  In the beginning was the land. It drew human life to our rich area of Fairfax County, and sustained us for centuries before we became so self-conscious about it as to make household language of words such as ecology and bio-degradable waste. This is where we are at, however, and thus it is thoroughly appropriate that the publication of historical research reports in this format, a new program for Fairfax County, should commence with a study of the Green Spring Farm. There is no better site for an example, probably, to illustrate the early patterns of life on the agricultural land of Fairfax County as well as to follow the changes and pressures that have come about through war, depression, boom, and technological change down to the present. Anyone familiar with the history of this parcel of land, the Green Spring Farm, will be familiar with a great deal of the history of Fairfax County—told not so much in terms of its famous and powerful people as in terms of those who drew sustenance directly from the land. This report is published under authority of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Fairfax. It is one result of a program of historical site survey and research carried on by the Fairfax County Division of Planning in cooperation with the Fairfax County History Commission. The original selection of Green Spring Farm as a research topic was made by the Fairfax County Historical Landmarks Preservation Commission, Bayard D. Evans, Chairman, the predecessor of the present History Commission as the chief historical agency of the County Government. Reproduction of the material in this report is invited, subject to the customary credit to author and publisher. John Porter Bloom April 1970 |
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