Burke Spring Branch is not in Burke, VA!
One of the few remaining springhouses in the Pimmit Run watershed was partially rebuilt in the fall of 2007 under the direction of Fairfax Trails and Streams. The water flowing from the springhouse forms the Burke Spring Branch, a Pimmit Run tributary. To view more information on Burke Spring or the Pimmit watershed visit Friends of Burke Springs Branch.
A spring house, or springhouse, is a small building used for refrigeration once commonly found in rural areas before the advent of electric refrigeration. It is usually a one-room building constructed over the source of a spring. The water of the spring maintains a constant cool temperature inside the spring house throughout the year.
The original structure was owned by the Burke family when it farmed this area in the nineteenth century. Besides providing drinking water, the springhouse (which would have been covered), sheltered perishable products such as milk, kept in earthenware jugs immersed in the spring’s cold water.
According to the 1860 Fairfax County agricultural census, the Burke family had three horses, six milk cows, 12 sheep, and 24 hogs, and produced annually 200 pounds of butter, 12 tons of hay, 300 bushels of oats, among other commodities and products. After the Civil War, the family received $1,008 in federal compensation for theft of firewood and foodstuffs by Union troops stationed at Minor Hill on the Arlington/Fairfax border.
The Burke farm land was first claimed by English colonists when William Darrell received a patent (or land grant) in 1715 for a substantial tract in the area. Later, 200 acres was leased to John Cockerill and others, for an annual sum of 730 pounds of tobacco. Cockerill owned six slaves, and the tributary on the property was known as “Cockerill’s Spring Branch.” In 1808, the 200 acres was sold to Reuben Dye of Alexandria, who probably built what became the Burke homestead (it’s no longer standing), located about 200 feet south of the spring. Dye died in 1815 and is buried in the old Falls Church cemetery. His house was almost continuously occupied until 2001, as portions of the land were gradually sold for development or parkland.
