Woodburn Elementary School

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

The first Woodburn School, a one-room schoolhouse, opened about 1914 on Woodburn Road near Pine Ridge Park. The school educated children in grades one through seven all in the same classroom. Woodburn School closed in February, 1927 due to declining enrollment and the remaining students transferred to the Merrifield School on Route 29. During the "baby boom" following World War II, the influx of residents to our community, many of whom had young school-age children, quickly led to overcrowding at the few schools in our area. Construction began on a new Woodburn Elementary School in the summer of 1952. On March 13, 1953, The Evening Star newspaper reported that parents from Holmes Run Acres built our first playground and that construction of our building was expected to be completed in May. When our school finally opened it had a library, cafeteria, offices, and just six classrooms. Four additions have been constructed since that time.

Where did the name Woodburn come from?
Woodburn Elementary School opened in 1952. The name Woodburn is derived from Woodburn Manor, a plantation established by the Dulin family in the 1770s. Edward Dulin purchased some 950 acres of land in Fairfax County along Holmes Run in the vicinity of present-day Falls Church High School. In the early 1800s, this property passed to Dulin's son, John, who enlarged the plantation to some 1,200 acres. The Dulin's named their plantation Woodburn Manor and their home was located in what is now the Fairview Park office park. In the mid 1830s, Woodburn passed to John's sons, William and Alexander Dulin. Alexander's widow, Caroline, sold the property in 1887 to Charles and Emma Campbell. Following the outbreak of the Spanish-American War in May 1898, Secretary of War Russel Alger selected Woodburn as a training facility for the United States Army. The War Department leased Woodburn from the Campbells and by the end of June some 23,000 troops were stationed in the vicinity. The soldiers went to work clearing the land of brush and trees. They also removed rocks, dug wells, and battled ticks, snakes, and poison ivy transforming the farm into military encampments. From July to November, a typhoid epidemic spurred on by contaminated drinking water swept through Camp Alger, eventually forcing its closure. Fearful that the land had become inoculated with the effluvia of the camp, neighbors suggested that the Campbells plant sunflowers to purge their land of typhoid. Throughout the 20th century, the remnants of Woodburn Manor were sold and resold a number of times and eventually the name Woodburn Manor faded from memory. Today, Woodburn Elementary School's name is one of the few lasting reminders of this storied Fairfax County property.