Rippon in 20th Century.
By the late 19th century Rippon Lodge was no longer owned by
the Blackburn family. In 1924, Judge Wade Ellis and his wife Dessie,
frequent visitors to the Woodbridge area, bought Rippon Lodge and 300 acres
as a weekend
retreat from their main residence in Washington DC, where Ellis served
on the circuit court.
This image shows the house as it appeared around the time the Ellises
purchased the property, relatively unchanged since the early 1800s, with
six rooms on the main level and an open loft space in the second story. Genealogical research
showed that Judge Ellis was a Blackburn family descendent, thus returning the home to the
Blackburn family.