Burke's Station

This building is the original Burke’s Station. Named for prominent local resident Silas Burke, it opened here in 1851 on the new Orange and Alexandria Railroad, which linked northern and central Virginia. John A. Marshall, first postmaster of the town later known as Burke, bought 50 acres here in 1852; he and his wife, Mary, who were significant in the community’s development, are buried in the Marshall Cemetery about 350 feet southeast. The Union army used the station as a storage and transportation depot during the Civil War, and it was the target of several Confederate raids, including one by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart in Dec. 1862. The railroad was rerouted about 800 feet to the north in 1903.