About Us

My name is Robert. My wife, Elizabeth, and I have restored over 20 historic properties, in our spare time, over 30 years. We have a passion for saving and renovating historic structures. In the early years, we did nearly all the work ourselves. Today, I’m thankful to plan it all out and let the experts do most of the work.

When I first saw Brighton online I knew it was special. When I first arrived on the property, even though I still needed Elizabeth’s buy-in, I knew it had to be ours. It was the “keeper” we had been looking for. I just needed to convince her that this was the best of all the 20 historic properties across Virginia we had looked at to that point. In the end, Brighton won. A beautiful group of structures, all painted white, on a windy peninsula at the Chesapeake Bay.

We knew little of the history of Brighton at that first visit but quickly realized that it was unique. It was later that we learned Brighton was built by Herman Hollerith, founder of the company that became IBM and that it was eligible for the Historic Registry. Brighton was a time capsule, a living history museum, a collection of collections and over a century of memories by the only family to have ever owned it until now.  

In the end, we bought Brighton and all the contents, including the Summer House, the Winter House, the Maid’s Quarters, the garage with Dr Hollerith’s workshop, a large barn complex plus other out buildings and cropland, both a blessing and a lot of work. Several sailboats and a canoe also conveyed. The Seller’s, four great grandchildren of Herman Hollerith Sr, removed some items but most everything else remained. I was able to buy back one of the original motor boats, an early Boston Whaler. 

I know from experience that, even with as much upfront work as we have done, there will surprises. We’re mostly looking forward to them. We plan to document the restoration here with periodic updates.