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First rezoning meeting went well. We’re looking forward to the next two. Who can resist making this wonderful place commercially viable as a B&B, restaurant, or elegant office building.

A PERFECT HOME FOR FAMILY OR FRIENDS, RESTAURANT, INN, OR B&B.

AMENITIES OF THE HOUSE include original heart pine floors, original bubbly/wavy glass windows, original oil lamps (now electrified and working just fine) 12 feet high ceilings in the living room and parlor. There’s air conditioning, municipal water and sewer, high speed internet cable, a whirlpool tub, a 5-stall pony barn, a 3-car garage, 19th century built-in cabinetry all over the house, a summer kitchen/updated apartment attached by a breezeway to the house (IN-LAW APT), a winter kitchen in the stone basement, 6 fireplaces, 6 bedrooms, 4 full baths, two of which were updated last year, ONE IN WHITE MARBLE! 2007 home inspectors were impressed at its excellent condition.

AS AN INVESTMENT, CONSIDER THIS: Its neighbors include million dollar homes just over the hill. A new hospital complex http://www.rmhonline.org/destinationhealth/index.html is being built about three miles away, so a profitable resale is more than likely, if you could stand to part with the house! One minute away is the upcoming Reston-like Preston Lake Community http://www.prestonlakeva.com Approximately 10 minutes away are the Merck Pharmaceutical and Coors Bottling plants. And, of course, James Madison University’s east campus is only 5 minutes away from Hidden Springs.

LESS THAN A MILE FROM Harrisonburg’s eastern boundary, this grand, elegant 203-year-old Virginia farmhouse sits on 3.028 acres. The front wing was built by John Hite II and his wife Cordelia in 1804. John’s father, Col. John Hite, built the stunning stone mansion Springdale south of Winchester and was a friend and host to President George Washington, according to the President’s diaries. The back wing of Hidden Springs was added by the politically active Peale family after the Civil War. The Peale’s grandson, Virginia State Senator George Keezell, lobbied the Virginia legislature for a teachers college to be built in his district of Harrisonburg and so in 1908 the State and Normal teachers college of Harrisonburg was born, later renamed James Madison University, JMU!

ON THE LAND are 45 English and American boxwoods; one of those boxwoods is seen in the pictures. It stands about 20 feet high and is about 20 feet wide! There are stone walls accenting the property as well as wood horse fencing. There are underground springs down by the creek waiting to be turned into spring-fed ponds for fishing and swimming. The pony barn was built in the 1950’s for the young son of Dr. Ceci Byers. Rob Byers is now in Kentucky, an internationally reknown horse breeder and showman, who learned about horses at Hidden Springs.

Priced at $850,000. CALL MY REMAX AGENT, JOANNE, AT 540-236-5800.

Photos by John Knauf. Music by Enya. More pictures at my REMAX real estate agent’s web page http://www.joanneknauf.com/hs.html There is more on Keezell’s involvement with JMU at http://www.dnronline.com/skyline_details.php?AID=11891&sub=Feature

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