Buckland Historic District
Historic town Established in 1798

The district's focal point is a gristmill which was constructed in 1899 and is believed to be the third mill constructed on this site. The mill is surrounded by a dozen buildings dating from the mid- to late-19th century, now almost all residential, which once served a variety of commercial uses for the community. Buckland was also significant for its prominent position as a wagon stop on the main east-west road between Alexandria and Warrenton, and was visited by Lafayette on his farewell tour of the United States in 1824.

The water for the mill race was fed by Broad Run, which flows by immediately to the north. Also included in the district is an early-19th-century tavern and a small mid-19th-century church. These buildings, in addition to several residential dwellings, sustain the village's historic character.

On October 19, 1863 Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. J. Kilpatrick pursued Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry along the Warrenton Turnpike but were lured into an ambush near Buckland Mills and routed.  The Federal troopers were scattered and chased five miles in an affair that came to be known as the Battle of Buckland Mills or "Buckland Races." The battle was among the Confederate cavalry's last victories of the Civil War.

African American Presence
Free and enslaved African Americans worked in the industries, homes, and on the farms of this prosperous stagecoach and industrial community. Samuel King, a free man of color purchased his wife and manumitted her in 1811. She operated the tollhouse on the turnpike in Buckland. Ned Distiller, a free man of color, operated the distillery in town and owned a home in Buckland in 1820. By 1835, according to the Virginia Gazetteer, the population numbered 185 people, 50 of them black.

More Buckland history » [A PDF document]