Browse Resources (101 total)

On April 1, 1973, an F-3 strength tornado tore through Fairfax County, leaving an estimated $14 million in damages and making the county eligible for federal disaster assistance. Winds were estimated at 125 miles per hour. Woodson High School was…

Fairfax County Police Department, June 1941. Left to right. Front row: Det. Sgt. Henry Magarity, Alton Poole, Chief Carl McIntosh, Sgt. Lewis Finks, James Mahoney. Second row: Joseph Howard, Willard Mohler, Paul Dove, Grafton Wells. Third row:…

May Caudle, wife of an early Burke Volunteer Fire Deparment chief climbs "Old Red." The used 1930 Ford cost $500; it was the first fire truck owned by the Burke Volunteer Fire Department (VFD), established in 1948.

Fairfax County is sometimes blanketed by snowstorms that shut down the community until snowplows can reach into the neighborhoods. In 1970, snow covered streets that became impassable, complicating commuting to work and school.

Burke Volunteer Fire Department fire truck and firemen working to put out a fire, circa 1950.

Community residents remember going to the Springfield train station to pick up mail. In the early days, farms surrounded the station. People often stocked up on eggs, corn, and fresh produce during the mail run.

Long-time residents recall the one-lane bridge over the railroad tracks on Rolling Road as a place avoided by school buses and where cars stopped and drivers took turns crossing.

This steel truss automobile bridge carried Ox Road over the railroad tracks near Fairfax Station. On June 4, 1944, the bridge collapsed while an Army truck from Ft. Belvoir was crossing the span, killing Pvt. Robert V. Hamilton of Stanley, Kentucky. …

A new railroad station was built in Burke in 1903, when the railroad tracks were relocated northward several hundred feet to their present location. This building in the photo no longer exists.

This sketch shows the construction and uses of the original Burke railroad station. The Burke Post Office was housed in one end of the station.