Old Church of the Good Shepherd

Old Church of the Good Shepherd (Episcopal) stood on the corner of Braddock Road and Twinbrook Road near Burke, Virginia. John Marshall and his wife donated land for the church. The congregation met in Ashford School before the building became available. Colonel Robert E. Lee, grandson of General Robert E. Lee, was a member and occasionally conducted services at the church. The church had a potbellied stove in the middle, and young people hauled and cut firewood for the stove to heat the church. In 1970, the church was decommissioned, turned into a private residence and relocated behind the Twinbrooke Shopping Center.

Photograph by Herb Beard

Early Roads

A 1911 Buick stalled on a muddy road near Fairfax, Virginia, circa 1920.

Photograph from Fairfax County Public Library, Virginia Room, Photographic Archive

Fairfax Station in Civil War

Photographer Matthew Brady captured the devastation of the Civil War in Fairfax Station, Virginia. Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, nursed the wounded there after the Second Battle of Manassas and the Battle of Chantilly, 1862.

Photograph from Fairfax County Public Library, Virginia Room, Photographic Archive

Burke United Methodist Church

The Burke United Methodist Church opened in a former Southern Railway train station in 1929. Former school teacher and neighborhood handyman, Willie Harlow, made the steeple and the cross, although he did not attend church services there. The congregation moved to a new location in 1979, and the former depot and church became a commercial building.

General J.E.B. Stuart had raided the old train station in 1862, and a historic marker denotes the event.

Photograph from Fairfax County Public Library, Virginia Room, Photographic Archive

Silas Burke House

Silas Burke, a businessman and landowner, built the Silas Burke House circa 1824. His wife lived there for 41 years after his death in 1854. The property includes an ice house, root cellar, and a restored slave house. The Burke mansion is on Burke Lake Road, Burke, Virginia.

In 1891, John Marshall, who owned the general store in Burke, purchased the home. The Copperthite family followed, builders of a racetrack and hotel in Burke. In 1925, the Simpson family purchased the property and renamed the house "Top o' the Hill, and it is owned by their descendants, the Fowlers, today.

Photo by Gilbert Donahue

Copyrighted material, not to be reproduced without permission of owner, Gilbert Donahue

Brimstone Hill

Brimstone Hill dates to circa 1820. In 1839, Charles Arundel purchased the twelve-acre property and acquired a license to operate a tavern. In 1848, the tavern became a polling place for elections. In 1850, Arundel enlarged the building to include an inn and a store, which thrived until the latter part of the nineteenth century. During the Civil War, Confederate raider, John Arundel, was killed on his family property and buried there. The building stands at Burke Lake Road and Route 123 in Fairfax Station, Virginia.

Photo by Gil Donahue

Copyrighted material, not to be reproduced without permission of owner, Gilbert Donahue

Boxhill Farm

Born in Switzerland, Frederick Segessenman emigrated to the United States and later built Boxhill Farm in 1896 on eight acres in Annandale. He was a landscaper and a florist and it is believed he planted the boxwood from which the home derives its name. Boxhill Farm stands north of Braddock Road near present-day Wakefield Chapel Road in Annandale.

Photo by Gilbert Donahue

Copyrighted material, not to be reproduced without permission of owner, Gilbert Donahue

Ashford House

In 1829, Mary Goldsborough inherited land from William Henry Fitzhugh and, in 1856, William Ashford purchased 20 of the Goldsborough acres. The property probably included at least one slave cabin. The Ashford House combines two log cabins, one made of chestnut, the other of pine. Ashford worked on a crew clearing county roads. Five of his nine children with wife, Hannah Ashford, were born in the house.

Photo by Gilbert Donahue

Copyrighted material, not to be reproduced without permission of owner, Gilbert Donahue

Annandale United Methodist Church

The Annandale United Methodist Church was built in 1846. During the Civil War, the Union Army used the church as a hospital, then burned the building and the village of Annandale as it withdrew from the area. A new building with a small balcony for African American worshippers was finished in 1870. The first public school classes for Annandale children met in the basement of the church. The bell, added in 1908, served as Annandale's only fire alarm until 1923. The church stands on the corner of Columbia Pike and Gallows Road in Annandale, Virginia.

Photo by Gilbert Donahue

Copyrighted material, not to be reproduced without permission of owner, Gilbert Donahue