About the Historical Society of Fairfax County
Fairfax County residents tried more than once to organize a historical society, beginning on January 12, 1878, when a group gathered at the house of Charles Ballinger for that purpose; that effort and later ones did not last. The present Historical Society of Fairfax County, Virginia was organized on February 18, 1950, and is the oldest organization of its kind in the county. Its purpose is the promotion and preservation of Fairfax County history, which the society describes as spanning more than 280 years, from the county's formation in 1742 to the present.
The society pursues that mission chiefly through its yearbook, a journal of historical and scholarly articles on the county that it has published since 1951. The yearbooks are written for genealogists, historians, archaeologists, students, and general readers, and the current volume, number 34 (2026), carries articles on Mason Locke Weems and George Washington, enslaved resistance at Spring Bank, John S. Mosby's letters to Benton Chinn, the recovery of Martha Washington's will, the free Black landowner Harriet Bell of Vienna, and the Halley family of Fairfax. Earlier volumes cover subjects as varied as Northern Virginia taverns, the 1861 secession referendum, Eleanor Roosevelt's field trips to the county, and the beginnings of public education. The society accepts article submissions from the community for each new issue.
Public programs are the society's other main activity. Meetings and lectures are held at the City of Fairfax Regional Library, and the society co-sponsors programs elsewhere in the county, such as a 2026 open house at the Oakton Schoolhouse on Hunter Mill Road and a book talk there by the George Mason University historian George Oberle. Recent presentations have included Mary Lipsey's inventory of African American history sites and her research on the aviation pioneer Dr. William Christmas. The society is volunteer-run, led by a president and board, and welcomes new members.
Collections and Research Services
The society does not maintain its own archive or reading room. Its lasting research contribution is the run of yearbooks: most volumes are still for sale (volume 34 and volume 33 at $25, earlier volumes at $15), a few out-of-print volumes can be read in the Virginia Room of the City of Fairfax Regional Library, other volumes are held by the Fairfax County Public Library, and digital versions of some society publications are linked from the society's website. The Virginia Room is also the county's main local history and genealogy collection, so researchers tracing a Fairfax family or property should plan to use the two together. Our guides to free family history research and finding out when a house was built cover the county records that complement the yearbook articles.
Planning Your Visit
There is no society headquarters to visit. Correspondence goes to P.O. Box 415, Fairfax, VA 22038, and the society can be reached at (703) 293-6227 (press 6) or by email to secretary@fairfaxhistoricalsociety.org. Meeting dates, lecture topics, yearbook orders, and the membership application are posted at fairfaxhistoricalsociety.org; prospective members download the application, email it to the president, and pay dues online once a board member responds. For statewide collections, the Virginia Museum of History & Culture in Richmond holds the Virginia Historical Society's manuscripts and library, and the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation interprets the colonial capital that governed Fairfax County in its earliest decades.
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