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Sutherland open house to be held Saturday

“Open Door to the Past,” a Christmas open house at historic Sutherland, the East River home of Renee and Richard Miles, will be held from 2-4 p.m. Saturday.

The 3,650-square-foot, slate-roofed farmhouse was all spruced up and ready for visitors on Monday, as docents with the Mathews County Historical Society, which is sponsoring the open house, gathered there to finalize arrangements. Each of its nine working fireplaces was decorated, many of them with some of the more than 100 caroling dolls that Richard Miles has collected since the 1980s.

The family’s collections of oyster plates and oyster tins were also on display. Richard Miles is the retired vice president of JH Miles and Company, Norfolk seafood processor and wholesaler, and a descendant of John H. Miles Sr., a Mathews native who established the company in 1900.

Sutherland was built around 1838 and, in addition to the original fireplaces, still has the original woodwork. Previous owners include Thomas Hall,...

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