Inside

What it was, and still is, is a vast historic antebellum compound—a Colonial Revival mansion with 50 rooms and enough outbuildings to support a small army for a few years—among them, a greenhouse, railroad station/post office, machine shop, smokehouse, gas station, racetrack and stone dairy complex with power plant. “It’s a little city that we are trying to take care of,” says Rhonda.

Cities need a lot of maintenance, and so do huge antebellum estates. When the Hollands bought Oak Ridge, the place was in serious disrepair. Many of the gardens and smaller buildings were hidden by overgrown weeds. The house had 24 leaks in the roof, and much of the kitchen flooring and ceiling had to be replaced. The last owner to live at Oak Ridge, J.J. Ryan, had died in 1970, and the house sat vacant until 1990. “It was time standing still and nature moving on,” says Rhonda. “It was sad.”

No matter: Holland and his late father put a $2.5 million deposit on the property. “We started working on it right away,” says Holland, who now owns Oak Ridge with his sister, Joanne Nesson. Some of the first improvements included a new floor in the railroad station and repairs to the front and back steps and to the ceiling in the house’s foyer. “I could see in my mind what it did look like at one time,” he says. “A friend once said, ‘If you can’t see the invisible, you can’t do the impossible.’ I wanted to restore it back to its original beauty.”

John Holland Sr., who passed away in 1989, was a colorful entrepreneur in the salvage business. He opened his own landfill in Driver, Va., and built houses as well. He collected cars, animals and real estate.