The Middleburg Mystique

A visitor once asked, “What is it about you people out there in Middleburg? Is there something in the well water?” There must be, and this book uncovers the charm of this village of 650 residents and the surrounding sw.itli of horse farms just fifty miles west ofWashington, D.C.

Middleburg and its neighboring Virginia crossroads, hamlets, and villages have captivated
many well-known personalities from the Kennedys (Jackie came to fox hunt here for many years) to Averell and Pamela Harriman, Elizabeth Taylor, Dick Smothers, LizWhitney, Tab Hunter, Robert Wagner, and Oliver North. They have all made Middleburg home.

Through the years, there have been scandalous stories of divorce—when actor Robert
Duvall’s wife ran off with the poolman, and murders among the rich—when arms heiress Susan Cummings shot her Argentinean polo-playing lover. Yet, Middleburg is a community that will gladly gossip about your misdeeds then turn around and protect you as if you were family.

Pick up your mail at the Middleburg post office and hear the latest gossip.You’ll discover
why there are 1,856 mailboxes, yet the official population of the town is 650. It’s very simple... the 20118 zip code is highly sought after. According to Postmaster Norris Beavers, “I get requests from California and Connecticut.”

Here comes little Anna Beavers, who at seventy-seven years old has spent her life collecting clothing for poor children, namely the employees of wealthy farm owners. There’s Linda Tripp, White House administrative aide turned Department of Defense political appointee and confidante turned consummate snitch, walking across the street with the mail under her arm. Rob Banner, publisher of Tlie Chronicle of The Horse, a weekly magazine published in this town for sixty-three years, zooms up in his sapphire blue BMW with the top down.

Walk down Middleburg’s streets, or shop in its elegant art and antique galleries, gift shops, and restaurants, and you’ll hear more stories. Drive down its byways and peek behind the grand stone entrances of massive estates “with names such as “ The Meadows” or “Heathfield” that belong to families such as the Firestones, Mellons, and Marriotts. Take in its dirt roads named “Frogtown” and “Sally Mill.” Tour its beautiful gardens, small and majestic; sample the parties, food, and fan; meet the riders and their
mounts, the dogs, the chickens and the children. It’s all here, and, yes, there must be something in that well water.