Cherry Hill Farmhouse

The Cherry Hill Farmhouse is a house museum in Falls Church, Virginia, United States. Built in 1845 in a Greek Revival architecture style, it belonged to wealthy farmer families until 1945, and in 1956 it became property of the City of Falls Church, which transformed it into a museum, as a historical building. Today, the Cherry Hill Farmhouse, along with other five such constructions in Falls Church City, is part of the National Register of Historic Places, as an important testimony of 19th century Victorian buildings in the area.HistoryThe house hosting the museum was built in ca 1845 as a farmstead in a Greek Revival architecture, and inclusive of a frame barn. Mr. William A. Blaisdell, who managed a stall in the nearby District of Columbia, purchased the house in 1856 as part of a 73-acre farm. It has long been name Cherry Hill because of the fruit orchards that surround the house, and many other farms in the area.From 1870 to 1945 the house belonged to the Riley family that were prominent in the village, and it was Joseph Riley that in 1875 lead the effort to petition the state for Falls Church to become a town. At that time the town included parts of Fairfax and Alexandria Counties (now call Arlington County). The Poet James Whitcomb Riley, a relative and visitor to the farm house, included in his poems references to the farmhouse and some of its residents. The farmhouse, barn, and outbuildings were bequeathed to the University of Virginia from 1945 that owned it until 1956 when the City of Falls Church purchased them along with the rest of the property bounded by Park Avenue, Little Falls Street, and Great Falls Street. The in the 1960s a number of local history lovers created the Friends of Cherry Hill to restore the house to the period and make a house museum to exhibit the lifestyle of the prosperous families of the area. It provides a very interesting glimpse of the pre-Civil War times in Falls Church and later in the Victorian Period. The docents provide the history of the house, the local area at the time and the connection to the national affairs. Nowadays the house is included within a 7-acre park.