For over thirty years, I have been researching the life of beer baron, inventor, and philanthropist Robert Portner, the history of his brewery, and the history of his summer home Annaburg. It is a love affair I cannot quite explain, and yet has had the biggest impact on my entire life. From the moment I first saw the house, I fell in love with it and had this drive to find out everything I could about it.

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Annaburg was a 2,000-acre estate situated on the then-outskirts of the post-Civil War farming town of Manassas, Virginia. The estate was formed from the bulk of two historic estates - the Weir family plantation Liberia and the Hooe/McLean family plantation Yorkshire. Annaburg - named in honor of both Portner's wife Anna and the military academy he attended as a youth - was a unique place itself. Portner was able to take battle-scarred land and cultivate it into a successful dairy and cattle farm, while also maintaining it as a place of relaxation and pleasure for his own family. In addition to an impressive mansion, the estate boasted three large ponds (one of which had its own steam boat), a swimming pool, three hundred-acre fenced in deer park and hunting lodge, two historic homes, acres of orchards and vineyards, and a 20-acre formal park Portner often opened up to the local townspeople. The park featured the Portner family home - a three-story brick and brownstone mansion designed by Washington, D.C.-based architect Gustav Friebus - as well as a three story brownstone tower. The mansion was built using locally made brick and locally sourced brownstone, as well as cement floors - all considered fire-proof construction methods of the time - and is believed to be the first house in the country to feature air conditioning, adapted from Portner's own invention to cool the air in his brewery.

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To view the nomination form for the Virginia Department of Historic Resources, click Here.

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