Upperville is a small unincorporated village in Fauquier County, Virginia, United States, along U.S. Route 50 fifty miles from downtown Washington, D.C. and near the Loudoun County line. Founded in the 1790s along Pantherskin Creek, it was originally named Carrstown by first settler Josephus Carr. Through an 1819 act passed by the Virginia General Assembly, the name was changed to Upperville.
John Updike wrote of Upperville in his sardonic 1961 poem "Upon Learning That a Town Exists Called Upperville".[1]
Over the years, others who came to live in the area included heiress Isabel Dodge Sloane, who built the highly successful Brookmeade Stud, Llangollen estate where Liz Whitney Tippett lived for nearly six decades, Bertram and Diana Firestone'sNewstead Farm, Sandy Lerner's,[3] and the very prestigious Rokeby Farm of Paul Mellon. It was Mellon who donated the money to build Trinity Episcopal Church in 1960, which is at the center of the small community's social activities. For two days each year more than ten horse farms and centers in Upperville and Middleburg open their gates to visitors. Since 1960, the Hunt Country Stable Tour has raised money for the outreach programs of Trinity Episcopal Church.[4]