Paeonian Springs Historic District

Paeonian Springs is a small village in western Loudoun County, Virginia, laid out in 1890 by the Paeonian Springs Company, led by Theodore and John Milton. The founders aimed to bottle and sell water from a natural spring promoted for its healing properties, shipping it by rail to Washington and drawing summer visitors. Roughly 180 lots were platted, though only a handful were built on. The community thrived for about thirty years before federal food and drug regulation and the automobile led to its decline. The district covers about 47 acres and includes 59 contributing resources, mostly dwellings dating from about 1880 to 1910. They range from vernacular I-houses and side-passage houses to Queen Anne, Gothic Revival, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival and Craftsman examples. Surviving landmarks include the former bottling plant, two former boardinghouses, a former school and the public springhouse. The train station is gone, but the village retains its late-19th-century character and architectural integrity.