Some of the first shots of the Second Battle of Manassas were fired from the bridge over Broad Run at Buckland. The next year, on Oct. 19, 1863, Confederates routed Union cavalry at Buckland -- including troops commanded by Union Gen. George Armstrong Custer -- in what Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart called "the Buckland Races."
The Buckland advocates want to preserve most of the battlefield and the town in an expanded historical area of 2,000 acres.
A drawing of Civil War activity on Broad Run demonstrates the similarity of today's landscape to that of the 1800s along the Fauquier-Prince William border.
(Photos Gerald Martineau -- The Washington Post)
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The Protectors
When David Blake moved to the area in 1999, all he wanted to do was breed thoroughbred horses on the 550 acres of Buckland Farm. But then he started researching its long history. In recent years, Buckland research has led him to seven states and dozens of libraries and courthouses. It even prompted him to take a class on how to read 18th-century land records.
Saving the town from sprawl and VDOT highway engineers -- whom he calls "philistines" -- has become a near obsession.
He says his girlfriend fears that the ghosts of Buckland "have taken possession of my soul and are using me as a workhorse to make their story known. This happens to people who move here."
In addition to planning to put all of Buckland Farm under an easement, Blake has bought two newer houses in Buckland just to tear them down. He is merely following the path of other Buckland protectors.
Martha Leitch, who used to live in the old post office, started buying up Buckland properties in the 1950s, accumulating four houses, a tannery and 25 acres of the original town. Then she became ill and passed the job to Thomas Ashe, who had caught the bug in the 1970s, buying the old Buckland Tavern after he saw an article about its auction in the Washington Star.
"I was rather taken by it," said Ashe, 77. Soon he bought the house next door. Then he heard that the church was going to be replaced with a strip mall. So he bought that, too. Now he owns three houses, a church, a tavern, a schoolhouse, portions of Madison, Fayette, Jane and Elizabeth streets and half the old town green.
Neighbor Brian Mannix, 53, joined the club, buying the Buckland Mill, the miller's house and 43 other acres, including 4,000 feet of Broad Run itself.
All of them -- Blake, Leitch, Ashe, Wright and Mannix -- are prepared to give up development rights in order to preserve Buckland.
"What's special about Buckland?" Ashe said. "Well, it's been here a long time."
The Road
Although John Love's town of Buckland was a failure, the turnpike he helped build is a continuing, raging success. At peak times, 2,000 vehicles an hour whiz through the town at speeds of up to 70 mph.
As growth continues in the area, VDOT plans to increase the width of four-lane Route 29 to as many as eight lanes and upgrade its intersections. In the short term, the agency wants to replace the highway bridge over Broad Run, which was built in 1953. Early drafts called for widening the bridge by more than 50 percent, which would slice away what little space exists between the houses and the highway.
What Buckland preservationists want most is a bypass around the town, linking Route 29 to Interstate 66 west of Buckland.
"Why spend all this money on Route 29 when you could bypass all that to I-66, where 85 percent of the traffic is going anyway?" asked Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William).
"That may be in their plans, but it is not in ours," said Joan Morris, a VDOT spokeswoman. Blake and other Buckland advocates are meeting with state transportation officials this week to discuss the bridge project.
The Strategy
The strategy of Blake and Buckland boosters to save the town is multi-layered and sophisticated. First, research the town's history to bolster its significance. Get the historical groups and preservation societies on board. Partner with open space, environmental and Civil War groups. Try to get Buckland on as many "endangered" lists as possible. Enlist local politicians. Learn the arcane rules and language of planners and engineers, and learn what makes a town a town.
All this is new for the small band of Bucklanders, who have long relied only on themselves and were pleased to disappear into the woods and along the calm waters of Broad Run. But now that Buckland is threatened, they are ready to fight for their town.
They point out that for 200 years, residents quietly kept the town going. "We didn't ask for any money from the government. But if they [expand] the road here, it's all gone," Ashe said.
Buckland leaders point to an opinion from the state attorney general saying that the town charter is still in effect, since it was never formally rescinded by the General Assembly. Blake said it is just a matter of scheduling local elections. Whatever it takes, he said.
"Everything that's ever happened, happened here," Blake said. "Now if we could just move that bloody road."
