BURKE
While Burke is not an incorporated town or city,
it is a very special area of the county, with its own unique identity,
history and community spirit.
The area that it now called Burke can be traced back to land belonging to Lord Fairfax in the early 1700's. Lord Fairfax made land grants to numerous families including Henry Ward and Francis Coffer. Henry Ward built Burke's first house, portions of which are now part of the Woods community center in Burke Centre. Hannah Ward married Silas Burke, a wealthy and prominent figure in the Burke area. During the mid 1800s, Silas Burke increased the family land holdings to over 600 acres and was responsible for diverting construction of the Orange & Alexandria Railroad from nearby Fairfax City to Burke. These tracks are now owned by the Norfolk Southern Railroad and are being used by our new commuter rail system, The Virginia Railway Express.
At the turn of the century, the little village of Burke thrived. Horse racing fans from as far away as Alexandria flocked to Burke to enjoy its racetrack and to stay at Henry Copperhites country resort (located on property east of the old Burke Post Office). In the 1950s residents successfully fought plans to locate what is now Dulles Airport in the Burke area.