Gum Springs is a community in Fairfax County in Hybla Valley along Route 1 (Richmond Highway). The African American community, the oldest in the county, [1] was established in 1833 by West Ford, a freedman who had been manumitted by Hannah Bushrod Washington (widow of John Augustine Washington), in 1805. [2] [3] A historical marker (Number E-04) was erected by the Virginia Department of Historic Resources in 1991. [4]
In 1833, Gum Springs was founded by West Ford, a freed slave, skilled carpenter, and manager on George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon. [5] Ford was able to develop this 214-acre farming community from the sale of land he inherited from Hannah Washington, the sister-in-law of George Washington. By 1866, Ford was the second richest free black farmer in Fairfax County, Virginia. Gum Springs Farm became the nucleus of an African-American community throughout the 1800s.
The school was established after the Civil War. [6]
The church was established in 1863. [7]
The Pride of Fairfax Lodge #298 building, formerly known as the Mount Vernon Enterprise Lodge No. 3488, is listed on the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites and was listed to the Virginia Landmarks Register in 2021 and the National Register of Historic Places in 2022. [8]
In 1890, the Joint Stock Club was formed by five men. This endeavor helped create a safe place for African Americans to obtain land. All land was collaboratively bought, sold and subdivided at cost to other African Americans at a price of $30 an acre. [2]
Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum [9] is dedicated to preserving the legacy of Gum Springs Community and regularly disseminates information that tells the story of the Community's economic struggle and dedication to building an African-American community. [10] A historical marker is located at the corner of Richmond Highway and Fordson Road ( 38° 44.909′ N, 77° 4.965′ W). [11]
Burke is an unincorporated section of Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, traditionally defined as the area served by the Burke post office. Burke includes two census-designated places: the Burke CDP, population 42,312 in 2020 and the Burke Centre CDP, population 17,518 in 2020.
Franconia is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 18,943 at the 2020 census.
Hybla Valley is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States, south of Alexandria. The population was 15,801 at the 2010 census, down from 16,721 in 2000 due to a reduction in area, resulting from some of the eastward neighborhoods including much of Hollin Hills being moved to the Fort Hunt CDP. The population increased to 16,319 in the 2020 census.
Mount Vernon is a census-designated place (CDP) and unincorporated community in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 12,914 at the 2020 census. Primarily due to its historical significance and natural recreation and beauty, the Mount Vernon area receives over one million tourists each year.
Newington is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 13,223. The population was 12,943 at the 2010 census. The 2010 census showed a significant decrease after half the population was split off to the newly created Newington Forest CDP.
Vienna is a town in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. census, Vienna has a population of 16,473. Significantly more people live in ZIP codes with the Vienna postal addresses, bordered approximately by Interstate 66 on the south, Interstate 495 on the east, Route 7 to the north, and Hunter Mill Road to the west, than in the town itself.
Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmark, the estate lies on the banks of the Potomac River in Fairfax County, Virginia, approximately 15 miles south of Washington, D.C..
Clarendon is an urbanized, developed neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia, located between the Rosslyn area and the Ballston area. It was named after Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, a leading statesman and historian of the English Civil War. The main thoroughfares are Wilson Boulevard and Clarendon Boulevard.
The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a 25-mile-long (40 km) limited-access parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maintained by the National Park Service (NPS). It is located almost entirely in Northern Virginia, except for a short portion of the parkway northwest of the Arlington Memorial Bridge that passes over Columbia Island in Washington, D.C.
The Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park is a linear regional park in Northern Virginia. The park's primary feature is the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Trail, an asphalt-surfaced paved rail trail that runs through densely populated urban and suburban communities as well as through rural areas. Most of the trail travels on top of the rail bed of the former Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, which closed in 1968.
The Northern Virginia trolleys were the network of electric streetcars that moved people around the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., from 1892 to 1941. They consisted of six lines operated by as many as three separate companies connecting Rosslyn, Great Falls, Bluemont, Mount Vernon, Fairfax, Camp Humphries, and Nauck across the Potomac River to Washington, D.C.
Little Hunting Creek is a 3.6-mile-long (5.8 km) primarily tidal tributary of the Potomac River located in Fairfax County, Virginia, not to be confused with Hunting Creek farther north. A stone-arch bridge, completed in 1931, carries traffic on the George Washington Memorial Parkway across the narrow mouth of the creek, located 96.6 miles (155.5 km) upriver from the mouth of the Potomac. The Washington family built its Mount Vernon plantation on the Potomac River along both banks of Little Hunting Creek during colonial times. The creek is bordered by residential communities in addition to the Mount Vernon property. It is a popular location for recreational fishing, and much of the wildlife characteristic of the tidal Potomac wetlands can be spotted there.
Bushrod Washington was an American attorney and politician who served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1798 to 1829. On the Supreme Court, he was a staunch ally of Chief Justice John Marshall.
Hollindale is an unincorporated community in Fort Hunt, Fairfax County, Virginia, United States close to the George Washington Memorial Parkway in ZIP code 22306. As of 2013, it had 945 residents. Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church and Hollin Meadows Elementary School are located within the community. Hollindale is set along the hilly woodlands across from the Potomac. It was built around several estates and on what used to be Sherwood Dairy Farm, and is adjacent to the Hollin Hills community. It is dominated by mid-century modern homes, colonials, and Tudors.
Ivy Hill Cemetery is a cemetery in the Rosemont Historic District of Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Burials began at the site in 1811, when it was a family cemetery, and it received a charter as a community cemetery in 1856. The adjoining residential neighborhood was developed beginning in 1908 as a streetcar suburb of Washington, D.C., as trolley lines of the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon railway extended from Alexandria's nearby Union Station. The cemetery is now also known for its rare and protected flora and fauna.
West Warm Springs is an unincorporated community in Bath County, Virginia, in the United States.
West Ford was the caretaker and manager of Mount Vernon, which had been the home of George Washington. Ford also founded Gum Springs, Virginia near Mount Vernon. He was a man of mixed-race, and possibly of Washington family descent.
Wolf Run Shoals was an important crossing point on the Occoquan River in northern Virginia between Alexandria and Richmond during the 18th and 19th centuries. It consisted of three islands and a mill, now submerged under the Occoquan due to higher water levels following damming for flood control, water supply, and power generation. It is located near the unincorporated communities of Butts Corner, Makleys Corner, and Farrs Corner in southern Fairfax County, Virginia.
Sarah Johnson was an African American woman who was born into slavery at Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate in Fairfax, Virginia. She worked as a domestic, cleaning and caring for the residence. During the process, she became an informal historian of all of the mansion's furnishings. After the end of the Civil War, she was hired by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, ultimately becoming a council member of the organization. She bought four acres of Mount Vernon land to establish a small farm. The book Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon (2008) tells the story of her life within the complex community of people who inhabited Mount Vernon.
George William Ford was a U.S. military officer in the Spanish American War and a Buffalo Soldier. Born in Alexandria, Virginia, at George Washington's Mount Vernon Plantation, he joined the 10th Cavalry in 1867 at 19.
