Ashburn

Formerly, a bequeathed 4700 acres of 10,000 acres owned by former governor of Virginia, Thomas Lee in 1749 “between Goose Creek or Lee’s Creek and Broad Run” handed down to Thomas Ludwell Lee. 1236 acres of this land was eventually handed down to Dr. George Lee, a Leesburg physician, Thomas Lee’s great grandson upon his father’s death, Ludwell Lee of Belmont, in 1805.

In 1859, Dr. Lee’s estate, called Farmwell, granted the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad a right-of-way across the plantation. On January 16th, 1860, daily round-trip rail service had begun between the new “Farmwell Station” and Alexandria. (Scheel, Eugene M., p 47, Loudoun Discovered: Communities & Crossroads Volume One Eastern Loudoun: “Goin’ Down the Country”)

In 1841, John Janney, purchased a 580 acre tract of Farmwell west of Ashburn Road. Mr. Janney was an attorney in Leesburg who used his “Ashburn House” as a summer residence. Due to “sprawl” a village south of Farmwell sprang up and in the 1860’s people referred to the original as “Old Farmwell”. In 1896 the post office department felt that this name was to close in name to Farmville in Prince Edward County which had stood as a post office since1800. Therefore, Farmwell was changed in name to Ashburn. (Scheel, Eugene M., p 49.)

Today Ashburn (From Heritage Quest))has grown from a modest 150 residence to nearly 50,000 residence. Ashburn has premier golf courses, two Universities, and is conveniently located between Washington Dulles International Airport and Loudoun County Hospital. Ashburn is home to AOL, MCI, Equinix , the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) at Janelia Farm, and many other hi-tech corporations.

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