Court Manor - Design and Construction

Design and Construction

Reuben Moore, Jr., likely began construction of Court Manor (then known as Mooreland Hall) during the last years of the eighteenth century, following his grandfather's death in 1797. Mooreland Hall would have been a rather conventional exercise in the late colonial style if it were not for the incorporation of the impressive Greek Revival portico into the design. Supported by four massive columns of the Doric order and surmounted by a simple triangular pediment decorated with a single semi-circular window, the scale of the portico dominates the main facade of the house. The large, two-level structure was constructed using bricks fired on site by the plantation's slaves. The house contained twelve spacious rooms, each with a fireplace and with large windows, affording panoramic views of the rolling countryside with the Massanutten Mountain Ridge rising in the distance.

The grandeur of the mansion and its handsomely landscaped grounds served to match the impressive scale of the estate, which at 1,700 acres was unusually large by Valley standards. The wide, spacious lawn, dotted with large tress, slopes gently towards a spring-fed brook that arises on the grounds of the estate less than a mile away and meanders gently towards Smith Creek, which also runs through the estate. Smith Creek was used to power the plantation's mill, which produced flour and other products that were transported up and down the Great Wagon Road. The estate remained in the Moore family until 1879, when Oscar Fitz Allen Moore, grandson of Reuben Moore, Jr., sold the estate to William C. & George H. Harrison.