Paris Historic District

Paris is a compact village at the foot of Ashby Gap in the Blue Ridge, in northwest Fauquier County, Virginia. Land granted to Peter Glascock in 1786 was laid out as a town of 44 lots, and the Virginia General Assembly formally established it in 1810. It grew as a stopping point where roads from Alexandria, Dumfries and Fredericksburg met the route to Winchester. By 1835 it held dwellings, stores, taverns, a school, and many craft shops. The Manassas Gap Railroad bypassed it in 1852, halting major growth, so most surviving buildings date from about 1810 to 1850. Federal detailing on vernacular forms dominates, with many log houses, a brick Federal dwelling at 687 Federal Street, and later Gothic Revival and Colonial Revival examples. Later highways also bypassed the town, leaving it largely residential. The district includes 53 contributing resources, among them houses, stores, churches, a former school and a cemetery, and its setting remains protected by surrounding rural land.