At 8:30 on a Sunday morning, the road is quiet. Bunnies hop across gravel driveways as a flock of geese waits to cross the street into an open meadow that’s already hot from the strong summer sun. A woman in a sunhat completes her morning stroll down the tree-lined road, and a little boy holding a kitten inside of his pajama shirt waves as he stands in front of his yard. Oak trees do their best to hide stately brick homes and provide shade for pools and patios. Wooden fences border fields leading to a large horse stable.
And it’s all less than five miles from Barracks Road Shopping Center.
 Open space is a big draw in Ivy Farm. Neighbors are protective of their unbroken views. |
“I could never give away my neighborhood. It’s just so convenient. It’s three and a half miles from 250,” says Kathy Morris, a resident of Ivy Farm and mother of three. “Driving on Garth Road, it’s like you enter a new realm. It’s just the most beautiful view in Albemarle County.”
After renting a home for nine months, the Morris family was ready to move into their new home in Ivy Farm. The neighborhood was so popular the Morrises had to buy their home off the market through word of mouth. After about six years and a few changes, the Morris family still enjoys the neighborhood’s character and layout.
Lots in the Ivy Farm subdivision are a minimum of two acres, which allows for privacy but also keeps the neighborhood feeling intact, says Morris. Although some lots claim 16 or even 21 acres, she recalled recently lending a neighbor sour cream, and twice a year the whole neighborhood gets together to enjoy a potluck meal. Morris says she thinks the potluck is a great way to meet all the neighbors and is especially important for new families.
Ongoing additions
While the Morrises live in the original parcel of Ivy Farm, developed beginning in the 1960s by Dr. Charles Hurt’s Virginia Land Company, the neighborhood is now going through many changes. Along streets branching off the neighborhood’s main road the beginnings of gravel driveways stick out into the woods and heaps of red clay line the new roads. Hurt and the Virginia Land Company plan to build 27 new homes in the area and already have a couple of homes for sale.
Hurt said he is proud of the development now and in the 1960s but could not comment on any special character or personality of the land—the development, from his perspective, simply fills housing needs within the financial limitations of home buyers.
Development seems to scare residents of the original Ivy Farm homes, especially since the neighboring Oakencroft Vineyards has been sold. “All of us that live out that way hope they won’t make a neighborhood out of it,” Morris says. “We hope they can make it a nature conservancy or just some kind of open space. I just don’t want to see it turning out like what 29 North is looking like.” (Indeed, Oakencroft owner Felicia Rogan told C-VILLE that the land is not to be developed.)
Practical matters
Demand is high for homes in Ivy Farm and the surrounding land, but according to C.J. Hall, whose husband is Secretary-Treasurer of the Neighborhood Association, the area does have a few problems. Before Hurricane Isabelle, the neighborhood suffered extended power outages, creating further issues since residents get their water from wells.
Although the neighborhood now has fewer problems with power, Hall says she thinks the neighborhood uses too many different trash services and that the roads can be dangerous. The neighborhood’s rural setting hosts many different types of wildlife, which tend to make driving slightly dangerous in the mornings and evenings. Hall also says she thinks snow removal companies take too long to plow the neighborhood’s roads.
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“It’s almost never plowed out in 24 hours. It’s plowed whenever VDOT can get here,” Hall says. “People who work generally have four-wheel drives and those of us that are retired just stay home.”
Regardless of these issues, Morris says she thinks many people in the neighborhood are happy. The neighborhood has very few issues with crime and offers families the opportunity to send their children to some of Albemarle County’s best public schools. From fixing up bathrooms, to redoing kitchens and large-scale additions, Morris says she knows of many residents fixing up their 1970s-vintage homes rather than leaving the neighborhood. They’re accommodating changed expectations, Morris says. “The family of now is not the family of 25 years ago. You know, everybody gets their own bedroom now,” Morris says.
The bottom line
Unfortunately for people looking for homes in Ivy Farm, low turnover means limited choices and high prices. In the past 18 months, only six houses have sold there, the cheapest home going for almost $600,000, according to Real Estate III agent Len Mailloux and the Charlottesville Albemarle Association of Realtors. Including the new development, there are now only four homes for sale, according to Mailloux.
Morris admits that homes in the neighborhood are extremely expensive and while she would prefer a bigger, newer home, she could never afford one now in Ivy Farm. Even so, Morris says she has been noticing ownership changes that she says she thinks will have a positive effect on the neighborhood’s character. Over the past six years, she says, “original home owners [have been] moving out and newer, younger families are moving in,” bringing with them a new excitement and personality.
“I think it’s fantastic. I would love to see the neighborhood young again…I’ve noticed over the last couple of years more people are staying and trick or treating around Ivy Farm,” and not going to other neighborhoods like Holkham, Morris says.
Some of the original homes may be small and slightly outdated, but Morris thinks the location is unbeatable. It’s that factor, and the relative peace and quiet here, that keep price tags hovering around $1,350,000.