{"nrhp_refnum":"76002104","name":"St. Mary's Church","other_names":[],"category":"building","location":{"address":"5605 Vogue Rd.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Fairfax Station","county":"Fairfax (city and county)","state":"VA","lat":38.802393144000064,"lon":-77.32652544099994,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1976-07-01","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Military","Transportation","Health/Medicine","Exploration/Settlement"],"significance_levels":["state"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A one-story white frame church at 5605 Vogue Road, Fairfax Station, Fairfax County, Virginia, built in 1858 in the early Gothic Revival tradition. It sits on a small hill with a churchyard and cemetery.","why_significant":"It was built for Irish immigrants recruited to work on the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and was the first Roman Catholic church built in Fairfax County. After the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862 it served as a field hospital where Clara Barton tended wounded soldiers. It has been in continuous use as a church.","narrative":"St. Mary's Church is a small, white frame church in Fairfax Station, Virginia, completed in 1858. Built in the early Gothic Revival tradition, it has a basilican plan, a steeple at the entrance end, an interior gallery, and arched windows along its sides, two of them in stained glass. It was raised by Irish immigrants who had been recruited to build the Orange and Alexandria Railroad and then settled nearby, and it is recorded as the first Roman Catholic church built in Fairfax County. During the Civil War, after the Second Battle of Bull Run in August 1862, wounded soldiers were brought here by train. Clara Barton, later founder of the American Red Cross, nursed them in and around the church, and many who died were buried in the churchyard. Federal troops burned the original pews for firewood. The church has remained in continuous use, and its annual parish picnic is considered the oldest outdoor social function in the county.","period_of_significance":"1858","architect_builder":null,"architectural_style":"Early Gothic Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Occupied and in continuous use as a church; exterior stated as unaltered since 1858.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:51:56.633996-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/43/6805/41680543/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/76002104.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002104/1ae02d50b4-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/76002104/1ae02d50b4-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Slowking4","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St-marys-church011.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Slowking4</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:St-marys-church011.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41680543","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Mary%27s_Church_(Fairfax_Station,_Virginia)","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14713246"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/fairfax/st-marys-church-76002104/"}