Significant Places in the Waterford, Virginia National Historic District

The town of Waterford in Loudoun County, Virginia is a remarkably intact example of an early 19th-century rural village surrounded by historic farmland. Its quiet shady streets remain lined with examples of different historic architecture styles that used a variety of materials including brick, stone, and log. Waterford still imbues the same ambiance that characterized it during its heyday as a flour milling town in the 19th century.

The Waterford Mill, located at the intersection of Main and First Streets in the village of Waterford, Virginia, played a central role in the economic development of the town.

The Fairfax Meetinghouse is part of the Waterford Historic District in Waterford, Virginia. The Quakers who founded Waterford constructed a log meetinghouse on this site around 1741. In 1939, architect Allen McDaniel converted the Fairfax Meetinghouse into a dwelling in an early example of adaptive reuse.

The Second Street School in Waterford’s Historic District was constructed in 1867 to serve the town’s African American children, making it among the oldest one-room school buildings in Loudoun County, and a highly intact example of this important building type. This small school and church building powerfully illustrates the importance of churches, schools, and even cemeteries to African Americans in the Southern and border states after the Civil War.