Loudoun County's Oak Hill Presidential Estate To Become State Park

ASHBURN, VA – Virginia’s newest state park will be created in Loudoun County around the 1,200-acre estate of President James Monroe.

The General Assembly voted to approve an amendment to the state budget to allow the acquisition on Monday. State Senator Russet Perry, who represents that district, celebrated the vote as the culmination of years of effort.

Oak Hill was Monroe’s home for 22 years and was already designated a National Historic Landmark. Monroe relied on the labor of enslaved people at his other homes and in the White House during his tenure, and Encyclopedia Virginia lists the Oak Hill mansion as having been built by enslaved laborers.

Ahead of the vote, Delegate John McAuliff (D-30) said, “Today I am asking that we vote to preserve 1,250 acres of farm and forest land and the last founding fathers' home in private hands and share it with Virginians at absolutely no cost to the commonwealth. By voting yes today, we must both acknowledge that sacrifice and acknowledge their founding fathers failed to fully live up to the promise that they made in fighting for a free and democratic nation. But future generations took up that fight over the past 250 years to build a more equal nation, and we all in this room still strive for those goals today,” Loudoun Now reports.

Perry noted in a statement on the vote that many believe Monroe crafted the Monroe Doctrine, which asserted that all of South America should fall within the U.S. sphere of influence, while in Oak Hill.