General William “Billy” Mitchell (1879-1936) made his home at the Northern Virginia estate of Boxwood from 1926 until his death ten years later. During his military career, Mitchell became the foremost advocate of air power as an essential element in the nation’s defense. He foresaw that the airplane would replace the battleship as the military’s most effective weapon. Frustrated by the official indifference to his ideas, he accused the military establishment of “almost treasonable administration of national defense.” His resulting court martial received nationwide attention and won him considerable public sympathy. The Fauquier County estate to which Mitchell and his wife moved after his court-martial consists of an 1826 stone house built for William Swart which the Mitchells enlarged by adding a wing. The architecturally-inviting home, located in the Little River Rural Historic District, remains essentially as it was when the famous challenger of conventional military wisdom lived here.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
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DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia
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