Back in Washington, D.C.’s sticky summer heat of 1927, J. Willard Marriott opened a curbside A&W Root Beer stand, and that storied nine-stool eatery launched an international business empire that is still rooted in the nation’s capital area.
Marriott International’s facilities portfolio retains a 4,200-acre Virginia ranch about an hour outside of the nation’s capital—formerly known as Fairfield Farm—which JW and wife Alice bought back in 1951 for retreat and enterprise. Livestock and wide-open spaces were always embedded in Marriott’s soul because he grew up on a sheep ranch in Utah.
Through the ensuing decades, Marriott entertained heads of state and other notables—Roy Rogers was a regular—at his private enclave in the Virginia Piedmont. Today, it’s more egalitarian, and almost anyone who roams the ranch’s rolling topography tags it Marriott’s “best-kept secret.”
The Marriott family still enjoys the ranch, but guests who share residence with Black Angus, horses and the cowboys who manage them are now more likely to be office escapees, as the ranch is the scene for the annual Marriott corporate picnic and other events for up to 2,000 guests.
Business groups find multiple ways to use Marriott Ranch. Rock climbing, ropin’ and ridin’ are among the possibilities, as are elegant dinners paired with Virginia wines. Chuckwagon picnics and suppers are on the roster, too, along with activities like mechanical bull riding, jeep touring in the Blue Ridge Mountains, clay target shooting, and pony riding for the kids in tow. How about a “steak bake and boot scoot” for sizzling slabs around the fire, and country and western dance instruction to work off the beef? Or maybe some Texas Hold ’Em instruction?
Many groups book because of the serenity and privacy the ranch offers. Small government groups like it for per diem sleepovers. On one recent weekday, a major pharma executive group was meeting behind closed doors in the property’s high-ceiling 1814 Marshall Manor house, which offers B&B-style hospitality.
Just over a knoll, about a hundred Freddie Mac employees were engaged in team building, recreation and picnicking under some shade trees. Beth Warner, senior event planner for Freddie Mac, says her group enjoyed top-notch food service by Marriott and a variety of activities during their country escape.
“Everyone was so impressed with the ranch that I’m sure we’ll return for other team-building events,” Warner says.
It just goes to prove that a little bit of root beer can go a long, long way.
