Twentieth Century
While the house was originally known as Mooreland Hall, by the early 20th century the estate came to be known as Court Manor. Over the years the original structure was expanded with various additions including a large enclosed sun porch on the southwest side of the building and an extended suite of guest rooms on the north side of the house. However, after its 1987 restoration, the front, central portion of the manor house appears today as it did when it was constructed around 1800.
In 1925, Court Manor was purchased by Willis Sharpe Kilmer, a New York entrepreneur, newspaperman, and horse breeder best known for marketing his uncle's popular medicinal tonic "Dr. Kilmer's cure-all remedy Swamp Root". The period of Kilmer's ownership of the estate saw dramatic development of the property, establishing it as one of the country's most preeminent horse studs. Exterminator, the winner of the 1918 Kentucky Derby, resided on the estate after his racing career, and Reigh Count, the winner of the 1928 Kentucky Derby, was bred and born on the estate. After Kilmer had acquired Court Manor in 1923, he had some 10,000 silver maple trees planted along the roads of the estate in memory of those lost in World War I. Today these trees are still extant and can be seen lining both sides of U.S. Route 11 as it passes through the estate.
Following Kilmer's death, Court Manor fell into a state of disrepair and slow deterioration. During the back-to-the-land movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the estate was home to a commune, and by the early 1980s, the estate's landholdings had dwindled to some 1,300 acres (5.3 km2), the manor house was virtually uninhabitable, and the entire estate was in a state of ruin.
In 1985, Court Manor was acquired by North Carolina textile magnate Nicholas Wehrmann, Sr., who initiated a wide-scale renovation of the manor house and estate grounds. The original section of the house and its Greek Revival portico were intact enough to be preserved in whole, but the later additions, which used inferior construction methods, had sustained far too much structural damage to be salvaged. The renovation restored the structure to its original condition and added two additional wings to the house. Also during this period the grounds of the estate were revitalized for agricultural purposes. Pastures underwent extensive renovation, historical barns were preserved, and new construction of barns, corrals, feeding systems, and miles of high tensile fence was completed. Since 1985, acquisitions by Wehrmann have restored nearly 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) of land to the estate, bringing the total landholdings to some 2,250 acres (9.1 km2). The estate was home to Wehrmann's herd of purebred Aberdeen Angus cattle, operated by the firm Wehrmann Angus. Nicholas Wehrman, Sr. died on March 24, 2010, and the estate has since been offered for sale.
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