Tours and Educational Programs

Private Guided Tours:  Adult groups and educational programs for students or scouts are available for a fee. All tours are tailored for group needs, educational standards, and interests. Tours require advanced reservations. To arrange educational programs or tours of city-owned historic museums email Susan.gray@fairfaxva.gov or call 703.385.8415.

Limited Off-Site Speaker Requests: With advanced notice a staff member can be secured for off-site programs.  Contact above number for information.

The city has published a free self-guided walking tour brochure, "Courting History," that provides a brief history of the city and noteworthy buildings in the Old Town Fairfax Historic District. This brochure is available from the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, 10209 Main Street, or call 703.385.8414.  See Map of History.

Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center "Second Sunday" Program

Programs are held at 2 p.m. on the second Sunday of each month. Unless otherwise noted, programs are held at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, 10209 Main Street. Free (unless otherwise noted). Check back to find out about additional programs planned throughout the year. Information: 703.385.8414.

 2020

  POSTPONED

Sunday, March 8, 2020 - NOTE LOCATION: Fairfax City Hall Annex, 2p.m. FREE

"Amending America- How Women Won The Vote. " Living History with performer/historian Kate Campbell Stevenson.  The featured women are Abigail Adams, First Lady and early women's rights activist; Rose Crabtree, Council member of the 1920 All-Female Town Council of Jackson Hole, Wyoming; Alice Paul, early 20th century suffragist and co-founder of the National Women's Party.  Joint Women's History Month Program - Co-sponsored by the Office of Historic Resources and the Commission for Women

 POSTPONED

Sunday, April 19-- Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, 2p.m. -- “Kitty Barrett Pozer:  A Joyful Gardener” -- Preview the spring opening of a new exhibition on Kitty Barrett Pozer, a noted garden writer, a founder of the Fairfax Garden Club, and last private owner of Ratcliffe-Allison-Pozer House.

Ratcliffe-Allison-Pozer House

10386 Main Street  - Next open for Special Virginia Garden Week tour April 21!

Tuesday, April 21 --Fairfax Garden Week Open Houses

Ratcliffe-Allison-Pozer House and Kitty Pozer Garden, 10386 Main Street, open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Historic Blenheim, 3610 Old Lee Highway, Welcome Center open 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Civil War Interpretive Center at Historic Blenheim

Program Series are free and held at 2 p.m. on Saturdays (unless otherwise noted) at the Civil War Interpretive Center at Historic Blenheim, 3610 Old Lee Highway.  703.591.0560.

 RESCHEDULED FOR SEPT. 26

Historic Blenheim, Saturday, March 28, 2020, 2pm, Postponed

"Angelina Grimke: One Woman Against a Nation"

In 2020 we are celebrating the 100^th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote.

 Join Lynne Garvey-Hodge as she gives a first-person voice to Angelina Grimke, a Southern born early 19^th-century abolitionist who spoke out the horrors of slavery with her eldest sister, Sarah.  Angelina Grimke was an early American political activist, women's rights advocate,  and a supporter of the women's suffrage movement.

 Tuesday, April 21 --Fairfax Garden Week Open Houses

Ratcliffe-Allison-Pozer House and Kitty Pozer Garden, 10386 Main Street, open 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Historic Blenheim, 3610 Old Lee Highway, Welcome Center open 10 a.m. - 3 p.m.

CANCELLED Historic Blenheim, April 25, 2020, 10am-5pm $

Fairfax History Day,   Check here for program updates

Explore 19th-century life in Fairfax with living history presentations, exhibits, and historic tours.  

RESCHEDULED TO OCTOBER 24: 

 Saturday, May 16 , Historic Blenheim - "Voices in the Attic: The Williamstown Boys in the Civil War"

Author Carelton Young spent a decade retracing the steps of two Vermont soldiers  whose 250+ letters were found in a trunk in his parents' attic.  He will discuss the research and compelling story  of these ordinary soldiers in not so ordinary times.

Saturday, June 27,  Historic Blenheim-- “Lee is Trapped and Must be Taken”

Author Rick Schaus focuses on the aftermath of the bloody Battle of Gettysburg and General George Meade’s response to President Lincoln’s mandate to bring about the “literal or substantial destruction” of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s retreating Army of Northern Virginia.

Saturday, July 25, 2p.m. Historic Blenheim --America’s Buried History: Landmines in the Civil War” -- Author Dr. Ken Rutherford examines how landmines transitioned from “tools of cowards” and “offenses against democracy and civilized warfare” to an accepted form of warfare during the Civil War. He traces the development of landmines from their first use before the Civil War through the establishment of the Confederacy’s Army Torpedo Bureau.

 Saturday, August 22, 2p.m. Historic Blenheim- "Too Much for Human Endurance:  The George Spangler Farm Hospitals and the Battle of Gettysburg” -- Author Ronald D. Kirkwood uses firsthand accounts, to re-create the sprawling XI Corps hospital complex on the Spangler family farm in Gettysburg. Stories of the family, the wounded, dying, nurses, surgeons, ambulance workers, musicians, and others are weaved seamlessly through gripping and smooth-flowing prose.  A discussion of Surgeon B.L. Hovey and family is linked to Historic Blenheim history.           

Historic Blenheim, Saturday, September 26, 2020, 2pm--"Angelina Grimke: One Woman Against a Nation"

In 2020 we are celebrating the 100^th Anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, guaranteeing and protecting women's constitutional right to vote.

 Join Lynne Garvey-Hodge as she gives a first-person voice to Angelina Grimke, a Southern born early 19^th-century abolitionist who spoke out the horrors of slavery with her eldest sister, Sarah.  Angelina Grimke was an early American political activist, women's rights advocate,  and a supporter of the women's suffrage movement.

Saturday, October 24, 2p.pm.,  Historic Blenheim--"Voices in the Attic: The Williamstown Boys in the Civil War"

Author Carelton Young spent a decade retracing the steps of two Vermont soldiers  whose 250+ letters were found in a trunk in his parents' attic.  He will discuss the research and compelling story  of these ordinary soldiers in not so ordinary times.

Free viewers are required for some of the attached documents.
They can be downloaded by clicking on the icons below.

Acrobat Reader Flash Player Windows Media Player Microsoft Silverlight Word Viewer Excel Viewer PowerPoint Viewer