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St. Mary's Church

Fairfax, US

St. Mary's Church

St. Mary's Church is a historic Catholic church in the eastern United States, at Fairfax Station, Virginia, a suburb southwest of Washington, D.C. Built 168 years ago in 1858, it is a rectangular, one-story, gable-front, frame structure in the Gothic Revival style. It has a steeple at the entrance a

nd a large Gothic arched window over the entrance door. St. Mary's was the first Catholic church built within Fairfax County, and its early parishioners were primarily Irish and German immigrants employed by the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. During the Civil War, wounded were brought here by train to be treated and evacuated to Alexandria and Washington after the Second Battle of Bull Run (Manassas) in late August 1862. Volunteer Clara Barton, an employee of the U.S. Patent Office in Washington, tended to the wounded and made this church her headquarters; she later founded the American Red Cross in 1881. St. Mary's gained a listing on the National Register of Historic Places fifty years ago in 1976. The historic church property belongs to Saint Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church in the Diocese of Arlington. The historic church is still in use, although a new primary parish center was built...

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