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 buildings email Susan.gray@fairfaxva.gov or call 703.385.8415.

Historic Walking Tours: Historic Fairfax City, Inc. (HFCI) walking tours of Old Town Fairfax for 2019 will be held on Saturdays June 8, August 10, September 14. The tours start at 10 am in front of the Historic Fairfax Courthouse located at 4000 Chain Bridge Road, Fairfax, Virginia, weather permitting and last about 90 minutes. Free parking is across the street in the Bank of America parking lot. Call 703.385.8414 for reservations. For more information on HFCI please click here.

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.

2019

 Sunday , April 14 - Double Feature at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center 

"The Original Weights and Measures of Fairfax County" - 2 p.m.

See one of the oldest and most complete sets of weights and measures on display at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center, then learn about their use and history from Gretchen Bulova, Director of the Office of Historic Alexandria. The weights and measures are currently on display at the Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center through December 2019.

 and "The Washington Home of the Philippine Suffrage Movement" - 3 p.m.

Keep your seats but move forward in time from the eighteenth to the twentieth century for a short talk and exhibit tour  with Titchie G. Carandang-Tiongson and Erwin R. Tiongson, project directors of the Philippines on the Potomac DC (POPDC). FREE. 

Sunday, May 12--Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center  -2 p.m.

“Images of Motherhood” – Using excerpts from the writings of three women with Fairfax connections --Julia Ford, Antonia Ford Willard, and Dr. Kate Waller Barrett—Curator Susan Inskeep Gray will explore the thoughts of these mothers.

(June through September programs T.B.A )

 Sunday, November 10--Fairfax Museum and Visitor Center - 2 p.m.

“Goodbye Booze”: The Music of Prohibition

Dr. Gregg D. Kimball, Director of Public Services and Outreach at the Library of Virginia, will trace the musical legacy of prohibition through spoken narrative, period images, and live and recorded music.  Feel free to sing along!

 

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.  

2019

April 10, 7:00pm-8:30pm -- Historic Blenheim--Historic Fairfax City, Inc. (HFCI) Annual Meeting and Program

"100th Anniversary of Fairfax World War I Soldiers: Men and Women"

Join City of Fairfax Commissioner of the Revenue and HFCI Board Member Page Johnson to learn about the "Fairfax County Soldiers in World War I"  and 

 City of Fairfax  Office of Historic Resources Curator Susan Gray for  "The Life of Kitty B. Pozer: World War I Ambulance Driver"

 

Saturday, April 27, 10:00am-5:00pm -- Historic Blenheim

Fairfax History Day ($) 

Explore nineteenth-century life in Fairfax with living history presentations, exhibits, and historic tours.  Meet a scientist, a tavern keeper, and Civil War soldiers.  See African-American food ways demonstration.  Practice doing your own laundry and and play period games. Explore nineteenth-century life in Fairfax with living history presentations, exhibits, and historic tours. Enjoy period music and dance, family activities, tours of the Historic Blenheim House and its CIvil War Union soldier graffiti.  Pony rides and wagon rides.  Soldier drills and medicine. $5/Adults * $3/Youth 3-12 * Free/ 2 and under.   

Free parking and Fairfax High School with free shuttle buses to site.

Call 703, 591. 6728 for more information or visit  Fairfax History Day

 

 Saturday, May 18 --Historic Blenheim - 2 p.m.

"The Eleventh Corps at Chancellorsville: A Reappraisal"

A mired viewpoint held by Civil War buffs is of the Eleventh Army Corps at Chancellorsville throwing down their guns and running away during a surprise attack by Stonewall Jackson.  The event colored the reputation of the corps, and especially its many soldiers of German ancestry, with the label of cowardice.  Based on his newly published history of the Eleventh corps, Jim Pula will present a new interpretation that is quite different and as one reviewer said, "stands conventional wisdom on his head."

Book sales and signing will be offered after the presentation. 

Saturday, June 22 --Historic Blenheim - 2 p.m.

"Benjamin Franklin 'Frank' Stringfellow: Severely Tried and Never Found Wanting....“

Frank Stringfellow became famous or infamous--depending on which side you were on--as a noted confederate spy and Scout during the Civil War.  However, his life took many unexpected twists and turns.  Local historian Eric Buckland will follow him from being thought to  be too small for the military to earning a reputation as "the most dangerous man in the Confederacy," through his post-war achievements.

Saturday, July 27 --Historic Blenheim - 2 p.m.

"Virginia Waterways and the Underground Railroad"

Enslaved Virginians sought freedom from the time they were first brought to the Jamestown Colony in 1619. Acts of self-emancipation were aided by Virginia's waterways, which became part of the network of the Underground Railroad in the years before the Civil War.  Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander of Norfolk State University will discuss theses often successful attempts and the watermen willing to help escaped slaves.

Saturday, August 24 -- Historic Blenheim - 2 p.m.

"Col. Sharpe and the Creation of the Bureau of Military Information"

Lecturer Jim Anderson will  tell the story of how the story of how Sharpe went about creating the Bureau of Military Intelligence and formulating professional intelligence practices.  It also will assess the impact of the BMI on the military campaigns that led to the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg.

Historic Blenheim, September 28, 2019 - 2 p.m.

“The Consummate Citizen-Soldier: Charles Russell Lowell, Jr."

Local historian Jim Lewis will talk about Charles Russell Lowell, Jr, who was born into a privileged family in Boston but took a different route by enlisting in the American CIvil War  where he emerged as one of the Union cavalry's exceptional battlefield commanders.  Learn of his army career, the love story with his eventual wife, Josephine Shaw and his time spent in nearby Vienna.

Historic Blenheim, October 26, 2019 - 2 p.m.

"The Nameless and Faceless of the Civil War."  Author Lisa Samia will read from her collection of 28 poems and 28 essays on the historical representations of Civil War events and everyday soldiers through the narrative of poetry.

 

Historic Blenheim,  Saturday, November 2, 9:30a.m.-3:30 p.m. $15; optional lunch $10

"Beneath the Paint: Civil War Graffiti Symposium" --Speakers and topics include: Kim O'Connell, the history of Civil War Graffiti; Conservator Chris Mills, the technical side of graffiti conservation; and Conservator Kirsten Travers Moffitt, graffiti investigation and conservation at Historic Blenheim.  Sponsored by the Northern Virginia Civil War Graffiti Trail.

Reservations required: https://apm.activecommunities.com/fairfaxcityrecdept (search "beneath")

 Historic Blenheim, Sunday December 8, 2019,  12pm-4pm

“Christmas in Camp and Making Do at Home”

New Virginians, a traveling exhibition from the Library of Virginia, December 16, 2019 – January 25, 2020.