Aldie Mansion

Aldie Mansion is a fitting home for Heritage Conservancy, a nonprofit membership organization whose mission is to protect our natural and historic heritage. Aldie's story is rich with history and its survival is the result of a cooperative effort at preservation.

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Rental
Aldie Mansion provides a stunning setting for weddings, corporate events, and other special occasions. Visit www.aldiemansion.com to learn more about renting the mansion and to see more photos.

History
The present mansion, built in 1927, is the second "Aldie" built on the property. The first, an imposing Victorian style mansion, was built by Judge Henry Chapman's oldest daughter Elizabeth and was named after the family's ancestral estate in Perthshire, Scotland. A wealthy widow, she gave the mansion and property to her sister Mary, wife of William Mercer Sr., and their children.

Their son William Jr. was nine when his family moved into the mansion in 1871. After graduating from Harvard, he traveled in Europe studying sculpture and exhibiting his work. In 1892 he built a studio behind Aldie where he made decorative garden ornaments. Like his famous older brother Henry, he was fascinated by the sculptural quality of concrete. Basing his designs on old carved stone pieces he had seen in Europe, he produced fountains, benches, columns, pedestals and arches.

In 1904 William married Martha Dana of Boston. When Martha inherited a large fortune in 1925, she and William started to build the house of their dreams, the present Aldie. Their architect visited England to study Tudor manor houses and the design of Aldie is similar to Compton Wynyates in Warwickshire, especially in the details of the brickwork and chimneys.

William died in 1939. Martha continued to live at Aldie and entertained often. Her most famous Christmas party was given in 1941 when the Von Trapp family sang in the great hall. When she died in 1960, she bequeathed Aldie to the Catholic Archdiocese, which used the mansion first as a seminary and later as a drug and alcohol treatment center.

Aldie Mansion today
In the early 1980s, Aldie Mansion—vacant, vandalized and burned—changed hands several times before Heritage Conservancy purchased it with generous assistance from Genuardi Markets, Inc. and Vesterra Corporation. Putting its mission into practice, the Conservancy, with support from many individuals, businesses, and foundations, restored Aldie to its original splendor, adding office and event spaces to make the property an economically self-sustaining and vital part of the community.