Rather than traveling to islands in the South Pacific or the Caribbean, Washington-area residents can reach one of Travel & Leisure magazine’s “Top 100 Real Estate Developments in the World” in a few hours by car.
can reach one of Travel & Leisure magazine’s “Top 100 Real Estate Developments in the World” in a few hours by car.
Virginia’s Homestead Preserve, a second-home community on 2,300 acres in Warm Springs, just a few miles from the Homestead Resort in Bath County, was added to the prestigious list of developments in 2007.
Homestead Preserve, limited to 450 homes, will highlight architectural designs native to the Allegheny Highlands. The development recently completed restoration of its Old Dairy complex in Warm Springs, designated as a Virginia Landmark by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.
The complex, which will now be known as the Old Dairy Community Center, includes 11 buildings dating to the late 1920s and will be used as a recreation and community center with meeting rooms, outdoor swimming pools, a fitness center, a game room, playgrounds and spa treatment rooms.
Buyers of the Homestead Preserve homesites can become members of the Homestead Golf and Tennis Club, which includes access to three golf courses, skiing, ice skating, tennis, horseback riding, a spa, indoor and outdoor swimming pools, fly fishing, a fitness center, skeet shooting and falconry.
More than 150 homesites have already been sold at Homestead Preserve. The homesites range from a half-acre to 13 acres. The community borders the George Washington National Forest and the Warm Springs Mountain Preserve, which is owned by the Nature Conservancy.
The Virginia Hot Springs Co., developers of Homestead Preserve, has established a building envelope for each homesite to protect the integrity of the landscape. More than 10,000 acres has been placed into permanent conservation easements. Less than 3 percent of the original 11,500-acre land purchase will be affected by development.
In addition to preserving the land, the developers have created a house pattern book with designs that reflect the historic architecture of the area and will be built with materials native to the area or that have a history of use in Bath County.
Landscape designs minimize the disturbance of the existing environment.
Buyers can choose between a Highlands classical style, which is based on Georgian, Federal and classical revival homes of the 18th and 19th centuries; a Highlands farmhouse; an English romantic home modeled on an English country home, or a Highlands arts and crafts-style home, derived from the shingle style of New England and the arts-and-crafts movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Homesites are priced from $350,000 to more than $1,000,000, with home prices ranging from $650,000 to more than $4,000,000.
A Highlands arts-and-crafts model home, which has 4,569 finished square feet, would sell for about $2,200,000 including the homesite. This home also has 960 square feet of porch space on three sides of the home.
Inside, this home has a foyer entrance flanked by the dining room and the study. The formal dining room has a coffered ceiling and a double-door separate entrance to the side porch. The study has entrances both to the foyer and to the rear hall leading to the first-floor master suite and a powder room.
Across the back of the home are open rooms with walls of windows, including the center-island kitchen, a breakfast area with a box bay window and a living room with a fireplace.
The master suite features a fireplace and two walls of windows, with a deep walk-in closet and a bath with a double-sink vanity, a tub and a separate shower.
The main level also has a laundry room with several nearby closets, including a walk-in pantry, and an outside door to the side porch.
The second level has a second master suite, with two walk-in closets, decorative columns separating a sitting area from the bedroom, and a bath with a double-sink vanity, a tub and a separate shower. Two additional bedrooms on this level each have a private full bath and a walk-in closet.
The finished lower level includes a recreation room with a fireplace, a bar, a sitting area with a fireplace, storage closets and a full bath.
For information or directions to Homestead Preserve, call 866/203-4833 or visit www. homesteadpreserve.com.
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