A Brief History Like much of Loudoun, Ashburn was originally part of the 10,000 acres of Thomas Lee's holdings granted him by the the sixth Lord Fairfax in 1719 and 1728. Handed down and broken up through inheritances, what is known as Ashburn today was in 1859 owned by Dr. George Lee, a Leesburg physician whose slaves farmed a 1,236 acre tract called Farmwell. Dr. Lee granted the railroads a right of way across his plantation and by 1860 daily round trip rail service connected a new station called Farmwell to Alexandria and gave the location a place along what has now become known as the W & OD Trail.
Another famous Ashburn founder, John Janney purchased a 580 acre trace from Dr. Lee in 1841. This house become Janney's summer home during the winters he lived in Leesburg where he practiced law. According to Eugene Scheel in his book Loudoun Discovered: Communities Corner and Crossroads, Janney nearly became president when the Virginian Whig Party was electing their leader. Janney tied with John Tyler of Charles City County and then in the revote lost by the loss of one vote. Tyler went on to be Vice-President and when William Henry Harrison died, President of the United States. Also according to Scheel, General Lee stopped by the Janney home en route to the fateful Battle of Antieram in Sept 1862.
Where the name Ashburn comes from has never been definitely settled. Some think that Ash trees near a "burn" or a stream, led to its name. But a more commonly heard story is the one of their being a lightening bolt that struck a large Ash tree in the area and (imagine this being said is somewhat of a a Virginian drawl) "...the Ash 'burned'" for many days.
Ashburn Today Evolving from the dairy farms of the early 1970s, Ashburn, Va is now a growing residential suburban neighborhood 30 miles west of Washington, DC in Loudoun County, Va. Ashburn has an estimated 48,230 citizens and several large planned residential developments including Ashburn Village, Ashburn Farm, Broadlands, Brambleton, Belmont Community Association, and Lansdowne Community. The population of Loudoun is very young (average age in the low 30s) and has a preponderance of young families. Every weekend the fields of Ashburn will be filled with games of soccer, baseball, softball, hockey or football.
Small remanents of old Ashburn still exist in the historic buildings along Ashburn Road next to the W&OD Trail. Partlow's store is still a landmark to locals and is a testament to the ingenuity of its various owners of the years as they have adapted the original "General Store" into various incarnations selling bait alongside video rentals and now thrives as an up-scale deli and butcher shop. The Ashburn Volunteer Fire & Rescue station is still staffed by community volunteers but has given up its air raid siren in favor of cell phones as their method of alerting volunteers to an emergency. Loudoun Hospital, the largest in Loudoun County is also located in Ashburn.
Ashburn is home to the training camp of the Washington Redskins football team, hosts a satellite campus of George Washington University and Strayer University, has many highly-rated golf courses, and is conveniently located to Washington Dulles International Airport. Much of the residential growth has been fueled by corporate employment in the area fueled by MCI world headquarters, Independence Air headquarters, Orbital Sciences and America Online's main campus and previous headquarters. In addition, Howard Hughes Medical Institute is building a major scientific research campus in northern Ashburn due to open in 2006.
