Franconia (Historic Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on the roadside marker:

“Frankhonia Farm” was situated on 191 acres purchased in 1859 by Alexandria merchant and businessman William Fowle from Joseph Broders of Oak Grove Farm. His son, Robert Rollins Fowle, sold 18 acres to the Alexandria & Fredericksburg Railway Company in 1871 for a station, which was named after the farm. The station served as the Garfield Post Office from 1881 to 1890 and again from 1898 to 1907. Initially situated south of Franconia Road near the present day Fleet Drive, the station was relocated after a fire in 1903 to the north side of Franconia Road. Regular service at Franconia Station was discontinued c. 1953.

Marker erected 2000 by Fairfax County History Commission.


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Here follows an excerpt from Donald Hakenson's "This Forgotten Land" tour guide:

Franconia Road was first called "Rolling Road," and was known as the "Old Fairfax Road" during the War Between the States. On July 16, 1861, Brigadier General Samuel Heintzelman's Third Division departed Alexandria and used the Old Fairfax Road while marching to Manassas.

"Frankhonia Farm" was situated on 191 acres purchased in 1859 by an Alexandria merchant William Fowle from Joseph Broders of Oak Grove farm. His son, Lieutenant Robert Rollins Fowle, a Confederate veteran sold eighteen acres to the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railway Company in 1871 for a station that was named after his farm. The name "Franconia," has been used for the road ever since.


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Here follows an article excerpted from the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter as published by the Franconia Museum in 2004 and written by Sue Patterson, the museum's first president:

FRANCONIA: HOT PLACE TO LIVE
In 2003, Franconia was picked as one of the "hottest places to live" in Money Magazine's December 2003 issue. The rest of the world now knows what the long-time residents of Franconia have always known. Before the beginning of the housing boom in Fairfax County in the 1960's, people from all over the area came to Franconia for church social activities, dances at the Franconia School, the Volunteer Fire Department Parades, etc. Now Franconia has evolved from a farming community into an urban community with a mix of residential/commercial uses and a transportation system that allows convenient access to/from anyplace in the Washington, D.C. area via highway, train, bus, and three metro stations.

As a result, the Franconia area has changed rapidly in the last fifty years with the landmarks of former days razed and no longer visible. The history of Franconia has not had as much recognition as some of the more famous areas of Fairfax County. Due to its location, ten miles from Washington, and practically next door to Mount Vernon, Franconia's original farms and roads were traversed by the founding fathers and their relatives. Remnants of the occupation by Union troops during the Civil War are still visible in the area if you know where to look. As with many communities, Franconia had its start with the coming of the railroad after the Civil War in the 1870's. The derivation of the name "Franconia" has caused almost as much speculation as defining the boundaries of Franconia.

In 1859, the wealthy Alexandria businessman, William Fowle of English descent, purchased 191 acres from Joseph Broders of Oak Grove Farm (location of Sunrise Assisted Living across from Springfield Mall today). Mr. Fowle was President of the Alexandria Canal Co. and President of the Bank of the Old Dominion. This property was located generally between Fleet Drive and Beulah Street today. His son, Robert Rollins Fowle, lived on the property prior to the Civil War. In the father's will written in 1857, Rollins was described as follows: "My son Robert R. Fowle is now absent abroad (Australia). During his early life he has caused me much solitude and anxiety in regard to his future." His father was afraid that Rollins would "squander his property in idleness and dissipation." William Fowle died in 1860. Rollins served in the Civil War on the Confederate side, which may be why he did not receive the 191 acres as his share of his father's estate until 1865. Rollins died in 1873, but his wife was still living on his property until at least 1906.

After the Civil War, his farm was known as the "Frankhonia" Farm. Robert Rollins Fowle sold 18 acres to the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad Company in 1871 for a station, which was named after the farm. Initially, the Franconia Station was situated south of Franconia Road near present day Fleet Drive. The Station was relocated after a fire in 1903 to the north side of Franconia Road. The Franconia Station was an important stop between Washington and Quantico. Regular service was discontinued about 1953.

From the 1870's to the 1950's, the boundaries of Franconia extended well beyond the original "Frankhonia" Farm to become a thriving farming community centered on the local Franconia School, Volunteer Fire Department and numerous churches found along Franconia Road and Beulah Road (now Beulah Street). However, in the 1960's, the landscape began to change with the addition of many new housing developments, bringing an influx of new residents overwhelming the older community with traffic, new buildings, increased land values, and new ways of doing things. Today, not many of the old farms are left in the area, but descendants of the early residents are still in the area or still retained connections to the area. The Franconia School is still in existence and the Volunteer Fire Department is still a viable organization. A new Franconia community has been built based on the foundation of the old one.


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Here follows an article excerpted from the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter as published by the Franconia Museum in 2006 and written by Jim Adams:

A History of Franconia Road:

There is evidence in the Fairfax County Archives that what is now Franconia Road was here in the 1760s. There is even a possible reference to it in 1750. It was definitely here in 1777 during the Revolution when it was called both the Alexandria Road and the Rolling Road.

That meant it was used to roll barrels of tobacco to the port in Alexandria, founded in 1749, as well as get to court established there in 1752 and to shop. Residents could go the other direction, rolling tobacco barrels down Back Lick Road toward the Pohick warehouse and port. Or they could go on to the now-gone Colchester tobacco port town, founded in 1753 at the mouth of the Occoquan, to sell their tobacco, shop and stop off at one of the several taverns there.

English colonists who lived in present Franconia then, most of whom had at least small tobacco cash crops, must have had roads or at least paths to get to those ports and towns. There were no closer stores, though Thomas Monroe ran a water-wheeled grist mill west of present South Van Dorn Street and north of present Franconia Road from about 1760.

In fact, there was a court order June 26, 1750, that at first blush sounds like an order to clear what is now Franconia Road from about present South Van Dorn Street or Beulah Street to Backlick Road. But there are problems that make this only a possibility. "It is Ordered that the former Orders of this Court for clearing a Road from the head of Dogue Creek into the back lick Road is renewed," the court order book reads. The head of Dogue Creek is just north of present Kingstowne Town Center.

But no route is mentioned and no other record has been found to confirm this section of road existed so early. A 1757 survey of land west of present South Van Dorn Street and north of Dogue Creek notes there was a path then to Thomas Monroe's land but shows no road. A rolling road would not likely have run unnecessarily down into those ravines. That word "renewed" in the court order suggests earlier orders to clear such a road had not been carried out. The evidence for the 1760s starts with two court complaints in in 1762 that a road or roads from Daniel French's plantation and from his quarters to Cameron Run were in poor condition. Odds are good that one or both of these were present Franconia Road from Daniel French Jr.'s Rose Hill plantation, though they could have been from ancestral Daniel French land near present Telegraph Road and Cameron Run.

Better yet, in 1769 French bought land west of present Rose Hill "near a road" in the vicinity of present Franconia Road. In 1770 Daniel French asked that a road be altered. The proof that present Franconia Road existed by 1777 is in two land deeds in which Crump brothers sold off some of the last of what had once been their 1,000 acres of land here. John Bushrod Crump, who had moved to Montgomery County, N.C., and become a doctor, sold land April 9, 1777, with a corner near present Key Middle School. His deed said it was "on the North side of the Alexandria Road." His brother James Crump, who also moved to Montgomery County and commanded of its militia during the Revolution, sold adjoining land. His deed said that same corner was "near the rolling road." These Crumps must have had some road or path to Thomas Monroe's grist mill not long after they moved here about 1764 – James married Monroe's daughter Isabella.