Absolon Kent

LORTON, Va. — The center of a major Fairfax County tobacco plantation, Mount Air was worked by several generations of enslaved families under the McCarty family and their Chichester descendants. An 1811 inventory documented 76 enslaved people spanning three generations of the same families—one of the most thoroughly documented enslaved communities in the county.

Slavery on the property appears to have ended in 1860 with the sale of the estate outside the family. Remnants of outbuildings and archaeological evidence document the property's transition from tobacco monoculture to diversified and dairy agriculture during the 19th century.

Oral histories relate the existence of a cemetery for enslaved people on the grounds, along with cabins that housed the enslaved community.

Today, Mount Air is part of the Fairfax County Park Authority's historic sites system, with ongoing efforts to recover and share the stories of the people who lived and worked there.

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ANNANDALE, Va. — Gooding's Tavern was operated by William Gooding Jr. (1768–1861) from 1807 until his death, and by his heirs until the building burned in 1879. Known as the "ten-mile house" because it stood ten miles from Alexandria on the Little River Turnpike, the tavern was famous throughout Northern Virginia for its fried chicken, peaches, and honey and served as a social, commercial, and postal gathering place for the surrounding community. The Goodings also operated a blacksmith shop and stable across the road. The tavern and the surrounding 2,100-acre property were sustained by the labor of enslaved people, and the site's African American heritage is directly connected to the community that later grew from it.

After the Civil War, Gooding's heirs sold parcels of land to freedpeople, enabling the founding of Ilda, a racially integrated community established by formerly enslaved blacksmiths Horace Gibson and Moses Parker near the intersection of Little River Turnpike and Guinea Road.

A Fairfax County History Commission marker commemorating Gooding's Tavern was erected in 2011 and stands just outside the boundaries of Pleasant Valley Memorial Park, across Little River Turnpike from the Northern Virginia Community College Annandale Campus.

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VIENNA, Va. —  Lillian Blackwell was a civil rights activist in Fairfax County who brought legal challenges against segregation in public accommodations and schools in Virginia. Her successful lawsuits helped compel the desegregation of public facilities, movie theaters, and public schools—a direct challenge to the Jim Crow system that governed daily life across Virginia.

A Fairfax County historical highway marker at Oakton High School honors Blackwell's courage and the lasting impact of her legal victories. She represents the often-unsung local activists whose courtroom battles helped turn the promises of the civil rights movement into tangible change at the community level.

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VIENNA, Va. — Peterson Lane Park is a community park, jointly operated by the Town of Vienna and the Fairfax County Park Authority. This neighborhood green space offers a serene, wooded setting for short visits, casual recreation, and exercise.

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VIENNA, Va. — Sarah Walker Mercer Park is a community green space, maintained by the Town of Vienna Parks and Recreation. 

This neighborhood park honors the late Sarah Walker Mercer, a beloved local figure affectionately remembered as the "mother of the neighborhood".

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