OAK HILL 



F one wants to have a suggestion of "days befo' de 

 wah," then he must see Oak Hill, the home of 

 Mr. Samuel Hairston. This solid, imposing resi- 

 dence, in its decided colonial outlines, invites to the 

 mind those happy reminiscences of festive evenings, 

 when the old-time "square dance" was a delight, on 

 ample and mirror-like floors; when there were big crowds, big 

 dinners, big suppers, with company, not just for a few hours, but 

 overnight and all next day, for the fox hunt often followed the 

 dance, and the bay of dogs and the silvery ring of the horn was 

 the recessional music of the fiddle and the banjo. Yes, these 

 memories are revived when, as might be said, one stands in the 

 presence of one of these old homes, built in the early eighteens. 

 Such a residence, then, is this Oak Hill, built in 1825 by Mr. 

 Samuel Hairston, and now owned by a descendant of the same 

 name of the third generation. Situated right on the crest of a high 

 hill, around which the Danville and Western Railroad makes a 

 graceful curve, and has its trains to stop conveniently for the back- 

 door entrance; with a wide extent of level land at the foot of the hill 

 to relieve or bring out the boldness of its situation, there is for 

 Oak Hill a landscape setting rarely seen. The magnificent oaks that 

 measure birthdays by centuries are no minor ornaments from 

 nature's hand, for they flourish on all sides of the house and furnish 

 a dense grove. The work that nature has done for Oak Hill is not 

 all, for architectural beauty is brought out in simplicity in the con- 

 struction of the house. It is a brick structure of straight lines and 

 plain proportions, with colonial windows and porches with a rock- 

 laid walk from the front gate to the porch, with its accompanying 

 boxwood borders. Inside the colonial appearance is carried out in 

 the high wainscotings, heavy doors, wide halls, winding stairways 



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