Hollis’ Ordinary (Site)

These coordinates mark the estimated spot where the tavern used to be. No remains are visible here.


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Here follows an excerpt from "The Story of Ravensworth" website as prepared by John Browne:

Hollis’ Ordinary:
John Hollis received licenses for several years to keep an ordinary at his family’s leasehold at the intersection of the Mountain Road (today’s Braddock Road) and the road to the Pohick tobacco warehouse (today’s Rolling Road). At that time, the Mountain Road was a major route connecting western lands to Alexandria’s Potomac River port. The site is shown on the map accompanying Beth Mitchell’s Fairfax County, Virginia in 1760.

Evidence of a reliable water source, which may have influenced choosing where to place the Hollis home and ordinary, exists today in a nearby spring that feeds a pond in the Dunleigh subdivision. A receipt that John Hollis issued to Sampson Franklin for service to seven men and care of horses is included in George Washington’s papers in the Library of Congress.

Lanes’ Ordinary:
Richard Lane received a license “to keep an Ordinary at his house” in April 1800. Lane’s location was marked on the “Alexandria Road” on the 1792 survey plat that divided Parcel 1.1. The location appears to have been about the same as Hollis’ Ordinary of 40 years earlier – the intersection of the Mountain Road (today’s Braddock Road) and the road to the Pohick tobacco warehouse (today’s Rolling Road). Court records as early as July 1791 associate Richard Lane with this location but do not include a recorded lease.

In an April 30, 1802 letter, Thomas Jefferson refers to “Lane’s on Centreville road” as a landmark when travelling through Ravensworth and locates it one mile from Richard Fitzhugh’s.