In 1833, West Ford — a freed slave — bought 214 acres of land in Northern Virginia and founded the oldest free-sustained African American community in Fairfax County known as Gum Springs.
“A Black man in Northern Virginia, buying property in 1833? That just didn’t happen,” said Ronald L. Chase, president of the Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum.
Almost 200 years later, more than 2,500 Gum Springs residents, many descendants of original families, are fighting to preserve their home.
In 2021, community members with the Gum Springs Civic Association and the Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum teamed up using county funds to begin a heritage resources study for the community.
Chase said the goal of the study is to eventually have Gum Springs established as a Historic Overlay District (HOD).
For years, community members in Gum Springs have fought to preserve their space from developments on and along Richmond Highway, gentrification and booming housing markets.
“We just had a developer who wanted to come in and build $68 million townhomes in the community, which would actually have to be the demise of the community,” Chase said. “I really think there’s a possibility for it to come back, again, because the longer we take to get this [HOD] in place, the greater the possibilities of developers or contractors coming in and diminishing the importance of maintaining this rural atmosphere of this 214 acres.”
On Tuesday, May 28, a community meeting will be held at the Gum Springs Community Center where residents can learn about Gum Springs’ past and how to help preserve it for future generations.
“We need to inform the people who have the power — the homeowners — the power is in their hands,” Chase said. “And if they do not understand the dynamics of what’s going on, then the community could very well cease to exist because the county is probably trying to turn half of Gum Springs into commercial [land].”
Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck is hosting Tuesday’s meeting in conjunction with the New Gum Springs Civic Association and the Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum.
He said another goal of the meeting is to help identify as much of Gum Spring’s history as possible.
“[We will] identify key individuals who are still in the community that could share their oral histories, look at buildings and identify those that are particularly historically important and relevant,” Storck said. “And then, thankfully, identify and secure ways to ensure that those people and buildings and those ideas that helped establish and keep the community together for almost 200 years are protected and preserved.”
