Dunlora & River Crest  Homes

Dunlora is one of Albemarle's first and most popular amenitied communities.

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Dunlora Homes For Sale 

With more than 400 homes, a swim and tennis club, as well as significant frontage on the Rivanna River, Dunlora offers residents a quality community within minutes of all that Charlottesville has to offer.

Dunlora and River Crest are a beautiful planned residential community of private homes located in Charlottesville, VA.

The Dunlora/River Crest community is due to be completed in 2005 and will include approximately 377 homes.

Most are quiet cul-de-sacs with homes of similar size and style.

Dunlora boasts extensive walking paths, garden plots, a recently expanded swimming pool, 2 lighted tennis courts, a soccer field, and a newly renovated club house with a weight/aerobics room.

Dunlora and River Crest are conveniently located off Rio Road East, just minutes from the Charlottesville/Albemarle Airport, downtown Charlottesville, and UVA.

History of Dunlora Plantation

 In 1730, King George II granted land along the Rivanna River, near where its North and South forks meet, to Major Thomas Carr (1678-1738) of King William County for "services to the Crown".

Thomas Carr was a great friend of both Peter Jefferson (Thomas's strapping 6 foot 5 inch father)and Nicholas Lewis, Meriwether's father.

Carr became rich along with Jefferson, Washington & Lewis as a surveyor. The three basically opened up the Ohio & Tennesee River Valley to white men; selling land to both Davy Crockett & Daniel Boone.

These land holdings, which increased to over 5,000 acres, came to be known as "Dunlora", a Celtic name meaning "hill of the roaring stream".

Title to the land passed to Major Carr's son, John (1706-1778), then to his grandson, Samuel Carr (1745-1777). Samuel Carr's brother, Dabney Carr, married Thomas Jefferson's sister, Martha.

Samuel Carr had no direct heirs and so left his estate to his nephew and namesake, son of his brother Dabney and Martha Jefferson (and nephew of Thomas Jefferson), Colonel Samuel Jefferson Carr (1771-1855).

The younger Samuel Carr was twice-married, first to his cousin Ellen Carr, and then to Marie Dabney. After his death the Dabney line acquired Dunlora.

The elder Samual Carr probably built the first house at Dunlora just south of the fork of the Rivanna River, which burned in the early 1820's.

His heir, Colonel Samuel Carr, had a brick house built here in 1828 by Thomas R. Blackburn and William B. Phillips.

This house had an exposed cellar, an exterior stair to a piano nobile portico, and a hipped roof with belvedere .

In 1846 the property passed to a descendant, William S. Dabney, who willed the western part of the Dunlora property to his former slaves at the end of the Civil War.

The tract thus became known as the Free State. Dunlora was raided by Sheridan's soldiers during the Civil War, but escaped severe damage thanks to their compassion for the old and dying William S. Dabney.

One of William S. Dabney's daughters married a member of the Moon family of Church Hill near Scottsville.

Dunlora thence descended within that family to the present owners of Dunlora farm, although actual names have changed along the way due to marriage.

The 1828 Dunlora house was burned by an arsonist in 1916, then renovated by architect Eugene Bradbury, who altered the entrance and lowered it to the first floor ground level, constructed another one-story portico with paired columns, and reconstructed the widow's walk.

These renovations provide a construction truer to the original house.*

In August 1989, Capital Management & Development Corporation, in limited partnership with TBF Branchlands, Inc., acquired 257 acres of the original Dunlora Plantation for development of single family home sites.

The original concept of selling lots, on which buyers would contract to build their own houses, was slow to gain acceptance.

In October, 1992, the development was therefore sold to Republic Homes Investment Corporation, later to become Robert Hauser Homes.

While Robert Hauser Homes was the primary builder, other Charlottesville home contractors such as Wade Homes, Van Der Linde Homes, R. L. Beyer, and other individuals bought lots for home construction.

By 2001, essentially all of the planned 275 homes in the original Dunlora tract had been completed and occupied.

Stonehaus Development Corp., a division of Robert Hauser Homes, next began to acquire land between Dunlora and Free State Road.

By early 2002, initial sections of the Rivercrest and Rivercreek neighborhoods were nearing completion.

Also in 2002, the club house and swimming pool were expanded and remodeled to accomodate the additional residents.

Total size of Dunlora is approximately 440 homes.

*Some of this information was obtained from "The Architecture of Jefferson County, Charlottesville and Albemarle County, Virginia" by K. Edward Lay, University Press of Virginia, 2000.

 The Dunlora Club

The Dunlora Swim & Tennis Club is a private club owned by the Dunlora residents.

Membership is offered to all residents of Dunlora and includes access to the Dunlora pool, exercise room, soccer field and tennis courts.

Members are given the access code in order to gain entrance into the club facilities.

Membership to the Dunlor Club is offered to all residents of Dunlora. Membership is acquired by virtue of payment of the yearly Dunlora Community Assocation dues.

The Dunlora Community Association (DCA) is the Homeowner's Association of Dunlora.

The purpose of the DCA is to establish and enforce the covenants and restrictions of the association, as well as to manage and maintain the common areas.

As part of this process, the DCA is responsible for levying and collecting dues and paying expenses.

The DCA is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of five members; four of the members are elected, and one is appointed as the developer's representative.

The four elected Board members are elected to a two year term by vote of the homeowners and landowners (i.e., members) of the DCA.

The Board members typically lead committees that address various operational issues (e.g., maintenance, finance, security, architectural review, etc.).

 There is also a Managing Agent that is hired by the Board to manage the day-to-day business of the community.

Directors, however, do not receive any compensation for their services.

Note that there are also other committees that are chaired by residents of the community.

All committees are fully described in the Contacts/Committees page.

The Board of Directors meets on the third Monday of each month at 4:30pm in the Dunlora Swim & Tennis Club House.

Homeowners are welcome to attend and ask questions or make statements prior to the formal meeting.

To place an item on the agenda, it must be submitted in advance to the President.

The Board of Directors and Staff for 2006 & 2007 are:

Leah Goswell (President)
John Holden (Vice-President)
Wendy Hagen (Treasurer & Secretary)
Tom Harvey (Member of the Board)
Frank Stoner (Developer's Representative)
Jim Fogleman (Manager)

Dunlora Membership

Every homeowner and landowner within Dunlora is a voting Member of the DCA. Members are entitled to two votes for each residential lot or dwelling unit that he/she owns (i.e., two votes per household).

The developer, Robert Hauser Homes, is also a member (represented by Frank Stoner on the Board of Directors).

Dunlora Annual Dues

Association dues are levied on each household in Dunlora.

These dues pay the Association's expenses, including hazard, fidelity, property damage, and liability insurance policies to cover the common areas.

Comman area maintenance, landscaping, signs, staff support, postage, and bookkeeping are also covered by these dues.

The current yearly Dunlora dues are $770.00, paid in quarterly installments of $192.50, for improved lots, a lot being considered "improved" if a building permit has been issued.

The yearly dues for an unimproved lot are $74.00.

The Dunlora Association maintains a reserve fund for the repair and maintenance of the tennis courts, pool, clubhouse, and other capital assets.

This helps to prevent the need for special assessments to pay for such items, and also maintains the fiscal health of the DCA.

Dunlora Legal Documents

The following documents constitute the "Disclosure Packet" which is provided by the seller to the buyer at closing time:

Statement of Assessment
Statement of Plans for Capital Expenditures and Status of Reserve Fund
Statement of Pending Legal Matters
Statement of Compliance with Restrictive Covenants and Conditions
Statement of Insurance Coverage
Financial Statement and Budget for Current Fiscal Year
Articles of Incorporation of DCA
Bylaws
Declaration of Protective Covenants & Restrictions
Supplemental Declaration of Covenants & Restrictions
Architectural and Landscape Guidelines
Name and Address of Virginia Registered Agent

These documents are availabe for viewing upon request to the DCA Managing Agent. Please contact Jim Fogleman at 295-3781; FAX: 295-1835; email: foglemanjamesm@comcast.net.

About The Developer - Hauser Homes Inc.

Hauser Homes specializes in amenity based residential land development projects, and commercial office development.

For residential land developments, typical amenities include swimming pools, clubhouse facilities (including exercise room), tennis courts, walking trails, natural areas, and recreation fields.

Currently, their flagship development is Dunlora, a 400+ lot subdivision that we have been involved with since 1992.

Dunlora, since their involvement, has captured 50% of its market, which includes single-family detached homes priced from $234,000 to $400,000.

The latest and most successful product offering to date have been the "Care Free Cottages" at River Crest in Dunlora.

These attached duplex homes offer no exterior maintenance and are priced from $235,000 to $320,000, and their sales have outstripped the supply.

We have opened a new phase of 50 lots..

Dunlora’s rolling topography and proximity to the Rivanna River has allowed us to develop the enormously popular walking/nature trails.

The amenities in Dunlora and River Crest are centered on the Swim & Tennis Club that provides swimming, a community meeting hall with an exercise facility containing aerobic and weight based training equipment, and lighted tennis courts.

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