Two acres were purchased from John Trammell, a local landowner, and a carpenter named Richard Blackburn built a wooden church.
Not only was the Church of England-the official church of the Colony-wishing to make inroads in the vast wilderness of Northern Virginia, but the Colony's leaders wished to establish a beachhead of civilization as well. At that time churches were outposts of government as well as worship. In 1734 The Falls Church-as it came to be known-was founded at its present site adjacent to the intersection of the important Indian trails. By the 1730s these trails became important transportation routes. Indian trails meandered past the site of the 1699 cabin-an east-west one generally following the route of modern Broad Street, and one branching off from it to the Little Falls of the Potomac-today's Little Falls Street. No colonial-era land grants or land records have been unearthed reflecting upon this first home, and its origin remains uncertain. A cottage demolished between 19, two blocks from the city center, bore a stone engraved with the date "1699" set into one of its two large chimneys. The Colony of Virginia grew out of these explorations, and English settlers may have established themselves at the site of modern-day Falls Church as early as 1699. When he arrived there he noted "as for deer, buffaloes, bears and turkeys, the woods do swarm with them and the soil is extremely fertile." This reflected the fact that the river served as both a highway and location for trading.Ĭaptain John Smith of England was the first European to explore the Potomac as far as Little Falls. The word "Potomac" is Native American for "gathering place". Local inhabitants considered the Little Falls of the Potomac River as highly significant-it is the first "cataract", or barrier, to navigation on the river. Northern Virginia, before Europeans explored it, was firmly governed by the Iroquois Confederacy-a consortium of Native American nations and peoples including the Tauxenents, Patawomekes, and Matchotics.
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