a personal note 

& memories to share

 

 

Potential Owners of the Fortress of Solitude,

    

    I built this place to raise my three children and I fully expected I’d die right here someday.  As my grandmother used to tell me, “You plan one way, god plans another.”  I love this place.  It is all you think it will be and so much more.  And I certainly wouldn’t be leaving here unless doing so was an act of love and respect, which it is.  

 

    A few years ago, I was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.  And while I feel great and still live an active life, the reality of my illness is that I won’t be able to finish what I started here or care for this place as it should be loved and cared for much longer.  And while it kills me to say goodbye to a life I’ve loved here, it would sadden me so much more to watch it fall into disrepair and be under-enjoyed and under-utilized.  So with a heavy heart,  I make it available to you to enjoy and care for.  

 

    I bought this property in 2000, when my three kids were 9, 7, and 5.  I wanted them to experience nature and the real outdoors.  Did they ever.  Before the house was built and in the years since, we camped out here, hiked here, kayaked, fished, studied frogs and turtles, ducks and beavers.  My children love and respect nature more than I could have ever dreamed.  My youngest (Maddie) has driven cross country twice with her college roommate and friends.  She has camped in and hiked Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons, and almost every major national park and great forest in the continental US.  My middle child (Sam) lives and works in D.C. but spends weekends hiking and camping in hills and mountains of Virginia and West Virginia.  And my oldest son (Thomas) hikes and camps from Canada to North Carolina.  They love and respect the outdoors.

 

    My friends call this place the “Fortress of Solitude.”  And it is.  It is quiet and peaceful and wonderfully refreshing.  If you live here, you will routinely see beavers, geese, ducks, hawks, otters, snakes, herons, loons, frogs, turtles, fox, raccoons, owls, deer and a family of bald eagles that guard the pond all winter long.  And if you fish, there are huge bass and catfish in that pond.   And if you hunt, there are plenty of deer, ducks, geese and turkeys in those woods to entertain you.  We sit at the kitchen table for morning coffee and wait for the fox to cross the backyard, or the otters to come up through a hole in the ice, or the eagles to swoop down and grab their breakfast from the pond.   We watch baby geese pass by, baby raccoons huddled under a bush or just the snow dancing down the pond as its spun by the wind. 

 

    As you’ll notice, there are no window dressings in the house because no neighbors can see this house and you don’t see any neighbors here (unless you invite them down).  That allows you an unobstructed view of nature all year, in all weather conditions, seasons and hours.  It is beautiful here in every season, but fall is especially wonderful.  

 

    You essentially own the pond and control who goes on it.  We have been very protective of the pond and have almost completely precluded any access to anyone other than our friends and family.   The neighbors have honored and respected this approach and in 15 years we had no issues.  

 

    In this spacious house, we have hosted receptions, baby showers, high school athletic team dinners, and birthday parties.  We’ve held private events and ice skating parties here with as many as 100 people.  You can’t do that just anywhere.  

 

    So, to whomever ends up owning this home and this property ... you are incredibly lucky.  You will live in a peaceful paradise surrounded by all the beauty nature has to offer.  Believe me when I tell you, you will be awed by the things you get to see.