The City of Falls Church is an independent city in Virginia , United States, in the Washington Metropolitan Area . The city population was 12,332 in 2010, [ 1 ] up from 10,377 in 2000. [ 4 ] Taking its name from The Falls Church , an 18th-century Anglican parish, Falls Church gained township status within Fairfax County in 1875. In 1948, it was incorporated as the City of Falls Church, an independent city with county-level governance status. [ 5 ] It is also referred to as Falls Church City. The city's corporate boundaries do not include all of the area historically known as Falls Church; these areas include Seven Corners and other portions of the current Falls Church postal districts of Fairfax County , as well as the area of Arlington County known as East Falls Church, which was part of the town of Falls Church from 1875 to 1936. [ 6 ] For statistical purposes, the US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the City of Falls Church with Fairfax City and Fairfax County .

 

According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 2.2 square miles (5.2 km²), all of it land. The center of the city is the crossroads of Virginia State Route 7 (W. Broad St./Leesburg Pike) and U. S. Route 29 (Washington St./Lee Highway).

The Tripps Run watershed drains two-thirds of the City of Falls Church, while the Four Mile Run watershed drains the other third. Four Mile Run flows at the base of Minor's Hill , which overlooks Falls Church on its north, and Upton's Hill , which bounds the area to its east. [ 7 ]

Falls Church is the smallest independent city, by area, in Virginia. Since independent cities in Virginia are considered county-equivalents, it is also the smallest county-equivalent in the United States by area.

[ edit ] History

Main article: History of Falls Church

When the City of Falls Church was incorporated in 1948, its boundaries included only the central portion of the area historically known as Falls Church; [ 8 ] those other areas, often still known as Falls Church (although they lie in Fairfax and Arlington Counties), are considered here for historical reasons.

[ edit ] Sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

In the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the area of present-day Falls Church was part of the Algonquian -speaking world, outside the fringes of the powerful Powhatan paramount chiefdom to the south. It was part of the Anacostan chiefdom, centered on the lower Anacostia River near present-day Washington, D.C. ( John Smith visited them in 1608); the Anacostans were organized under the Piscataway paramount chiefdom (not part of the Powhatan alliance), which by the 1630s claimed to have had thirteen successive rulers. [ 9 ] Tauxenent/ Doegs , who had shifted politically from Powhatan's alliance to Iroquois alliances, [ 10 ] migrated physically into the Piscataway territories in the 1660s. [ 11 ]

The earliest known settlement within the current city limits of Falls Church (whether Anacostan or Doeg is unclear) was on the south side of present day Lee Highway at its intersection with Columbia Street. [ 12 ] [ 13 ] Just east of Falls Church, on Wilson Boulevard, is Powhatan Springs, [ 14 ] where Powhatan is said to have convened autumn councils. [ 15 ] Today's Broad Street and Great Falls Street follow long-established trade and communication routes. [ 16 ]

In the late 17th century, especially after Bacon's Rebellion in 1676, English settlers from the Tidewater region of Virginia began to migrate to the area. According to local tradition, one of the chimneys of the " Big Chimneys " house and tavern was inscribed "1699"; based on this claim, 1699 is often taken to be the first European settlement in the immediate vicinity. [ 17 ] (The house site is now Big Chimneys Park, on W. Annandale Rd. north of S. Maple.)

[ edit ] Eighteenth century

The Falls Church , from which the City takes its name, was first called "William Gunnell's Church," built of wood in 1733 to serve Truro Parish , which had been formed two years earlier from a larger parish centered in Quantico . By 1757, the building was referred to as "The Falls Church", as it was located along the main tobacco rolling road from the Little Falls of the Potomac River . George Mason became a Vestryman in 1748, as did George Washington in 1763. [ 18 ] A brick church designed by James Wren replaced the wooden one in 1769, at which point it became the seat of the newly-formed Fairfax Parish. [ 19 ] Following the Revolution , in 1784, the Commonwealth of Virginia enacted disestablishment of the Anglican Church, meaning it was no longer the state church. Shortly thereafter, in 1789, The Falls Church was abandoned [ 20 ] and was not re-occupied again until 1836, by an Episcopal congregation. [ 21 ] The Wren building remains on the site, between S. Washington, E. Broad, and E. Fairfax Streets.