Preserving History as the Suburbs Creep Closer

To the average motorist, Brentsville is one of those pass-through communities -- hardly noticed, quickly forgotten on the way to somewhere else.

"I've counted 100 cars in five minutes, in what is supposed to be a 35-mile-an-hour zone," George Reeves said as he looked out onto two-lane Bristow Road. Since 1971, Reeves has owned the Brentsville Superette, where he dishes out homemade chili, barbecue and hamburgers "that fit the bun."

Behind the scenes, however, Brentsville's story is being unearthed, recreated and preserved, even if few drivers slow down long enough to notice. The sliver of a community in the center of Prince William County was the county seat from 1822 to 1894, so it was an economic magnet for residents of the then-rural area.

Restoration is well underway on key structures, including the county's oldest surviving courthouse and a jail, both built in 1822, and a one-room schoolhouse built in 1928. The goal is to create a multifaceted center for education, historical research and historical appreciation in a county that becomes more suburban by the day.

Today's Brentsville has no stoplights, no post office, one worn general store, two small but active churches, a handful of 1800s-era farmhouses and still a smattering of farm animals. Guinea hens run back and forth across one sparsely traveled lane.

Mike and Barbara Janay found their century-old farmhouse advertised on an index card at Quantico Marine Base in 1976. Barbara, a nurse and massage therapist, longed to raise sheep and figured that Brentsville was the perfect place. The Janays also lend part of their 4.3 acres to local 4-H members who raise goats, chickens and rabbits.

Harry Schockley, a former radar operator for the Air Force, raised six children in Brentsville. "My children and grandkids can tell you any kind of tree there is," he boasted.

Schockley, now in his seventies, can usually be found tending a large garden on a neighbor's property or heading to a favorite fishing hole with his great-grandson, 6.

He strides briskly along the lanes, often walking five miles a day, pointing out an active red-tailed hawk nest that has been in the same location for decades, or a spot where he killed 15 copperheads a few years ago, or a hidden overgrown cemetery where a Civil War soldier is buried.

While the county is undergoing major changes, Gladys Eanes's life epitomizes the stability that some long-term residents have found in Brentsville. Eanes lives a few doors away from where she was born in 1928 and across the street from the church, built circa 1872, where she was married in 1948.

Her 1820s house is diagonally across from the one-room schoolhouse she attended from first through fifth grade, where she now shares her stories with visiting schoolchildren. While she knows every inch of the community, Eanes is not sure how many residences make up Brentsville. "When you've lived somewhere all your life, you don't count houses, you just do what needs to be done," she said.

What needs to be done -- and what Eanes and others are doing under the umbrella of the Brentsville Historic Centre Trust -- is preserving the history found in the community's original 24-acre center. Under its soil, within its buildings and plucked from Brentsville's oral history, clues to the past are being sorted out by historians, archaeologists and volunteers, with the help of federal and state grants and through contributions from individuals and corporations.

In the early 1800s, Brentsville transitioned from tobacco farming to grain. Mills lined Broad Run and wheat flour was shipped to Alexandria, a busy port.

By 1835, the town had 130 residents, two taverns and three general stores. Excavations in 1999 by students from the University of Mary Washington found evidence of a blacksmith shop and tavern. Travelers could have horses shod while they grabbed a drink, said Robin Meyering, curriculum specialist for the county schools and a key researcher for the Friends of Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre. Others with courthouse business would stay overnight in one of the tavern's 22 rooms.

Because it is close to Manassas Junction, the town suffered considerable damage during the Civil War. Many of Brentsville's young men were conscripted into the 4th Virginia Cavalry and the 49th Virginia Infantry Regiment.

Descendants of Brentsville's early residents still have ties to the community today, with family names including Keys, Craig, Williams, Shoemaker, Hooe and Dawe. "The level of pride here is contagious," Meyering said.

Former resident Verona Craig, who will be 100 in October, attended classes in the courthouse building, which became a public school in 1894. Three runs -- Broad, Cedar and Kettle -- ring the community like a moat, so after heavy rains her route to class entailed being carried across an overflowing stream by a helpful neighbor, she recalled during a recent interview.

Naturally there are legends passed down through generations, some more fun than accurate. No, that's not a hanging tree outside the jailhouse. (There might have been a hanging tree, but that's not it.)

Some say Betty Machen's large white brick house across from the Presbyterian church was used as a Civil War hospital. While that's possible, no supporting documentation has been found. No matter what the house's pedigree, there are still ghost stories. Machen, a resident since 1959, said her family and friends have seen floating white fog move briskly through the parlors and hallways. Nonetheless, Machen said the house, with its random-width pine flooring and intricate woodwork, "has a different warmth when you walk in -- different from a normal house."

Carl Lounsbury, an architectural historian with the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and a consultant on recreating the courthouse's interior, confirmed that the diamond-shaped mark on the rear wall indicates the location of a chief magistrate's chair in the grand style of those used in the state's House of Burgesses.

Through hands-on history programs and a summer camp, residents are helping middle school and high school children in the county participate in archaeological digs. Laura Wyatt, a history teacher and a member of the Brentsville friends' group, will be leading a dig on the Dawe tavern site.

Brentsville's small stretch of Bristow Road is designated a historic byway, providing some protection from development, but the dairy and turf farms that stretch beyond each end of the community are fair game.

Eanes recognizes the prospect that those properties will all eventually be developed as 10-acre estate lots. She said, "My children's children will never know the joy of living in a small community."

Today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the Friends of Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre plans to hold its annual chili cook-off near the courthouse, at 12239 Bristow Rd. Archaeology students from C.D. Hylton High School will lead walking tours of the community.