Just like nothing (else) on earth: Tillett Auction Barn 

By Tim Jon

Being a one-man-band as News Director at a small market radio station – a couple of decades ago – could be a remarkably difficult and frustrating experience – especially in one of the busiest, wealthiest and fastest growing counties in the known universe. It also came with some surprising and very simple pleasures. 

It was the memory of one of these bucolic and pastoral discoveries that kept percolating out of the past as I took a few steps from my car to capture some shots at a once-thriving local place of commerce and culture – the Tillett Auction Barn stood empty, desolate and seemingly ready for demolition as I paid my informal and only visit on a recent trip through some of the “no-man’s land” of eastern Loudoun. 

There was no merchandise on display, no milling crowds of potential buyers, no staccato auctioneer vocals amplified through a Jerry-rigged speaker system – and none of the magic spirit that had pervaded every live auction I’d ever attended. All the same, I could hear, smell and just about touch some of the livestock animals that I will always remember from the annual Loudoun County Fair – which still enjoys a spot along the Catoctin Ridge a couple of miles west of Leesburg. 

I’d been ‘baptized’ into this yearly event during the first summer of my tenure as chief storyteller at Wage Radio – by our General Manager at the time, the inimitable Chuck Thornton. Not that I didn’t try to imitate him; anyone recalling this larger-than-life, they-broke-the-mold- (or threw it away) when-they-made-him character will forgive my transgressions. Chuck was, and probably still is, irresistible as fodder for comedy. 

So (as if it were yesterday) we’re in the 4-H auction barn (the old one that is adjacent to Sykes Hall, I believe) at the County Fair and I’m guided through the crucial coverage points for this event: who raised the biggest pig this season? Which local sponsor came up with the scratch to buy the grand prize steer – to be converted into steaks, for sale at your favorite supermarket? 

Did the ‘fairest’ cakes and pies make everyone’s mouth water and cry for ice cream? And which contestant, among a select group of prominent citizens, collected the most votes (and monetary contributions) in the Kiss-a-Pig Contest? Yes, Virginia – you read correctly. The winner in this annual fundraiser for the Fair had the dubious pleasure of puckering up with a squealing, squirming and sometimes wildly kicking porker. 

This was, in my professional opinion, Loudoun County news at its – if not best – at least at its most unforgettable, endearing and completely disarming. One year the winner kissed both ends of the creature in question. Upon these moments and much more was I turned loose upon by my professional media mentor, Chuck Thornton. 

And all of this aforementioned, well-memoried swirl of sights and sounds and smells accompanied me as I paid my sole, early-morning visit to the Tillett Auction Barn on Belmont Ridge Road, as it stood silent and deserted and – to all observation – forgotten. I’ve read that its future may include a transformation into a service station for motorists, and for all we know, this may go a long way toward pleasing the spirits within these walls – if, that is – the structure survives demolition. 

I’m probably not the only poetic dreamer out here who thinks it would be cool to keep the shell of the building intact for whatever incoming enterprise assumes ownership of the site – with maybe an historic marker paying homage to what came before. In fact, I would applaud a good deal more of this sort of thing in our area – giving a nod to our precursors in walking this part of the planet. 

But, however this may play out, I’ve a distinct feeling that – as I periodically drive by the former site of the Tillett Auction Barn, I’ll see young 4-H members and their families, and their animals and other various entries to those bygone events, from the Loudoun County Fair: the squealing pigs, the lowing cows and the humorous repartee from the auction guys. And I might even conjure up, in my mind’s eye, a vision of good ol’ Chuck Thornton – with a twinkle in his eye and good-natured mischief in his heart. And now, you may – with my hearty blessings – as well.