Franconia

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…

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.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• LAKE BRADDOCK SECONDARY
  High · Burke · 4,377 students · 16.8:1 ratio
• ROBINSON SECONDARY
  High · Fairfax · 3,607 students · 16.6:1 ratio
• HAYFIELD SECONDARY
  High · Alexandria · 3,145 students · 16.7:1 ratio
• WEST POTOMAC HIGH
  High · Alexandria · 2,764 students · 16.8:1 ratio
• WEST SPRINGFIELD HIGH
  High · Springfield · 2,663 students · 17.6:1 ratio
• WOODSON HIGH
  High · Fairfax · 2,478 students · 15.3:1 ratio
• JUSTICE HIGH
  High · Falls Church · 2,362 students · 16.2:1 ratio
• SOUTH COUNTY HIGH
  High · Lorton · 2,273 students · 16.6:1 ratio