Verulam

Verulam (VAIR-u-lem) is a 12,000 square foot Georgian-revival manor house sited on a 500 acre estate of the same name a few miles west of Charlottesville, Virginia. The house was the creation of New York attorney Courtland Van Clief and his wife, Eleanor. Courtland descended from Virginia horse country gentry and Eleanor’s family was involved in the lumber business in Waco, Texas. The Van Cliefs retained the Virginia-based architect Marshall Wells and landscape designer Charles Gillette to design the house and grounds. Mr. Gillette was particularly renown for developing a formal style of garden that well-suited and accentuated the Georgian, colonial and neo-classical homes dotted around Virginia. Other examples of his work can be found at Lochiel (also covered in this blog here) and Tiverton (click here). Verulam was completed in 1946 and the Van Cliefs lived here and raised thoroughbred horses until 1962 when Courtland passed away.

Courtland and Eleanor made national headlines during their 1929 wedding in Buffalo, New York when nine armed robbers crashed a pre-wedding dinner at gunpoint and stole everyone’s jewelry and cash making off with $400,000 in loot. In news reports of the time the wedding guests chalked up the robbery to “dope fiends” which just shows that things haven’t changed much since the 1920s. The Van Cliefs were no strangers to nice houses. Courtland’s brother, Ray, bought and renovated the Rosecliff mansion in Newport, Rhode Island but was killed in an auto accident on his way to have dinner and spend his first night at the newly refurbished mansion.

The next proprietors of Verulam were John and Jane “Kitchie” Ewald. John and Kitchie met while they were both working for the Virginia Youth for Eisenhower in 1952. John was well schooled at Phillips Exeter Academy, Yale University and the University of Virginia Law School. Kitchie also attended law school at Georgetown University. The two legal eagles bought the estate in 1969 and, like the Van Cliefs, the Ewalds raised thoroughbred horses at Verulam and were well regarded in the Charlottesville community for their Christmas and children’s parties. During this time, Interstate 64 was completed through this section of Albemarle County effectively splitting up the Verulam estate and reducing its size from 1,700 acres to the present 500. Unfortunately, I-64 now drones away less than a quarter mile from Verulam.

John Ewald passed away in 1979 and Kitchie remarried in 1982 and then sold Verulam in 1986 to Peter Nielsen. Mr. Nielsen was a part-time resident and gentleman farmer who was in the software business. He, in turn, sold Verulam in 2002 to Melton McGuire and his wife, Heather. The McGuires were in the microbrewery business in Alexandria and raised Friesian horses at Verulam, worked at restoring the gardens and developed a party barn on the property to host weddings and other events. At some point, the McGuires split up but Melton stayed on a Verulam until 2021 when he tragically passed away at age 57. Verulam was then on the market for a few years finally selling for $6 million in February 2024 to a local attorney. The listing can still be viewed here. An upbeat YouTube video showing scenes from Verulam can be viewed here.

Footnote: The ring leader of the wedding party armed robbery was a Canadian named George Duke. Rather than a “dope fiend,” Mr. Duke was just a common criminal on the run from Canadian authorities. Mr. Duke and the rest of the robbers were caught and Duke spent 12 years in prison and was then deported back to Canada. Apparently scared straight, he found work as a lawnmower salesman, got married and eventually built up a major lawn mower distribution company in Ontario and grew wealthy enough to build a lakefront house near Toronto. Alas, the temptations of easy money, booze, guns and whoring were too strong to resist and Duke was eventually involved in the infamous heroin smuggling operation known as the French Connection that was later the subject of an Oscar-winning movie starring Gene Hackman.