Оак Хилл: Усадьба Джеймса Монро в Вирджинии

Historic house in Virginia, United States

Oak Hill is a mansion and plantation located in Aldie, Virginia that was for 22 years a home of Founding Father James Monroe, the fifth U. S. President. It is located approximately 9 mile (14 km) south of Leesburg on U. S. Route 15, in an unincorporated area of Loudoun County, Virginia. Its entrance is 10300 feet (3139 m) north of Gilberts Corner, the intersection of 15 with U. S. Route 50. The architecture is distinctive for "its unusual pentastyle portico". It is suggested that Thomas Jefferson, his close friend, may well have drawn plans for Oak Hill; the construction was supervised by James Hoban, designer and builder of the White House. The estate is a designated U. S. National Historic Landmark.

Monroe and his uncle Joseph Jones jointly purchased 4,400 acres (18 km2) of land in Loudoun County in 1794. When Jones died without direct heirs in 1805, Monroe gained sole possession of the property. However, Monroe continued to live primarily at Highland, his residence in Albemarle County—until 1826, when he was forced to sell that property to pay debts he had incurred while serving as president.

In 1822, Monroe began construction on the main house, a two story brick mansion in the Federal style. He hired James Hoban, the designer of the White House, to serve as architect. Monroe's longtime friend and political mentor Thomas Jefferson offered many design suggestions. Monroe and his wife, Elizabeth Kortright Monroe, retired to Oak Hill after he finished his second term as president in 1825. In August 1825, the Marquis de Lafayette and President John Quincy Adams were guests of the Monroes there. Elizabeth Monroe died at Oak Hill on September 23, 1830. After her death, Monroe moved to New York City to live with his younger daughter and remained there until his own death on July 4, 1831. After Monroe's death, the property passed out of the Monroe family. John W. Fairfax, later a lieutenant colonel in the Confederate States Army, bought Oak Hill in 1852. His wife remained there while Fairfax was away fighting in the American Civil War; it was visited by General George G. Meade of the Union Army on the invitation of Mrs. Fairfax about a week prior to the Battle of Gettysburg. The property passed out of the hands of John Fairfax after the war, but was later repurchased by his eldest son, Henry, a civil engineer and state senator. The estate remained in the Fairfax family until after Henry Fairfax's death in 1916. The mansion was enlarged by the addition of two wings in 1922 while owned by Frank C. Littleton and his wife, but the central facade looks much as it did during Monroe's lifetime. The property remains in private hands today and is not open to the public. It became the residence of Tom and Gayle DeLashmutt and their family following the death of the previous owner, Eugene Reed Prendergast, Mr. DeLashmutt's mother, in 1993. Two U. S. Navy ships have been named USS Oak Hill after the estate.

In November 2023, the owners of Oak Hill sent a letter to Charles F. Sams III, Director of the National Park Service, requesting the agency to "explore the suitability of designating Oak Hill, the former home of President James Monroe located in Loudoun County, Virginia, as a unit of the National Park System." If successful, the goal would be to transform the house into a museum by the United States Semiquincentennial in 2026.