Celebrity Homes: Virginia farm was once home to Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor was in the last throes of her second divorce from Richard Burton in 1976 when she met John Warner.
When Queen Elizabeth visited the White House, a blind date for the event was arranged for Warner to escort Taylor. Five months later, they were married on Dec. 4, 1976, at Warner's historic Virginia farm, Atoka. It was Taylor's seventh time to the altar.
The farm reminded her of growing up in England and she felt a sense of stability there. Taylor was happy riding horses through the acreage and enjoying the pastoral surroundings, but soon after settling in, she spent two grueling years helping Warner with his campaign for U.S. senator. He lost the campaign to Richard Obenshain, but when Obenshain died in an airplane crash two months later, Warner again ran for the seat and won.
For Taylor, that meant leaving the farm and moving to Washington. Warner was gone for long hours, and now with no career, Taylor started to fall apart from loneliness. In 1982, after four years of lonely isolation, she made the decision to resume her career and go back to Broadway. She and Warner parted as friends and were divorced the same year.
Warner sold Atoka Farm in 1994. In December 2015, the 400-acre Atoka Farm again went on the market at $8.7 million — almost twice what John Warner received in 1994. A prized estate, it immediately went under contract, but the contract failed to go through and it was taken off the market. Fifty acres were set aside from the original 400 and sold to an adjoining neighbor for $1 million. In April, it was relisted at 350 acres and sold earlier this summer for $7.17 million.
Atoka Farm is an excellent example of preserved northern Virginia history, showing the evolution of architectural styles. Seamed tin roofs, 100-year-old boxwoods, split-rail fences and an original log cabin attest to its past. Some structures possibly originated from an early owner, Joshua Hoge, a Quaker who called the farm Woodland.
The farm is located just outside Middleburg, Va., an hour from Washington, D.C. The 1860 field-stone manor home is 7,000 square feet with five bedrooms on three levels and an indoor pool and tennis court. There are also multiple barns, run-in sheds and a half mile of Goose Creek frontage.
