Home > General Resources > Research Topics > VIII. African American communities

VIII. African American communities

African American community list

Some of those included are from Fairfax County Public Schools Records from 1870-1945. Some of the communities don’t exist today but are remembered in place names. For example, Tremont Gardens Neighborhood in Falls Church

1. Accotink (Rte. 1 and Braddock Rd.)
2. Bailey’s Crossroads
3. Baptist Hill Falls Church area
4. Bull Run/ Cub Run area south of Centreville
5. Burke
6. Carroltown Kingstowne Village Parkway
7. Cartersville near Hunter Mill Road
8. Chantilly
9. Chesterbrook McLean
10. Clifton
11. Cottonwood Street (McLean)
12. Cooktown located off of Dranesville Road
13. Cub Run (Rock Hill) Centreville
14. East Woodford or Eastwoodford -(now known as Dunn Loring)
15. Fairfax City- School Street
16. Falls Church
17. Floris/Frying Pan
18. Forestville (Great Falls)
19. Franconia
20. Freedom Hill near Tysons
21. Gravel Bank (along Railroad Ave, near Shreve Road) Falls Church
22. Gum Springs
23. Gunston
24. Hattonville Crossroads of Fox Mill Road and Monroe Street
25. Hughesville (Jacksonville) Braddock Road
26. Ilda Little River Turnpike
27. James Lee Community Falls Church
28. Lane’s Mill (near Centreville)
29. Laurel Grove Franconia
30. Lewinsville Lewinsville Road and Chain Bridge Road
31. Lebanon (Lincolnia)
32. Lincoln- Lewis-Vannoy Braddock Road and Fairfax County Parkway
33. Merrifield/Mills Crossing/ Williamstown
34. Oak Grove Herndon
35. Odrick’s Corner Intersection of Spring Hill and Lewinsville Road
36. Ox Road (Painters)
37. Ravensworth Tract settlement (small community started around 1900 -along Braddock Road
38. Seminary (near Fort Ward)
39. Seneca Road near Great Falls
40. Sideburn Route 123, Sideburn Road and Zion Drive
41. Southgate near Reston
42. Springbank Mount Vernon area
43. The Pines Woodburn Road and Gallows Road
44. Tinner Hill in Falls Church
45. Tremont Lee Highway in Falls Church
46. Uniontown Near Centreville
47. Vienna
48. Willard (displaced by Dulles Airport)
49. Williamstown in Merrifield
50. Woodentown associated with Cartersville Baptist Church and Hunter Mill Road
51. Woodlawn/Woodlawn Crossroads
52. Youngs Village – on Fort Belvoir base

The Quilt Project: Celebration of the African American Experience   

• In 1991, the Black Women United for Action organization created a quilt and a video based on African American experiences. The video includes oral histories, pictures of schools, teachers, and communities through the years. With each story introduced, the accompanying square from the quilt is shown also.   
• Repository: https://youtube/WpxNtl10akw  

“Black Settlement in Forestville, Vienna and Lewinsville,” Yearbook: Historical Society of Fairfax County, Virginia, Volume 18, 1982, p. 9     

• Repository:  Virginia Room, City of Fairfax Regional Library      

“The ‘Willing Workers’ A Black Community on Mason Neck,” by Paula Elsey. The Historical Society of Fairfax County, Virginia, Inc. Yearbook, Vol. 26, 99-100.  

• Repository: Virginia Room, City of Fairfax Regional Library  

On the Brink of Change: The Historical Geography of Fairfax County 1960, by Shelley Mastrans. Includes descriptions and map of African American communities and enclaves. 

• Repository: Virginia Room, City of Fairfax Regional Library  

“Soil Tilled by Free Men: The Formation of a Free Black Community in Fairfax County,  Virginia” by Maddy McCoy.  The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 125, No. 1 (2017): 38-67.  

• Repository: https://www.jstor.org/stable/i26322274  

Dulles Airport Has Its Roots in Rural Black Community of Willard by Eugene Scheel.  

• The Willard community was a black and white community that stretched between Fairfax and Loudoun counties. In September 1958, the federal government sent condemnation notifications to 87 landowners to purchase the property for what would become Dulles Airport. The Black community of Willard was displaced. 
• Repository: https://www.loudounhistory.org/history/dulles-airport-history/  

“Dulles Airport was originally supposed to be in Burke, but neighbors successfully stopped it.” by Mike Grinnell, August 2, 2017   

• The article describes how the Burke community fought to keep Dulles Airport out of Burke and won. The Willard community lost the fight and their community.  
• Repository: Greater Greater Washington  https://ggwash.org/view/64277/how-burke-battled-congress-and-the-president-to-turn-away-dullesairport   

The Story of the Village of Willard before Dulles Airport was built. By Alexis Wainwright

• The community of Willard was “an all-Black town, full of life”  that the federal government condemned in order to build Dulles Airport.
• Repository: The Washington Post February 22, 2024

Gum Springs: The Triumph of a Black Community by John Terry Chase           

• Repository: Fairfax County Public Libraries   

Gum Springs - Virginia Collection 1915-1991  

• The collection includes correspondence, newspapers clippings etc. Subjects cover freedmen. African American community life, etc.  
• Repository: City of Fairfax Regional Library, Virginia Room, MSS3-10           

Gum Springs, with Ron Chase  

• Repository: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vmm6mQnxIDY   

Black History In #FXVA: The Story of Gum Springs   by Marissa Daily February 15, 2021  

• Once enslaved West Ford received property upon his freedom. The property he owned became a safe haven for freed and emancipated slaves. Today, many of their descendants live in Gum Springs:   
• Repository: www.fxva.com/blog/post/gumsprings    

Odrick and the Community He Built -videotape  

• A film documentary completed by Anne Woo May 31,2021 as a senior project as a student at BASIS Independent School in Fairfax County   
• In 1872 Alfred Odrick, a former slave and carpenter, purchased land and built a house on the south side of Lewinsville Road. He donated land for a schoolhouse.  A vibrant African American community would develop in the area.  
• Repository: YouTube   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01TmuHCqapw  

The Pines: Pine Ridge Park on Woodburn Road   

• In 1905 William Collins Sr., a descendant of freed slaves, bought 22 acres there with money he saved from serving with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders in the Spanish American War. The Johnson, Robinson, and Sprigg families soon purchased lots, too. They operated small truck farms, selling their produce in Washington, DC, set up a sawmill, and worshipped at First Baptist Church of Merrifield.     
•  When Fairfax County decided it needed to build another high school it forced the residents of The Pines to sell their land. After years of litigation, the residents were given 60 days to vacate the homes that had been in their families for generations. A school was never built.  
• Repository: https://annandaleva.blogspot.com/2016/10/new-historic-markercommemorates-pines.html   

Kin: Two African American Families Build a Community for the Future.   

• Subjects: James Edward Lee and William H. Collins   
• Repository: Fairfax County Public Libraries   

“A Virginia Village Goes to War - Falls Church during the Civil War;” pages 234-235, by Bradley E. Gernard. The author described in specific detail four communities of freedmen:  

1. Baptist Hill  
2. Tinner hill – 
3. Southgate subdivision 
4. Gravel Bank     

• Repository: Fairfax County Public Libraries    

Freedom Hill community

• Tysons, Virginia’s Untold Stories: The Freedom Hill Community https://ourstoriesandperspectives.com/2022/02/08/tysons-virginias-untold-stories-the-freedom-hill-community/
• Interpretive signs at Freedom Hill
• The stories about the Civil War, the community, and the women behind it.
• https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/parks/freedom-hill

Woodentown

• Location: In Hunter Mill District; north off Crowell Road, just past Crowell intersection with Brown’s Mill Road; it was located on Summer Road (unpaved) that extended from Crowell in 19^th century.
• African American Community History: Referred to as an “enclave” this small gathering of houses was named Woodentown after the Wooden family who lived there. Residents joined with the Cartersville Baptist Church community. In 2022 there remain some former Woodentown residents and descendants of same in the wider northwestern Fairfax County and nearby Loudoun County.
• Sources: Hunter Mill Defense League research in coordination with Cartersville Baptist Church congregants
• Informal oral history interviews with various individuals.

Odrick’s Corner

• Location: North of Dulles Toll Road, intersection Spring Hill Road (county 684) and Lewinsville Road (county 694).
• African American community history: Named after Alfred Odrick, a former slave and carpenter who purchased 30 acres in 1872. Odrick’s one room school stood by 1879. The community used the school in many ways—they held community meetings there, as well as the first services of the Shiloh Baptist Church. Though the schoolhouse was destroyed in the 1950s, the church on Spring Hill Road still stands; cemetery is located behind the church. The Odrick home place on Lewinsville Road is an archaeological site. One or two small homes remain on Lewinsville Roa and on Spring Hill Road next to the Toll Road Spring Hill entrance. (Additional houses demolished c. 1980s)
• The community most probably extended west on Lewinsville Road at least as far as the still extant Pleasant Grove Church & cemetery and east past Spring Hill School. 
• Sources: WETA Local History Blog: boundarystones.weta.org; WETA Historical D.C. Metro Map hmdb.org, Fairfax County History Commission Odrick’s Corner roadside marker text
• Connection Newspaper: “Odrick’s Corner Recognized after 130 years”, May 23, 2002.
• Article includes testimony by Alfred Odrick’s great-great-granddaughter.

Floris

• Floris Community
• (Known as Frying Pan until c. 1892) 
• Location: On Centreville Road (657) from Frying Pan Road to intersection with West Ox Road (608), approximately one mile east of Dulles Airport. Within the Floris National Register Historic District
• African American Community history: Ox Road and Frying Pan Mining Company established by Robert “King” Carter, 1720s; Carter, III, donated land for the Frying Pan Baptist Meeting House (standing by 1791) where enslaved and free African Americans worshiped with Whites. In 1869 Andrew and Mary Cook became the first Black landowners in the community, purchasing 20 acres around the Meetinghouse, and established a diary farm. The site of their son, Edward Lee’s home, is located next to the Meetinghouse on Centreville Road.
• A single room Floris Colored School, located on Squirrel Hill Road, off Centreville Road, stood from 1870 to c.1931 when a two room building was constructed.
• Frying Pan community name changed to Floris in 1892 at suggestion of a summer-time resident who thought Floris a more appealing name
• Sources:
• Virginia Department Historic Resources
• Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites
• Floris School  - fcps.edu
• “Segregation in Herndon- Cooktown” 
• Two African American communities were located near the town of Herndon, but     the living conditions were dramatically different. by Chuck Mauro  
• Repository: Herndon Virginia The Patch on line newspaper  October 2, 2011

Cooktown The Way It Has Been

• Four miles from Reston, the African American residents of Cooktown “exist, while their white neighbors prosper.”   By Jared Stout  
• Repository:  The Restonian Magazine  November 1968 Volume 1,  Number 2. Pages 5 -8

Malcolm Heights – The Neighborhood

• A planned segregated neighborhood for African Americans was built in Vienna.
• Repository: Credit Historic Vienna, Inc. 

Lincoln-Lewis-Vannoy community

• Lincoln-Lewis-Vannoy, a  community of approximately 169 homes,  fought to have sewers and indoor plumbing brought to their community.  In 1982, many of the residents still  depended on wells and outdoor privies.
• Repository: "At Last, Lincoln, Lewis, Vannoy May Come in From the Cold" By Molly Moore Washington Post March 11, 1982, pg. VA 1
• Lincoln Area Lifting Living Standards: Lincoln Area Fights for Services   By Ann Marian
• In 1976 Lincoln Park, Lewis Park, Vannoy Park, Vannoy Acres, Blevinston communities were designated eligible for federal and county rehabilitation aid. In 1984, over 600 homes will be fitted with indoor bathrooms for the first time.
• Repository:  The Washington Post May 12, 1984  pg. E5

Sideburn Community

• An African American community  was established after the Civil War.  Its  Location was  Zion Drive and Sideburn Road, Fairfax VA

Little Bethel Church and Cemetery on Zion Drive

• In the early 1900s, the Little Bethel Church was started as a mission church by the members of Little Zion Baptist Church on Burke Lake Road. The church was built on land donated by David R. Pinn.
• A cemetery is located on the south side of the David R. Pinn Community Center and is surrounded by a wrought iron fence. Several graves are marked with field stones. A formal marker describes that members of the church were buried here between 1905 and 1964. Since 1973, the Sideburn Civic Community Association has operated the community center as a recreation center and meeting place for community meetings activities.
• Historical Marker text: David R. Pinn Community Center
• After the Civil War, a small community of African Americans lived on Route 654, now known as Zion Drive. The Wrights, Hamiltons, Whites, and Pinns were farmers and laborers. In 1904, David R. & Sarah F. Pinn donated an acre of land to build Little Bethel Baptist Church. In 1946, the church building was purchased by the Immediate Relief Association, which helped neighbors in need. The Sideburn Civic Community Association acquired the parcel in 1973, and the David R. Pinn Community Center was established. After more than 100 years, many of the descendants of the original families continue to live in this community.
• Repository:  Historical Marker Data Base -  www.hmdb.org
• “Sideburn is more than a name” The article describes the origins of the name Sideburn family and the Ed Reedy family’s life there.
• Repository: The Connection June 30, 2004: http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2004/jun/30/sideburn-is-more-than-a-name/

Springdale

• Historic African American community Springdale has been a refuge for African Americans, refugees, and immigrants.
• The community was originally settled in the 1940s when Blacks left the South and moved to Washington, DC to find jobs. Residents remember growing up where everyone knew each other and cared for one another. No one locked doors in Springdale. The Black American Registry project was started to document the addresses of all the residents and collect their history.
• Repository: Near Baileys Crossroads, a historically black community remains a refuge. The Washington Post by Dara Elasfar May 30, 2019

A Bailey’s Xroads resident is documenting the history of a vibrant Black community.

• Annandale Today July 12, 2023
• Repository: https://annandaletoday.com/a-baileys-crossroads-project-is-documenting-the-histories-of-black-families-in-springdale/

Randall Estates

• When Black school teacher Jube Shiver, Sr. could not buy a house because of subdivision housing covenants that restricted residents to whites only, he decided to build his own neighborhood, Randall Estates.
• Repository: A Black community built from scratch by Courtland Milloy. The Washington Post November 1, 2023 B1
• Repository: Historic designation won by subdivision built by Black entrepreneur during Jim Crow.
• Mount Vernon on the move https://mvonthemove.com/g/mount-vernon-va/n/219599/historic-designation-won-subdivision-built-black-entrepreneur-during-jimcrow