Oldal 525 [525]
OAK HILL
Ae F one wants to have a suggestion of ‘“‘days befo’ de
ses! wah,’ then he must see Oak Hill, the home of
Gi] 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
[320]