Lake Barcroft Dam

Here follows an excerpt from the 1970 Fairfax County Master Inventory of Historic Sites which contained entries from the Historic American Buildings Survey Inventory:

Lake Barcroft Dam:
Lake Barcroft Dam was erected on Holmes Run in 1915 for the Alexandria Water Company (organized 1850) by the Piedmont Construction Company. The contract for construction specified the "building of a Cyclopean masonry overflow concrete dam, with gatehouse, substructure and superstructure, concrete guide walls, and Cyclopean concrete core walls." Measuring approximately 400 feet in length and 75 feet in height, its storage capacity was reported as being 617,000,000 gallons of water in a 1939 bulletin published by the Department of Health of the Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1942, flood gates were installed to raise the spillway level and increase the capacity to 800,000,000 gallons of water. The rock was brought by a specially built railway from a quarry just east of Columbia Pike. Mr. E. C. Meredith, Director of the Division of Engineering of the Department of Health, stated in 1970 that Barcroft is probably the highest masonry dam in the state.

The Alexandria Water Company sold the facility to a group of developers from Massachusetts in 1950. Barcroft Beach, Incorporated maintains the dam and the community enjoys the use of the lake for water-oriented recreation and the amenities which derive from a residential community designed around a body of water.

Lake Barcroft was named after the Barcroft family which settled in the area in the mid 1800's and operated mills nearby. The ruins of one Barcroft mill are located just south of Columbia Pike on the east bank of Holmes Run.