Floris
Title
Floris
Description
- 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
Source
Sources:
Repository: Herndon Virginia The Patch on line newspaper October 2, 2011
- 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
Collection
Citation
“Floris,” Fairfax County African American History Inventory, accessed October 24, 2026, https://fairfaxaahi.centerformasonslegacies.com/items/show/375.