Towns of Fairfax County

Brief History and Information of Fairfax County and Towns:

Information provided by Times Community Newspaper, “Total Guide to Fairfax, 2005” and other sources.

Fairfax County is a major business center in the Washington, D.C. area. Fairfax County is the largest jurisdiction in the Washington area and contains some of its most desirable residential communities.

More than half of the county's employed residents work in the county. With thriving business centers such as Tyson’s Corner, Chantilly and Reston and a broad spectrum of residential communities, Fairfax County residents enjoy one of the highest levels of quality of life in the nation.

Business taxes generated by commercial development fund some of the finest public services in the country. The Fairfax County Public Schools are consistently rated among the best in the nation, with many special academic programs and high test scores and graduation rates. The Fairfax County Public Library System is the largest public library system in Virginia with a total circulation topping 2 million items a year.

Fairfax County offers its residents a broad range of historical and entertainment options, including George Washington's Mount Vernon Estate. The nation’s only national park for the performing arts, Wolf Trap Farm Park, is in Fairfax County.

Fairfax County residents also take advantage of nearby cultural and recreational outlets. To the east there is the Chesapeake Bay, Atlantic Ocean beaches, and the monuments, museums and nightlife in Washington, D.C. To the west are the famed Blue Ridge Mountains. To the south are the Civil War battlefields surrounding Manassas, Fredericksburg and Richmond.

Fairfax County has a lot to offer—a dynamic business community, affordable housing, an abundance of recreational opportunities and proximity to Washington, D.C., the mountains and the beaches.

Some of the towns:

Burke
Burke received its name from Silas Burke, an antebellum entrepreneur who brought the Alexandria and Orange Railroad to central Fairfax County. The suburban community tool major shape after a stalled effort by the federal government to turn the area into the site of the Dulles International Airport. Burke Centre is a 1,700 acre planned residential community (PRC) of about 5,800 homes located within Burke. Housing consists of single family detached homes, town houses, condominiums, co-ops, duplexes and quads.

Centreville
Centreville has a rich Civil War history. After the First Battle of Manassas, Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston brought his troops, some 40,000 men, to Centreville for the winter of 1861-1862 and moved into Mount Gilead (a historic building circa 1783), which still stands just off of Route 29. Plans are in the works for Centreville, to build a “Village Green” center in the Historic District of Centreville, located near the intersections of Routes 28 and 29.

Chantilly
Chantilly’s historical landmarks like the Sully Historical Site, off of Route 28. It was the plantation home of Richard Bland Lee, Virginia’s first representative to Congress. Chantilly has become a tourist destination with the opening of the National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which, by June 2004, has welcomed more than 1 million visitors. Chantilly is home to two dynamic high schools that regularly win regional and state recognition - Chantilly and Westfield - and also has very active your sports leagues.

Clifton
Despite the rush for development in Fairfax County, Clifton remains a small rural town. Incorporated in 1902, visitors are more likely to see people on horseback, rolling hills, and large estates than bulldozers and the threat of urban sprawl. Despite being less than one square mile in size, it is home to numerous restored Victorian homes and has earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places.

City of Fairfax
The City of Fairfax consciously works to maintain its small town atmosphere, strong historic ties and close-knit community in the geographic center of an ever-growing Fairfax County. The city’s parks and recreation department coordinates several annual special events, including the Chocolate Lovers Festival in February, Spotlight on the Arts in early spring, a Fourth of July celebration including a parade attended by thousands, a summer concert series, and a fall festival in October.

Great Falls
Great Falls is home of the great park along the Potomac River where there are great falls to be seen and heard. An unincorporated community, Great Falls is also a low-density residential community whose semi-rural character was defined by its principal industry in the 1940s. In the 1980s, it became the place to live because of its many parks, proximity to the Potomac River, and access to employment centers in Washington DC, Tysons Corner, and the Route 28 technology corridor in Loudoun County. It is named for a major geological formation that caused a 75-foot drop in the Potomac River as it pours through Mather Gorge, creating the “Great Falls of the Potomac.”

Herndon
Herndon is located along the western edge of Fairfax county and residents state that they are proud to maintain a small-town feeling. Herndon has grown over the past 20 years from a rural dairy town into an area with a large technology and telecommunications work force. Community events are popular and people work hard to make Herndon more than just another suburb. Incorporated in 1879, the 4.5 square acre town in governed by a mayor and a six member town council. The Town of Herndon was named for William Lewis Herndon, a heroic sea captain who went down with his ship in 1857. The former Washington and Old Dominion Railroad depot, which transported milk from surrounding dairy farms to the capital, still stands in the center of downtown Herndon, adjacent to the hike and bike trail that now follows the former railroad line.

Oakton
Oakton, situated between Vienna and Fairfax, includes approximately 5,507 households in the 22124 Zip code as of 2004. Oakton got its name from Squire Ernest Smith, owner of the area’s first post office, who proposed the name Oak’s Corner. It was shortened, and the community was officially named Oakton. A big, wide oak tree once served as the gateway to Oakton, at Route 123 and Hunter Mill Road, but it was cut down when road improvements were made in the late 1970s. Oakton is known for large homes and lots, with some residences along Hunter Mill Road having common equestrian facilities, while the area near Jermantown Road includes many town houses. There are three shopping centers in Oakton, with more than 50 stores and more than 1.5 million square feet of office space.

Reston
Over 40 years ago, Robert E. Simon Jr. founded Reston as the first planned community in the country. He and its early residents envisioned it as a place of diverse people with diverse housing choices and a place where its residents could live, work and play. This philosophy is still alive today, as the community just celebrated its 40th anniversary and Simon’s 90th birthday. Simon’s New Town has grown into one of the country’s largest and most successful business districts and remains a hub of Northern Virginia’s high-tech industry. More than 9,000 Reston residents are actually employed in the community (according to the Reston Association (RA), see link above.) The RA, the community’s quasi-governmental body and the nation’s second-largest homeowner’s association, is working hard to keep up with the challenges of the area’s business boom and the needs of the residents. Also part of the governing body is the Reston Community Center and the Reston Citizens Association as well as the Greater Reston Chamber of Commerce.

Tysons Corner
Tysons Corner, the downtown of Fairfax County, is changing from a strictly commercial district to a mixed-use community. High-density housing is starting to spring up, bringing the vision for a downtown or city concept closer to reality. The number of restaurants is increasing, and a grocery store is planned at last. Tysons Corner’s golden triangle is bounded by Route 7, Route 123, and the Capital Beltway. The Dulles Toll Road and i-66 bisect the area that was once noted for its orchards, cattle farms, and gravel pits. Today, Tysons Corner has more than 25.6 million square feet of office space, more than the downtowns of Pittsburg and Richmond combined. That makes Tysons Corner one of the largest urban centers in the US. Construction cranes abound particularly in the Lerner Cos. land at the Tysons Galleria office park. Tysons Corner Center, started back in 1968 as the first mall to serve the burgeoning suburbs of western Fairfax and doubled in the 1980s, and is expanding again. When it is completed, including more shops and a theater complex, it will be the sixth-largest mall in the nation.

Vienna
The Town of Vienna, originally named Ayr Hill after its Scottish heritage, was settled in 1754 and incorporated as a town in 1890. Vienna, situated in the heart of Fairfax County, provides easy access to Washington, DC, with a Metro station just outside the town limits and I-66, the Capital Beltway, and Routes 123 and 7 all nearby. Also close are the regional malls of Tysons Corner Center, the Galleria at Tysons II and the Fair Oaks Mall. Vienna attracts many bikers, joggers, and strollers to its popular W&OD trail, which runs through the heart of the town. Freeman House, an old-time general store, is open weekends. In the summer and fall, the town offers two farmers markets.

Towns of Fairfax County

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