This is another of my ALLH series (A Little Local History).
Standing at this spot, you are at the crossroads of Annandale. Looking west, the Little River Turnpike (LRT) heads out through Fairfax and Loudoun eventually connecting the Shenandoah Valley to the port of Alexandria. Ravensworth Road connects to Braddock Road and takes you to the ancestral home of Nicholas Fitzhugh, scion of one of the original families of Fairfax County. Additionally, a mile down Ravensworth is the ancestral home of, um...yours truly! Annandale Road connects the town to Falls Church. And the Columbia Pike connected the farmers of Fairfax via the Long Bridge (basically now the 14th St Bridge) to their markets in DC. Just east of here on the far side of Fuddruckers, Backlick road terminates it's journey from the Occoquan.
Not quite Gettysburg in the significance of all the roads merging here, but it is NoVA's own little confluence of historical significance.
The Toll House
Facing west towards Fairfax and the setting sun, to the left at the traffic light at Ravensworth Road is the site of the Little River Turnpike toll house. At this site in early 1861, local men gathered to cast their vote on Secession. Of the 35 voters- 4 voted against Secession including William Gargas.
Gargas and DTA
In the 1830s, tobacco had depleted much of the good farmland in the area. Original owners picked up and moved elsewhere selling their large plots to Northerners who were coming to the area to get cheap farmland. Two of these transplants, John and Thomas Smith owned land north of the LRT further west. They convinced their friend William Gargas, a Mennonite from Pa to come to Annandale and buy land. He bought the land you are standing on and much of the land north of it on Columbia Pike. He was a tradesman and operated a rare steam-driven sawmill (on the LRT near the cache called the Unfinished Railroad- (MGRR Redux). His main livelihood was the blacksmith shop and livery stable where Fuddruckers now stands. He was the town's first postmaster. The Annandale Post Office was started in 1837 marking the first time the crossroads was called "Annandale". He served ffrom 1837 until just before the war. It was Gargas that donated the land for the United Methodist Church on whose grounds he rests today.
The Unfinished Railroad
The Manassas Gap Railroad, never finished, ran from Cameron Station, through Annandale, then Fairfax, south of Fair Oaks, through Sully Plantation, over Cub Run west of Dulles, through the Battlefield of Manassas and on to the mountains. Still facing west down LRT, the railroad path headed WNW and crossed Annandale Road about 50 yards away
Three Chefs
Also, Fuddruckers used to be the Three Chef's restaurant. Opened in the 50s, for over three decades, it served stacks of pancakes with syrup in a caddy featuring six different flavors of syrup. If you remember it, comment in your log
Enjoy the hunt!