Burke Historical Society meeting

Please join us at our general meeting, 4:00 p.m., Sunday, September 25th.  Mary Lipsey will be speaking about Brimstone Hill (Arundel’s Tavern).

***Sunday’s meeting will NOT be at the Silas Burke House.  Instead, we will meet at the Ponds Community Center, 9837 Burke Pond Lane, Burke, VA 22015.***

Mary Lipsey spent 29 years teaching seventh grade American History at Lake Braddock Secondary School.  She has been a volunteer docent for the American History Museum of the Smithsonian since 1980 and for the National Archives since 2004.  Her interest in local history has found outlets through co-authoring Braddock’s True Gold, writing articles on local history and women’s history, and speaking to senior citizens groups.  She has been a member of A Look Back at Braddock project which promotes historical events for the residents in Braddock District.  She is president of the non-profit organization Fairfax County Cemetery Preservation Association, Inc., whose goal is to preserve and protect family cemeteries in Fairfax County.

Brimstone Hill is the large white home at the intersection of Burke Lake Road and Route 123 in Fairfax Station, dating to circa 1820.  In 1839, Charles Arundel purchased the twelve-acre property and acquired a license to operate a tavern. In 1848, the tavern became a polling place for elections. In 1850, Arundel enlarged the building to include an inn and a store, which thrived until the latter part of the nineteenth century. During the Civil War, Confederate raider, John Arundel, was killed on his family property and buried there.