Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum

Located in Claude Moore Park, the Loudoun Heritage Farm Museum preserves and promotes the agricultural history of Loudoun County. Visitors will see a recreated schoolhouse, general store, kitchen, children's farm, and exhibits on local Native Americans and notable residents who made an impact on the community. There is also a workhorse museum and a blacksmith shop that are open for appointment. Next to them museum grounds is a historic site called the Vestal's Gap and Lanesville Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It consists of the Lanesville House, whose original portion was built in the 1770s, and a section of the old Vestal's Gap Road, which was a key public road used in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Other structures on the property include a tenant or school building and a reconstructed cabin.

In 1722, the Iroquois Indians ceded this area of northern Virginia to settlement in a treaty with Governor Spotswood. Vestal's Gap Road opened that year and enabled farmers to transport tobacco to Alexandria. However, travel on the road was often difficult and even impossible as it needed constant improvements. Nevertheless, it was an important transportation corridor for farmers and military troops. During the French and Indian War (1754-1755), the Virginia Regiment, which was commanded by Col. George Washington, marched on the road. He later traveled west on it in 1770 to Ohio to identify lands for officers who served for him in the war. The road continued to be used until the 1820s when the Leesburg Pike replaced was developed.

The house is named after the Lane family, which first built it in the 1770s. It was eventually expanded and reached its current size by around 1807. In addition to being a home, it also operated as post office and became a gathering place for travelers and area residents. It appears descendants of the Lane family owned it until 1941 when the county bought it. During the Civil War on June 19, 1863, Union General John Fullerton Reynolds of the Army of the Potomac, made the house his headquarters and built a signal station on a hight point on the property. A telegraph wire connected the station to the Fairfax County Courthouse to communicate with other nearby stations in an attempt to locate the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Several days later the armies would meet at the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1. Reynolds was killed that day.

Culhane, Kerri. "Vestal's GarrRoad and Lanesville Historic District." Vestal's Gap and Lanesville Historic District. February 3, 2000. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41681665.

"Guilford Signal Station." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=203825.

"Lanesville House and Vestal's Gap Road." The Historical Marker Database. Accessed May 25, 2023. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=20122.