Falls Church, an independent city in Virginia, United States, takes its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century parish of the Church of England. Falls Church gained township status within Fairfax County in 1875. In 1948, it was incorporated as the City of Falls Church, an independent city with county-level governance status.
Prehistory and European colonization
Northern Virginia, before Europeans explored it, was firmly governed by the Iroquois Confederacy—a consortium of Native American nations and peoples including the Tauxenents, Patawomekes, and Matchotics. Local inhabitants considered the Little Falls of the Potomac River significant—it is the first "cataract", or barrier, to navigation on the river.
The word "Potomac" is Native American for "gathering place", reflecting the river's service as both a highway and location for trading.
Captain John Smith of England was the first European to explore the Potomac as far as Little Falls. "As for deer, buffaloes, bears and turkeys, the woods do swarm with them and the soil is extremely fertile", he wrote.
The Colony of Virginia grew out of these explorations, and English settlers may have established themselves at the site of modern-day Falls Church as early as 1699. A cottage demolished between 1908 and 1914, two blocks from the city center, bore a stone engraved with the date "1699" set into one of its two large chimneys. The house is unmentioned in colonial-era land grants and land records and its origin remains unknown.
Indian trails meandered past the site of the 1699 cabin—an east-west one generally following the route of modern Broad Street, and one branching off from it to the Little Falls of the Potomac—today's Little Falls Street. By the 1730s, these trails became important transportation routes.
In 1734, The Falls Church—as it came to be known—was founded at its present site next to the intersection of the important Indian trails. At that time, churches were outposts of government as well as worship. The church's establishment reflected the desire of Colony leaders and the Church of England—the colony's official church—to make inroads in the vast wilderness of Northern Virginia. Two acres were purchased from local landowner John Trammell; a carpenter named Richard Blackburn built a wooden church.
This stood until 1769, when the present brick church was designed and built by architect James Wren. George Washington, the future president, kept the bricklayer at his home in Mount Vernon. Unable to find enough paid laborers to build the church, Wren, a slaveowner, used enslaved people to do the work.
Originally called "the crossroads near Michael Reagan's", the site of the church first appears on a map dated 1747, and is labeled the "Upper Church". It was also called "the church up at the falls", and then eventually, The Falls Church.
The church was on the route of British colonial troops en route to the forks of the Ohio River on April 7, 1755. Part of Major General Edward Braddock's British army engaged in fighting the French during the French and Indian War. Modern-day Broad Street was locally called Braddock's Road for decades afterward.
War of Independence
Important and influential men attended The Falls Church and served as its vestrymen, including George Washington; George Mason, who would write the Bill of Rights to the U.S. Constitution; John West; and Charles Broadwater.
When colonial relations with Great Britain began souring, the Colony of Virginia helped lead the resistance. these vestrymen were deeply involved. Mason wrote the "Fairfax Resolves", a call for 24 specific actions. The men were members of Virginia's revolutionary council meeting in Williamsburg, the royal capital. The council instructed Virginia's delegates at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to introduce a resolution calling for independence. Virginia's delegate did so, and the Congress passed the motion on July 2. The Declaration of Independence was issued July 4. It is said a copy of the declaration arrived from Philadelphia and was read to citizens from the steps of The Falls Church sometime during the summer of 1776. Falls Church leaders recruited men to serve in the colonial militia.
Appointed to lead the Continental Army, Washington remained a Falls Church vestryman until resigning his post in 1784, having been unable to attend to his church duties. He later was elected first president of the United States.