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Photo, Print, Drawing Montpelier, Upper Race Barn, 13376 Race Barn Road, Montpelier Station, Orange County, VA

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[ Drawings from Survey HABS VA-1214-A  ]

More Resources

[ Data Pages from Survey HABS VA-1214-A  ]

About this Item

Title

  • Montpelier, Upper Race Barn, 13376 Race Barn Road, Montpelier Station, Orange County, VA

Names

  • Historic American Buildings Survey, creator
  • Scott, Marion du Pont
  • du Pont, William, Sr.
  • du Pont, William, Jr.
  • Montpelier Races
  • Jackson, Mitchell
  • Arzola, Robert R., program coordinator
  • National Trust for Historic Preservation, sponsor
  • Meloy, Grace, delineator
  • Semrad, Allison, historian
  • Wilson, Ashley, historian
  • Fesak, Mary C., historian
  • Davidson, Lisa Pfueller, project manager
  • Ortiz, Jarob J., photographer
  • Scalera, Justin R., photographer
  • McPartland, Mary, transmitter

Created / Published

  • Documentation compiled after 1933

Headings

  • -  horses
  • -  horse racing
  • -  breeding
  • -  horse farms
  • -  barns
  • -  women
  • -  Virginia--Orange County--Montpelier Station

Latitude / Longitude

  • 38.221572,-78.176264

Notes

  • -  2018 Leicester B. Holland Prize, Entry
  • -  Significance: Erected in 1929, the Upper Race Barn is an important example of a vernacular thoroughbred training stable constructed by an elite woman. Unlike Marion duPont Somerville Scott’s peers who hired architects to design monumental thoroughbred training barns constructed in Colonial Revival style during the late 1920s and early 1930s, Scott and her staff at Montpelier designed the barn and built it using materials purchased from Sears, Roebuck, and Co. The Upper Race Barn is unusual due to its compact size created by arranging the stalls in a double row instead of a single row, as well as for the location of its supporting spaces, such as the feed room, at one end of the barn instead of at the center of the building or both ends. The barn’s simplicity and functionality is reflective of Scott’s focus on efficiency and performance over ostentatious displays of wealth. The construction of the Upper Race Barn is reflective of Scott’s broader efforts to break with architectural and societal conventions. The Upper Race Barn is also significant due to its builder, users, and occupants. Montpelier’s African American construction foreman Mitchell Jackson likely played a role in designing the barn, as well as in calculating the building materials needed to complete the barn and overseeing its construction. Furthermore, African American racing barn foreman and former steeplechase jockey Charlie Smoot supervised the care of Scott’s racehorses stabled in the barn from the late 1930s through his death in 1979. Smoot overcame a plethora of barriers intended to prevent African Americans from becoming highly successful jockeys to gain the attention of Scott and her brother, William du Pont, Jr. Smoot’s skill with horses prompted Scott to hire him as her foreman when he retired as a jockey during the midst of the Jim Crow era when most African American horsemen were relegated to positions as grooms. Finally, a number of Scott’s highly successful horses lived in the barn while they trained and raced, including Battleship. Battleship was the only horse to win both the British and American Grand National steeplechase races. He was the first American horse to win the British Grand National, proving that American bred and trained thoroughbreds could compete at the same level as their British counterparts. Battleship and Scott’s other horses demonstrated that Scott’s training methods and her facilities, including the Upper Race Barn, were highly effective in producing highly successful racehorses.
  • -  Unprocessed Field note material exists for this structure: N2321
  • -  Survey number: HABS VA-1214-A
  • -  Building/structure dates: ca. 1929 Initial Construction
  • -  National Register of Historic Places NRIS Number: 66000843

Medium

  • Measured Drawing(s): 1
  • Data Page(s): 4

Call Number/Physical Location

  • HABS VA-1214-A

Source Collection

  • Historic American Buildings Survey (Library of Congress)

Repository

Control Number

  • va2298

Rights Advisory

Online Format

  • image
  • pdf

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress does not own rights to material in its collections. Therefore, it does not license or charge permission fees for use of such material and cannot grant or deny permission to publish or otherwise distribute the material.

Ultimately, it is the researcher's obligation to assess copyright or other use restrictions and obtain permission from third parties when necessary before publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the Library's collections.

For information about reproducing, publishing, and citing material from this collection, as well as access to the original items, see: Historic American Buildings Survey/Historic American Engineering Record/Historic American Landscape Survey (HABS/HAER/HALS) Collection - Rights and Restrictions Information

  • Rights Advisory: No known restrictions on images made by the U.S. Government; images copied from other sources may be restricted. https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/res/114_habs.html
  • Reproduction Number: ---
  • Call Number: HABS VA-1214-A
  • Access Advisory: ---

Obtaining Copies

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  • Data Pages
    • Make note of the Call Number in the catalog record.

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  • Visit the Prints & Photographs Reading Room and request to view the group (general information about service in the reading room is available at: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/info/001_ref.html). It is best to contact reference staff in advance (see: https://www.loc.gov/rr/print/address.html) to make sure the material is on site. OR
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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Marion Du Pont Scott, William Du Pont, William Du Pont, Montpelier Races, Mitchell Jackson, Robert R Arzola, et al., Ortiz, Jarob J, and Justin R Scalera, photographer. Montpelier, Upper Race Barn, 6 Race Barn Road, Montpelier Station, Orange County, VA. Orange County Virginia Montpelier Station, 1933. translateds by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/va2298/.

APA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, C., Scott, M. D. P., Du Pont, W., Du Pont, W., Montpelier Races, Jackson, M. [...] Davidson, L. P., Ortiz, J. J. & Scalera, J. R., photographer. (1933) Montpelier, Upper Race Barn, 6 Race Barn Road, Montpelier Station, Orange County, VA. Orange County Virginia Montpelier Station, 1933. McPartland, M., trans Documentation Compiled After. [Photograph] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/va2298/.

MLA citation style:

Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, et al., photographers by Ortiz, Jarob J, and Justin R Scalera. Montpelier, Upper Race Barn, 6 Race Barn Road, Montpelier Station, Orange County, VA. trans by Mcpartland, Marymitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/va2298/>.