Preservationists Face Money Quandary At Brandy Station
By Deborah Fitts
Feb./March 2005

BRANDY STATION, Va. - In a time of reckoning for preservationists, the fate of a 19-acre tract on Fleetwood Hill at the heart of the Brandy Station battlefield hangs in the balance.

A developer is planning as many as eight homes on the property, which lies only 400 yards across open cropland from the site of Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart's headquarters tent. Fleetwood was the focus of the battle's climax on June 9, 1863.

Bob Luddy, president of the nonprofit Brandy Station Foundation (BSF), said in mid-January that the developer, Clifton Shull of Golden Oaks Construction in nearby Jeffersonton, was willing to sell the tract. But coming up with the money was something else.

Shull bought the property in April 2003 for $450,00. Within weeks, BSF offered him $540,000, but to no avail.

Now, Luddy indicated, the price is far higher, but he declined to cite it. "It will certainly give him a very handsome profit," he said.

The high cost threatens to torpedo any preservation action. At least two nonprofit organizations are waiting in the wings to help BSF, but the price gives them pause.

"To buy it for such an outrageous sum would inflate the value of land elsewhere on Fleetwood Hill," explained Jim Campi, spokesman for the Civil War Preservation Trust.

Further, a Culpeper bank provided BSF with an appraisal of only $223,000 on the property - its value as farmland. That not only prevents the foundation from securing a loan sufficient to meet Shull's price, but it virtually puts beyond reach the kind of funds that the Trust has access to: federal grants that require a dollar-for-dollar match. These monies are available only up to the appraised value of the property in question.

"We still need to work out a more realistic deal," Campi said.

Still, he said the Trust was willing to pony up $50,000 as an "incentive" to other Brandy donors. And he said the Trust would be willing to seek federal grants, especially if BSF is able to get a higher appraisal, perhaps from another bank.

And the Piedmont Environmental Council (PEC), located in nearby Fauquier County, may be prepared to partner with the Trust in seeking funds for the Fleetwood parcel. The PEC and the Trust teamed up late last year to preserve the Mine Run battlefield.

PEC Vice President Doug Larson said that any acquisition under $1 million "is not all that daunting," although he agreed with Campi that preservation groups should avoid buying overpriced land. Still, Larson said, "We might be able to bring some resources to it."

Campi noted that there has been significant investment in federal and state funds at Brandy, where the Trust owns or has easements on 944 acres.

"This is a very tough call," said Campi. "Brandy Station is very important to us." The Fleetwood Hill portion, he added, "has been very elusive." The Trust has twice attempted to acquire significant portions of Fleetwood, only to be disappointed.

Campi said, however, that Shull, the developer, may be willing to bring his price down to a "more reasonable" level. "They need to continue to be able to do business with the local community and not burn bridges," Campi said.

At presstime Luddy said BSF would attempt to get a higher appraisal. If satisfactory terms are eventually reached with Shull, the foundation will launch a fundraising appeal to its 480 members.

BSF and the Trust were negotiating to buy the property when the prior owner abruptly sold to Shull. In August BSF lost an appeal with the Culpeper Board of Zoning Appeals to stop Shull from going ahead with his first two houses. The foundation then filed suit in Circuit Court. On Dec. 27 Shull received a construction permit from the county; at presstime, BSF was preparing to seek a temporary injunction to block Shull from going ahead until the lawsuit can be heard.

A dozen years ago the struggle to save the Brandy Station battlefield made national news and preservationists ultimately applauded the efforts that successfully preserved nearly 1,000 acres. But Fleetwood Hill, the jewel in the battlefield's crown, remains almost entirely in private hands.

At present BSF owns 16 acres at Brandy Station, including 14 acres abutting the Golden Oaks parcel.

Editor's Note: Deborah Fitts is the wife of BSF board member Clark B. Hall.