Historic Winfield Farm Converts to Respite Home

A nonprofit group is beginning to transform the historic 19-acre Winfield House farm, used by Confederate raiders in the surprise attack on the Fairfax Court House in 1863, into a bucolic therapeutic ranch for those with serious mental illnesses. 

The ranch, just off of Routes 7100 and 29, was purchased about three years ago by the Hopewell House, a nonprofit. The foundation is turning it into group homes for the treatment of the mentally ill, said Karen Lewis, project director. 

The ranch is significant because of , which dates back to as early as 1815 and is the site’s centerpiece. The ranch is sequestered off the highway and is only accessible down a one-lane former ox-cart path bordered on each side by grassy embankments. 

Historians believe it was this cart-path that Confederate troops under used to evade detection and capture Union Army Gen. E.H. Stoughton at the courthouse on March 8, 1863. 

Lewis said the foundation promised to be a good caretaker for the house, which gets its name from Dr. J. Buckner Winfield, who purchased it in 1925. The existing log farm structure was expanded in the 1920s with the addition of logs taken from at least two homes built around the same period, according to a historical survey of the site. Winfield wanted to upgrade the farm to become an agricultural haven. 

Although the foundation has no utopian plans for a ranch, it has become a working farm, with four horses, six goats, two pigs and about 100 chickens that have been sent to market. The chickens were part of a pilot project at the ranch to raise free-range chickens for sale to organic food re-sellers. The project was full of surprises, Lewis said. 

The best way to obtain large batches of chicken babies (or peepers) is through a mail-order distributor, who has them delivered by the U.S. Mail. They all survived the trip and came in big cardboard boxes, said Lewis, who grew up on the family farm outside of Yuma, Ariz. 

“It was like opening a box of chocolates, they were all different sizes, colors and shapes,” said Lewis. “We also raised quite a few tomatoes for salsa. We want to do this on a bigger scale next year.” 

Making the site into a working farm contributes to the soothing environment the foundation is trying to create for its group home clients, Lewis said. Allison, Lewis’ sister, suffers from schizophrenia and has benefited from the calm routine she has enjoyed while living at the ranch. The pastoral setting doesn’t have all the sensory inputs that overload schizophrenics, pushing them into serious delusional episodes, Lewis said. 

There is a dearth of mental-health facilities in the county and none offer this type of idyllic therapy, she said. They are awaiting the necessary permits before they open the group homes, she said. 

“The reason we started this was that the most common group home care means that they (those suffering from mental illness) are given a lot of medication, put in front of television set and given cigarettes,” she said. 

In contrast, Allison shares household duties at the farm and regularly goes out to community events. 

“We’ve seen how well this has worked for her,” Lewis said. “She was going through a bad cycle. And we think it can help others and give them a good quality of life.”