Arguably the most famous of all Fairfax County residents turned up Tuesday (June 10), as the local Board of Supervisors ramped up planning for the nation’s 250th birthday bash.
Escorted by a procession that included fife-and-drum accompaniment, George Washington himself strode into the Fairfax County Government Center’s Board auditorium in the person of Daniel Cross.
“Now that’s how you enter a room,” Board Chairman Jeff McKay said at the meeting.
Cross, a staff member at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, portrays and interprets the country’s first president at community events. He was on hand as the supervisors hosted a presentation from Historic Alexandria Director Gretchen Bulova and adopted a resolution celebrating the formal kickoff of Fairfax’s festivities celebrating the nation’s upcoming milestone birthday in 2026.
Bulova chairs the Fairfax County History Commission and the Fairfax County 250th Commission. After years of planning, the commission’s efforts have been “gathering momentum over the past year” and are now set to move into overdrive, Bulova said.
Programming and events will be plentiful, varied and inclusive, she said.
“The American Revolution was not accomplished on a single date or by a single person,” Bulova said.
The theme of expansive inclusiveness was echoed by others.
“We have a lot to honor and a lot to celebrate,” said Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Storck.
Storck noted that Fairfax sent two representatives — George Washington and George Mason — to the Continental Congress in 1774. Delegates at that gathering drafted a formal petition of grievances to King George III in a show of emerging colonial unity, setting the stage for what was to follow.
Fairfax was “intimately and inextricably” tied to the Revolutionary War era, Storck said.
McKay concurred.
Fairfax leaders of the era “didn’t just talk, they acted,” he said. “Many of these things happened right here in our backyard.”
Unlike the 1976 Bicentennial, which tended to focus on events surrounding the American Revolution and life in colonial America, the 2026 “semiquincentennial” commemoration is shaping up to look at both whether the concept of “a more perfect Union” has succeeded and where it continues to have room for improvement.
“We’ve made great strides — we will continue, hopefully, on that path,” Storck said.
The General Assembly in 2020 created a statewide planning body for 250th anniversary events. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors transitioned an initial Semiquincentennial Work Group into the Fairfax County 250th Commission in 2021.
The county commission is slated to remain in existence through mid-2027. Among the planned highlights of the period is a mobile museum that will travel across Fairfax to schools, community events and festivals.
It will be a local counterpart to the state government’s museum-on-wheels, which will travel across the commonwealth over the next 18 months.
The June 10 board meeting also included a salute to the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army, celebrating Fort Belvoir and the nearby National Museum of the United States Army. The museum launched a new exhibit last weekend focused on the American Revolutionary War.
Washington, as channeled by Cross, stayed around for photos after both resolutions, before saying he had to depart to participate in deliberations of the Continental Congress — something he did in real life in May 1775.
“Fairfax County, I think, is in good hands until I get back,” he said.
