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.Historic designation won by subdivision…
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…
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…
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.
Lincoln Area Lifting Living…
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…
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…
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 19th century.
African American Community History: Referred to as…
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…
“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:
Baptist Hill
Tinner hill –
Southgate subdivision
Gravel Bank
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.…
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…
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.
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.
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…
“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.
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.
