Royal Oaks was a magnificent two story frame house containing 10 rooms and twin stone chimneys located in Centreville, Virginia. There is conflicting information about the house’s origin and date of construction. Captain Willoughby Newton purchased the 3,000 acre tract that became Royal Oaks in 1743. He gifted the land to his son John Newton on December 18, 1753, who sold the land to his cousin Newton Keene Sr. in 1765. It is believed that Keene constructed Royal Oaks shortly thereafter. The construction of the house has also been attributed to Revolutionary War patriot General Daniel Roberdeau who might’ve built the house for his son James Roberdeau around 1785, although there are no records to support this. James and Martha Roberdeau did live in the house and are buried in unmarked graves on the property.

The house saw heavy action during the Civil War. In 1862, Royal Oaks served as the headquarters for General John Pope during the Second Battle of Manassas. Pope made his office in the northwest room on the second floor and maintained a telegraph line using the branch of a large oak tree outside his window. The glass insulator from Pope’s telegraph remained on the tree for almost 100 years until removed in 1961.

Royal Oaks passed through several hands until its final owners, Georgia and William Harrison Lamb, publisher and editor of the Manassas Journal, purchased the house in 1922. After Georgia Lamb’s death on January 16, 1959, her will entrusted the property to the Church of the Good Shepherd in Burke, Virginia. The church retained the land but sold Royal Oaks to Norman L. Baker who bought the house for $2,000 in February 1961 with the intention of disassembling and reconstructing it on his property in Delaplane, Virginia in Fauquier County.

In the spring and summer of 1961, Baker dismantled the house piece by piece taking measured drawings and photographs. Each piece was carefully marked and documented for eventual reconstruction. The timbers including Pope’s glass insulator were trucked to Fauquier County.

Baker also purchased and restored an historic Colonial-period house known as Summerset (later known as Rose Hill), in Delaplane, Virginia. He intended to reconstruct Royal Oaks and conjoin the two houses together with a glass enclosure. Unfortunately this did not pan out, and the dismantled timbers of Royal Oaks remained stacked in pile under a leaky makeshift shed.

In May 2005, historians from Centreville interested in returning and reassembling Royal Oaks on its original site traveled to Delaplane to assess the condition of the remains of the house. Unfortunately, they discovered most of the original wood had severely decayed due to exposure to the elements and they abandoned plans for restoring the house.

The overgrown site of Royal Oaks, located at 13910 Braddock Road, remains undeveloped and also contains the unmarked graves of the Roberdeau family. The circa 1930s boundary stone wall still marks the entrance of the property, the foundation of the house remains, and a giant oak tree that once marked the house’s front entrance still stands.