Green Pastures is a 236-acre hunt-country estate containing a Colonial Revival–style main house, stable, barns, cottages, and agricultural outbuildings. Designed by New York architect Penrose V. Stout for industrialist Robert Earl McConnell and built about 1931, the house displays bold ornamentation in its hand-carved entrance pilasters, cantilevered spiral staircase, and rare pecky cypress paneling and classical columns on the interior. McConnell amassed great wealth in the early 20th century as a mining engineer and financier, but is best known for accumulating and developing vital materials for the nation’s war effort during World War II. He served as CEO of the former German subsidiary General Aniline and Film Corporation for the Treasury Department, developed a logarithmic security chart to monitor industrial stocks, and financed groundbreaking communication inventions. Located in Fauquier County’s Little River Rural Historic District, Green Pastures represents McConnell’s interest in agricultural pursuits and foxhunting in the Virginia Piedmont.
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
Programs
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