Lee Highway

Lee Highways is the second oldest paved road in Fairfax County.

History
The portion of Lee Highway that runs through the City of Fairfax and Fairfax County was part of a broader effort to connect Washington D.C. with the west coast.

At the time, what was known as Lee Highway is now known as Old Lee Highway (Rt. 237), and is east of the city. According to the Historical Fairfax City Inc., "what we now call Fairfax Boulevard (Rt. 50 & 29), between Fairfax Circle and Kamp Washington was also called Lee Highway when a 'cut-off", or bypass, around downtown Fairfax was constructed in 1931."

Fairfax citizens gathered at the Fairfax County Courthouse in March 1922 as the Robert E. Lee Memorial Highway would be adopted by the General Assembly. A local chapter of the Lee Highway Association, which were set up throughout the localities the highway passed through, was established in Fairfax.

Construction of the highway as it approached Fairfax was described in each weekly edition of the Fairfax Herald:


 * The widening of the highway at Campbell’s corner, where it will turn upon the Little River Pike, is about completed, and the grading force is now working in the vicinity of Mr. Harry Wilcoxen’s farm. At Campbell’s corner the roadway on one side was cut down about five feet and widened to 53 feet. The excavated material was dumped into the old railroad cut, south of the home of Mr. James U. Kincheloe, and on the street between the home of Mr. J.W. Birkett and the Willard property. In widening the roadway a number of maple trees, on the Kincheloe place, had to be removed. Dynamite was used to blow the roots out of the ground.

Lee Highway was constructed by the State Highway Commission, using the State Convict Road Force as labor. The workers were housed in "stick camps" as construction on each part of the highway was completed. Convicts were chained at night in their tents. Historical Fairfax City Inc. writes about where some of these camps were located: "There were at least three different camps along the route of Lee Highway in Fairfax County. The first was located at Camp Alger, the sight of the former Spanish-American War training camp near Falls Church. The second sight was located at Merrifield on Lee Highway at its intersection with Interstate 495. The Virginia Department of Transportation still maintains a small facility here. A third camp was located west of Fairfax near Shirley Gate Road on the north side of Lee Highway. This location was later used as a temporary prison camp for German prisoners of war during World War II. Additionally, this location became the first site of the semi-permanent State Prison Camp No. 30, or simply Camp 30. A camp for free laborers was located near the Hatmark School which stood on Lee Highway at the top of the hill just east of the City of Fairfax line."

Construction was completed November 11, 1924, and the opening of the Georgetown to Fairfax section of Lee Highway was on December 2 of that year.

Gillespie's Texaco, was Fairfax's first service station and was one of the first businesses in the city to be built along the newly completed Lee Highway. It stood on the NE corner of Lee Highway and Main Street.

As written in the Fairfax Herald on February 6, 1925:
 * Leveling the ground at the northeast intersection of the Lee Highway with Main street, for the purpose of putting up a modern filling station, is being pushed and several teams and a score of men are employed on the work. The excavated material is being taken to the old railroad cut, near the home of Mr. James U. Kincheloe, and is being there dumped. The house, now the property of Mr. Wilson M. Farr, is being moved back some distance to make room for the filling station which will be operated by Mr. B.S. Gillespie, and which, it is expected, will be ready for service by the time warm weather comes.