Prince William County Historical Society

03/21/2026

David Cuff is on stage highlighting historic photographs from Prince William County at the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation’s History Symposium. He kicked off the session with an exciting announcement - Historic Prince William is updating its name to Prince William County Historical Society. We’ll be refreshing our content and logo soon, stay tuned!

03/16/2026

We hope to see you Saturday at the Prince William/Manassas History Symposium. If you missed out on a ticket, recordings will be available. Looking forward to a great event!

The 11th Annual Prince William/Manassas History Symposium is officially sold out! We're excited for the program this upcoming Saturday, March 21st when speakers will explore Prince William County's unique past and role throughout the centuries, from the 1776 New York Campaign to the 2002 Beltway Sniper attacks.

If you missed out on a ticket to the Symposium but are interested in the lectures, don't worry: each lecture will be recorded and posted later to our YouTube page.

Thank you to City of Manassas Virginia Parks, Culture & Recreation, Historic Prince William, the Prince William Historic Preservation Foundation, and the Prince William County Historical Commission for their continued support of this program.

02/26/2026

What should our new website logo feature?

Next month we plan to change our name to Prince William County Historical Society. This change will normalize our name to match the naming convention of other historical societies in the area, state, and country.

Our current logo is somewhat of a mystery to us. It was drawn decades ago and contains a scene unrelated to Prince William County.

Our new logo will likely have a similar ring around a circle shape with the words "Prince William County Historical Society". Since our great county is the only one named Prince William, Virginia will likely be left out of the logo but will be mentioned on our website and page.

Inside the outer ring could and should be some graphical element that represents our county. Prince William County is diverse in history, geography, people, and architecture. We don't own and property or buildings, all the great structural landmarks in the county are owned by the county government or by private owners and choosing just one would be a disservice to the many others. The county is unique in landscape with the Potomac to the east and Bull Run Mountains to the west but our focus has been more of the human element of history such as buildings, events, places, cemeteries, and people. We do a lot, and would like to and hope to do more with cemeteries. The restoration of decapitated cemeteries is what we really like so it seems fitting to feature a cemetery or headstone in our logo while trying to convey we have many more interests. It's not an easy task to choose.

So, what would you put in the logo of a historical society representing all of Prince William County?

02/06/2026

The Bennett School building next to the county courthouse in Manassas is threatened with demolition by the Prince William County Board of Supervisors. Below is a copy of the letter we sent to the board urging the restoration and reuse of the structure.

01/09/2026

This 1927 photo of the Fire Station in Quantico was taken just 10 years after the military started using the area for training. This photo was sent to us by a gentleman in Michigan. If you happen to find old pictures of Prince William County, we would sure like to see them.

11/18/2025

We're excited for Thursday's lecture featuring our own - Kate Bitely! She'll be talking about the complexities of Vigilante Justice. We'll see you in Occoquan at 7 p.m.

📢 Last Program of the 2025 Prince William Lecture Series!
Join us next Thursday, November 20:

🕰 7–8:30 p.m.
📍 Occoquan Town Hall, 314 Mill St, Occoquan, VA
💵 FREE Admission

“Vigilante Justice in Prince William County”
with historian Kate Bitely

In the late 19th century, Prince William County witnessed a shocking episode of vigilante justice after a group of tenant farmers were accused of robbery and murder. As tensions rose and trust in the justice system faltered, a violent mob took matters into its own hands — with tragic consequences.

Join Kate Bitely as she explores this grim chapter of local history, shedding light on the struggles of tenant farmers, the limits of law enforcement at the time, and the dangers of mob mentality.

This free lecture is jointly sponsored by the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation and Historic Prince William.

📞 For more information, call 703-792-1731

Historic Prince William

09/12/2025

It’s possible there are counties in this country that don’t change much over 50 years. But, there’s only one Prince William County and the eastern side has seen tremendous change since 1975, the date of this map. This map shows Woodbridge only about 10 years after the Hylton Group began building it. The map shows just two sections of Dale City built out. Early portions of Lake Ridge are built and the Woodbridge Airport is shown. Montclair was then known as Country Club Lake and was a weekend recreation destination for people who lived in or close to DC. This map was purchased at a yard sale last weekend in Brentsville.

07/10/2025

Volunteers will be working on Quantico Baptist Church Cemetery this Saturday at 9am (July 12). There is a lot of vegetation to cut and a large tree branch fell and might have damaged a headstone so we will be removing the branch and inspecting for damage. If you’d like to see our process for cemetery maintenance, please join us. Parking is on site or across the street. There will be no headstone cleaning this time.
The location is the intersections of Joplin and Aden roads in Independent Hill. Google maps has the address as Joseph Road. The map location below is correct.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/S4SD5Q1gj481HrW79

Even though it's summer it's best to cover as much of your skin as possible when working on a rural cemetery. Boots, long pants, long sleeve shirts, hats, and gloves are best.

Older picture of location and what it will look like when we are done.

06/27/2025

White Hall Cemetery in Nokesville and Greenwood Presbyterian Cemetery in Dale City are looking good this year thanks to a very generous sponsorship by Reddick & Sons, Inc. The sponsorship covers ten mows of the large grass areas at each cemetery which will cover the maintenance through the end of the year. This sponsorship allows volunteers from our group to focus on more technical cleanups and restorations. We would like to thank Danny, Meaghan, and their team at Reddick & Sons, Inc. for the continued support of the community and projects related to preserving historic resources.

05/21/2025

Hi ! We are hosting a volunteer cemetery maintenance project at the Keys Cemetery on Brentsville Road this Sunday at 9am. The cemetery is behind the Brentsville Superette at 12325 Bristow Rd, Bristow, VA 20136. The driveway on the left side of the building will lead you to the cemetery. There is plenty of parking so please do not park in the store's parking lot. Additional parking is available at Brentsville Courthouse Historic Centre just up the road with a trail leading to the cemetery (see image with lines).
If you'd like to join us and are able to bring a push mower and/or w**d whacker that would be great. There is plenty to do without tools and we will have extras to share.
This cemetery just needs sticks picked up, trimming around the stones, and the grass mowed. There will be no stone cleaning or repairs being performed.
If you attend, please wear long pants, long sleeves, boots, and gloves. Ear and eye protection is recommended and ear plugs will be available. Please bring water and snacks if you'll need them.
In the image with lines, the white line area is the cemetery, the red line area is parking on the access road, and the blue line area and line is parking and the trail leading to the cemetery.

04/23/2025

Great turnout at Sip of History featuring our very own David Cuff to discuss historic county cemeteries. We’ll be back in the fall for more so stay tuned! Thanks to Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation and Water's End Brewery for putting on a great event!