Welcome to the research page for Historic Blenheim.  We would like to keep you updated on our research and interpretation at our Civil War site and this is also an opportunity for you to engage with us.   

Where does the name Blenheim come from?   

The house today called Historic Blenheim was built for Albert and Mary Willcoxon in c. 1859.  An obituary written in 1903, following Mary Willcoxon’s death, stated that she died at her home “Blenheim” (Fairfax Herald, 11/27/1903, p. 3).  The Office of Historic Resources owns some mid-20^th century envelopes addressed to Blenheim as well, although most local people referred to the property as the Willcoxon Farm or Willcoxon Place..

A possible source for the name:

Have you heard of Blenheim Palace in England?  It was a gift to the Duke of Marlborough, whose last name was Churchill, after he helped win the Battle of Blindheim (in present day Germany) in 1704.  He anglicized it to Blen-hum, the way we pronounce the site’s name today.

It is not unusual for towns and estates for being named after well-known people and events.  In Virginia, there have been several estates in the 18^th and 19^th centuries named Blenheim.

Blenheim property’s in Virginia:

There were 6 historic Blenheim properties in Virginia, although some no longer exist:

1. Westmoreland County, 1781. https://www.blenheimorganicgardens.org/

   Blenheim is the plantation next to Pope’s Creek Plantation, birthplace of George Washington. The simple late Georgian dwelling here was built in 1781 for William Augustine Washington, son of George Washington’s half-brother, as a successor to the Pope’s Creek house, which burned on Christmas Day, 1779. Today it is a CSA farm still in the Washington family.

2. Albemarle County, c. 1846  https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/002-0005/   Named after the family seat of the Duke of Marlborough, the ancestors of Winston Churchill, the Virginia estate is a registered historic landmark.  Blenheim was originally part of a 9,350 acre Crown grant made in 1730 to John "King" Carter. After a fire destroyed the original house, it was rebuilt as a one-story Gothic Revival cottage in 1846 by Andrew Stevenson, a speaker of the House and ambassador to the Court of St. James.  Today Blenheim Vineyards is a popular vineyard and event site owned by singer Dave Matthews on 175 acres in Albemarle County.

3. Campbell County, c. 1828 https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/015-0066/  Campbell County is in south central Virginia and is in private ownership.  “The  construction date of Blenheim is uncertain, although a sharp increase in tax assessment in 1828 suggests that it was improved in that year for William Jones. The place acquired its present name after its purchase in 1869 by John Devereaux in a fit of admiration for the defeat of Louis XIV of France” (Battle of Blindheim.) 
4. Powhatan County Ballsville, 1750-1799, 1800-1824, 1825-1849 .https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/42/6826/41682642/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/86003475.pdf Private ownership.  “Blenheim is significant as one of the earliest extant dwellings in Powhatan County. Sited on land patented in 1730 by the prominent 18th-century Virginia surveyor, Major William Mayo, Blenheim portrays the development of a vernacular cottage constructed by Mayo's son and enlarged by his grandson and subsequent owners into a principal family seat. Vestiges of the 18th-century construction and two major early 19th-century additions together comprise its U-shaped form, a rare plan-type in Virginia for the period. Conscious efforts were made to give Blenheim a general air of classical symmetry and uniformity through scale, massing, and fenestration. The sophisticated Greek Revival interior is a particularly stylish treatment for its time and locale.”
5.  Caroline County, c. 1745.   https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/CE-021_Historic-AH_Survey_Caroline_Co_1991_TRACERIES_report_cost-share.pdfIn private ownership,  Blenheim was a Georgian-style mansion for Zachary Taliaferro. Associated VDHR Theme: Domestic Interior.  Blenheim is located on land that was part of  Crown grant to the Taliaferro family of Caroline County. The house was built co 1745.…”

Our primary focus areas of research are:

1) Union Soldier Graffiti

Our site interpretation is about the common soldier and  the impact of this most divisive event in our nation's history on these individuals.  Why were they on this farm? where were they from? What were there thoughts about the war? What were there wartime and post war time experience?  

Historic Blenheim was purchased by the City of Fairfax in 1999, due to the soldier graffiti that covered the walls of the c. 1859 house attic.  Since that time, wallpaper and paint have been removed to uncover additional, names, regiments, hometowns, dates, sayings and drawings.  We have positively identified 123 Union soldiers and are exploring more technical ways to read some of the more illegible writings.  Soldiers Signatures .   We are working with new technologies.  Learn about current investigations in "Revealing Secrets Behind the Paint"

Watch this video for a summary of the current work for our conservation grant from the NPS's National Center for Preservation, Technology, and Training.  If you are interested in being a part of the crowdsourcing to review and decipher images please contact: andrea.loewenwarter@fairfaxva.gov.

2) Fairfax Courthouse area before during and after the Civil War, particularly the effects on the village and its inhabitants.  The primary local family associated with our site is the Willcoxons, but we also include women family members married to the Farrs, Sweenys, Hoags, Watkins, and Burkes (Newman) and women married to the Willcoxons (DeNeale, Eskridge [Charles], Dye, Triplett, Weir.) 

Albert and Mary (Eskridge) Willcoxon were the owners of what is now Historic Blenheim: originally 367 acres of land purchased by Albert from his father, Rezin Willcoxon, owner of the Willcoxon Tavern across from the Fairfax Courthouse.   Lewis Lee, an enslaved man working at the tavern,  was either the son or grandson of Rezin.  Lewis Lee ran away, but after the Civil War he returned to Fairfax Courthouse married to an Irishwoman, Ellen, with a young daughter, Mary. He owned land, lost it due to debt, sold it, and moved to Alexandria.

 3)  Enslaved People of African Descent

As stated above, Lewis Lee was enslaved  man and a Willcoxon family member, To hear more about his story of survival tune in to Volunteer Wes Boutchard (and former FCPS high school teacher) as he speaks about his research and findings.

Albert Willcoxon and his wife, Mary owned 6 enslaved people in 1860: 4 men: ages 65, 30, 22, and 17.  We have identified Henson Smith, age 65 and James Seals, age 30 (and have traced some of his descendants with his wife, Milly Seals, age 35, who was also owned by the Willcoxon family.)  We do not know the identity of the 12-year old enslaved girl.