Guinea Road Cemetery

When road construction threatened the Guinea Road Cemetery in 2004, the Virginia Department of Transportation sought information about those buried there. Dennis Howard of Springfield told the history of his family members, the families of slaves and freedmen, buried in the graveyard.

Mary Lipsey

Oak Hill Memories: Bernice Watt Montgomery

Bernice Watt Montgomery lived the first ten years of her life at Oak Hill when it was a 50-acre working farm. Her grandfather had purchased the property in 1889 for $900. She tells of her family and remembers her childhood on the historic property until its sale in 1935.

Oak Hill Memories: Mary Grace Watt Pulley

Mary Grace Watt Pulley lived the first seventeen years of her life at Oak Hill when it was a 50-acre working farm. Her grandfather had purchased the property in 1889 for $900. She tells of her family and remembers her childhood on the historic property until its sale in 1935. Her sketch shows the layout of the buildings and grounds as she remembers them.

Map: Braddock's Historic Sites

This map locates historic sites in the Braddock area from the eighteenth century to the present time.

Not all locations are geographically exact. Some, like the 1941 forest fire, are based on the best information available from oral interviews and newspaper accounts. Compound names, like Original Burke School / Whiteoaks, indicate different uses or events which occurred at that location over time. The map locates the following sites:
1. Rebel Hill
2. Signal Hill
3. Proposed Burke Airport
4. Hunting Preserve
5. Bunny Man Incidents
6. German POW Camp
7. Howery (Howrey) Field
8. Gooding's Tavern
9. Price's Ordinary
10. Burke General Store
11. Marshall's Store
12. Burke Post Office
13. Turnpike Tollhouse
14. Copperthite Race Track
15. Courthouse Market
16. Padgett's Tavern
17. Burke Fire Department
18. Burke Family Cemetery
19. Marshall Family Cemetery
20. Brimstone Hill
21. Oak Hill
22. Ossian Hall
23. Ravensworth Mansion
24. Silas Burke House
25. Ashford House
26. King's Grant / Patty's Riding Stable
27. Good-Wates Property
28. Greenfield
29. Aspen Grove
30. Holly Hill
31. John Marshall House
32. Stafford Landing
33. Boxhill Farm
34. Hirst House
35. Green Spring Farm
36. Ashford School
37. Original Burke School / Whiteoaks
38. Bell Aire School
39. Jerusalem Baptist Church
40. Burke Station / Burke Methodist Church / Train Wreck site
41. Wakefield Chapel
42. Church of the Good Shepherd
43. Little Zion Baptist
44. Annandale United Methodist Church
45. Saint Mary of Sorrows Church
46. Annandale Early Business District
47. Community of Ilda
48. Springfield Station
49. Fairfax Station
50. Accotink Railroad Bridge
51. Rolling Road Trestle Bridge
52. Fairfax Station Trestle Bridge
53. Norfolk Southern Railroad
54. Manassas Gap Railroad
55. 1941 Forest Fire Approximate Burn Area

From the book Braddock's True Gold: 20th Century Life in the Heart of Fairfax County by Marion Meany and Mary Lipsey; map prepared by George Mason University Department of Geography GIS Center of Excellence.

Copyright 2006 County of Fairfax. All rights reserved.

Map: Area Transportation Networks--Roads and Railroads

Braddock District is served by a mixture of modern and original transportation networks that date back to the 18th and 19th centuries. The document provides a brief history of the railroad and significant roads and highways.

Text and map from Braddock's True Gold: 20th Century Life in the Heart of Fairfax County by Marion Meany and Mary Lipsey, a product of the A Look Back at Braddock oral history project. Map prepared by George Mason University Department of Geography GIS Center of Excellence.

Copyright 2006 County of Fairfax. All rights reserved.

Oak Hill: Interior Views

Oak Hill mansion, built in 1790, is the only remaining home of the three manor houses of the Fitzhugh dynasty built on the Ravensworth plantation. Richard Fitzhugh, great grandson of the original Ravensworth owner, built Oak Hill in the late Georgian style. The mansion was remodeled in the Colonial Revival Style in the 1930s. A replica Federal period mantle, decorative carved medallions, and a marble hearth are among the Revival features. Outside, original boxwoods line the driveway.

Photos by Gil Donahue

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

Map: Eighteenth Century Land Ownership

This map of local land ownership in the eighteenth century in the Braddock District area shows the original buyer's name for each land patent or grant. Ravensworth was the single largest land grant in Northern Virginia. William Fitzhugh, son of an English middle-class woolen draper purchased the roughly 22,000 acres in 1685. Although he lived in nearby King George County, he turned Ravensworth into one of the largest tobacco plantations in Northern Virginia, importing slaves and hiring overseers to work the property. Six generations of his family farmed there.

Map by George Mason University's Department of Geography GIS Center of Excellence, based on the companion map to Beginning at a White Oak...Patents and Northern Neck Grants of Fairfax County, Virginia by Beth Mitchell, circa 1977.

Copyright 2006 County of Fairfax. All rights reserved.

Oral History: Dennis Howard

Dennis Howard traces part of the history of African Americans in Fairfax County from the nineteenth century. He recreates the story of his own family from slavery to the present day. His ancestor, Horace Gibson, and fellow former slave Moses Parker established a blacksmith shop and purchased land near the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Prosperity Avenue after the Civil War. The partners eventually expanded their holdings to 400 acres, and the area later became known as Ilda.

Manassas Industrial School, circa 1940

Jennie Dean, born a slave in Prince William County, founded the Manassas Industrial School for Colored Youth in 1894. Originally a private boarding school, it was a segregated regional high school for African Americans between 1938 and 1966. Students came from the area north of the Rappahannock River, providing their own transportation or boarding on campus during the week. Students followed academic subjects and skilled trade courses.

Courtesy of the Manassas Museum System, Manassas, Virginia

Manassas Museum photos are copyrighted and for use only with permission of the Museum.

Lake Accotink Dam, circa 1918

In 1912, the War Department established a summer camp and rifle range for engineering corps stationed in Washington, DC. During World War I, the camp became a permanent establishment. Known today as Fort Belvoir, the property was originally named Camp A. A. Humphreys after a Union general and distinguished engineer. The Army Corps of Engineers constructed a dam which created Lake Accotink to serve as a water source for the Camp.

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