A 2-acre pond highlights the 13-acre Liberty Farm estate, which includes a residence modeled after a house in Colonial Williamsburg. (Photos courtesy of CVRMLS)
The former homestead of a local couple who modeled their residence after the Williamsburg home of one of the country’s Founding Fathers may have found its next caretaker.
Liberty Farm, a 13-acre estate near Chesterfield County Airport, was put under contract last week after hitting the market in late May with a $1.4 million price tag.
James Nay with River City Elite Properties listed the home for Doug and Deborah Hackman, who built the house in 2001 and modeled it after the George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg.
Doug and Deborah Hackman modeled their home after the George Wythe House.
The Hackmans moved to Charles City County near Shirley Plantation six years ago but have held onto Liberty Farm as a weekend retreat. The retired couple once led several health care companies that were based at the property. Doug also once owned a paper recycling and data destruction business.
The couple made headlines a decade ago as part of a group that proposed a water sports park on land the Hackmans own farther south along Newbys Bridge Road. The project was rejected by the county in 2013.
Liberty Farm, at 5400 Newbys Bridge Road, was a labor of love for the Hackmans, who Nay said couldn’t bring themselves to part with it despite having moved to be closer to the river.
The house was built in 2001.
Debbie Hackman, who owned the four companies and sold them in the mid-2000s, said Liberty Farm grew out of her and Doug’s love for Colonial Williamsburg, the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence, copies of which she displayed in her companies’ offices.
“My husband and I are just lovers of freedom and the forefathers and what they did for our country,” Hackman said. “All of our lives, we’ve been in love with Colonial Williamsburg, and when we built this house, we modeled it after the George Wythe House. I think if anybody were to go there, they would see it is literally exactly like the house.”
Hackman said the home’s interior details, paint colors, fabrics and windows are all authentic to Colonial Williamsburg, and the third floor includes carpeting that resembles the ballroom in the Governor’s Palace.
The house’s heart pine flooring was milled from old-growth logs pulled from the Belize River.
The home’s heart pine floors were milled from virgin old-growth logs that were pulled from the Belize River, and Brickman said they had their bricklayer emulate the brick-and-mortar techniques of the colonial period.
“We made him do it sloppy, because in Williamsburg you’ll find the mortar is (protruding) between the bricks,” she said. “There’s a real cannonball (by) the chimney, just like it is there. It’s a lot of details in the house that you won’t find anywhere else except for in Colonial Williamsburg.”
The couple served as their own general contractor on the build, subcontracting out various parts of the project. Chesterfield County assessed the house this year at $777,300 and the entire property at $889,500.
The kitchen features a fireplace with chimney-side cannonball.
With 12-foot ceilings and nine fireplaces, the 5,800-square-foot house has four bedrooms and 4½ bathrooms, including en suite bathrooms with a washer and dryer in each. The top-floor ballroom includes a theater projector and pool table.
A 2-acre pond highlights the property, which includes a quadplex with rental units generating $60,000 annually. The four units were previously used as offices for Hackman’s health care companies, including Freedom Home Health, which she sold in 2004.
The property also includes a 950-square-foot building that can be used as a home office, a pasture area with round pen and vinyl split rail fencing, and a barn with 11 horse stalls, tack room, hay room, carriage room and wash room.
The top floor room with theater and pool table features carpeting that resembles the Governor’s Palace ballroom.
Since listing the property May 28, Nay said it’s received a wide range of interest, from investors eyeing it as an events venue, to buyers seeking an equestrian estate or drawn by the home’s historical nods. Nay said the contract received for the listing came from buyers who are based locally.
“We had a ton of interest in this property. We had well over 20 showings in a short period of time,” Nay said Friday. “The folks that we just went under contract with submitted their offer, and we just became ratified in the last 24 hours.”
As for the Hackmans, their new riverside home near Upper Shirley is just downriver from another recently listed house with some history to it: Graham Aston’s Tudor-style Barnstone house, which was built around an 1800s-era barn. The 6,000-square-foot house on 13 acres was listed in late May at $2.3 million.
A 2-acre pond highlights the 13-acre Liberty Farm estate, which includes a residence modeled after a house in Colonial Williamsburg. (Photos courtesy of CVRMLS)
The former homestead of a local couple who modeled their residence after the Williamsburg home of one of the country’s Founding Fathers may have found its next caretaker.
Liberty Farm, a 13-acre estate near Chesterfield County Airport, was put under contract last week after hitting the market in late May with a $1.4 million price tag.
James Nay with River City Elite Properties listed the home for Doug and Deborah Hackman, who built the house in 2001 and modeled it after the George Wythe House in Colonial Williamsburg.
Doug and Deborah Hackman modeled their home after the George Wythe House.
The Hackmans moved to Charles City County near Shirley Plantation six years ago but have held onto Liberty Farm as a weekend retreat. The retired couple once led several health care companies that were based at the property. Doug also once owned a paper recycling and data destruction business.
The couple made headlines a decade ago as part of a group that proposed a water sports park on land the Hackmans own farther south along Newbys Bridge Road. The project was rejected by the county in 2013.
Liberty Farm, at 5400 Newbys Bridge Road, was a labor of love for the Hackmans, who Nay said couldn’t bring themselves to part with it despite having moved to be closer to the river.
The house was built in 2001.
Debbie Hackman, who owned the four companies and sold them in the mid-2000s, said Liberty Farm grew out of her and Doug’s love for Colonial Williamsburg, the Founding Fathers and the Declaration of Independence, copies of which she displayed in her companies’ offices.
“My husband and I are just lovers of freedom and the forefathers and what they did for our country,” Hackman said. “All of our lives, we’ve been in love with Colonial Williamsburg, and when we built this house, we modeled it after the George Wythe House. I think if anybody were to go there, they would see it is literally exactly like the house.”
Hackman said the home’s interior details, paint colors, fabrics and windows are all authentic to Colonial Williamsburg, and the third floor includes carpeting that resembles the ballroom in the Governor’s Palace.
The house’s heart pine flooring was milled from old-growth logs pulled from the Belize River.
The home’s heart pine floors were milled from virgin old-growth logs that were pulled from the Belize River, and Brickman said they had their bricklayer emulate the brick-and-mortar techniques of the colonial period.
“We made him do it sloppy, because in Williamsburg you’ll find the mortar is (protruding) between the bricks,” she said. “There’s a real cannonball (by) the chimney, just like it is there. It’s a lot of details in the house that you won’t find anywhere else except for in Colonial Williamsburg.”
The couple served as their own general contractor on the build, subcontracting out various parts of the project. Chesterfield County assessed the house this year at $777,300 and the entire property at $889,500.
The kitchen features a fireplace with chimney-side cannonball.
With 12-foot ceilings and nine fireplaces, the 5,800-square-foot house has four bedrooms and 4½ bathrooms, including en suite bathrooms with a washer and dryer in each. The top-floor ballroom includes a theater projector and pool table.
A 2-acre pond highlights the property, which includes a quadplex with rental units generating $60,000 annually. The four units were previously used as offices for Hackman’s health care companies, including Freedom Home Health, which she sold in 2004.
The property also includes a 950-square-foot building that can be used as a home office, a pasture area with round pen and vinyl split rail fencing, and a barn with 11 horse stalls, tack room, hay room, carriage room and wash room.
The top floor room with theater and pool table features carpeting that resembles the Governor’s Palace ballroom.
Since listing the property May 28, Nay said it’s received a wide range of interest, from investors eyeing it as an events venue, to buyers seeking an equestrian estate or drawn by the home’s historical nods. Nay said the contract received for the listing came from buyers who are based locally.
“We had a ton of interest in this property. We had well over 20 showings in a short period of time,” Nay said Friday. “The folks that we just went under contract with submitted their offer, and we just became ratified in the last 24 hours.”
As for the Hackmans, their new riverside home near Upper Shirley is just downriver from another recently listed house with some history to it: Graham Aston’s Tudor-style Barnstone house, which was built around an 1800s-era barn. The 6,000-square-foot house on 13 acres was listed in late May at $2.3 million.