The founder of the 1795 settlement, Lt. Colonel Thomas Paxton, a Revolutionary War veteran, came to the Virginia Military Tract to build a home, raise a family and improve his family’s quality of life.  Col. Paxton is buried in the Ramsey-Paxton family cemetery on the city-owned property now called “White Pillars”.  The 1850’s homestead was designed and built by Isabelle Paxton and Captain John Ramsey and their family.  Isabelle’s nephew, Thomas Paxton, laid out the town called “Paxton” in 1849, which has become “Loveland”.  Isabelle Paxton Ramsey’s granddaughter married James Loveland.  Many of the roads in the area were named for the Col. Paxton’s sons-in-law who helped in establishing the settlement and who owned nearby farms.

The City of Loveland purchased this property in 1996 to preserve the Homestead and Cemetery, during Loveland’s “Bicentennial of the Settlement Celebration,” for future generations with the intention of promoting an arts, culture and educational center besides being a city investment asset.  There are a number of community organizations, the Loveland City Schools and descendents besides the City itself to support this public purpose.  The management of the historic Homestead property would be under the Community Improvement Corporation’s (CIC) ad-hoc “While Pillars Board of Trustees”.  The property developer, Hines-Griffin and Parrott and Strawser, have pledged $225,000 toward the Homestead restoration.  Other funding can come from a variety of other sources.

Mr. Stephen Vamosi, who had prepared an environmental assessment of the White Pillars Homestead in July 1999 and the Proposal for the Preservation and Reuse of the White Pillars Homestead in February 2000 has called it “a treasure worth preserving” in a February 2003 White Pillars Steering Committee meeting.