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Fairfax, Virginia Offers Civil War History and CharmCelebrates Bicentennial in 2005By Susan Scott SchmidtThe city of Fairfax, Virginia suffers from an inferiority complex. Dubbed the “crossroads of northern Virginia,” this small hamlet of 20,000 residents boasts the same attractions as its celebrated neighbor Alexandria – federal architecture, Civil War history, and easy access to the nation’s capital. But nobody knows about Fairfax. The town is undiscovered, mixing small town friendliness with sophistication and a prime suburban Washington location. Fairfax celebrates its bicentennial next year. Founded in 1805, the city sits a stone’s throw from Manassas Battlefield Park, Mount Vernon and the spectacular new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport. Located at the end of the subway line, Fairfax also serves as a convenient and economical jumping-off point for sightseeing trips into Washington, D.C. A night’s lodging here costs roughly half the price of a room in Downtown Washington.
“This battle was the death knell of American ignorance,” said National Park service ranger John Reid, our guide at Manassas Battlefield Park. At that time, both sides believed it would be an easy battle, but were disabused of that notion as casualties mounted. “Troops were green as grass,” said Reid. Most Union recruits were 90-day enlistees, citizen-soldiers who had never seen combat. Manassas, also called the Battle of Bull Run, turned into a contest of armed mobs bludgeoning each other. The Manassas tour includes an introductory 45-minute film narrated by Richard Dreyfuss. After the movie, Reid led us on a 45-minute outdoor tour of the Henry Hill, site of the first battle. The Confederates won both battles of Manassas, in 1861 and 1862, and the Civil War dragged on for four long years. “The myth of Confederate invincibility was born here,” said Reid. (The battlefield is now a 5,000-acre park. You can experience the Second Battle of Manassas by taking a 12-mile driving tour.) Back in town, we found Fairfax to be a walkable city. Old Town Fairfax is a treasure trove of tiny shops and boutiques tucked within historic buildings. The city’s National Register Historic District covers 35 acres and encompasses the Downtown business district. We began our tour of Old Town at the Fairfax County Courthouse, circa 1800, the oldest county building. Fairfax County was founded in 1742, when Lord Thomas Fairfax received a land grant from King Charles II of five million acres in colonial Virginia. Fairfax County’s most prized possession today is a copy of George Washington’s will, in the courthouse vault.
A stop at the Fairfax Museum and Visitors’ Center is useful when planning your day in town.The museum offers information about Fairfax County sights and historic walking tours. The excellent Civil War exhibits there tell the story of a star-crossed romance between Union soldier Joseph Willard and Antonia Ford of Virginia. Forty-two of their love letters are on display. Ostacles loomed to the romance: He was already married; she was accused of being a Confederate spy. They ended up together anyway. Our next historical stop was St. Mary of the Sorrows Church, an Irish Catholic immigrant church where Clara Barton nursed the sick and the wounded during the Second Battle of Manassas. The church pews were torn out during the war and burned for heat. After hearing the story on a post-war visit , President Ulysses S. Grant sent a check to replace them. I’d forgotten how fascinating Barton’s story was. The first woman ever hired by the U.S. government in the Patent Office, she worked as an unofficial quartermaster during the war, helping move supplies where needed. Her efforts opened the nursing profession to women. She later headed the American Red Cross. A slice of pre-Civil War Virginia history lies at Sully Plantation, a 1794 house and farm owned by Robert E. Lee’s uncle, Congressman Richard Bland Lee. On exhibit are the carpeting, the china, and even the fly-catching potions used by the Lee family. On the top floor you can view a typical eighteenth century schoolroom, complete with horn books, spinning wheels and flax combs. Outside, tour the smokehouse and springhouse. Because Lee married Elizabeth Collins, daughter of a Philadelphia Quaker merchant, the house was furnished in all the latest consumer goods of the time. We learned that the phrase, “sleep tight, don’t let the bedbugs bite,” dates back to plantation life. The beds lay on ropes, which tightened to hold them up. The mattresses were stuffed with hay and straw, which accounted for possible bedbug infestation.
Plan to spend a whole day there. I remember when the first Air & Space Museum opened on the National Mall, and this one is even more exciting. The $311 million hangar, designed by St. Louis architects Helmuth, Obata + Kassabaum, is five times as large as its sister museum. It provides space for the aircraft which were kept in storage for years, because the Smithsonian had no room to display them. (Admission is $12 per car. You can also take a $7 shuttle from the museum on the Mall.) This museum knocks your socks off. It is an aviation buff’s dream. The museum was built into the flight pattern for Dulles Airport, so planes approach the observation deck at eye level. The aviation hangar contains three levels of aircraft – two levels suspended from the building’s huge trusses and a third on the floor. The suspended aircraft have been hung in their typical flight maneuvers. Walkways rising about four stories above the floor provide nose-to-nose views of aircraft in suspended flight. Many engines, rockets, satellites, gliders, helicopters, airliners, ultra-lights and experimental flying machines are displayed here for the first time. It has everything – hang gliders, kit planes built by do-it-yourselfers, the Concorde, the Enterprise space shuttle, and important planes from air combat history, like the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird, the fastest airplane ever built. The museum now displays 80 aircraft, with 200 as the eventual goal. . The museum includes a 479-seat IMAX Theater, simulation rides and an all-consuming gift shop. Leave enough time for your visit, as we found long lines for the I-Max (reserve tickets in advance) and the observation tower. If You’re Going:Getting there: The city of Fairfax is located 12 miles from Dulles Airport. It lies at the intersection of the main routes into Washington I-66, 495-the Capitol Beltway and Virginia Routes 50, 123, 236 and 29. Destination Fairfax – 800-572-8666 or www.visitfairfax.com Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center – 703-385-8415 Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport – 703-572-4040 or www.nasm.si.edu Gunston Hall – 703-555-9220 or www.gunstonhall.org Manassas National Battlefield Park – 703-361-1339 or www.nps.gov/mana/ Sully Plantation – 703-708-0861 Images by Thomas M. Schmidt |
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We began our July 4 tour of Fairfax with a visit to
Manassas National Battlefield Park. During the Civil War, the key railroad
junction at Manassas and its proximity to Washington, D.C. made it an
important strategic location for both Union and Confederate soldiers.
Conflict broke out early here, in July 1861, the same year Virginia seceded
from the Union. No one thought the war would last. The first battle of
Manassas was a spectator event. Rubberneckers from Washington, DC brought
picnic lunches to sit on a hill and watch the battle, convinced it would be
the only one of the Civil War.
We walked on brick sidewalks from the courthouse to the
Ratcliffe-Allison House, an 1812 structure which is one of the town’s
oldest. Kitty Barrett Poser, the gardening columnist
for the Washington Post, lived there until 1981. You can still view her
boxwood and perennial garden.
Also of note is Gunston Hall , the 1755 Colonial
plantation home of founding father George Mason, author of the Virginia
Declaration of Rights and a framer of the United States Constitution.
Gunston Hall is famous for the elegant woodwork designed by Willliam
Buckland and carved by William Bernard Sears. We walked through the formal
gardens, as Mason did when he pondered the affairs of the rebellious colony.
The central allee, lined with great boxwoods, leads to an outlook with a
view across the deer park and the woods to the river.
Finally, the crown jewel of Fairfax County’s modern
sights is the brand new Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, the adjunct Smithsonian
National Air & Space Museum at Dulles Airport. The museum is named for
the president and chief executive officer of International Lease Finance
Corporation, who contributed $65 million to the project.