A castle and a &mystery cottage& on Afton

K.W. Stanley / News Virginian
Published: November 7, 2007

In 1960 the Carr family shared their recollections of family members who once lived in the "Halloween Cottage" (Princeton Cottage) who were employed by Royal Orchard Estate, site of the "Mystery Castle." The colors of Princeton Cottage honored Princeton, where Frederic W. Scott, owner of Royal Orchard, had graduated. The estate was opened to the public Oct. 12-13, 1968, by Scott's descendants to benefit the Crozet Fire Company and Waynesboro First Aid. Hundreds of automobiles entered the steep entry road to the estate off Route 250 east of Rockfish Gap during the two days.

Royal Orchard Estate is located on the site of an 1830s mountain farm with 388 acres and a frame farmhouse. Sallie C. Stevenson, wife of the American ambassador to England, presented Queen Victoria in 1838 with "Albemarle Pippins" apples grown in this orchard on the Blue Ridge. The queen favored the apples and the farm became known as Royal Orchard. Frederic W. and Elisabeth S. Scott of Richmond bought the orchard in 1903. Scott was a senior partner in the Scott and Stringfellow Brokerage Firm.

After Scott's purchase of Royal Orchards for $3,900 in 1903, he used the frame farm house for vacations until the Tudor-Gothic Castle construction commenced in 1911. Henry E. Baskervill, a Richmond architect, designed the exterior, including crenellated battlements, two stone towers and a stone swimming pool fed by a mountain spring. A Waynesboro contractor, A. Ree Ellis, supervised construction with local masons using native green stone off the mountain. The structure was completed in 1913.

John Russell Pope, a New York City architect, designed the interiors, completed in 1917, including an 1,800-pound carved oak door, 16th and 17th century armor, shields, halberds, helmets, locks and early guns, a ceiling of molded plaster, a mural frieze above wainscot, a wrought iron candelabra, medieval hunting scenes, a stone fireplace with side seats, a staircase of English Tudor oak, a "Four Virtues" fresco and 17th century tapestries.

Royal Orchard soon increased to 4,000 acres with 12 buildings, a water system, a police deputy and a half-dozen residents. Frederic W. Scott donated $300,000 for construction of Scott stadium at U.Va. in 1930 and was appointed Rector of the Board of Visitors. Scott died in 1939 at Royal Orchards. His descendants jointly own the estate.

Virginia acquired Blue Ridge properties in 1932 to establish the Shenandoah National Park. Surveys did not include Royal Orchard and Scott's Castle. Skyline Drive was projected to terminate at Jarman's Gap rather than at Rockfish Gap. Franklin D. Roosevelt intervened in August 1933 and approved a federal highway through Royal Orchard to connect the Skyline Drive with a future Blue Ridge Parkway. The Scotts countered with an offer of a scenic easement route descending the west side of the mountain to connect with Route 250 at Princeton Cottage. Federal officials declined the offer. In December 1934, James A. Scott, Jr., representing Frederic W. Scott, proposed a scenic easement route on the west side of the Blue Ridge from Brown's Gap to Rockfish Gap out of view from Scott's Castle with an altitude equal to that of Rockfish Gap. C.G. Quesenbery and I.G. Vass, town manager of Waynesboro, supported Scott's proposal. Federal officials agreed. Public policy had been determined by position and influence.

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