Mason Crest Elementary School

Here follows a history of the school as published on the Fairfax County Public Schools website:

Mason Crest is one of the newer schools within Fairfax County Public Schools, having been approved for construction in Fall 2009. A year later construction started and, on September 4, 2012, the school opened its doors.

What's in a Name?
Have you ever wondered how Mason Crest got its name? Take a look at the video below to find out.

Mason Crest Elementary School opened in 2012. The school was built on land that was formerly part of Ravensworth, a large plantation once owned by the Fitzhugh family. In the late 1700s, the northern half of the Ravensworth plantation was divided among the five youngest sons of Henry Fitzhugh. Mordecai Cooke Fitzhugh, through sales and exchanges of land with his brothers, eventually owned some 2,200 acres along the northeast corner of the original Ravensworth boundary. Mordecai's home, Fountainbleau, was located close to where Beech Tree Elementary School stands today. After Mordecai's death in 1858, his property was divided into nine separate parcels among his widow and their eight children. One daughter, Amanda, received 189 acres south of Holmes Run which included the present day site of Mason Crest Elementary.
Amanda's sister, Mary Ann Fitzhugh, inherited 174 acres farther north on Holmes Run. Mary Ann was the wife of Maynadier Mason. This map, published in 1894, shows the location of Mary Ann Mason's home near the intersection of Gallows Road and Annandale Road. The name J. M. Mason, printed just above Mary, is her son James Maynadier Mason. By the early 1900s, the area close to Mary Mason's home had become known as Masonville. In 1951, construction began on a new housing subdivision between Masonville and Annandale called Broyhill Crest, named after its developer, Marvin T. Broyhill, and for its location at the crest of a ridge above the Holmes Run stream valley. The influx of residents into this new community, many of whom had young school-age children, quickly led to overcrowding at nearby Woodburn and Annandale elementary schools. In 1953, children from Broyhill Crest began to be bused to Bailey's Crossroads where they attended school in the old Bailey's Elementary School building while a new school building was under construction near Masonville. The school held in the old Bailey's building was given the name Masonville Elementary and when the children transitioned to their new school building in 1954, it retained that name. By the late 1970s, the elementary aged population in eastern Fairfax County was in steep decline, necessitating the closing of several schools. Masonville Elementary School was closed in 1980 and the building, converted into an administrative center, was renamed in 1985 for Donald Lacey, a former FCPS teacher and administrator. In the early 2000s, the school age population in the Masonville area was again on the rise. The Lacey Center was deemed unsuitable for renovation, so the building was razed and a new school, Mason Crest Elementary, was constructed on the site. The school was named as a tribute to the old Masonville School as well as the Broyhill Crest neighborhood.