Clifton Historic District

Clifton is a small railroad village in southwestern Fairfax County, Virginia, and its historic district preserves sixty-two buildings along Main Street and four side streets. Most are modest frame houses built between 1880 and 1910, along with three churches, a few commercial buildings and two local government buildings. The village grew from land purchases made in 1868 by Harrison G. Otis, a New Yorker who settled near the Orange and Alexandria Railroad depot. He became the first postmaster, opened roads and built the Clifton Hotel in 1869. By 1878 about twenty families lived there, and by 1910 the incorporated town had 200 residents, supported by lumbering, sawmills, farming, talc mining and railroad work. Houses share similar scale and setbacks, and many 1970s restorations added rooms only at the rear. Notable buildings include the Quigg House, a Second Empire design with a mansard roof, the stone Presbyterian church of 1871, and the Buckley Brothers Store. Together they keep the feel of a turn-of-the-century village.