Historic Blenheim was a family farm, a Civil War encampment site, and a country home. Over 200 years ago, family patriarch Rezin Willcoxon moved there from Prince Georges County, Maryland. By the Civil War, his extended family owned most of the acreage along today’s Old Lee Highway, and a labor force that included a small number of African-American slaves aided the family’s growing prosperity. During the Civil War, Union soldiers camped and convalesced there, interrupting life for the Willcoxons and leaving behind signatures and pictographs on the farmhouse walls. Willcoxon descendants preserved these writings until the last family owner died in 1997, and their evocative power prompted local citizens to lobby to save Blenheim as a historic site. The City of Fairfax purchased the c.1859 Blenheim House and surrounding 12 acres for $2.2 million in 1999 and began stabilization, conservation, and restoration that continues today. Completion of the Civil War Interpretive Center in 2008 helped ensure that discovery and education at Blenheim would continue for future generations.
