The Silas Burke House (Historical Marker)

Here follows the inscription written on this trailside historical marker:

The Silas Burke House
The historic home at 9617 Burke Lake Rd. was the residence of Lieutenant Colonel Silas Burke, his wife, Hanna Coffer Burke, and their two children. Silas Burke had this house built close to the time of his marriage in 1824. Burke was a successful entrepreneur and operated a store, mill, and a blacksmith shop. He was a director for the Fairfax Turnpike Company and the Orange & Alexandria Railroad, and served as Chief Justice of the Fairfax County Court. Burke's efforts brought the railroad through his property and his neighbors'. Additionally, Silas Burke served as a county sheriff, a lieutenant colonel in the county militia, school commissioner, and president of the Fairfax Agricultural Society.

In 1891, John Marshall, owner of Burke's general store, purchased the home. In the early 1900s, Henry Copperthite purchased the property. Copperthite was the owner of the local race track and, in 1925, William and Nellie Simpson purchased the Silas Burke House. In 2016, the Simpson-Fowler family entrusted the house to Sunrise Senior Living.

This project would not have been possible without the guidance, support, and cooperation of many people from Fairfax County and from Burke Historical Society.


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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 year 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.