Established on Pope’s Head Creek in southwestern Fairfax County, the tidy community of Clifton developed between 1868 and 1910 through the impetus of New York immigrant Harrison G. Otis. Otis purchased land parcels around the depot of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and in 1869 became postmaster of the new U. S. Post Office named Clifton. He promoted the settlement by opening roads, developing a sawmill, and building the Clifton Hotel, a residential and resort hostelry. In barely a decade the town had acquired churches, a school, shops, and a gristmill. By 1910 Clifton had 200 residents. Growth all but ceased after 1910 with the exhaustion of pulpwood supplies, which affected Clifton’s wood industries. With some sixty buildings, Clifton today preserves a near-perfect image of an early 1900s village. Set in shady yards, the Clifton Historic District’s wooden houses employ a variety of straightforward vernacular forms. Picket fences abound.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia