North Wales

North Wales is a 1,288-acre estate southwest of Warrenton, Virginia, where thoroughbred horses still graze rolling pastures among dozens of historic buildings. Its core is a stone Georgian house built between 1776 and 1796 for William Allason, with a summer kitchen, smokehouse and bank barn from the same era. Between 1916 and 1920, New York broker Edward Weld hired the Boston firm of Little and Browne to enlarge the house with Colonial Revival wings and to design a carriage house, gatehouse, equestrian center, yearling stables and formal landscape including a long allee of maples. Weld's changes turned a Southern plantation into a northern horseman's hunting and breeding estate. Walter Chrysler, Jr. added a conservatory, swimming pool and other features in 1948. The property is recognized for its agriculture, horse industry, recreation, architecture and landscape design. Despite some losses in the 1960s, most of its historic character survives.