STREET NAMES IN BURKE

John T. Blincoe of Blincoe’s Hill served Fairfax County as the then Lee District supervisor from his appointment in 1935 until his death during his third term.

Braddock Road was named after General Braddock who took a troop of British soldiers, including George Washington, to Fort Duquesne during the French and Indian War. Current thought is that this was NOT the actual route that the General and his troops took but that his route may have followed Route 7.

Coffer Woods Road was named for the Coffer family. Thomas Withers Coffer served on the Truro Parish Vestry. His grandson, Thomas Coffer served during the war of 1812. His daughter Hannah married Silas Burke. Other members of the family were also involved in the area’s history.

In the late 1600’s, William Fitzhugh, the Immigrant, was awarded a 23,000 acre land grant in Northern Virginia, the western borders of which were in the Burke area.  Other members of the Fitzhugh family played important roles in local history over the next two centuries.

In the early 1900’s, Robert E. and Annie M. Marshall subdivided a tract of land which they owned in Burke and named it the Marshall & Brown Subdivision. One of the streets was named Gaines Street probably after Robert Gaines, who built the first home in that area prior to the subdivision.

Off what is now Hatches Court is Millstone Farm which was owned beginning in the late 1930’s by Douglas and Ruth Hatch. The Hatches were active members of the community and operated Millstone Farm Summer Day Camp and Riding School.

These roads may have been named for Upton and Sarah Tracy Herbert, or perhaps for Upton’s brother Arthur Herbert.  Upton Herbert was the first superintendent of George Washington’s Mount Vernon and served for 13 years, from 1859 to 1872.  He worked closely with Sarah Tracy, secretary of the Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies Association.  She was also instrumental in the founding of the Church of the Good Shepherd.  Arthur Herbert and his business partner, John Woolfolk Burke, founded the banking institution Burke and Herbert.  Arthur Herbert served as an officer in the Confederate army during the Civil War.

A saw and grist mill, owned by James Keene, was constructed in the Springfield area between 1796 and 1800. The nearby road acquired the name Old Keene Mill. The mill served farms in the area for around sixty years before its discontinuation when William H. Keene was convicted and imprisoned for the 1855 murder of Lewis Quincy Hall.

Lee Chapel Road is named for Lee Chapel, a Methodist Episcopal Church, built in 1871.  The chapel no longer exists, but a well-kept cemetery remains at the site, which contains graves of many of Burke’s early residents.

Marshall Pond Drive may have been named after John and Mary Marshall.  John Marshall was farm manager for Silas Burke, second owner of Woodbury (Silas Burke House), and owner and operator of the local Marshall Store.

In their 2005 oral interview for “Look Back at Braddock”, Bill Sheads and Elsie Sisson indicated that Olley Lane was named for their uncle, James Oliver “Olley” Dodson who lived near the corner of what is now Olley Lane and Braddock Road.

Peter Roy Court was named for Peter Roy who came to Fairfax County in the early 1900s. He purchased land near the current intersection of Old Keene Mill Road and Sydenstricker Road, totaling 180 acres. Roy, a widower, was an active member of the Lee Chapel Methodist Church.

Hogsheads (large casks) of tobacco were rolled downhill to ships on roads referred to as rolling roads. The Rolling Road in our area “ended” at Pohick warehouses.

Sheads Court is named for the late Delbert “Bill” Sheads.  Sheads, an active member of the Burke community and founding member of the Burke Historical Society, served with the Fairfax Volunteer Fire and Rescue Department for many years.

Silas Burke Street is named for Silas Burke who made a significant impact on the community.  Burke was a land owner whose accomplishments included serving as director of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad, as a county judge, and as sheriff.  In the 1800’s he built a home called Woodbury that was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in the 1850’s.  The home still stands on the grounds of Sunrise at Silas Burke House.

In April 1909, the Rev. Christopher Sydenstricker came to the Springfield area looking for a place to hold a series of outdoor “camp meeting” church services. Ultimately a small church was formed that became Sydenstricker UMC. Sydenstricker Road is named for the church. (His niece was famed author Pearl Sydenstricker Buck.)

In 1790, attorney Thomas Windsor built a home called Mulberry Hill. The home still stands on Windsor Way.

William Kirk Lane is named after William Kirk Jerman (1873-1962) who lived on a farm where the Caroline Oaks townhouse subdivision and Pohick Regional Library is today. William Kirk Jerman’s wife was Caroline Roy Jerman (1886-1976), the subdivision’s namesake. Caroline Oaks was built in 1985, but the farmhouse still stands at 6501 Glenbard Court next to a huge champion tree.

Freds Oak Road is named for Frederic T. Kielsgard (1915-2005). Kielsgard was born in Fairfax, VA and was a real estate broker. He served in WWII in the South Pacific as a paratrooper. In 1963, Frederic and his wife Alice Kielsgard purchased 4.17 acres of property on the west side of Guinea Road, about where Freds Oak Road and Oak Leather Drive intersect today. Freds Oak Road is part of the original alignment of Guinea Road which once connected from where the Burke Target store presently is, through Lake Barton, and down to Pohick Road (which is now the Fairfax County Parkway). The Kielsgards sold their property to Burke Centre Partnership in July 1979, and it was developed into Section 14-E of the Burke Centre “Oaks” neighborhood. The street was dedicated as Freds Oak Road in August 1979.

In 1943, Walter Dundas (1894-1967), a Black World War I veteran, inherited 12 acres of timberland in Burke from his sister, Naomi Dundas Houston of Kings County, NY. Walter’s widow, Lydia Dundas (1902-1991) and the couple’s two children later sold the property to Burke Centre Partnership in July 1977. The Dundas family have longtime roots in the City of Alexandria.

In 1941, Edwin Lynch (1913-2004) purchased 231 acres of woodland fronting Burke Lake Road as an investment property for timber harvesting. After a large fire wiped out the woodlands in 1942, Lynch cleared the property for a dairy farm. Named Spring Lake Farm after the five ponds built on the property, the Lynch family moved into a newly constructed house on the farm on September 30, 1955. In later years, the farm was converted into a beef cattle operation and horse boarding business. The Lynches sold most of the farm in December 1975 to Burke Centre Associates and donated five acres for the construction of a new Burke United Methodist Church. Spring Lake Drive once ran from the Lynch farmhouse (today the site of the Burke Centre Conservancy offices), crossed Burke Lake Road and terminated at Old Keene Mill Road. The five ponds of Spring Lake Farm still exist today in the Burke Centre “Ponds” neighborhood.