Snowden Manor Ruins, Sky Meadows SP, Nr. Paris, VA - Lonely Chimneys on Waymarking.com

Ruins are on a 1.5 mile interpretive loop Snowden Trail starting from the parking lot. I rated the hike as a 2.5 because of the total elevation change. You can make your day a lot harder by adding the hike to the ridgeline intersection with the Applachian Trail.

"It’s midmorning in early July, 1864. Snowden, the white frame house before you, has a wide columned porch, fieldstone chimneys and dormer windows. A barn, ice house, kitchen, and other out-buildings are nearby. From this hillside, the fields and forests, and pastures of surrounding farms look like green and brown and gold patchwork quilts spread over the Piedmont Valley.

Mr. George S. Ayre moved here recently from Ayershire, his farm near Upperville, with his wife, four daughters, and half-sister Miss Hunter.

As you survey this stately house, the front doors open. Wearing long, full, cotton dresses, Lillie, Bettie, Kate and Jeanie Ayre emerge from the house and descend the stairs. Each young lady carries a small workbasket. As the girls walk down the hill, they happily discuss their plans for the rest of the day at a neighbor’s house

It is a gray afternoon in December 1913. Snowden is deserted. A cold wind stirs the weeds around the weathered outbuildings. Old Miss Hunter died here in 1893. The house was sold in 1902 for debts incurred by George S. Ayre and tenants have lived here ever since.

The house burned this year. Snowden is now just a black skeleton."
(On site historic marker)

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A photo of the chimney is required to post your visit. Any information that you may have as to the history of the location would be appreciated. You may also add your best guess as to the building that it was attached to or any other information about the location that you may have.

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