Historic Blenheim

Historic Blenheim is a ca. 1859 brick farm house designed in the Greek Revival style and located in City of Fairfax, Virginia. During the American Civil War, Union soldiers were often encamped on the grounds surrounding the house and utilized it as part of a reserve hospital system. As a result, more than 115 of these soldiers inscribed words and pictures on the first and second floor walls, as well as the attic of the house. Blenheim was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2001.Early historyThe original owner of the land on which the Blenheim estate is currently located was Captain Rezin Samuel Willcoxon, a veteran of the War of 1812 who, in the early nineteenth century, began to accumulate much land in what is present-day Fairfax, Virginia. At one point, Willcoxon owned over one-thousand acres of land in the area. Rezin married his first wife, Elizabeth DeNeale, in 1805. The couple would have ten children. Elizabeth died in 1845, but in 1851 Willcoxon remarried. His new bride was Fanny Halley Bell.During the year 1850, according to the U.S. Agricultural Census, Rezin Willcoxon was farming approximately four-hundred acres of the land he owned. His livestock was estimated to be worth $899, and his farm produced wheat, Indian corn, and Irish potatoes. In April 1854, Rezin’s son, Albert T. purchased a large tract of land from his father. It is assumed at this point he had taken over operation of the family farm and had established residency at the farmhouse on the property. According to the Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, fire destroyed the farmhouse early in 1855, and evidence suggests the house which stands on the property today was built to replace it. Since the brick bonding for each of the exterior walls is not consistent with the foundation, the new house may have been built on the foundation of the previous house.