Silas Burke House (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this roadside historical marker:

Silas Burke House
Here lived Lt. Col. Silas Burke (b.1796–d.1854) and his wife, Hannah Coffer. Burke, for whom Burke's Station on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad was named, served as a director of the railroad and the Fairfax Turnpike Company. An innkeeper and farmer, Burke was elected president of the Fairfax Agricultural Society in 1850. He held many county offices with distinction, including road surveyor, commissioner of public buildings and schools, county court justice, presiding justice, and sheriff.

Erected 1991 by Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number E-95.)
The house has been integrated into the campus of a senior living facility.


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

Silas Burke House:
When Nellie D. Simpson and her husband purchased the dwelling in 1925, they were told it was 100 years old (c. 1825) and the former home of Col. Silas Burke.

In 1926, the Simpsons erected the two story portico, supported by tree trunks cut in the nearby woods and boxed with redwood planks. Asbestos siding was applied about 1930, at which time a one-story wing was added to the southeast end of the house.

Pairs of small windows flank the interior brick end chimneys in each bracketted gable end, and there are open one-story porches front and back. Most of the windows are double-hung sash, six-over-six, surmounted by plain, flat wooden pediments.

Silas Burke was a justice of the Fairfax County Court and in the 1840's was appointed State Director of the Fairfax Turnpike Company (Virginia State Archives). At August Court, 1852, he was elected Presiding Justice of Fairfax County by a majority of the 24 justices of the peace present and voting, and some time later, Commissioner of Public Buildings. In the minutes of September Court, 1854, the announcement of Burke's death conveying grief and condolence to the family is bordered in heavy black ink in the Fairfax County Court Minute Book.

Silas Burke's Inventory (following his death) recorded in Fairfax County Will Book X, pp. 406-409, presents an unusually clear picture of a man of means and community standing in Fairfax County during the immediate pre-Civil War period. His slaves alone were valued at over $8,000.

Tombstones and presumably the remains of Burke and his wife are located in a field near the intersection of Burke Road and Burke Lake Road.


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Here follows an excerpt from local author and historian Mary B. Lipsey's "This Old House: Annandale, Springfield, Burke & Beyond" presentation:

The home is called the Silas Burke house or "Top Of The Hill" as the last family to own the property called it.
The first house built on this site in the year 1824 burned. The second house was built after that time by Silas Burke and his wife Hannah Coffer. Silas was a farmer and had 200 acres and land and 20 slaves. He's the one who brought the Orange and Alexandria Railroad through Burke. And so, the first station they had was called Burke's Station. And of course, then they shortened it to just Burke. Silas Burke also owned a mill, a blacksmith shop and a brickyard. He was a lieutenant colonel in the Virginia militia, a county sheriff, a school commissioner, and the president of the Fairfax Agricultural Society. Shortly before his death, he applied for a license for a place of public entertainment. He was going to give Arundel's Tavern some competition because they are not that far apart in Burke. And that would mean that Burke's tavern would be the first one you reached when you got off the train.

After the passing of Silas Burke, Henry Copperthite bought the house and operated his famous racetrack in 1908. In 1917, the Simpson family bought it and renamed the house "Top Of The Hill." Since 1925, they talked about seeing the Washington, DC fireworks from their house. They sold the house to Sunrise Assisted Living, with the regulation that the house must be saved. So the assisted living facility was built around it, and they did a magnificent job making the outside and inside of the building look old with furnishings, et cetera. The Burke Historical Society gives tours of the Burke house every three months.