Historical Markers and War Memorials in Lorton, Virginia
Fairfax is the county seat for Fairfax County
Lorton is in Fairfax County
Fairfax County(709) ► ADJACENT TO FAIRFAX COUNTY Alexandria(378) ► Arlington County(461) ► Fairfax(48) ► Falls Church(137) ► Loudoun County(345) ► Prince William County(660) ► Washington, D.C.(2607) ► Charles County, Maryland(150) ► Montgomery County, Maryland(751) ► Prince George's County, Maryland(644) ►
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Near Lorton Road at Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
"Forward Out of Darkness," Women on the Margins of a New Nation, 1776 and Prior
“Remember the Ladies… If particular [sic] care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, . . . — — Map (db m196692)
Near Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) south of Springfield Drive, on the left when traveling south.
The enslaved community at Gunston Hall lived in at least six different locations. George and Ann Mason's son John remembered that the east yard included “servant houses (in them days called Negroe quarters)…masqued by rows of large Cherry and . . . — — Map (db m134837) HM
Near Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) south of Springfield Road, on the left when traveling south.
Gunston Hall in the Masons' time included many structures, roads, gardens, and far-off landscapes built or tended by the Masons' enslaved workers. Today, the mansion house remains the largest surviving physical site of their labor. What John Mason . . . — — Map (db m133889) HM
On Lorton Road, 0.5 miles south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the right when traveling south.
Rivers have long served as transportation routes for all manner of boats and vessels, for Native Americans and European settlers, to recreational and commercial traffic today. The Occoquan and other rivers flowing eastward from the Virginia piedmont . . . — — Map (db m145082) HM
Near High Point Road, 2.3 miles south of Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242/600).
An ecotone is a transition between two adjacent ecosystems. Areas where these different habitats meet and overlay support plant and animal species from both constraints. Because of this, they’re often the busiest and best places for observing an . . . — — Map (db m98164) HM
Near High Point Road, 2.8 miles south of Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242/600).
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John Smith and other English settlers marveled at the abundance of birds in this area. Visitors today can still discover an amazing variety of birds here.
Known for its bald eagles, the Mason Neck Peninsula also hosts many . . . — — Map (db m98162) HM
On Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) at Furnace Road (County Route 611), on the right when traveling north on Richmond Highway.
Colchester, founded in 1753 at the location of a ferry crossing, was the second town established in Fairfax County. Located on the main post road from Boston to Charleston, and at the end of the Ox Road leading west to the Blue Ridge, the town . . . — — Map (db m206) HM
Near High Point Road, 2.8 miles south of Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242/600), on the right when traveling south.
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The Battle of the White House Gun Battery, September 1-5, 1814, was the first military action in the region after the British attack on Washington. Named for a nearby white house, the battery was located at today’s Fort Belvoir. . . . — — Map (db m98160) HM
On Lorton Market Street (Virginia Route 600) south of Lorton Road (Virginia Route 642), on the left when traveling south.
In this vicinity, on Thursday, 6 April 1905, Deputy Sheriff George A. Malcolm was shot while attempting to arrest a man who had been harassing students at the Lorton Valley School. He died the following day at the Emergency Hospital in Washington, . . . — — Map (db m100654) HM
On Workhouse Way, 0.2 miles north of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123).
In 1908, President Theodore Roosevelt, appointed a special three-member Penal Commission to investigate the overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the District of Columbia jail and workhouse. The Progressive-era reform movement advocated training . . . — — Map (db m145081) HM
On Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) 0.2 miles south of Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611), on the right when traveling south.
Elizabeth Hartwell Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge
…A serene place, where young blue herons learn to fish in the marshes, and wood thrushes trill their flute-like song through the stillness of hardwood forests. A place . . . — — Map (db m197456) HM
Evolution of a Landscape – Plantation, Prison, Park
It may be difficult to imagine all of the events, large and small, that took place on the surrounding landscape, but Laurel Hill Park has been influenced by thousands of years of . . . — — Map (db m22385) HM
On Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) at Old Colchester Road, on the left when traveling east on Gunston Road.
Gunston Hall, four miles to the east, is one of the most noted colonial places in Virginia. The land was patented in 1651 by Richard Turney, who was hanged for taking part in Bacon's Rebellion in 1676. In 1696 the second George Mason acquired it. . . . — — Map (db m205) HM
On Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) 0.2 miles south of Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611), on the right when traveling south.
Gunston Hall
The house and grounds convey the measured pace of an 18th century colonial plantation and the underlying grace of Southern hospitality. This is a setting of a simple dignity, of quiet orderliness from which "a . . . — — Map (db m197451) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
Hard-Fought Ratification Campaigns in the States, 1919-1920
"The Woman Suffrage Amendment granted the largest single extension of suffrage ever made by a government not in the throes of a revolution." . . . — — Map (db m197364) HM
On Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611) north of Greene Drive, on the right when traveling south.
Some of the features shown here that were prominent on Mason Neck in Fairfax County during the marches of the Armies of the American War of Independence, exist today through generations of historic preservation efforts. The rich natural . . . — — Map (db m198378) HM
On Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) at Old Colchester Road (County Route 611), on the left when traveling east on Gunston Road.
To the east, on Dogue Neck, "Certain Unknown Indians" attacked the house of Thomas Barton about 3:00 P.M. on Sunday, 16 June 1700, killing eight persons with "arrowes & Wooden Tommahawkes." The neighboring Piscataway Indians denied making the attack . . . — — Map (db m203) HM
Near Workhouse Way, 0.1 miles north of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the right when traveling north.
In deepest appreciation of the determined and unrelenting Irma Clifton, an extraordinary friend of the Workhouse Arts Center and guardian of the powerful 91-year history of the Lorton Correctional Complex. A history that first changed a nation and . . . — — Map (db m145078) HM
On Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611) at Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242), on the right when traveling south on Old Colchester Road.
The circuit rider, with
his Lord, his Bible, and his horse,
brought Methodism to this area in 1830.
Lewis Chapel
The first Methodist Church,
stood on this site from 1857-1953.
— — Map (db m131556) HM
On Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) at Old Colchester Road (County Route 611), on the left when traveling east on Gunston Road.
This church is a combination of several structures built on the site of the first Pohick Church (1730–1774), making this one of the earliest sites of a religious institution in Fairfax County. Lewis Chapel, named after a Methodist circuit . . . — — Map (db m204) HM
On Furnace Road (County Route 611) 0.4 miles west of Lorton Road (County Route 642), on the left when traveling west.
Located north of here was one of three Nike anti-aircraft missile complexes in Fairfax County operated by the U.S. Army and the Army National Guard between 1954 and 1974. The sites were established during the Cold War to defend Washington from . . . — — Map (db m131374) HM
On Lorton Station Boulevard at Percy Simms Drive, on the left when traveling north on Lorton Station Boulevard.
The settlement of Lorton was named by Joseph Plaskett, who immigrated to Virginia from his home north of England in the scenic Lorton Valley. Plaskett became the first Lorton postmaster in 1875 and generations of Plasketts followed in his footsteps . . . — — Map (db m1818) HM
On Fisher Woods Drive, on the left when traveling south.
The original 522-acre plantation was granted to Dennis McCarty in 1727 and passed through the hands of only three additional families: the Chichesters, Landstreets and Kernans. Mount Air represents in microcosm a history of Fairfax county--the rise . . . — — Map (db m13749) HM
Keeping it in the Family The McCarty’s who built Mount Air, were an important Virginia family. Dennis McCarty patented the land where you stand in 1727. Dennis McCarty served as Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, a vestryman from Truro Parish and . . . — — Map (db m15396) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
New Life in State by State Campaigns, 1900-1920
"Set the woman on her own feet…Women must stand free with men."
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, influential author and economist who worked with Harriot Stanton Blatch in . . . — — Map (db m197339) HM
On Newington Road near Telegraph Road (County Route 611), on the left when traveling west.
Newington was the name given to the second Truro Parish Glebe House completed in 1760 after it became the private residence of Richard and Sarah McCarty Chichester after 1767. The William Nevitt family acquired the house and 1000 acre tract in 1828 . . . — — Map (db m614) HM
On Armistead Road near Richmond Highway (U.S. 1), in the median.
An engineer who believed science must serve people; a citizen who believed one person could make a difference, and did.
The Potomac River in the 1960's was one of the most polluted waterways in the country. The major source of Potomac . . . — — Map (db m8908) HM
Near Ox Road (Virginia Route 123) at Lorton Road (County Route 642), on the right when traveling north.
This marker honors the suffragists imprisoned at the Occoquan Workhouse in 1917 and 1918, for picketing the White House to gain support for an amendment to the Constitution to give women the right to vote. The women were members of the National . . . — — Map (db m30267) HM
On Ox Road (Virginia Route 123) at Workhouse Way, on the right when traveling north on Ox Road.
In the nearby Occoquan Workhouse, from June to December, 1917, scores of women suffragists were imprisoned by the District of Columbia for picketing the White House demanding their right to vote. Their courage and dedication during harsh treatment . . . — — Map (db m167974) HM
On Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) at Telegraph Road and Old Colchester Road (County Route 611), on the left when traveling south on Richmond Highway.
One of the first telegraph lines in the world, a part of the Washington–New Orleans Telegraph Company, was built from Washington to Petersburg in 1847. From this the road took its name. — — Map (db m199) HM
George Mason designed a formal, symmetrical garden south of the house. A tall wooden fence separated the garden from the surrounding buildings, roads, fields, and forest. Visitors entered the garden from the mansion or through a gate off of the . . . — — Map (db m134511) HM
Near Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) 0.8 miles east of Springfield Drive, on the left when traveling east.
In the summer of 1787, representatives assembled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from twelve of the thirteen states to improve the Articles of Confederating. This meeting ultimately became known as the Constitutional Convention. Virginians asked . . . — — Map (db m197462) HM
Near Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) at Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611), on the right when traveling north.
Revolutionary Soldier
Peter Wagener, III
1744 - 1798
Placed by
Fairfax County Chapter
DAR 1974
Original grave site in Colchester, Virginia marked by Fairfax County Chapter December 1955 — — Map (db m168136) HM WM
On Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) at Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611), on the right when traveling north on Richmond Highway.
During the Civil War, the prominent hilltop location of Pohick Church made it a target for occupation and vandalism, but it also served as an aeronautical center. On November 12, 1861, Union Gen. Samuel P. Heintzelman’s 2nd Michigan Volunteers . . . — — Map (db m65051) HM
On Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) at Telegraph Road and Old Colchester Road (County Route 611), on the left when traveling south on Richmond Highway.
This building was begun in 1769 and completed by 1774, succeeding an earlier church two miles to the south. It was the Lower Church of Truro Parish, established in 1732, the parish of Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall. George William Fairfax, George . . . — — Map (db m13750) HM
On Workhouse Way, 0.1 miles north of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the right when traveling north.
The first 29 prisoners were housed in tents by the Occoquan River when they arrived from D.C. The first buildings were made of wood cut on the site and built by the prisoners. These gradually replaced during the 1920s by the buildings seen here . . . — — Map (db m145080) HM
On Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611) north of Greene Drive, on the right when traveling south.
It was no picnic
A bivouac for the allied armies was not simply a bed to rest for the night, but a place with a daily set of demanding chores. Hundreds of oxen and horses needed to be unhitched, fed, watered, and secured for the night, . . . — — Map (db m198377) HM
Near Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) at Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611), on the right when traveling north.
This marker honors the service of the Revolutionary War Patriots and War of 1812 Veterans buried or memorialized on the grounds of historic Pohick Church
Revolutionary War Patriots
Patriot Charles Alexander, Sr •
Patriot Susanna Pearson . . . — — Map (db m168133) HM WM
On Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242), on the right when traveling south.
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 1878 where their . . . — — Map (db m133759) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
The fence you see in front of you once surrounded the White House grounds. Can you imagine standing silently beside these fenceposts, drenched in the rain, holding a heavy banner in your hand while looking directly at President Woodrow Wilson? . . . — — Map (db m197368) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile east of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
Suffrage Campaigns State By State, 1867-1898
"It was an experience that tested endurance and loyalty almost to the breaking point."
Adelia Stephens, suffrage organizer in Oklahoma, referring to suffrage efforts in . . . — — Map (db m197336) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
"when the forcible feeding was ordered I was taken from my bed, carried to another room, and forced into a chair, bound with sheets and sat upon bodily by a fat murderess, whose duty it was to keep me still Then the prison doctor, . . . — — Map (db m197305) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
The New York Times, 1917
Suffragists Will Picket White House
Plan to Post "Silent Sentinels" Bearing Emblems, Whom President Must Pass
Washington, Jan. 9 - Women suffragists, representing all parts of . . . — — Map (db m197310) HM
On Occoquan Regional Park Road near Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the right when traveling west.
From the turn of the century until the late 1960’s nine kilns on this site were operated by inmates of the Lorton correctional facility.
The bricks stacked inside this kiln are ready to be baked. For 4 to 5 days coal fires in each of the . . . — — Map (db m2346) HM
Near Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) near Telegraph Road and Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611).
This stone's original inscription was Heare lyes bodey of Livt Willeame Herris who died May 16 : 1698 : aged : 065 years : By birth a Britaire : a good soldier a good husbnd & kinde : neighbour. Mr. Herris (Harris) was the father of Anne . . . — — Map (db m201) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
The Suffrage Campaign in Wartime, 1917
"Kaiser Wilson, have you forgotten your sympathy with the poor Germany because they were not self-governed? 20,000,000 American women are not self-governed."
From a . . . — — Map (db m197355) HM
On Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611) north of Greene Drive, on the right when traveling south.
Late in the American War for Independence, allied generals George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau received good news. A French fleet under Admiral de Grasse carrying 3,000 French soldiers was headed for the Chesapeake Bay. Following the . . . — — Map (db m243223) HM
On Richmond Highway (U.S. 1), on the right when traveling east.
George Washington, like his father before him, served on the vestry of Truro Parish, which the Virginia General Assembly established in 1732. Colonial vestries managed parish affairs and provided crucial services to the community, including care for . . . — — Map (db m127886) HM
Near Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) at Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611), on the right when traveling north.
The West Family of Alexandria
Originally buried at Cameron
Hugh West 1705 - 1754
Alexandria Founder & Trustee • Truro Parish Vestryman
Sybil Harrison West 1705 - 1787
Wife of Hugh • Distinguished Parishioner . . . — — Map (db m168137) HM
Near Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) 0.8 miles east of Springfield Drive, on the left when traveling east.
This "temple" was one of many colonial-revival inspired improvements made by Gunston Hall's last private owner, Louise Hertle. Mr. Hertle and his second wife, Eleanor, cherished Gunston Hall's connection to the founding of our country. Their use . . . — — Map (db m197464) HM
On Pohick Bay Drive (County Road 721) 0.7 miles east of Gunston Road (State Route 242), on the right when traveling east.
Choose your next adventure at Pohick Bay Regional Park in Lorton, Virginia. Bring the kids for a day of splashing and sliding at Pirate's Cove Waterpark. Spend a day on the bay with our canoe, paddleboard, stand up paddleboard and kayak rentals; . . . — — Map (db m197466) HM
On Ox Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the right when traveling west.
[The donor plaques feature sections that contain some historical information. Only these sections have been transcribed:]
Tonya Trishele Norwood: In 1913 22 Black Women, founders of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. marched in solidarity, . . . — — Map (db m197303) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
Victories in 1917: New York Approved Suffrage and Prisoners Released
"Self-respecting and patriotic American women will no longer tolerate a government which denies women the right to govern themselves."
Alva . . . — — Map (db m197363) HM
Near Mason Neck State Park Road, 0.5 miles west of High Point Road.
This magnificent area, a nesting place of the American Bald Eagle and home to a variety of other birds and wildlife, was threatened in 1965 with intense development. To preserve this unspoiled, historic and scenic area along the Potomac, citizens . . . — — Map (db m81251) HM
Near Richmond Highway (U.S. 1) near Telegraph Road and Old Colchester Road (County Route 611).
The remains from 29 graves were brought here from the Wagener family cemetery at Stisted, their plantation on the Occoquan River near Colchester. The Second Peter Wagener (1717–1774), Clerk of the Fairfax County Court (1752–1772), served . . . — — Map (db m202) HM
Near Mason Neck State Park Road, 1.5 miles west of High Point Road.
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During the War of 1812 the young United States was embroiled in conflict with Great Britain. From 1812 to 1815 Americans fought to protect their rights and economic independence. They faced superior enemy forces on the . . . — — Map (db m81262) HM
On Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611) north of Greene Drive, on the right when traveling south.
Colchester is the colonial tobacco port town on Mason's neck that witnessed the passage of the allied French and American armies on their way to and from Yorktown, Virginia in 1781 and 1782. The town provided a route to an Occoquan River ford for . . . — — Map (db m198373) HM
On Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) 0.2 miles south of Old Colchester Road (Virginia Route 611), on the right when traveling south.
In the early 1600s explorer John Smith discovered a boot-shaped peninsula between the Potomac and Occoquan rivers. He called it Dogue Neck after the Dogue Indians living there. Later the name changed to Mason Neck, when it became home to the . . . — — Map (db m197423) HM
Near Gunston Road (Virginia Route 242) south of Springfield Drive, on the left when traveling south.
George Mason and his first wife, Ann Eilbeck Mason, began this burial ground in 1772. At that time, wealthy Virginians preferred to be buried at home instead of the local parish church. Multiple generations of women, men, and children—both . . . — — Map (db m133740) HM
On Richmond Highway (U.S. 1), on the right when traveling east.
Dr. William Brown, Revolutionary War physician, was born in Scotland and raised in Maryland. After studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh, he established a practice in Alexandria. In 1775 he became surgeon of the 2nd Virginia Regiment. In . . . — — Map (db m127853) HM
On Occoquan Regional Park Road near Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east. Reported permanently removed.
Adjacent to this park a group of women was imprisoned in 1917 for demanding the right to vote. The road to Occoquan Workhouse had started in 1848.
In July 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention in New York, officially opening the American women’s . . . — — Map (db m168931) HM
On Lorton Road, 1 mile south of Ox Road (Virginia Route 123), on the left when traveling east.
Worsening Conditions at the District of Columbia Jail and the Occoquan Workhouse
"The next lot of women who come here won't be treated with the same consideration that these women were."
Raymond Whittaker, Occoquan . . . — — Map (db m197359) HM
