Franconia is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 18,245 at the 2010 census, down from 31,907 in 2000 due to the splitting off of part of it to form the Kingstowne CDP.
Located just southwest of Alexandria, Franconia has existed as a community since the 1870s, when a station by that name opened on the RF&P Railroad; however, like most of the surrounding area, it only began to develop into its present, suburban form in the 1950s. The CDP extends south to just north of the border of Fort Belvoir, encompassing neighborhoods such as Manchester Lakes and Windsor Estates. Street addresses have Alexandria ZIP Codes 22310 and 22315. It is near the Springfield Mall shopping area and the Franconia–Springfield Washington Metro station.
Geography
Franconia is located in southeastern Fairfax County at (38.763351, −77.150328). It is bordered to the west by Springfield, to the north by Lincolnia, to the northeast by Rose Hill, to the east by Kingstowne, and to the south by Newington. It is southwest of Washington, D.C.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the Franconia CDP has a total area of , of which , or 0.18%, is water.
History
Franconia Road once served as a rolling road to bring tobacco hogsheads to the port at Alexandria. The surrounding community derives its name from the "Frankhonia Farm", which sat on a portion of a tract of 191 acres purchased from Joseph Broders of Oak Grove Farm in 1859 by William Fowle, a merchant from Alexandria. Fowle's son, Robert Rollins Fowle, sold 18 acres of the property to the Alexandria & Fredericksburg Railway Company in 1871 for the erection of a railway station, which took its name of the farm. The station was the site of the Garfield Post Office from 1881 until 1890, and again from 1898 until 1907. In 1903 it was relocated after a fire from its original site, near Fleet Drive, to the north side of Franconia Road. The railway station remained in regular service until around 1953. Today it is memorialized with a historic marker erected by the Fairfax County History Commission in 2000, located in front of the Franconia Governmental Center. For many years the center of the community was Wards Corner, at the intersection of Franconia Road and Old Rolling Road. Over twenty-five years the complex grew to include a gas station, grocery store, bar, movie theater, and dance hall; a 1959 fire destroyed everything at the site.
The Franconia area was the site of a skirmish in January 1862, during the American Civil War. Colonel Wade Hampton III, having led a group of cavalrymen across the Occoquan River past Pohick Church, encountered a group of Union cavalry in the area and gave chase. Being warned by a Texas scout that he was soon to enter an ambush, Hampton stopped short and formed a squadron on top of Potter's Hill. The trap having failed, both sides began firing at each other; several soldiers were wounded, including one of Hampton's men who was shot in the face. The Confederates then retreated across the Occoquan. In later years Potter's Hill was the site of three schoolhouses, the last of them burning in 1932; more recently it was the site of a chicken farm and, later, a gravel quarry which provided material for the construction of the first Woodrow Wilson Bridge. Today the location is the site of the Hilltop Village Center. Members of the Potter family are buried at the Millan family cemetery, located nearby on the former grounds of the Millan family home, Dairy Lodge.
The Franconia Volunteer Fire Department was organized in 1934; its first firehouse, completed in 1937, stood where the government center is located today. Today the department continues to serve the community from two locations in the vicinity.