Real Estate
A Gilded Age Playboy’s 1,100-Acre Polo Estate Is Up for Sale
First Jock Whitney, then Donald Brennan, a former Morgan Stanley exec, built an equestrian mecca in Virginia. Now it’s somebody else’s turn.
Of the roughly 5 million acres in Virginia granted to the Fairfax family by the kings of England in the 17th century, just a sliver—merely 600 acres or so—ended up in the hands of the Powell family by 1827. Politicians and gentleman merchants, the Powells built a lovely mansion they called Llangollen, which then passed from one illustrious owner to the next.
When Donald Brennan, the former head of Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, saw the house at the start of the 21st century, it was one of the pre-eminent properties in blue blood American horse country.