Upcoming Meetings
Upcoming meetings for active members of the society will be posted here and on our Calendar!
Monday, Sept. 14, 6 p.m. (room doors open at 5:30)
GMU Fairfax campus, Fenwick Library, Main Reading Room
Richard MacMaster, an expert on George Mason and author or co-author of many books, will be our guest speaker. He also is a new member of our historical society. He will discuss his book, The Five George Masons: Patriots and Planters of Virginia and Maryland.
Previous Meetings
June 13, 2026, 1:00pm
City of Fairfax Regional Library.
Annual Meeting with Election of Officers and Three Board of Director Members. Elections will be held to select all officers and 4 board members. Historian Mary Lipsey will present Breaking Down Barriers: An African American History Inventory.
May 9, 2026 1pm
Historic Oakton Schoolhouse
Society historian and board member George Oberle, PhD, will discuss his new book Creating an Informed Citizenry: Knowledge and Democracy in the Early American Republic.
April 18, 2026 8:30am-4pm
Fairfax County History Commission conference with partners HSFC, Fairfax County Park Authority, Fairfax 250, and GMU.
March 28, 2026 1pm
Colvin Run Mill, Great Falls, VA
Cosponsored with Friends of the Colvin Run Mill. Society member and archaeologist Emily Smith presents To Make Holiday: Identifying the Presence and Practice of Alcohol Consumption on the Ancient Egyptian Colonial Frontier. Tour the mill after the program.
February 19, 2026 5:30-6:30pm
Fenwick Library, George Mason University
Cosponsored with George Mason University’s Center for Mason Legacies. At GMU’s Fenwick Library, Room 1014A. David Armstrong discusses his research on Elizabeth Hooe. Jasper Ramsay will talk about George Mason and the early justices of the Fairfax County Court. Visitor parking at Mason Pond parking (closest) or Rappahannock River Parking Deck (Patriot Circle)
January 24, 2026, 11:00am
Historic Pleasant Grove Church and Museum. 8641 Lewinsville Rd. McLean, VA.
Short meeting and museum tour.
December 6, 2025 2pm
Historic Oakton Schoolhouse
The Historical Society of Fairfax County is hosting historian Susan Hellman to discuss her documentation on The Negro Travelers’ Green Book. Due to its centralized location along the mid-Atlantic coast, Virginia maintained a major presence in The Green Book from 1938 to 1967. Virginia was a destination and a point of departure, as well as a place to pass through when traveling between northern and southern states.
November 1, 2025, 10:30am
Legato School and Museum (on Chain Bridge Road on Fairfax Court House grounds)
Legato School and Museum Meeting. Historical Society members meet with Fairfax County Retired Educators and Historic Schoolhouses of Northern Virginia to discuss possibilities for the school’s future.
September 27, 2025 11am
City of Fairfax Regional Library
Andrew Snowman, GMU Masters student in History will present his research – “Policing of Black Bodies in Antebellum Fairfax County: Slave Patrols and the 1840 Rescue at Spring Bank”
June 29, 2025, 12:00pm
First Baptist Church of Merrifield, 8122 Ransell Rd Falls Church, VA
Annual meeting featuring book launch for Marion Dobbins’s book “The Lost Black Communities of Merrifield, the Pines and Williamstown.”
June 14, 2025 10am-2pm
Old Town Square Fairfax, VA
A free event to celebrate Juneteenth National Independence Day, the day in 1865 when enslaved people near Galveston, Texas first learned they were free. Historical Society of Fairfax County, VA Inc will have a table the event!
May 27, 2025, 7:00pm
Board Meeting
May 3, 2025 10am-2pm
Historic Schoolhouse Day! A day of fun and educational activities to promote the awareness of the historic schoolhouses in Northern Virginia. All HSNVA schoolhouse locations (Ashburn not open on May 3)
April 26, 2025 10am-4pm
Historic Blenheim
Celebrate history and our planet! This city event combines living history presenters with Earth Day through interactive activities, crafts, presentations, tours, and more! There’s so much to do and explore at HisTree Day! Meet an early 19th-century scientist and ogle at his preserved specimens or learn how today’s stormwater management technology helps protect our planet. You can even take a guided tour of the Blenheim property or check out the interactive Enviroscape to see what it reveals about our earth. There are tons ways to get some hands one experience too by making your own Earth Day themed cookies, blowing sustainable bubbles, and more!
January 28, 2025 6:30-8pm
Mary Riley Styles Public Library Falls Church, VA
Join Edwin Bancroft Henderson II for a presentation on the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation’s effort to create and develop the Tinner Hill Historic and Cultural District and other efforts to preserve the rich African American and Civil Rights legacy in the City of Falls Church.
June 23, 2024, 2:00pm
Freeman Store- 131 Church Street NE Vienna, VA
Meet at the front porch of the Freeman Store. We will have our annual meeting, leadership election, and will end with a short tour of the Little Library (164 Mill St NE)!
May 4, 2024, 1-3pm
City of Fairfax Regional Library, Meeting Rooms A and B
Edwin B. Henderson II, grandson of the renowned local civil rights leader, will speak about the new biography he has written about his grandfather entitled The Grandfather of Black Basketball: The Life and Times of Dr. E. B. Henderson.
Henderson organized the first athletic league for Blacks, introduced basketball to Black people on a wide-scale, organized basis, and founded associations to train and organize Black officials and referees. Outside of athletics, Henderson was instrumental in founding the first rural branch of the NAACP, advocated for school desegregation, and held executive board positions with multiple NAACP branches. Books will be available for sale.
George Mason University Fenwick Library
Main Reading Room
June 24, 2023
A Doeg Boy, Fugitive Woman, and Plantation Mistress
Graduate Student Research Presentations
Visitor Parking at GMU:
Fenwick Library is No. 22 on the map.
Rappahannock River and Mason Pond parking decks are closest to Fenwick. There may also be parking meters and accessible parking.
The City of Fairfax Regional Library
March 12, 2023
The Quanders: Since 1684, an Enduring African American Legacy
Speaker: Retired Judge Rohulamin Quander
AND
April 23, 2023
The Jewish Community in Northerm Virginia
Speakers: Shawn & Susan Dilles