Historic Blenheim &
Civil War Interpretive Center
3610 Old Lee Highway, Fairfax, VA 22030
Visit the Photo Gallery!
Open noon to 4 pm Tuesday through Saturday Tours at 1 pm Tuesday through Saturday
Civil War living history events and demonstrations and tours.
The Civil War Interpretive Center provides space to interpret the site’s history and the Civil War in the greater Fairfax area. It features an exhibition gallery and a multipurpose classroom that will accommodate 65 people, as well as an extensive gift shop featuring material focusing on Civil War and Fairfax history.
On the site also is Blenheim, a central-hall plan brick farmhouse built circa 1859. It is nationally significant for the more than 100 signatures, art and poetry created by Union soldiers during their occupation of the Fairfax Court House area in 1862-63. The house contains one of the most voluminous and best-preserved examples of Civil War inscriptions in the nation, a “diary on walls” providing insight into typical soldier life during the Civil War. House inscriptions and pictographs are discussed and illustrated in detail in full-scale images in the center. The house will be open for tours of the first floor at 1 pm Tuesday through Saturday.
Also on the grounds is Grandma's Cottage, which likely dates to the 1830s or 1840s. It was occupied for much of its history by Margaret Conn Willcoxon Farr, the daughter of Rezin Willcoxon, owner of the Willcoxon estate (later named “Blenheim”). Margaret Farr is buried in the Blenheim cemetery. The cottage is important for its combination of log-wall construction and rare hewn timber framing with brick infill between the studs in the oldest portion of the house. It has been moved twice: from its original location on Old Lee Highway near Layton Hall Drive.
Chris Martin, Ph.D.
Historic Resources Director
703-273-5452
Destination Fairfax © 2010