Paxton Manor

Charles R. Paxton (1816–1889) was a Pennsylvania industrialist who commissioned the 32-room mansion on a 50-acre estate in Leesburg in the early 1870s. The building was designed by New York architect Henry C. Dudley in Second Empire and Italianate styles; its mansard roof and decorative ironwork made it one of the more architecturally distinctive private homes in Loudoun County. Paxton's wife Rachel outlived him by more than thirty years and remained in the house until her death in December 1921.

In her will, Rachel Paxton placed the buildings and 50 acres in a charitable trust to benefit children in need. The resulting institution, the Paxton Home for Convalescent Children (also called the Margaret Paxton Memorial for Convalescent Children), operated from 1921 through 1954, housing children recovering from illness or injury during the summer months. From 1954 to 1980 the property served as an orphanage, and from 1980 to 2004 as a childcare center.

The property was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the Virginia Landmarks Register in October and December 1979, respectively, and became part of the Leesburg Historic District in 2004. The Arc of Loudoun, which provides services to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, has operated on the campus since approximately 2008. The organization runs the annual Shocktober theatrical haunted house in October, which uses the mansion's full 32 rooms and raises significant funds for its programs.

The estate sits less than a mile from Ball's Bluff Battlefield Regional Park, where the October 21, 1861 Battle of Ball's Bluff resulted in a Union defeat and the death of Colonel Edward Baker, the only sitting U.S. Senator killed in the Civil War.