History at Leeland Station
Belle Air
Near this spot stood Belle Air, a prominent Stafford County landmark and home of the Fitzhugh and Primmer families. John Fitzhugh first constructed a house here in the mid-eighteenth century, but by 1854, when the property was sold to Abram Primmer, a new structure occupied the site. Primmer lived here with his wife and six children and owned nearly four hundred acres, which the Leeland Station now encompasses, and was valued at $7,200.
Primmer opposed secession and sent one of his sons to enlist in the Union army. Abram himself aided Confederate deserters and served as a local guide for Union forces. When the Union army occupied Stafford County in the summer of 1862, it used the Primmer fields as pasture for cattle. The largest intrusion upon Belle Air came in the winter of 1862-1863, when the home and farm became a camping ground for the Army of the Potomac’s Third Corps.
The house survived into the mid-twentieth century, at which time the property was known as Walnut Farm. Today, the building no longer stands.
Marker is on Riggs Road, on the right when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
