Richard Ratcliffe's Mount Vinyard Plantation
On the knoll 70 yards NE of this marker, stood the home of Richard Ratcliffe (1751-1825). The mansion was on his 600-acre "Mount Vineyard," part of a 1714 land grant of 1,930 acres to George Mason II. In 1798 Ratcliffe donated 4 acres to the east of Mount Vineyard for the Fairfax County Courthouse, built in 1800. Ratcliffe petitioned the Virginia Assembly to establish a town on adjacent property and on January 14, 1805 this town was chartered as "Providence," becoming the City of Fairfax in 1961.
Marker is at the intersection of Oak Street and Main Street (County Road 236), on the right when traveling south on Oak Street.
Courtesy hmdb.org
