PANORAMA
The Land’s History before the Meadows at Dahlgren
Mostly forgotten now, but well known to those of a former generation, were a number of fine mansions in the lower Chotank that have mostly vanished – prey to the ravages of fire, war, and the devastating hand of time. The freeing of slaves in the 1860s left many of these estate owners with little besides their homes and many untilled, rapidly overgrown, and suddenly unproductive acres of land. While some estate owners found various ways and means to retrieve their injured fortunes, others never recovered and over time, some fine mansion eventually vanished.
