The Fairfax Station Railroad Museum (FSRM) is a depot museum located in the census-designated place of Fairfax Station in Fairfax County, Virginia. It is owned and operated by the Friends of the Fairfax Station, an all-volunteer, 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. The purpose of the Friends is to maintain the former station as a museum with a focus on local history, the significance of railroads in the region, and the role of the station during the American Civil War.Friends of the Fairfax Station, Form-990-EZ (2020); Trains Staff and Contributors, Tourist Trains Guidebook, 8th Edition (Waukesha: Kalmbach Publishers, 2021), p. 85. It opened in April 1988.D'Vera Cohn, “Fairfax Station: Woodsy, Expensive; Fairfax Station Enjoys a Sense of History,” The Washington Post, Feb 13, 1988, p. E1.

Three buildings were constructed at the location that would become known as Fairfax Station in 1852, 1873, and 1891. The third was relocated in the early 1900s to accommodate the reconstruction of the entire line by then-owner Southern Railway Co. The museum is a replica of this structure.

Station The O&A Station: 1852

Although the exact date is unknown, the first station probably was constructed no later than 1852 as a stop on the Orange & Alexandria Railroad (O&A). The O&A was chartered in 1848 to run from the port city of Alexandria, Virginia, through Virginia's central farmlands to Gordonsville in Orange County.Charles M. Blackford, Legal History of the Virginia Midland Railway Co. and of the Companies Which Built its Lines of Road (Lynchburg, VA: J.P. Bell & Co., Printers, 1881), pp. 6-8, OCLC Number/Unique Identifier: 60728100. The O&A was under construction in Fairfax County in 1850."Local Items," Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, May 20, 1851, p. 3; Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/1851-05-20/ed-1/seq-3/> By October 1851, 28 miles of the railroad had been completed, taking it all the way through Fairfax County.Alexandria Gazette, May 20, 1851, p. 2; Virginia Board of Public Works, Annual Report of the Board of Public Works to the General Assembly of Virginia, Doc. No. XVIII (1851), p. iv. The O&A reported freight revenue originating at Fairfax Station in 1851.Orange and Alexandria Railroad freight by station, 1851. Fairfax County Public Library, City of Fairfax Regional Library, Virginia Room. The awarding of mail contracts in 1852 provides the strongest evidence of a station building having been constructed by that time. The U.S. Post Office Department established post offices at Fairfax Station and nearby Burke, another O&A stop, in April 1852."Local Items," Alexandria Gazette, April 10, 1852, p. 3.

Fairfax Station was constructed to service the town of Providence – the county seat now known as the City of Fairfax.Nan Netherton, “The Town of Providence at the New Courthouse 1800-1860,” p. 16, in Nan Netherton, et al., Fairfax, Virginia: A City Traveling Through Time (Fairfax, VA: History of the City of Fairfax Round Table, 1997); Nan Netherton and Whiteny Von Lake Wyckoff, All Aboard! (Fairfax Station, VA: Friends of the Fairfax Station, 1995), OCLC Number/Unique Identifier: 34109508, p. 20 (quoting J.H. Reed, clerk, Report of a Meeting of Orange and Alexandria Railroad Stockholders, December 1849). The building was described by soldiers in 1862 as a modest, two-storied building.William R. Plum, The Military Telegraph During the Civil War in the United States (Chicago: Jansen, McClurg & Co., 1882), p. 15, OCLC Number/Unique Identifier: 464265270. It included office space and possibly a residence for the station master. A survey published in May 1862 shows several buildings clustered on the south side of the O&A tracks.United States Corps Of Topographical Engineers, Irvin McDowell, and J Schedler. Map of n. eastern Virginia and vicinity of Washington. [Washington, D.C.?: s.n, 1862] Map. https://www.loc.gov/item/91685686/. One of them presumably was the station.

Civil War years The environment around Fairfax Station changed dramatically with the advent of the Civil War. O&A facilities in Alexandria were seized by Federal troops in the early stages of the conflict. Both Federal and Confederate forces focused on controlling or disrupting the rail line due to its strategic position through central Virginia.Edward T. Wenzel, Chronology of the Civil War in Fairfax County, Part I (Centreville, VA: Bull Run Civil War Roundtable, 2015), pp. 77, 286; ; Earl J. Hess, Civil War Logistics: A Study of Military Transportation (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2017), pp. 68, 238-239;

The agrarian quality of life around the station changed quickly as the station was converted to a communications post and field hospital. Federal forces used the station to evacuate wounded soldiers during the battles of Second Bull Run and Chantilly in 1862. An estimated 3,500 soldiers, perhaps hundreds more, made their way to the station where they were treated and returned to hospitals in Alexandria and Washington City. Clara Barton was among the civilian volunteers aiding the effort.Alexandria Gazette, Sept. 1, 1862, p. 2; Letter from Clara Barton to John Shaver, in Stephen W, Sears, ed., The Civil War: The Second Year Told by Those Who Lived It (New York: Library of America, 2012), pp. 413-415; The depot was abandoned and destroyed on Sept. 2, 1862, as the fortunes of battle turned against Federal forces. Units returned by the end of the month and began rebuilding capacity but it would be years before another station building was constructed.Herman Haupt, Reminiscences of General Herman Haupt (Milwaukee, WI: Wright & Joys Co., 1901), pp. 129-134,

Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Gap RR Co.: 1873 Area residents made do without a proper station for several years after the end of the Civil War. A new building at Fairfax Station was a low priority for the O&A following the Civil War. The company focused instead on rebuilding and consolidating with other regional railroads, becoming the Orange, Alexandria and Manassas Gap Railroad Co. (OA&M).Library of Virginia, Richmond, VA, Virginia Board of Public Works (BPW); Orange and Alexandria Railroad Company records, 1836-1885; BPW 140, 30030, Box 234 1074601. Local newspapers reported the opening of a new facility at Fairfax Station in January 1873."Better Late Than Never," Fairfax County News, Jan. 17, 1873, p. 3; "Virginia News," Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, January 20, 1873, p. 2. The new building was near or at the location of the 1852 structure.Griffith M. Hopkins, Jr., Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington, Including the County of Prince George, Maryland (Philadelphia : G.M. Hopkins, 1878), Lee District, p. 72. The atlas shows the station as being on the south side of the tracks, very near the location of the original 1852 building if not on the same spot.

Richmond & Danville: 1891 The railroad underwent a series of mergers, ownership changes, and restructurings during the next fifteen years until it became part of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Co. (R&D) in 1889.Blackford, Legal History of the Virginia Midland Railway Co., pp. 156-168; Harrison, Fairfax, A History of the Legal Development of the Railroad System of the Southern Railway Company (Washington, DC: Southern Railway Company, 1901), "Part III: The Richmond and Danville System," pp. 77ff, OCLC Number/Unique Identifier: 12318540. Traffic along the route increased during this period, particularly for freight, despite financial problems.Poor's Manual, 1892 (Astor Place, NY: J.J. Little & Co., 1892), Vol. 25, pp. 517-518, 529; Poor's Manual, 1893 (New York: Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Co., 1893), Vol. 26, p. 555; Poor's Manual, 1894 (New York: Trow Directory, Printing and Bookbinding Co., 1894), Vol. 27, p. 749; “Local Brevities,” Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, June 15, 1888, p. 3. The R&D completed a new station with combined freight and passenger services in 1891.Fairfax Herald, Jan. 23, 1891, p. 3. To accommodate its larger size, it was located on the north side of the tracks opposite the 1873 site.Fairfax Herald, May 3, 1889, p. 3. It was this building that ultimately served as the model for the present day museum.Southern Railway, Report to the Interstate Commerce Commission, Valuation Division, April 21, 1917 (courtesy of the Southern Railway Historical Association). The 1917 report including drawings and descriptions of the architectural features of the station that correspond with photographs of the building in later years. The company placed the station's age at 25 to 30 years in the 1917 report.

Southern Railway: 1903 The Southern Railway Co. absorbed the R&D and other regional railroads in 1894. Southern became the dominant railroad throughout the region due to its size and control of key routes. However, the company inherited lines that did not meet the growing needs of a company its size.Albert M. Langley, Jr., Southern Railway System: A History of the Premier Carrier of the South (North Augusta, SC: Union Station Publishing, 2010), p. 18, Harrison, Southern Railway Company, pp. 40ff.

Southern launched a rebuilding project in 1903 that included all of the original O&A roadbeds. A key element of the rebuild was adding a second track that would allow traffic in both directions. Southern's project required moving the station slightly south. Rather than build a new structure, the existing building constructed by the R&D just over a decade before was relocated.John W. Ash, "Double-Track Work on the Southern Railway Between Alexandria And Orange, VA," Engineering News, LIII, No. 9 (March 2, 1905), p. 213; "Improvements on Southern Railway," Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, Feb. 11, 1903, p. 3, Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Library of Congress. <https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85025007/1903-02-11/ed-1/seq-3/>. This was the final location for the building as an active facility.Southern Railway, Report to the Interstate Commerce Commission, Valuation Division, April 21, 1917; Letter, A.S. Eggerton, Jr. Southern Railway Co., to Sally Lyons, Friends of the Fairfax Station, April 22, 1982 (museum archives).

Museum Origins

Fairfax Station declined as a viable railroad stop from the 1930s until 1969 when the railroad ceased using it for operations.All Aboard!, p. 97. Cargo deliveries were of importance to the immediate area but it no longer was useful for Southern Railway. Stations in other parts of Fairfax County had been demolished, moved or repurposed for non-railroad uses. Fairfax Station seemed likely to meet a similar fate.

A group of local residents, with the particularly strong participation of the Clifton Community Woman's Club (CCWC), organized the Friends of the Fairfax Station in 1973 to save what had been the center of their community.Ross and Nan Netherton, The Preservation of History in Fairfax County, Virginia (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2002), p. 310;