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Read more about the Discovery Map Stops below.
In June 1951, over 4,500 acres in the Burke area were forced to sell to the government to build a new airport. Community groups protested. Eight years later, the airport site was moved to the Chantilly area. The land the Federal government bought in Burke became available for new uses, like a fishing lake, a park, and the Burke Lake Golf Center.
Colvin Run Mill preserves and interprets Fairfax County’s agricultural and industrial history. The buildings here were the center of the Colvin Run community throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. The water-powered mill was essential to the local farming community. The General Store was where people shopped, gathered, and conducted business.
Cub Run Rec Center sits above the Cub Run stream valley. Archaeologists have found many arrowheads and spear points there. One rhyolite spear tip might be over 5,000 years old! The ancestor of a Manahoac hunter likely broke it while hunting a woodland buffalo. These animals were common until English colonizers arrived, disappearing from northern Virginia by 1730.
Thomas Brown came to Fairfax County as one of Willoughby Newton’s tenant farmers in 1742. Forty years later he owned 400 acres of farmland and his son, Coleman, owned 233 acres. Their farms, like their homes, were next to each other and today, make up most of Ellanor C. Lawrence Park. Mr. Brown’s home is now the Walney Visitor Center.
To protect the nation’s capital city, the Union Army built a ring of 68 forts around the District of Columbia and the City of Alexandria. Fort Willard was the most southern fort. Placed on a hill, soldiers could look out over Kings Highway or Hunting Creek and defend them with as many as 14 cannons. As it turned out, the feared Confederate attack came from the north against Fort Stevens.
If you stepped back in time to 1950, you would be standing on a large dairy farm owned by R. L. May. Mr. May’s house, Rose Hill, stood on a hill where May Boulevard is today. The dairy might still be here today, but as new people moved into area after World War II they were able to use low-interest home loans for veterans to buy a home. Soon, the landscape filled with tidy brick houses instead of cows.
Floris Vocational High School once stood where the front parking lot is today. Built in 1920, the school taught agriculture, woodworking and home economics. Because the school was costly, it closed in 1930 and the students were moved to Herndon High School. The building was demolished in the 1950s, except for the school shop. That is now the Country Store that sits behind the Old Floris School House.
There are fewer shutters at the back of the house than there are at the front because there are fewer windows. In 1942, Mt. Vernon restoration architect Walter Macomber designed the east wing with two windows in front but just one in the back. This large picture window was intended to frame the view of the garden room behind the house, designed by the illustrious landscape architect Beatrix Farrand in the same year.
The carved entrance was a donation from the Rotary Club of Bailey’s Crossroads and the Friends of Hidden Oaks Nature Center. The artist Andrew Mallon carved the arch from cedar to avoid insect damage. The featured animals are ones that would be attracted to the nearby pond.
Historic Huntley sits on a hill overlooking Huntley Meadows Park. The 1820s buildings were made for Thomson Francis Mason. Thomson inherited the park land from his grandfather, George Mason. During the American Revolution George Mason wrote the Virginia Declaration of Rights – the model for the US Bill of Rights. Building tours are offered on Saturday mornings from April through October.
How is Lake Accotink connected to the Olympics? Springfield resident Ernest “Buddy” Belote was comfortable on the water. In 1972, he began the Lake Accotink Yacht Club. For ten years the club taught sailing and raced small sail boats across the lake. His daughter, Melissa, was comfortable in the (pool) water. She was just a teenager when she won 3 gold medals and set a world record in swimming at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
This building is the second Oakton public school. The first public school was built in 1873, just after the Civil War. To return to the Union, Virginia had to create a public school system. For the first time, all children could attend schools funded by taxpayers.
After studying physical education and learning basketball at Howard, Columbia and Harvard Universities, Edwin Henderson pioneered physical education programs in the area’s public schools. In 1907, he creates a league for African-American basketball teams in D.C. Henderson lived in Fairfax County, and organized the Falls Church branch of the NAACP. In 1982, Fairfax County dedicated Providence Recreation Center in Edwin Henderson’s honor.
When the British invaded Maryland in August 1814, President James Madison fled to Fairfax County to avoid capture. The British burned the White House and the Capitol. He camped overnight in the woods in what is now Riverbend Park before he crossed back into Maryland using Conn’s Ferry on
August 26, 1814.
Richard Bland Lee was the first Representative to the House for Northern Virginia. Elected in 1788, Lee helped to ‘fill in’ the outlines of the Federal Government defined by the Constitution. He participated in passing the Bill of Rights, setting up the Departments of War, State, and Treasury and helped to decide the U.S. Capital should be on the Potomac. Lee was elected twice more, returning to Sully in 1795 when he retired.
