Rippon Lodge
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Rippon Lodge is the oldest house still extant in Prince William County. Built in 1725 (ca. 1745, by some accounts) by Richard Blackburn, it lies on high ground overlooking Neabsco Creek at the south end of what is now the unincorporated town of Woodbridge. The house takes its name from Richard Blackburn's birthplace, the small city of Ripon in North Yorkshire, England.
The house is located along a remnant of the original Kings Highway (now Blackburn Road), the main road from Alexandria to Yorktown. It was along this road that colonial troops marched to defeat the British and win the Revolutionary War.
Originally a tobacco and cotton plantation, the land holdings stretched from Neabsco Creek westward to near what is now I-95 and amounted to about 21,000 acres. The property featured its own port on Neabsco Creek, and was also close to the town of Dumfries, an important colonial seaport.
Though built by Richard Blackburn, the house was passed to his son, Col. Thomas Blackburn, George Washington's aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War. It was sold around 1820 to the Atkinson family, who lived there for about 100 years.
In 1924 the property was sold again. The buyers were a Washington, D.C. Federal judge and his wife, Judge and Mrs. Wade Ellis. Judge Ellis both renovated and preserved the property. Sometime after buying Rippon Lodge, the judge discovered that he was a descendant of Richard Blackburn, but it is not clear at what point during his tenure this became known and how much it influenced the preservation efforts. Regardless, the Ellis' sold the house to another Blackburn family member, Admiral Richard Blackburn Black, an Arctic explorer and compatriot of Admiral Byrd. Admiral Black's daughter inherited the house in 1989 and sold it to Prince William County in 2000.
As of 2006, the property is undergoing a complete restoration and will eventually reopen as a museum.
