VICTORY: Oak Hill Will Become Virginia’s Newest State Park!

We have incredible news to share. Governor Abigail Spanberger and the Virginia General Assembly have approved a state budget that enables former President James Monroe’s Oak Hill estate to become Virginia’s newest state park. This concludes a yearslong effort to set the 1,200-acre property in Loudoun County on a solid path to becoming a state park — and it happened because people like you refused to let this treasure slip away.

When we asked you to email Governor Spanberger urging her to add Oak Hill back into the budget, you answered the call in extraordinary numbers. More than 10,000 people signed petitions, sent letters, and made personal donations in support of Oak Hill becoming Virginia’s next state park. As Heather Richards, mid-Atlantic vice president at The Conservation Fund, put it: “For all the work The Conservation Fund has done to benefit the public, never have we seen support like this emerge with such force. The response showed just how deeply Virginians value Oak Hill — and how committed they are to preserving it for future generations.”

We cannot thank you enough. Your voice — added to thousands of others, alongside a $27 million contribution from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, $6 million in federal Land and Water Conservation Fund support secured by Virginia’s congressional delegation, and a $2 million grant from the Virginia Land Conservation Foundation — helped permanently protect the last privately held home of a presidential Founding Father. Because of this collective effort, the place where Monroe wrote the Monroe Doctrine, and where enslaved African Americans and Indigenous peoples lived and labored, will now be preserved and opened to the public rather than lost to development in one of Northern Virginia’s fastest-growing regions.

What Happens Next

The work of protecting Oak Hill isn’t finished — it’s entering a new phase. The process of transforming Oak Hill into a state park now moves into an administrative, planning, and final fundraising phase. The immediate next steps include completing archaeological and historic resource assessments of the property. Once those assessments wrap up, a clearer timeline for opening the park to the public will emerge.

When will the park open? The park hopes to welcome its first visitors in 2027. When it does, Oak Hill will give more than 3 million Virginians within 30 miles the chance to engage with both the natural landscape and the history it preserves.

We’ll continue to share updates as the planning process unfolds. In the meantime, please accept our deepest gratitude. Wins like this don’t happen without people who care enough to act — and this one belongs to all of you.

Thank you for standing with us to protect the lands that sustain us.