Arcola, Virginia

Arcola is an unincorporated community in Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.

Leesburg is situated 14 miles northwest of Arcola; the national capital, Washington, D.C., lies 33 miles to the east.

History

The genesis of Arcola was a small spring next to a gum tree that fed into the south fork of Broad Run, suitably called Gum Springs. During the colonial era a distillery, kiln and small church were established at the spring.

When Cameron Parish was established from the Truro Parish its glebe was established just northwest of the spring. The glebelands were sold off in 1802 when the Virginia General Assembly divested all Anglican glebes.

In 1801 the United States Post Office established a branch at the village, naming it Springfield. The branch closed in 1819. Thirteen years later the Post Office once again saw fit to locate a branch in the vicinity, but the success of the Little River Turnpike (present day U.S. Route 50) dictated that it would be located on that road south of the village. The branch was named Arcola in honor of the Arcola Farm on which it was built. That branch stayed open until 1868 when the office was located back within the confines of the village.

In the 1850s Arcola had a brush with the big time when the construction of the Loudoun Branch of the Manassas Gap Railroad was completed on the northern border of the village. Unfortunately the Panic of 1857 and Civil War stopped the rairoad from ever being used.

Unlike many other Loudoun villages, Arcola continued to grow well into the twentieth century. In 1876 the population was 30, in 1911 it was 90 and by 1976 it was 135.

External links

* [http://www.dullessouthonline.com Dulles South Online Arcola-area community and business portal]