Browse Items (557 total)

This video appeared in the exhibit, “Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington's Mount Vernon” (Oct 1, 2016 - July 11, 2021).

This was a livestream presentation on Thursday, January 14, 2021, from George Washington’s Mount Vernon. It was a live discussion between William Holland and Brenda Parker, Mount Vernon Character Interpreter & African American Interpretation &…

Judith Saunders Burton grew up in Gum Springs, Virginia and lived in Prince Edward County and Farmville, Virginia during the years of school desegregation.

Dramatic reading from historical documents performed by Bob Hartman, Janis Harless, Jerry Lyons, Gary Knipling, and Anne Barnes. Produced ... in order to document a small antebellum settlement of free Blacks clustered along Neck Road, now known as…

In 1955, Congregational Church members met to establish a church in Northern Virginia where all races could worship. They met in the Annandale Elementary School, openly defying the Virginia Law that required segregated seating in public assemblies.…

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In 1867 freed formerly enslaved people moved to Alexandria (part of Fairfax County) where Charles H. Brown sold them 60 acres of land. Charles and Eliza Brown of Westchester, New York also deeded one acre of land to the “Freed Men of Fairfax County.”…

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Spring Bank was an African American Community founded by a free African American Charles Henry Quander when he purchased 88 acres between Alexandria and Gum Springs. The Quander family traced its roots back to the 17th century in the colonies…

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Shiloh Baptist Church-According to tradition, African Americans from the Mason Neck area and others who had recently moved to Virginia from Maryland formed a religious congregation in 1869. They built a log church on the north side of Gunston Road in…

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Built in 1944, the Mount Vernon Enterprise Lodge No. 3488/ Pride of Fairfax County Lodge #298) is located within the community of Gum Springs, which is located within the greater Alexandria portion of Fairfax County. Gum Springs, established in 1833,…

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A one-room school on three quarters of an acre of land. W.T. White, one of the first teachers also served as the school’s principal. The school is mentioned in Fairfax County School Board minutes regarding transportation to high schools outside the…

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Originally called the Accotink school, the name was quickly changed to the Woodlawn Colored School. It was built in the “Woodlawn Crossroads” community on what is now Fort Belvoir. The current Fort Belvoir Elementary School sits very near the…

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Woodlawn Mansion was built in 1805 and was a wedding present from George Washington to his step-granddaughter Nelly Custis and his nephew Lawrence Lewis. More than 90 individuals were enslaved on the plantation, which is now owned by the National…

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In 1846, Chalkley Gillingham and his business partners purchased the 2,000-acre Woodlawn plantation property from Washington Family heirs. They relocated from their homes in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York in order to establish a free labor…

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The Antebellum Free Black community here was formed by people formerly enslaved on the Mount Vernon Estate. The community continued to grow after the Civil War with the construction of a church, cemetery, school and Odd Fellows hall. The African…

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In 1866, the first Woodlawn United Methodist church was built on a plot of land adjacent to where the current cemetery exists. The land was donated by a Quaker neighbor, Joseph Cox in response to a request from William Holland. The church was built…

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Located in the historic Drew-Smith Elementary School, the museum houses photographs and documents more than 100 years old which tell the story of the founding and growth of the Gum Springs community.

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West Ford purchased a 214-acre farm in this area in 1833. He was formerly enslaved by the Washington Family and worked as a carpenter and estate manager. He subdivided his property among his children. Others moved into the neighborhood and the land…

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In 1861, Abraham Lincoln reviewed Union troops nearby. Springdale, later known as Bailey’s Crossroads, was settled by freed enslaved people in the 1880s. The community thrived and built their own school and church. The school was built on a five-acre…

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In 1905, William Collins, a descendant of enslaved people, bought 22 acres of land with his savings he earned while serving in the Spanish American War. Other families bought lots; Johnson, Robinson, Spriggs. The families operated truck farms and a…

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A Black community existed in Dunn Loring after the Civil War along Haney Lane, where Kilmer Middle School is located, and in the area west of what today is the Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire Station 13 at 2148 Gallows Road. That land was owned by George…

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From the National Register:
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, Baptists were among the few religious groups in Virginia that were openly accepting of African Americans. Frying Pan Meetinghouse is one of the state’s oldest surviving Baptist…

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Under the leadership of Reverend Cyrus Carter, founder of the First Baptist Church Lincolnsville, Black residents living along the corridor of Lewinsville Road, organized in 1872 to form the Shiloh Baptist Church. The initial services were held…

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