Arcola is a

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

Loudoun County Loudoun County () is in the northern part of the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. In 2020, the census returned a population of 420,959, making it Virginia's third-most populous county. The county seat is Leesburg, Virgi ...

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...

, United States. The population as of the 2020 United States Census was 2,412.

Geography

Arcola is in southeastern Loudoun County, on the north side of

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

, which leads east to

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, and northwest to

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

. Leesburg, the Loudoun

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

, is north of Arcola, and the southwest runway of Washington Dulles International Airport is less than to the east. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Arcola CDP has a total area of , of which , or 0.97%, are water. Arcola village is in the northern part of the CDP, along the South Fork of Broad Run, a north-flowing tributary of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

History

The genesis of Arcola was a small spring next to a gum tree that fed into the south fork of Broad Run, suitably called "Gum Springs". During the colonial era a

distillery Distillation, also classical distillation, is the process of separating the component substances of a liquid mixture of two or more chemically discrete substances; the separation process is realized by way of the selective boiling of the mixt ...

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or Chemical Changes, chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects m ...

and small

church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a place/building for Christian religious activities and praying * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian comm ...

were established at the spring. When Cameron Parish was established from Truro Parish, its

glebe A glebe (, also known as church furlong, rectory manor or parson's close(s)) is an area of land within an ecclesiastical parish used to support a parish priest. The land may be owned by the church, or its profits may be reserved to the church. ...

, the area reserved to support the parish priest, was established just northwest of the spring. The glebelands were sold off in 1802 when the

Virginia General Assembly The Virginia General Assembly is the legislative body of the Commonwealth of Virginia, the oldest continuous law-making body in the Western Hemisphere, and the first elected legislative assembly in the New World. It was established on July 30, ...

divested all

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

glebes. In 1801 the

United States Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal serv ...

established a branch at the village, naming it "Springfield". The branch closed in 1819. Thirteen years later the Post Office once again saw fit to locate a branch in the vicinity, but the success of the

Little River Turnpike State Route 236 (SR 236) is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. The state highway runs from U.S. Route 29 in Virginia, U.S. Route 29 and U.S. Route 50 in Virginia, US 50 in Fairfax, Virginia, Fairfax east to Virginia State ...

(present day

) dictated that it would be located on that road south of the village and known on local maps as simply "Arcola P.O." (situated near the present-day intersection of US 50 and Hwy 616/Fleetwood Rd). The branch was named "Arcola" in honor of the Arcola Farm on which it was built. That branch stayed open until 1868, when the office was located back within the confines of the village. The village itself, however, remained identified on local maps as "Gum Spring" during most of the 19th century. In the 1850s Arcola had a brush with the big time when the construction of the Loudoun Branch of the Manassas Gap Railroad was completed on the northern border of the village. Unfortunately the Panic of 1857 and

Civil War A civil war is a war between organized groups within the same Sovereign state, state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies.J ...

stopped the railroad from ever being used. During the Gettysburg Campaign of June–July 1863, troops from the Union

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the primary field army of the Union army in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. It was created in July 1861 shortly after the First Battle of Bull Run and was disbanded in June 1865 following the Battle of ...

's 11th and 1st Corps marched and camped in and around the town of "Gum Spring" according to dispatches (present-day Arcola), as they meandered north toward Leesburg and into

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. Unlike many other Loudoun villages, Arcola continued to grow well into the twentieth century. In 1876 the population was 30, in 1911 it was 90 and by 1976 it was 135. John Franklin Ryan (1848–1936), former representative in the

Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two houses of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...

, is buried in the Darnes Cemetery in Arcola. The Arcola Elementary School, Arcola Slave Quarters, and Fleetwood Farm are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

Demographics

Arcola was first listed as a

census designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

in the 2010 U.S. Census.

References

{{authority control Census-designated places in Loudoun County, Virginia Washington metropolitan area Census-designated places in Virginia