarily of pastureland with a tennis court and swimming pool. The area reminded the Dallas couple of the Cotswolds — open fields, gentle hills, stone walls, old trees. They purchased the property and began a project that would span years and touch nearly every discipline of design.
The architecture of intention
C.F.A. Voysey and the English Arts and Crafts
To understand Birchwood, one must first understand C.F.A. Voysey (1857–1941), the English architect and designer whose work inspired it. Voysey was among the greatest forces of the English Arts and Crafts movement, a late-Victorian revolt against the soulless mass production of the Industrial Revolution. Where factory-made ornament cluttered the homes of his contemporaries, Voysey insisted on simplicity, honesty of materials, and a deep connection between a building and its setting.
His houses — Perrycroft in Herefordshire, Greyfriars on the Hog's Back in Surrey, The Orchard in Chorleywood — became the embodiment of a cottage ideal: broad, sweeping rooflines of local slate; rough-plastered or stone facades that seemed to grow from the earth; horizontal ribbon windows oriented to capture light and landscape. Voysey designed every detail, from the ironwork to the furniture, guided by a philosophy he described as the pursuit of "character and integrity." His influence extended far beyond England. Historians have traced a direct lineage from Voysey's work to the early houses of Frank Lloyd Wright and the broader development of modern domestic architecture.
Kevin Ruedisueli: translating a tradition
When the Dallas couple began planning their home, they engaged Kevin Ruedisueli, a Loudoun County architect with an unusual background. Ruedisueli holds a Master of Architecture from MIT, but after completing his degree, he chose to spend twelve years working as a carpenter and general contractor before establishing his professional practice in 1991 — the same year the new owners of Birchwood purchased their land. Based in Waterford, Ruedisueli is known for contextual design, historic preservation, and a deep sensitivity to the relationship between buildings and their surroundings. His firm has earned recognition from the Associated Builders and Contractors, the Marvin Architect Challenge, and the Loudoun County Joint Architectural Review Board, and he has served on the Loudoun County Design Cabinet alongside some of the region's most distinguished architects and planners.
Birchwood's founding family chose Ruedisueli for the way he positioned the home on its parcel — maximizing the valley views while nestling the structure into the hillside, as Voysey himself would have done. Inspired by Voysey's celebrated country houses, Ruedisueli designed a stone manor with a slate roof, fieldstone facade, and the characteristic broad gabled rooflines that are Voysey's signature. The owner oversaw every detail of construction, visiting stone yards to hand-select the stone that would become the walls and terraces. The home was completed in May 1996.
The residence today
The manor offers approx. 9,000 finished sq. ft. across three levels, organized around a plan that is at once generous and intimate. The main level features a grand foyer, a living room with fireplace, a formal dining room with fireplace, a family room with fireplace opening to the gourmet kitchen, a butler's pantry, and a main-level primary suite with spa bath, dual walk-in closets, and its own fireplace. A breezeway connects to a mudroom and three-car garage. A screened porch, front porch, and an expansive stone patio extend the living space into the landscape.
The upper level contains five additional bedrooms — two with fireplaces — a bonus room with balcony, a den, and generous storage. The lower level includes a wine cellar, recreation room, exercise room, craft room, and full bath, along with the mechanical systems that include geothermal heating and cooling.
In total, seven fireplaces warm the residence — a number that would have pleased Voysey, who considered the hearth the spiritual center of a home.
A living collection: the arboretum
If the manor is the heart of Birchwood, the arboretum is its soul. Encompassing approx. 38 acres, it is one of the largest privately held arboretums on the East Coast and contains a world-class collection of rare and specimen trees sourced from nurseries across the globe.
Planting a legacy
The arboretum began taking shape in the early 1990s, as the owners spent weekends in Virginia planting trees from around the world while their home was being designed and built. They named the estate Birchwood in honor of the birch trees that lined the creek at the entrance to the property. A front gate bearing the estate's name was designed by a graphic artist from Waterford.
The couple also enlisted the guidance of Donna Williams, a respected garden designer who taught them how to position plantings for maximum visual impact while respecting the site's climate and topography. The owners developed close relationships with two specialty nurseries in Oregon — contacts they cultivated through years of attending regional horticultural events and whom they jokingly referred to as their "pimps." Refrigerated 18-wheel trucks delivered rare specimens by the hundreds.
The work was not always easy. The owner employed a dowser to locate water for irrigation — a Y-shaped willow branch divining the water table. The family's Labrador, Jake, rode shotgun on the property vehicle. A persistent groundhog attempted to colonize a heritage oak. One summer planting session involving the couple's daughter Amy required the services of a neighbor's backhoe. But over time, the collection grew — slowly, deliberately, with the patience that horticulture demands.
The collection
Today, the arboretum contains more than 1,000 trees and shrubs representing species and cultivars from across the temperate world.
The core collection includes:
Acer palmatum (Japanese Maple) — Among the most celebrated ornamental trees in cultivation, prized for their delicate leaf form and brilliant seasonal color. Birchwood holds a significant collection spanning numerous cultivars.
Abies (Fir) — Conifers of the high mountains, represented at Birchwood by species collected from nurseries specializing in rare and slow-growing specimens.
Cedrus (Cedar) — Including species whose native range spans the Himalayas, the Atlas Mountains of North Africa, and the eastern Mediterranean.
Chamaecyparis (False Cypress) — Elegant conifers native to North America and East Asia, many of which develop extraordinary sculptural forms with age.
Cryptomeria (Japanese Cedar) — The national tree of Japan, cultivated at Birchwood in forms that range from columnar to weeping.
Fagus (Beech) — Stately deciduous trees, including copper and weeping cultivars, that provide dramatic structural contrast to the surrounding conifers.
Ginkgo biloba — A living fossil, unchanged for more than 200 million years, represented at Birchwood by specimens that turn a luminous gold each autumn.
Ilex (Holly) — Both evergreen and deciduous species contributing winter interest and structure year-round.
Magnolia — Trees whose lineage predates the evolution of bees, producing some of the largest and most fragrant flowers of any temperate species.
Picea (Spruce) — Cold-climate conifers, some specimens reaching considerable size and providing the vertical architecture of the arboretum's skyline.
Sciadopitys (Japanese Umbrella Pine) — A monotypic genus, meaning it is the sole surviving species in its family. Slow-growing and deeply unusual, it is among the most coveted of collector conifers.
Tsuga (Hemlock) — Graceful native conifers that thrive in Birchwood's sheltered stream valleys.
What began as one couple's passion has become, over three decades, a botanical collection of genuine significance — not merely decorative, but scientific; not merely planted, but curated.
Stewardship renewed
When the current owners discovered Birchwood in 2018, the arboretum had been neglected during a period of foreclosure. Ginkgo, cypress, and fir trees were choked by weeds. Paths were overgrown. The intentional structure of the original plantings was obscured.
Working with a certified arborist, the new stewards embarked on a careful program of restoration. Photographs of the original plantings served as a roadmap. The arboretum was cleared, fed, and nursed back to health. Dozens of new specimens were added over subsequent months. An elaborate system of deer fencing — approx. 8 feet tall, enclosing the arboretum's approx. 38 acres — was installed to protect the collection. The estate now also collaborates with the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to maintain wildlife habitat, including native grasses that support populations of field sparrows and other grassland species.
"For us, it's really about bringing back the land and being good stewards of it," the current owner has said. "This has been a whole new learning experience for us, and the house has really become a haven for so many people."
A celebrated renovation
The current owners purchased Birchwood from foreclosure in October 2018. The exterior — the stone, the slate roof, the siting on the hillside — spoke to them immediately. But inside, the home required both structural repair and a comprehensive design update.
They engaged Erika Bonnell Interiors, a Northern Virginia firm known for high-end residential projects, to lead a three-year interior redesign. Bonnell's brief was unusual: honor the Arts and Crafts architecture and the panoramic arboretum views while creating a home that reflected the owners' distinct and eclectic sensibilities — a collection of international art, vintage glassware, and furniture that resists easy categorization.
The result was featured in Southern Home magazine (January/February 2023) and in Homes & Gardens, the prestigious British interiors publication. Both features highlighted the way the renovation pays homage to Voysey: reproduction Voysey chairs flank the entry console; a powder room features wallpaper adapted from a Voysey watercolor found in the archives of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. A Herculaneum II chandelier by Moooi hangs in the living room above large-scale works by Spanish artist Eduardo Arranz-Bravo, their turquoise tones echoed in swivel chairs from the Kristin Drohan Collection.
Erika Bonnell Updates Classic Cottage in Virginia, Southern Home Magazine (January 2023)
A Virginia home with a world-class arboretum gets a historically inspired update, Homes & Gardens (British interiors publication, September 27, 2021)
Designer Erika Bonnell harmonizes disparate visions—and a nod to nature—on a bucolic Leesburg estate, Home & Design Magazine (July / August 2022)
Outside, the owners extended the property's horticultural ambition beyond the arboretum, adding a vegetable garden, cutting and butterfly gardens, an apiary, and a fruit orchard producing peaches, plums, and nectarines. The landscape surrounding the home is no longer merely a setting; it is an active, productive part of the estate's daily life.
The land and the river
Birchwood's approx. 40 acres encompass far more than the arboretum and gardens. The property includes rolling pastureland, mature hardwood forest, and significant frontage along Catoctin Creek, a waterway whose history is inseparable from the history of the region.
Catoctin Creek: a Virginia State Scenic River
Catoctin Creek flows for approx. 16 miles through the rolling, pastoral landscape of western Loudoun County before joining the Potomac River across from Point of Rocks, Maryland. Its valley contains some of the most significant historic landmarks in the county, including mills at Waterford and Taylorstown, both listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The creek's scenic designation, granted by the Virginia General Assembly under the Virginia Scenic Rivers Act of 1970, has its own remarkable story. In the late 1970s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed damming Catoctin Creek to create a reservoir, a project that would have flooded more than 3,000 acres, including the villages of Taylorstown and parts of Waterford. A coalition of residents — lawyers, engineers, retired military officers, and environmentalists — organized the Catoctin Valley Defense Alliance and mounted a multi-year campaign to stop the project. Their strategy was twofold: secure scenic river designation for Catoctin Creek, and win listing on the National Register for Taylorstown. Both efforts succeeded. The dam project was abandoned in 1981. Today, the scenic designation ensures that no obstruction can be built on the creek without legislative approval, and the Catoctin Scenic River Advisory Committee continues to review zoning applications and advocate for the preservation of the viewshed.
At Birchwood, the creek defines the property's eastern boundary, creating a natural riparian corridor of exceptional beauty. The sound of water is a constant companion, and the floodplain contributes to the rich alluvial soils that support the arboretum's most moisture-loving species.
Blue Ridge views and the conservation landscape
From the residence and the upper meadows, panoramic views extend west to the Blue Ridge Mountains — the ancient range that forms Virginia's western spine and provides the backdrop for some of the most valued landscapes in the Mid-Atlantic. The property's orientation captures both sunrise over the Catoctin valley and the long light of afternoon as it plays across the western ridgeline.
Birchwood sits within a broader conservation landscape. Much of the land surrounding Waterford is protected by conservation easements held by organizations including the Virginia Department of Historic Resources and the Old Dominion Land Conservancy. The Piedmont Environmental Council, one of the region's most effective land preservation organizations, is active throughout the area. This is not a property surrounded by encroaching development; it is a property embedded in a landscape that the community has worked for decades to protect.
Waterford: life in a National Historic Landmark
Birchwood lies just minutes from the village of Waterford, Virginia — approx. 7 miles west of the county seat of Leesburg and one of the most remarkable small communities in the eastern United States. To the north, Birchwood is just minutes from the mighty Potomac River, including convenient access to the 185 mile long C&O Canal National park catering to hikers, cyclists and kayakers. On the Maryland side of the River, the MARC train station at Point of Rocks provides convenient transport to downtown Washington DC.
A Quaker founding
Waterford was founded in 1733 by Amos Janney, a Quaker from Bucks County, Pennsylvania, who was drawn to the fertile soils along the South Fork of Catoctin Creek. The creek provided both sustenance and industry: a mill was established early, and the community thrived as an agricultural settlement. The village grew to include homes, barns, schools, and churches, many of which survive today in remarkably original condition. Its architecture reflects Pennsylvania farmhouse traditions — the use of stucco and stone construction, the modest but sturdy proportions of buildings designed for function as much as form.
Waterford's Quaker heritage had profound consequences during the Civil War. As pacifists and abolitionists, the Quakers remained loyal to the Union even as Loudoun County was largely Confederate territory. The village became a sanctuary for African Americans, and white and Black Waterfordians lived side by side — though in separate schools and churches, a complexity that the community's historical interpreters do not shy from addressing. The Loudoun Rangers, a Union cavalry unit raised from among Waterford's residents, fought a fierce engagement against Confederate forces in the village itself.
Preservation and recognition
In 1969, Waterford was designated a Virginia Historic Landmark. The following year, it received the highest designation of historic significance possible in the United States: National Historic Landmark status, placing it in the company of Independence Hall, Mount Vernon, and Colonial Williamsburg. The designation recognized the village's remarkably well-preserved 18th- and 19th-century architecture and landscape.
The Waterford Foundation, established to preserve the village's buildings and open spaces, has facilitated more than sixty conservation easements since 1974. Approx. 750 acres are also protected under Loudoun County's Historic and Cultural Conservation program. The Foundation hosts the Waterford Fair each October, an English colonial-style event featuring demonstrations of early American crafts, music, and Civil War reenactments that draws visitors from across the region. A living history program in the village's 1867 one-room schoolhouse for African Americans allows grade-school children to take on the identities of actual 19th-century students.
Today, Waterford is home to artists, writers, and professionals drawn by its beauty, its quiet, and its commitment to authenticity. The village includes a small market offering locally grown lamb and handmade woolen products, artist studios, and the Old School community venue hosting talks and concerts. A 1.5-mile interpretive trail along Catoctin Creek on the Phillips Farm explores the natural and cultural history of the creek corridor.
Loudoun County: where heritage meets horizon
Birchwood's broader setting is Loudoun County, Virginia — a place whose identity is defined by an extraordinary duality. In the east, the county is one of the fastest-growing and wealthiest jurisdictions in the United States, home to the world's largest concentration of data centers, the Silver Line Metro extension, and communities where the median household income exceeds $174,000. In the west, where Birchwood sits, the landscape shifts dramatically to rolling farmland, vineyards, and equestrian estates that have earned the region its enduring identity as Virginia's horse country.
A centuries-deep agricultural heritage
Loudoun County was known as the "Breadbasket of the Revolution" for its role in feeding Continental and, later, Confederate armies. Its fertile soil and temperate climate have sustained continuous agricultural use for nearly three centuries. Today, the county produces more grapes annually than any other region in Virginia, and has been recognized as the 4th best wine region in the United States by USA Today's 10Best Readers' Choice Competition. More than 50 wineries dot the countryside, from small-batch artisan operations to estates producing nationally recognized vintages.
Equestrian life remains central to the county's character. Loudoun is home to approx. 15,000 horses, numerous hunt clubs, polo matches at Morven Park's Equestrian Center in Leesburg, and the prestigious fall horse trials that serve as qualifying events for Olympic eventing. Middleburg, approx. 25 miles south of Birchwood, has been regarded as the horse and hunt capital of Virginia since the early 1900s and is home to the five-star Salamander Resort, the National Sporting Library and Museum, and a main street lined with galleries, antique shops, and farm-to-table restaurants.
The regional connection: one hour to the capital
Birchwood's location in western Loudoun places it at the intersection of rural serenity and metropolitan access. Washington, D.C. is approx. 50 miles to the southeast. Dulles International Airport is approx. 30 miles east. Leesburg, the county seat, offers a historic downtown with restaurants, shops, and cultural venues, and provides access to the Dulles Greenway and major commuter routes. The town's own National Historic Landmark, Dodona Manor — the home of statesman-general George C. Marshall, architect of the Marshall Plan — is a reminder that this county has been intertwined with the affairs of the nation since its founding.
For those who work in the greater Washington metropolitan area, western Loudoun offers a proposition that few places can match: the ability to live on a significant property, in a landscape of extraordinary beauty and historical depth, while remaining connected to the economic, cultural, and institutional resources of the national capital region.
A property shaped by intention
Birchwood Estate is the product of three decades of deliberate care. The owners conceived it as a place where architecture and landscape would exist in dialogue. Kevin Ruedisueli gave that vision form in stone and slate. Donna Williams and the Oregon nurseries populated the arboretum with specimens of genuine botanical significance. The current owners rescued the property from neglect, restored the arboretum, reimagined the interiors, and enriched the gardens and land with new purpose.
The result is a property that defies easy comparison. It is not a horse farm, though it sits in the heart of horse country. It is not a botanical garden, though its arboretum rivals those that charge admission. It is not a historic manor, though its architecture draws on a tradition with deep roots in the history of English and American design. It is all of these things and none of them — a place that was imagined whole and has been sustained by the continuous investment of thought, labor, and love.
Featured in the pages of Southern Home and Homes & Gardens, set along a Virginia Scenic River, minutes from a National Historic Landmark village, and less than an hour from the nation's capital, Birchwood is now offered for the first time in seven years.
It is a property best understood in person.
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