Beyond the Green Gate

The narrow dirt road runs near U.S. 50, close to Middleburg, Va. As it comes to a dead end, a green-painted plank gate on the left bars the entrance to a private byway named Segregation Lane, which runs along the zealously observed boundary between the hunt territories of the Piedmont Fox Hounds and the Orange County Hunt. Beyond the green gate, on Rattlesnake Mountain,* armed U.S. Secret Service agents live in green G.I. tents, keeping 24-hour guard around a still-uncompleted country home. When the home is finished, about April 1, Jack and Jackie Kennedy will move in. For this is their new weekend retreat, replacing the leased Glen Ora estate.

Out of the 1,000-acre estate of Gentleman Farmer Hubert Phipps, the Kennedys bought 39 acres for $26,000--a bargain by local standards. The one-story home, built on a concrete slab, will have seven bedrooms, 5 1/2 baths and will cost an estimated $70,000. There will be no swimming pool. Instead, the Kennedys have dug out an acre and a half for a man-made lake, and will stock it with bass, perch and bluegills.

Architects' plans for the house, designed with two wings projecting from the same side of a long rectangle and built of fieldstone and wood, were drawn from rough sketches by Jackie. Inside are a 22-by-34-ft. living room, a 17-by-20-ft. dining room, a bedroom of the same size for Jackie, and a considerably smaller presidential bedroom and library. French doors open from the dining room onto a terrace. In all, there are three fireplaces. In the south wing are three 12-by-12-ft. bedrooms and a playroom. The north wing holds kitchen, pantry, breakfast room and two servants' rooms.

Like any family with a new home abuilding, the Kennedys have had their problems. A current headache: how to screen the house from view of the nearby highway without blocking off the Kennedy view of the Blue Ridge Mountains beyond.

* Rattlesnake Mountain is really just a hill. It has no rattlesnakes, just copperheads.

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