Towns of Loudoun County

Brief History of Loudoun County towns:

This information was gleamed from the Loudoun Handbook, 2003-2004, 19th Edition

Loudoun communities
Notwithstanding growth in the county, the towns and villages of Loudoun County are mostly of rural character. Some have grown, and some have not. Most started out a long time a ago as a farming or military crossroads, with a little store that doubled as a post office and general meeting place, and often a church.

Aldie
About 100 persons make up this little community east of Middleburg. The Aldie Mill, built in 1796, is currently under restoration by the Virginia Outdoors Foundation as a working museum. A Bed and Breakfast Inn, antique shops, a country store and a post office comprise the village.

Arcola
Formerly a coach stop, now on the fringe of Dulles International Airport, Arcola is a quiet village of about 250 persons. It is served by a local volunteer fire department, rescue squad and elementary school.

Ashburn
Formerly call Farmwell; Ashburn went off the beaten track when the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad station was closed. About 85 families were included in the last Ashburn census, but major growth has stunningly made that figure obsolete. Ashburn traces its roots to the early 1700s, when Robert Carter and Thomas Lee were acquiring property in the area. The Lee family’s estate, Belmont, is now part of an upscale planned community in the Ashburn area.

The Community, close to Dulles International Airport, became an important rural commercial center in Loudoun County over the years and has recently found itself at the heart of the high tech corridor in the county. Ashburn is essentially a mix of residential neighborhoods, smaller retail centers, and medical facilities. In the 1980s, Ashburn Farm and Ashburn Park were the first planned communities in the area, and they accelerated the atmosphere and design of the community. Since then, residential growth has exploded with new homes ranging from condos and townhouses to high end single family residences. With the growing population have come new schools and a wide range of other community amenities.

Bluemont
It was once called Pumpkintown, and later Snickersville, but Bluemont was deemed more attractive and was easier to spell. The village of about 275 persons at Snickers Gap used to be an important summer resort for sweltering city dwellers and was the terminus for the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. Now it sleeps peacefully at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, attracting attention once a year when it celebrates its September Fair.

Hamilton
Once named Harmony, this town grew up around a stagecoach stop and was later renamed to honor Colonel James Hamilton, the town’s first postmaster. Some Hamilton homes served as stops on the Underground Railroad to free slaves during the Civil War. Hamilton is largely residential in character and committed to slow growth and a “small town” atmosphere.

Hillsboro
Founded by the Quakers, Hillsboro has a population of about 180, some beautifully restored 19th century homes and fine views of the mountains. The smallest of Loudoun’s incorporated towns; it sits astride a growing commuting route from the west (Route 9.)

Leesburg
The county seat is described in the National Register of Historic Places as “one of the best preserved, most picturesque communities in Virginia.” Leesburg is located at the crossroads of two old Colonial roads, Ridge Road or Alexandria-Winchester Turnpike (Route 7) and the Old Carolina Road (Route 15.)

Lincoln
Founded about 1745 by Quaker migrants from Pennsylvania, Lincoln has the oldest Quaker meeting house in Virginia.

Lovettsville
Settled by Germans, this incorporated town was established in 1836. Lovettsville has been the home of farmers, railroad workers and craftsmen, and more recently, retirees and commuters have been drawn to this small town in the northwestern corner of the county. Annexations since the 1970s have multiplied the community’s acreage and development is expected to accelerate in the coming years. Town officials are encouraging new housing and office and retail space in the town center, but they hope to retain the village atmosphere of the community. On the outskirts of town, new residential development and a retirement community are planned. Despite its small town character and size, Lovettsville offers a variety of amenities within walking distance, including a community center, ball fields, tennis courts, pool, library branch, and retail establishments.

Lucketts
Present-day Lucketts is a pale shade of what it was in earlier times when it straddled the Old Carolina Road where it veered eastward to cross the Potomac at Noland’s Ferry just north of Lost Corner. Mad Anthony Wayne passed through this village on his way to battle during the Revolutionary War. The Piscataway Indians had a settlement near here that archaeological evidence suggests was inhibited continuously from 10,000 B.C. right up until about 1709, when European smallpox exterminated the remaining Indians in Northern Virginia. Today there is a store, Lucketts Elementary School, a fire department, a unique board-and-batten Episcopal Church, and the old Lucketts School, which now serves as a community center. The community center stages bluegrass music every Saturday night, October through April, and the annual summer fair is one of the County’s top attractions.

Middleburg
Once called Chinn’s Crossroads, this center of fox-hunting and steeplechase racing was a stopover for travelers between Alexandria and Winchester. During the Civil War, Middleburg was the headquarters for Colonel John Mosby, the Gray Ghost of the Confederate Army.

Neersville
Neersville was originally one of the prominent settlements in the valley. The school, dated 1885, is the best preserved one-room stone school in the county (closed in 1931.) The first store opened in 1839, closed in 1963. Nearby St. Paul’s church dates from 1835.

Paeonian Springs
This village west of Leesburg dates back to circa 1890. Its name is derived from the Greek Paeon, name for Apollo and Aesculapius, gods of medicine, because the springs advertised medicinal properties. Bottled water was once sent around the US, but was phased out in 1918 when medicinal content was found lacking. Formerly a resort village with many Victorian homes, Paeonian Springs boasts several businesses, a post office and it is bisected by the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Trail.

Philomont
A Volunteer Fire Department horse show attracts the biggest crowds of the year to Philomont, one of the most attractive crossroad villages in the area. A country store services the residents’ immediate needs and hounds of the Middleburg and Piedmont hunts often run their foxes on the farms surrounding the town.

Purcellville
One of Loudoun’s fastest growing and more progressive towns, the capital of the Loudoun Valley was first settled about 1769. The area of the town is 1,300 acres and holds a population of approximately 3,000 persons. The town provides a full range of municipal services, including public water, sewer and trash pick-up.

Round Hill
Loudoun’s last incorporated outpost before the mountains, Round Hill was settled in 1735 and once served as an observation point for both armies during the Civil War. Like Hamilton, it strives to maintain the small town atmosphere but has recently attracted new residential building and retail activity.

Sterling/Sterling Park/Potomac Falls
Once a robust Northern Virginia agricultural center, Sterling was initially the area’s answer to the planned communities of Levittown in Pennsylvania and New York. A new concept at the time, a local developer and US Steel hoped to develop a planned community on the doorstep of the then new Dulles International Airport. Initially, Sterling offered inexpensive prefabricated houses accompanied by community pools, tennis courts, and a golf course…a radical idea in the 1960s and certainly unique in what was then considered a remote location from the rest of Northern Virginia.

Since then, Sterling has grown considerably and it’s rapidly developing into a retail, academic, non-profit, and high-tech powerhouse. A mall is located at the cross-roads of Route 28 and Route 7 called Dulles Town Center. Nevertheless, with its tree lined back streets, Sterling retains a good deal of its neighborly spirit.

Taylorstown
The Catoctin Defense Alliance once defeated a Corps of Engineers’ plan to dam Catoctin Creek here to provide a water supply for metropolitan Washington, and the village remained a quiet pastoral place. The village was settled by Quakers in 1734 and many of the original homes are beautifully restored.

Unison
A quiet place and always has been since it changed its name from Union after the Civil War. About 30 persons live here, plus a number of town dogs who move reluctantly from sleep in the road. The Unison Store keeps pace and sells Big Orange drinks and Nutty Buddies.

Waterford
A National Historic Landmark designation protects the 18th century charm of this old Quaker mill town settled in 1733. About 300 persons live here, and none of the dwellings can be recognized as modern. The Waterford Fair has become a mid-Atlantic mecca in the fall, but for the eleven other months, to enter the quaint town is to enter the past. Waterford remains one of the Loudoun Hunt Country’s crown jewels.

Towns of Loudoun County

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Towns of Loudoun County

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