Fairfax County, Virginia: a Brief Historical View
Prepared by Cynthia J. Rieben
October 19, 2004
FairfaxCounty is located in the northeastern corner of Virginia. More than 1,000,000 people live in this county. That’s more people than live in Alaska, or Delaware, Vermont, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, or Montana. Many of these people work in Washington, D.C., and Arlington as well as in Fairfax County. If FairfaxCounty were a city, it would rank 10th in population, larger than Boston, Atlanta, or Charlotte. There are 399 square miles of land and 11.4 square miles of water surface within its boundaries. The Potomac River has always played an important part in the county’s history as a source of water for drinking and for transportation.
Early Exploration
Captain John Smith is the first European that we know who exploredNorthern Virginia. Spanish explorers may have earlier also explored the shores of the Potomac River. Captain John Smith and his men explored the coastlineof Virginia looking for a passageway to Asia. They traveled up the Potomac River as far as the Little Falls in 1608, but they didn’t find gold and they didn’t find the Northwest Passage. They did find rich land for farming and streams filled with fish.
How Fairfax Got Its Name
Eventually, this land belonged to Thomas, Lord Culpeper, one of the original seven founders of the Virginia Company, who also settled Jamestown. He received the land from King Charles II of England. Fairfax County got its name from Thomas, 6th Lord Fairfax, who was Lord Culpeper’s grandson. When he was 22, LordFairfax inherited 5,000,000 acres of land in Virginia. He was living in England. The land that he inherited was a large area. It was between the Potomac and RappahannockRivers. It was called the Northern Neck. All the people who settled in the Northern Neck had to pay rent to Lord Fairfax. Because he lived in England, he had an agent, named Robert “King” Carter, who collected the rent for him. In 1745, Lord Fairfax came to the colony of Virginia, and he liked it so much that he moved to Virginia to stay. He became a citizen of Virginia. At one time he owned land all the way from the Occoquan River and Potomac River to the Blue Ridge Mountains. With the aid of George Washington, who was then a teenager, and other men, he traveled all over the Northern Neck, surveying and marking the Fairfax line.
The area where our school is was just farm land and woods. There wasn’t a big town here at all. In 1800 the County of Fairfax courthouse was built. We can see it today on the corner of Route 123 and Little River Turnpike. The City of Fairfax didn’t get its name until after the Civil War.
Early Roads
As the county grew, four major roads connected the settlements and the plantation families. The first and oldest – and perhaps the worst – was the Potomac Path leading from Alexandria to Fredericksburg. It later became known as Route 1. It was often impossible to travel because of mud and fallen trees.
There was also Little River Turnpike which linkedAlexandria to Providence (now FairfaxCity) and headed west to Aldie in LoudinCounty. All travelers, except state and federal troops, had to pay to use this turnpike. The word “turnpike” came from the pole or “pike” which prevented the traveler from going farther until tolls were paid. Once the tolls were paid, the pike would be turned aside to allow the traveler to pass by and travel on the road. Early travelers paid to use the road when transporting animals or wagons with supplies. Originally these hogsheads of tobacco were rolled by hand.
Leesburg Pike (now Route 7) also began in Alexandria out through the Dranesville area, passing by historic Falls Church. Rolling Road took its name from the great casks of tobacco that were rolled over the road from the farms in the west to the warehouses and shipping centers of Georgetown and Alexandria in the east. Braddock Road ran from Alexandria to Newgate (now Centreville); and Gallows Road, named for the gallows located on this road. This is where criminals were hanged by order of the court.
Important Men in Early Fairfax History
There were no actual battles of the Revolutionary War fought in Fairfax County, but many of its citizens helped build the American colonies. General George Washington, commander of the Continental Army and first president of the United States, was from Fairfax. George Mason was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Right and Virginia’s first constitution. He was also lived on a plantation here with his family. He was also responsible for the design of the great seal of Virginia. Today both Washington’s home at Mount Vernon and Mason’s home at Gunston Hall are popular tourist attractions and historical landmarks in southern FairfaxCounty.
Fun Facts:
Campuses of three major universities (GeorgeMasonUniversity, University of Virginia and Virginia Tech) and the largest community college in the state (NorthernVirginiaCommunity College) are located in FairfaxCounty.
Nearly 25,000 students are taking English as a Second Language classes in Fairfax County Public Schools. Students come from some 100 nations across the world, and speak about 150 languages
Fifty-six percent of county residents age 25 and older had achieved a bachelor's degree or higher. The national average was 26 percent.
More than 78 percent of homes in Fairfax County-Falls Church have computers linked to the Internet, compared to 41.5 percent nationwide.
The Fairfax County Public Library is ranked in the top 10 of U.S. libraries of its size.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, which runs along the river in FairfaxCounty from the 14th StreetBridge to Washington’s home at Mount Vernon, was built in 1932 to commemorate Washington’s 200th birthday.
According to the 2010 census, theracial/ethnic distribution of the population was 62.7% non-Hispanic whites, 9.2 percent non-Hispanic blacks, 17.6% non-Hispanic Asians and Pacific Islanders, 15.6% Hispanics, and 6.1% others (Source,
Sources: “A Child’s Guide to Fairfax County, Virginia: Historic Places to Discover”, Huley and Leedy, Marguerite Ms Prints, 1982.
“Total Guide to Fairfax” 1997 edition, “Fairfax: A country rich in history” Su Webb, Times Staff Writer
Fairfax County Official Website “Fun Facts about Fairfax County”, October 12, 2004
*These total add up to beyond 100% because the Hispanic population is factored twice, once into the white population and once separately.