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Sleepy Hollow Farm House (Site)

GPS Coordinates: 38.8431397, -77.1718844
Closest Address: 3706 Bent Branch Road, Falls Church, VA 22041

Sleepy Hollow Farm House (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the house once stood. No visible remains exist.


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

Sleepy Hollow Elementary School is located in Fairfax County, Virginia, approximately three miles south of the City of Falls Church. The school is on Sleepy Hollow Road, which is a busy thoroughfare between Route 7 and Columbia Pike, bordered by Lake Barcroft and Annandale Road. This area was known as Fort Buffalo during the American Civil War.

In the 1920s, Sleepy Hollow’s property belonged to Ms. Nelle Boyd. She leased part of her farmland to John Kerns who used it to pasture cattle. John Kerns was originally from West Virginia. He owned a dairy farm south of Kerns Road. Later, when Mr. Kerns sold his property, Kerns Road was built and named after him.

In the 1920s, Sleepy Hollow Road was a one-lane, winding dirt road. It was improved by adding pebbles and crushed stones in the 1930s. There were no bridges where Sleepy Hollow Road crossed over creeks in those days. At Holmes Run, the road crossed the creek on a small dam. Later a wooden bridge was added, but the bridge washed out every time there was a hard rain. Early residents recall seeing an old wooden mill near the corner of what is now Sleepy Hollow and Kerns Roads on top of a hill. There was a stone wall and large cavern to a millstream. On the left of the stone wall, watercress grew in abundance.

What’s in a Name?
Have you ever wondered about the origin of the name Sleepy Hollow? Find out in this video produced for the Fairfax County Public Schools cable television channel Red Apple 21.

Sleepy Hollow Elementary School opened in 1954. The name “Sleepy Hollow” has been in use in this part of Fairfax County since at least 1849. In 1847, Richard McCarty Throckmorton, a resident of Loudoun County, Virginia, purchased 102 acres of land between Holmes Run and present-day Columbia Pike from Thomas Smith. Articles in the Alexandria Gazette newspaper, in 1849 and 1851, show that Throckmorton called his property “Sleepy Hollow Farm.” Records indicate that the land was already under cultivation when Throckmorton purchased it, so it is unclear if he or a prior owner gave the farm its name. It is theorized that Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” may have served as the inspiration for the name because the story of Ichabod Crane and his encounter with the Headless Horseman was very popular at the time. Records from the 1860s, 1890s, and 1920s show that subsequent owners of the farm retained the name Sleepy Hollow. Aerial photographs show that Sleepy Hollow Farm ceased operating between 1937 and 1953, and that by 1960 the land was in the process of being developed into the Barcroft Woods neighborhood. The first residential neighborhood bearing the name Sleepy Hollow was constructed in the late 1930s by Eakin Properties. Located near Seven Corners, the neighborhood was named for Sleepy Hollow Road, which took its name from Sleepy Hollow Farm. In 1853, the Fairfax County Court authorized the construction of a new road along land owned by Richard McCarty Throckmorton, from Holmes Run to “the Gallows Road”. Today, this section of the old Gallows Road is called Columbia Pike. The plat pictured here was drawn in 1838, before the creation of Sleepy Hollow Farm, when Throckmorton’s land was still part of a larger piece of property. Superimposed in purple are the approximate boundaries of Sleepy Hollow Farm; and, depicted in red, is the new road that was constructed along the western edge of the farm.
Holmes Run, known historically as Middle Run, is visible at the top of the plat. At Holmes Run the new road merged into an existing road called “the Church Road.” From Holmes Run, the Church Road continued northeast to Taylor’s Hill on the Leesburg and Alexandria Turnpike – a place known today as Seven Corners.
By 1921 the portion of the Church Road south of Holmes Run had fallen into disuse and was abandoned, and the remaining roadway had become known as Sleepy Hollow Road. Sleepy Hollow Elementary School was not built on land that was once part of Sleepy Hollow Farm. Rather, it was built on part of “Wide Awake Farm,” which was once owned by Elmer and Marjorie Kohlmeier. The Kohlmeier’s farmhouse still stands today near the school. Sleepy Hollow’s name hearkens back to an earlier era in Fairfax County history, and a beloved short story, one of the most popular pieces of early American fiction.

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Award-winning local historian and tour guide in Franconia and the greater Alexandria area of Virginia.

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Nathaniel Lee

c/o Franconia Museum

6121 Franconia Road

Alexandria, VA 22310

franconiahistory@gmail.com

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