Manassas VA history

The rapidly growing city was established in 1853 when the Alexandria and Manassas Gap and Orange railroaders were joined.

The First Battle of Manassas, also known as the First Battle of Bull Run, was fought on July 1861.

The scene at Manassas Junction in March 1862 after the Confederates destroyed the railroad before marching south to confront Maj.

Into this difficult atmosphere, in 1868, stepped a former Union army lieutenant, George Carr Round, when on his way to Raleigh, N.C., he got off the train and first saw the tiny crossroads called Manassas.

By January 1, 1869, Round had opened a law practice, based on assisting loyal landowners to make claims against the Federal government for reimbursement on property stolen or destroyed by the Union Army.

Sufficient funds were raised by spring 1872, to begin building a new school, designed by Round, who also supervised its construction.

Manassas was later incorporated in 1873.

The town gradually became the business center of Prince William County, and with railroad help, became the county seat in 1892.

The Manassas Industrial School was chartered in 1893 by Jennie Dean, a former slave who worked tirelessly to improve education for African American students in Northern Virginia.

Shortly after its 1894 completion, Annaburg was lauded as “one of the finest estates in Virginia,” and made a fine showpiece for the growing town of Manassas.

He planted dozens of shade trees throughout Manassas, and by his solicitation, he got millionaire philanthropist Andrew Carnegie to donate funds for city and school libraries in 1900.

The Manassas National Jubilee of Peace was first suggested by a Confederate veteran in a letter to the editor published in The Washington Post, in January 1911.

It took almost a decade to raise the necessary funding for the school, and it remained a private institution until the 1930's.

In 1937, the Fairfax, Fauquier and Prince William County public school systems purchased the land and buildings to create a regional high school for African-American students.

Manassas National Battlefield Park (established 1940), just north of the city and encompassing about 8 square miles (21 square km), preserves the sites of the two Civil War engagements.

Manassas Park was a campsite area for Confederate soldiers who fought in the First and Second Battles of Bullrun (Manassas).The road to Manassas Park becoming an independent city started in 1955 when the first homes were built as a subdivision in Prince William County.

In 1956 a group of citizens founded a civic association.

In 1957 the courts were petitioned and Manassas Park achieved Town status in the county. “The Park,” as the city was called, was governed by a mayor and a town council.

Board of Education decision and Prince William County in 1959 built a new school for black students named Jennie Dean High and Elementary School.

It did not become a city until 1975 when it was separated from Prince William County as per Virginia law.