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Experience Fairfax 250. Celebrate America’s 250th anniversary by walking the grounds of historic sites, exploring nature parks and trails and stepping into the stories that shaped our nation. Take part in living history events, join hands-on programs, hike with guides and engage in community celebrations that honor the past, highlight the present and shape the future.
A seal stamped into a glob of hot glass and placed on a bottle’s shoulder identified the product or the bottle’s owner. This glass seal likely marked a bottle that belonged to Peter Wagener, a wealthy 18th-century landowner in eastern Fairfax County.
Join guided tours that honor our shared past. With docents, interpreters and living history programs, Fairfax County’s historic sites invite you to see, learn and connect with America’s story.
Step inside a working 19th-century gristmill and see flour and cornmeal being ground the same way it was in 1811. Explore the grinding floor, the gear pit and learn how innovation and community shaped life at Colvin Run.
Families who operated Colvin Run Mill lived in the circa 1809 miller’s house. Between 1883 and 1934, Addison and Emma Millard lived there with several of their 20 children. This porcelain doll’s arm may have been part of a toy belonging to one of the Millard children.
Visit the 1784 house at Green Spring Gardens and uncover stories of its early owners and the enslaved people who lived there. Learn how this home evolved into today’s horticultural and historic destination.
Past residents of Green Spring Farm once owned the complete plate or bowl to which this shard belonged. The plate or bowl was made in England between 1830 and 1860. The hand-painted flowers and leaves on the shard evoke the beautiful gardens that now surround the historic house.
Climb to a hilltop villa with sweeping views of Hybla Valley. Explore the 1825 Federal-style home, farm outbuildings and stories of the Huntley community that reflect America’s quest for freedom.
Travel through time at Sully, where history stretches from the 1700s to the 1950s. Walk through the 1794 house, the kitchen, laundry and dwellings that reveal the lives of enslaved people and families who lived and worked here.
Many children from the Lee, Ludwell, and Hodgson families lived at or visited Sully Plantation during the early 1800s. One child, identified only as "I Hodgson," may have used a very sharp tool to etch their name into the glass surface of an upper-story bedroom windowpane. The identity of I Hodgson remains a mystery.