Franconia Railroad Station (1872-1903) (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the station was located. No visible remains exist.


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Here follows an excerpt from "The Iron Road of Franconia" book about the railroad written by local historian Nathaniel Lee.

FRANCONIA STATION: 1872-1953

This railroad line through Fairfax County changed its name several times, which continues to be the cause of much confusion for armchair historians. The Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad Company was chartered in 1834, and the line was finished as far as Fredericksburg by 1837. From this point, passengers bound for Washington took a coach to Aquia Creek and then took a steamboat up the river. The line then extended to join the Pennsylvania Railroad's subsidiary line, the Alexandria and Washington Railroad after the Civil War. In 1872, the name was changed to the Alexandria and Fredericksburg Railroad Company. In 1890, the Washington Southern Railway took control of the railroad through Fairfax County, and then folded into the Richmond - Washington Company as a part of the RF&P Railroad in 1920, which is what most people remember. CSX Transportation finally took over operations along the line in 1991. Confused yet? You should be. That's about six name changes over 150 years for the railroad in Fairfax County. Please read the book "The Iron Road of Franconia" for a more detailed explanation of all the changes.

Robert Rollins Fowle had six acres condemned by the railroad company on January 20, 1871, but also deeded over another twelve acres on October 18 of the same year to the railroad in exchange for a station to be constructed on his property, named Franconia after the "Frankhonia Farm" it was built on. The origin of the name Franconia is still debated. There are two theories. Firstly, oral history says the name comes from the family of Joseph Broders, who named Frankhonia Farm in 1858 after the Franconia region of Germany after a trip through Prussia. Secondly, researchers claim that William Fowle named the farm in 1860 after the town of Franconia in New Hampshire to honor his father's memory. Anyone with additional information to confirm either of these theories is highly encouraged to contact the Franconia Museum!

William Fowle's 191-acre Frankhonia Farm was located on Potter's Lane off Old Franconia Road, originally purchased from Joseph Broders of neighboring Oak Grove Plantation. Robert Fowle was born in 1832 and educated in Harvard. During the American Civil War, he operated in several different Confederate units including the Sixth Virginia Cavalry, Kemper's Alexandria Artillery and the Second Virginia Cavalry. After the war, he married Barbara Sanders and managed the Frankhonia Farm from his home until his death in 1873.

Franconia Station was located on the eastern side of the track approximately 800 feet south of Franconia Road across from present-day Fleet Drive near Tripps Way in the Greenwood subdivision. The station house was actually a converted family home. The first floor played host to the railroad office and the Garfield Post Office in its early years, while the second floor housed the family of a railroad worker, normally the head of that section of the railroad. The roadside history marker about the station is located in the parking lot of the Franconia Governmental Center of Franconia Road.

Worker safety was always a concern around trains in the early years. In 1876, flagman Michael Grimes attempted to get off a train while in motion at Franconia Station and had his toes crushed. Another problem would never go away: in a geological oddity, Franconia Road would be located at the peak of a five-mile long hill located at 250 feet above sea level, the highest point on the entire railroad line between Washington and Richmond. For perspective, Alexandria's Union Station is only thirty feet above sea level. The average gradient is approximately 0.8 ascending southbound into Franconia Station from the current-day Telegraph Road overpass and 0.6 ascending northbound into the station from Pohick Creek.

Named the "Franconia Hill" or the "Franconia Grade," the steep grade is a major obstacle to freight train operations, even into the present day. Freight trains will crawl up the hill at less than fifteen miles per hour, resulting in a transit time up the hill in excess of twenty to thirty minutes. This includes the time it takes the rear of a long freight train to clear the hill, and reduces valuable track capacity. If a train stalled on the hill, the crew could wait for a push from another train or they could cut the train into two halves and take the front end to the next siding, then return for the rest of the cars.

The Richmond-Washington Company incorporated on September 5, 1901 as a holding company owning both the RF&P Railroad and the Washington Southern Railway. Freight traffic over the new Richmond-Washington Line increased quickly, and the train dispatchers running the show from Richmond found that the single track they had was inadequate for the number of trains they wanted to run. The number of trains allowed on a single track at the same time is severely limited because trains cannot run too close to each other without risking a collision. For this reason, they added a second track along the entire line between Richmond and Washington in a process called "double tracking." They also realigned the tracks onto the course they follow to the present day during this four-year construction project between 1903 and 1907. They eliminated or smoothed out sharp curves and reduced hills in grade, including lowering the peak of Franconia Hill underneath Franconia Road by a staggering twenty feet. You can still see this massive cut today by looking down at the railroad from Franconia Road along Fleet Drive. They put almost the entire line of track in a new location between Quantico and Alexandria, all in an effort to speed up transit times along the line.

Sometimes, train accidents had nothing to do with the trains. On February 16, 1903, Franconia Station played host to a civil disturbance that turned far from civil. The conductor summoned local police on board to arrest a resident of Franconia, Carl von Wedel, for attacking another Franconian, Lee Gorham, on board a Washington Southern train. According to other passengers aboard the train at the time, Gorham had scolded von Wedel for disturbing the other passengers and an intense argument ensued. Von Wedel struck Gorham several times and knocked him down to the ground. Other passengers intervened to help Gorham, but not before a punch from von Wedel badly cut his right eye. Doctor Arthur Snowden conducted the operation to remove the eye at Alexandria Hospital. The county court fined Carl von Wedel $100 over the incident.

As noted earlier, Franconia Station was a two-story frame house that had served as part railroad depot and part family home for the Hutchinson family. The home burned to the ground in an accidental fire in December of 1903, and the family did make it out safely. A new station house was quickly built a half-mile north of its original location on a site that, conveniently, already came with a prepared siding used to serve the area's numerous gravel pit operations.