In Great Falls, large parcels of land have been disappearing at an accelerated pace, many with mature trees that are highly valued by the community. The reasons include a scarcity of available property for development and an interest by owners to relocate, downsize, reduce their tax burden, or profit from the increased value of their long-held land.
There are several nonprofit groups working on initiatives to preserve the community’s heritage along Georgetown Pike, including The Georgetown Pike Rural Preservation Trust and the Great Falls Grange Foundation. There is also Fairfax County’s preservation efforts under its Resident Curatorship Program.
The Georgetown Pike Rural Preservation Trust
The recently established Georgetown Pike Rural Preservation Trust, founded by Great Falls native Henry Lippincott and managed by members of the community, seeks to save and restore the rural heritage of Great Falls by conserving and protecting historical properties, structures, and viewsheds; preserving and restoring open land, water resources, and wildlife habitat; and encouraging local interest in enhancing the rural and historical character of Great Falls and McLean.
In pursuing this mission, the Trust employs three key strategies:
- Partnering with developers, property owners and realtors on conservation easements for McLean and Great Falls properties with significant historical, environmental, or scenic value
- Working to offer attractive financing options for investors and developers to invest in, conserve, and resell properties in these communities
- Engaging in activities that educate residents about historical and natural resources in McLean and Great Falls
The Trust’s three current projects include working to prevent the historic Cornwell Farm on Georgetown Pike from being demolished, partnering with a local resident to restore an historic building on his property, and working to protect a family’s historic meadow to avert future subdivision and development of the property.
Like the Grange and Forestville Schoolhouse, Cornwell Farm, a 19th Century Virginia antebellum manor house circa 1831, is on the National Register of Historic Places. The property, located in the 9400 block of Georgetown Pike, is owned by Versailles Custom Homes. The company, which has plans to subdivide the property and develop a 6-home subdivision, has expressed a willingness to sell it instead to anyone interested in preserving the property permanently via a conservation easement.
Great Falls Grange Foundation
The Great Falls Grange Foundation, a 501(C)3 organization, has been raising funds to assume maintenance and operations of the Great Falls Grange Park Complex from Fairfax County Park Authority for the benefit of the community. Founding members include Great Falls Citizens Association, Great Falls Optimist Club, and Great Falls Rotary, as well as local residents Jorge Adeler, Stephen Dulaney and John McGeehan.
The Complex consists of the Grange, the Forestville Schoolhouse, and the picnic pavilion directly behind the Grange building. Both the Grange and the schoolhouse are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Grange, built in 1929 for the Great Falls chapter of the Fraternal Order of Husbandry, has been a public assembly hall for private events and community gatherings.
The site of the Forestville Schoolhouse dates to 1889 when the Gunnell family sold it to the School Trustees of the Dranesville District and a one-room school was built. In 1911, the building doubled in size when the Floris Elementary Schoolhouse was physically moved from what is now Frying Pan Park in Herndon and attached to the west side of the existing Forestville Schoolhouse building. Another Forestville School replaced the smaller structure in 1922 — this is what we see today. The building has served not only as a school, but also a junior Grange, a library, a post office/realtor’s office, a bank, and a private residence.
Read more about the Grange here in the Great Falls Connection.
Resident Curatorship Program
Another slightly older initiative to preserve historic properties on Georgetown Pike and at other locations in the county is the Fairfax County Resident Curator Program.
In January 2011, an amendment authorized by the Virginia General Assembly gave localities the right to develop resident curator programs. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors adopted the Resident Curator Program Ordinance in 2014, thereby establishing a local program designed to preserve and maintain historic properties owned or leased by the County. An individual or business approved to lease a property as part of this program must maintain and improve it according to specific standards. As curator, the individual or business must also provide reasonable access to the property by the public.
The Queen Anne-style Turner Farmhouse is located at 10609 Georgetown Pike, on the southeast corner of Georgetown Pike and Springvale Road. The farmhouse, which is part of Turner Farm Park, is currently the only property in Great Falls that is part of the Resident Curator Program.
Another nearby property that is slated to be added to the program is Dranesville Tavern at 11919 Leesburg Pike, near Georgetown Pike. This historic property listed on the Register of Historic Places was constructed in 1823 and served travelers and drovers taking livestock and farm produce to markets in Alexandria and Georgetown.