Oak Hill Rises From The Ashes of Foreclosure

Amanda Scheetz said they plan to enlist experts from Mount Vernon to help care for the boxwoods.

"It's like a journey," she said. "You just go forward. David and I feel like we're caretakers of history. It's really cool. It's also very humbling."

What the Scheetzes probably didn't know was how much attention their efforts would receive from the community. Oak Hill's previous owner, Seville Homes, had planned four years ago to subdivide the property into three lots. The company planned to save the manor house but build two large homes next to it, which would have destroyed the boxwood hedges.

Those plans changed when the Oak Hill Citizens Association intervened and asked the county to persuade Seville Homes to place the property in a conservation easement, protecting the land from development. In 2004, the county paid Seville $730,000 for the easement, preventing future owners from subdividing the property and restricting them from altering the house.

The terms of the deal, celebrated with much fanfare by Supervisor Sharon S. Bulova (D-Braddock) and Board of Supervisors Chairman Gerald E. Connolly (D), require owners of Oak Hill to open the property to the public four days a year.

"We were very grateful" to Seville Homes, Bulova said. "Once they realized how interested I and the community were in preserving not just the manor house but also the grounds, they voluntarily entered into the historic easement arrangement."

That victory was followed by years of slow decline. Seville Homes had no luck selling the house, and it and the property fell into disrepair. Finally, the company defaulted on its mortgage, and the property entered foreclosure.

"Our neighborhood watch would swing by there," Hedetniemi said. "A couple of times we had to chase people off the grounds, mostly teenagers. Once or twice, we'd find the door open. More recently it's been a problem because the grass has grown so high. It invited questions as to whether the house was occupied. We were worried about vandalism."

And so it was with much excitement, but also a bit of trepidation, that Bulova and Oak Hill neighbors have welcomed the Scheetzes. Excitement, because anything is better than an empty house. Trepidation, because they didn't know how receptive the owners would be to sharing their historic property.

"I realized that one of my first questions after meeting them was going to be, 'How would you like 300-some people to visit on the 4th of October,' " said Bulova, who hosted an Oak Hill community day on the property in the fall and said she hopes to continue the tradition.

Turns out, she had nothing to worry about. The Scheetzes said they are excited to open their property to the community. They are eager to learn what they can and can't do under the terms of the easement, such as expose a brick path that lies beneath dirt along a boxwood hedge. And they said they are grateful for the offers they have received for help with the weeding, boxwood care and other maintenance.

They are feeling no buyers' remorse, Amanda Scheetz said.

"Oh no, absolutely not," she said. "We're so excited to be here."