1843 Cabell Road • Wingina, Virginia

The Land Sets The Mood Before the Architecture Speaks

Bon Aire announces its privacy gradually: the rise of the land, the canopy of mature trees, the widening views, and finally the house itself, poised above 43 acres of Nelson County countryside. By the time you arrive, the world beyond the property already feels farther away.

Then the architecture takes over. Tall windows pull the landscape into rooms shaped more than two centuries ago, while high ceilings, original woodwork, old brick, and the restrained symmetry of the Federal design give the interiors both elegance and ease. Nothing feels staged for effect; the beauty comes from proportion, material, light, and the quiet confidence of a house that has had time to become itself.

For the buyer seeking a private Virginia retreat, a place to write or paint, or a second home in the countryside, Bon Aire offers more than privacy. It offers a different cadence: long stretches of uninterrupted time, rooms that invite use rather than display, and 43 acres that give each day space to unfold on its own terms.

A Different Measure of Luxury

Time, quiet, light, and enough land for the day to open around you.

Bon Aire does not need to be transformed into a retreat; the house and land already create that experience. Morning light moves slowly through rooms shaped more than two centuries ago, while the countryside beyond the windows changes with the hour. There is space for uninterrupted work, for guests to inhabit a world of their own, and for the usual demands of daily life to fall away almost without notice. Time feels less divided here. A few days can open into something fuller, quieter, and far more restorative.

A Glimpse of Bon Aire

A few moments inside a different rhythm of life

Bon Aire is best understood in motion—light passing through tall windows, rooms opening one into another, and the landscape unfolding beyond a house that has occupied this Virginia hillside for more than two centuries.

This brief film offers a first impression of the qualities that make Bon Aire so compelling as a private retreat, creative refuge, or second home: architecture with presence, 43 acres of privacy, and the rare luxury of having both the space and the time to inhabit them fully.

Bon Aire historic home and private Virginia country retreat in Nelson County

A Private Virginia Retreat

Forty-three acres give Bon Aire: distance, privacy, and the luxury of space.

A true country retreat is defined not by distance from town, but by what the land gives back: privacy, stillness, perspective, and the rare sense that the world has widened around you.

Bon Aire occupies a commanding rise above approximately 43 acres of southern Nelson County countryside, where mature trees soften the approach and the land opens toward the James River below. The setting is at once intimate and expansive: the house feels protected by the landscape, yet every view carries the eye outward.

For a buyer seeking a private Virginia retreat, Bon Aire offers a balance that is increasingly difficult to find: enough land to disappear into the day, yet a house refined enough to make staying there effortless. There is room to walk beneath old trees, garden, read outdoors, work without interruption, or simply follow the light as it moves across the property. Privacy here is not an abstract promise; it is built into the acreage, the elevation, and the distance. The quiet arrives with it.

A Retreat for Writers & Artists

Where ideas can gather momentum, and the work can become something larger than you imagined.

For a writer, artist, designer, scholar, or composer, Bon Aire offers the rare freedom to become completely absorbed in the work. Light moves through tall windows, the landscape changes by the hour, and the house seems to invite curiosity rather than demand attention. There is space here for ideas to gather momentum—for pages to fill, canvases to evolve, music to take shape, and thoughts to follow unexpected paths. Bon Aire is not a place to withdraw from life, but a place to feel more deeply engaged with it, surrounded by beauty, history, and a landscape that keeps giving something back.

Bon Aire allows different parts of life to unfold without asking them to compete. One room may become the place where the first words of the day are written; the unfinished upstairs space can grow into a studio, study, or project room shaped entirely by the work itself. The private terrace-level accommodation offers distance when concentration calls for it, while the cottage gives guests a place that is wholly their own. There is freedom here—for ideas to take over a room, for friends to stay longer than planned, and for work, conversation, solitude, and daily life to exist together with an ease that feels almost effortless.

Firefly fiber-optic internet keeps the creative world close when it needs to be—publishers, clients, collaborators, galleries, and offices are all within reach. And when the workday gives way, Bon Aire offers something entirely different: 43 acres of open country, old trees, shifting light, and the kind of landscape that invites you back into the physical world. Here, connection and escape are not opposites. They exist side by side.

The luxury here is having the space, the time, and the freedom to follow an idea wherever it wants to go.

Bon Aire • Wingina, Virginia

A Virginia Second Home

A house that rewards staying longer

The best second homes become part of the rhythm of the year. You come to know the house in every season—the first warm evenings with the doors open, autumn light moving through the rooms, winter fires, spring mornings across the land. Friends return, family settles into familiar spaces, and over time the house becomes a place you anticipate long before you arrive.

Bon Aire is particularly compelling as a second home because it accommodates both retreat and company with unusual grace. The renovated main residence offers the character and proportion of an early Federal house without asking its owners to surrender modern comfort, while the 1,985-square-foot cottage allows family and guests to inhabit the property independently. A private terrace-level suite creates yet another layer of flexibility. With Firefly fiber-optic internet, extended stays become effortless—making Bon Aire a house to inhabit for weeks or seasons at a time, rather than a place reserved for the occasional weekend.

For a buyer seeking a Virginia second home with acreage, Bon Aire offers a rare balance of privacy, architectural character, and ease. The c.1812 Federal residence sits within 43 acres of Nelson County countryside, with separate living spaces that allow family and guests to settle in comfortably without diminishing the quiet of the main house. It is a property designed for longer stays—for weekends that extend naturally into weeks, and for a second home that becomes an enduring part of the year.

A Day at Bon Aire

The house changes as the light moves through it

Morning arrives softly across the countryside. On some days, mist rises above the trees and traces the James River below. Light moves through tall windows and across old floors. A door can remain open to the quiet outside. Work may occupy the morning; the land offers somewhere to go when concentration gives way to thought.

Guests can settle into the cottage and have a place entirely their own. Dinner can linger into evening, conversation can continue long after the table is cleared, and the house seems to settle with the landscape as the light fades. Bon Aire already possesses the qualities that make a retreat feel enduring rather than temporary: privacy, history, generous spaces, beautiful surroundings, and the freedom to let the day unfold at its own pace.

Space to Gather • Space to Separate

The separate cottage offers guests a private place of their own, with the added flexibility of income-producing use.

The Separate Cottage

A complete second residence

The renovated 1,985-square-foot cottage feels less like an accessory and more like a residence in its own right. With a full kitchen, generous living spaces, bedrooms, a covered porch, a substantial brick fireplace, woodstove, four mini-split systems, and a whole-house generator, it offers guests a genuine sense of independence. For a second-home owner, it also creates valuable flexibility: family can stay for extended visits, friends can settle in comfortably, or the cottage can function as an income-producing residence without compromising the privacy of the main house.

Private Terrace Accommodation

Another layer of independence

The terrace level introduces a more private counterpoint to the main rooms above. With its own entrance, kitchenette, bath, bamboo flooring, custom cabinetry, and dedicated climate control, the space can function almost as a discreet apartment within the house. Guests can come and go independently, extended stays feel effortless, and the rooms can just as easily become a quiet place to work—adding flexibility without altering the gracious rhythm of Bon Aire’s principal interiors.

Designed for Longer Stays

The romance of an early house, refined for the way we live now.

Bon Aire has been carefully brought forward rather than merely preserved. The renovated kitchen and baths introduce modern ease, while refinished floors, repaired plaster, updated heating and cooling, and substantial exterior improvements protect the integrity of the c.1812 house. Firefly fiber-optic internet and generator capacity add a quieter kind of luxury: the confidence that a weekend retreat can become a month in the country without asking its owners to compromise on comfort or connection.

Connected

Firefly fiber-optic internet for remote work, research, and longer stays.

Renovated

Kitchen, baths, systems, floors, plaster, roof work, and other substantial improvements.

Independent

Separate cottage plus private terrace-level guest accommodation.

Private

Approximately 43 acres in the southern Nelson County countryside.

The House Behind the Life

The reason Bon Aire feels unlike a conventional country house

Built circa 1812 for Dr. George Cabell, Jr., Bon Aire retains the three-part Palladian composition, Flemish-bond brickwork, arched openings, original woodwork, and late-Federal mantels that give the house its architectural identity. It is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

On this page, that history is intentionally not the whole story. It is the foundation beneath the experience of living here: the scale of the rooms, the quality of the light, the old materials, and the quiet presence that a new house cannot manufacture.

Explore the Architecture

Bon Aire’s dedicated film and history page explores the Palladian form, Cabell family history, surviving interior fabric, National Register record, and relationship to the James River landscape in greater depth.

View Film & Historic Context

Bon Aire • Property Essentials

Historic in character. Entirely livable in the present.

Offered At

$1,495,000

Land

43 Acres

Main Residence

3 Bedrooms | 2.5 Baths

Separate Cottage

1,985 Sq. Ft. | Renovated

c.1812 Federal residence • National Register of Historic Places • private terrace-level guest accommodation • Firefly fiber-optic internet • whole-house generator capacity • elevated southern Nelson County setting

Bon Aire • Wingina, Virginia

Some houses give you somewhere to go. Bon Aire gives you a reason to stay.

For the writer looking for uninterrupted mornings, the artist drawn to light and landscape, the buyer searching for a private Virginia retreat, or the family wanting a second home with room for guests, Bon Aire offers something increasingly scarce: a beautiful old house, enough land for genuine privacy, and the freedom to let time move more slowly.

Private Showings

Experience Bon Aire in person

The qualities that make Bon Aire compelling as a retreat or second home are difficult to measure on a screen: the approach through the countryside, the scale of the rooms, the changing light, the separation between the main house and cottage, and the quiet held by the surrounding land.

Bridget Archer of McLean Faulconer Inc in Charlottesville Virginia

Bon Aire Listing Representation

Bridget Archer

McLean Faulconer, Inc.

For additional information about Bon Aire, the property brochure, or a private showing, contact Bridget Archer at McLean Faulconer.

Property page updated August 22, 2026 | Listed by Bridget Archer at McLean Faulconer.

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Seller Representation

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