Abandoned Selma

“Selma” has watched the changing world from the base of the Catoctin Mountain north of Leesburg since it was originally built by Armistead Thomson Mason aro...
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“Selma” has watched the changing world from the base of the Catoctin Mountain north of Leesburg since it was originally built by Armistead Thomson Mason around 1815. Due to a political quarrel Mason and his neighboring cousin Colonel John Mason McCarty chose to settle their differences in a duel. Mason died at the first shot, while McCarty was dangerously wounded. McCarty’s life eventually ended while hunting, in an attempt to climb the fence to the Mason property (now the residence of his widow). McCarty spotted game and attempted to load his gun, it slipped from his hands and fired sending the ramrod through his head.
Much of Selma was destroyed by fire in the early 1890s. Elijah B. White purchased the property in 1896 and brought it to the present appearance between 1900 and 1902.
Selma has been abandoned since 1989 and is one of Virginia’s most critically endangered historical sites.
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