Part 5 (2/2)
[Ill.u.s.tration: Virginia Training School. Miss M. Gundry, Princ.i.p.al.]
Of all those who followed Messrs. Buxton and Kinsley to Falls Church, who built homes and made the little straggling settlement at the cross-roads the beautiful village it is to-day, s.p.a.ce will not permit even a brief mention. But there are a number of well-known citizens still residing here who formed the nucleus of that ”department colony”
of thirty years ago, and through whose influence in great measure this village has become a settlement of government employees. Most prominent among these settlers of the 70's who are connected with the executive departments in Was.h.i.+ngton are Messrs. G. A. L. Merrifield and M. S.
Roberts of the Pension Bureau, Albert P. Eastman of the War Department and George F. Rollins of the Treasury Department.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Dr. J. B. Gould]
The rate of taxation levied by the town government is 60 cents on the hundred dollars, 30 cents of which is for school purposes and 30 cents for all expenses of the corporation. To this must be added the taxes collected by the county of Fairfax, 75 cents on the hundred dollars, making a total tax on property holders in the town of $1.35 on each one hundred dollars of the a.s.sessed valuation. Property within the corporation is exempt from county road tax and district school tax.
Property in that part of the village lying within Alexandria County is a.s.sessed in like manner by the town and the authorities of the latter county. The tax rate for Alexandria County for the year 1903 on the one hundred dollars of a.s.sessed valuation of personal and real property was: State tax, 35 cents; county levy, 40 cents, and for court-house purposes, 10 cents--a total of 85 cents chargeable to the property owners of East Falls Church, the section of the village in this county.
An additional tax of 50 cents for road purposes and 40 cents for the district school is levied against taxable property in this county outside of East Falls Church.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. W. H. Nowlan]
When scarcely ent.i.tled to be designated by the name of village, the little settlement on the Leesburg turnpike known as Falls Church was, by an act of the General a.s.sembly of Virginia, incorporated as a town. The act in question was approved March 30, 1875, and on April 13 following the new town began its career with the following officials duly installed: Mayor, Dr. J. J. Moran; Clerk, H. J. England; Town Sergeant, E. F. Crocker; Councilmen, Dr. J. J. Moran, George B. Ives, J. E. Birch, T. T. Fowler, Isaac Crossman, J. J. Carter, Dr. L. E. Gott.
The act of incorporation was successively amended by the State Legislature in 1879, 1890 and 1894. Sections 1 and 2 of the act of incorporation as amended, approved March 2, 1894, read as follows:
SECTION 1. So much of the territories in the counties of Fairfax and Alexandria, together with all the improvements and appurtenances thereunto belonging, as is contained in the following boundaries, to-wit: Beginning at the corner of Alexandria and Fairfax counties, on J. C. DePutron's farm; thence to the corner of J. C. Nicholson and W. S.
Patton, in Mistress Ellen Gordon's line; thence to the corner of Sewell and L. S. Abbott on the new cut road; thence to the corner of A. A.
Freeman and Mrs. Henry J. England on the Falls Church and Fairfax Court House road; thence along centre of said road to centre of bridge over Holmes Run; thence easterly in a straight line to the northwest corner of the colored Methodist church on the road leading to Annandale; thence easterly to the crossing of the Alexandria and Georgetown roads at Taylor's corner; thence along the north line of said Georgetown road to the corner of T. M. Talbott and Emma Taylor's estate; thence to a pin oak tree near Dr. L. E. Gott's spring; thence to a stone on the property of J. A. and Mrs. J. H. C. Brown, formerly the northeast corner of John Brown's barn; thence to the crossing of Isaac Grossman's and Bowen's line on the chain bridge road; thence to the place of beginning, is and shall continue forever to be a body politic and corporate under the name and style of the town of Falls Church, and shall possess and exercise the rights and powers conferred on towns by the general laws of this State and shall be subject to the restrictions and limitations imposed by said law in so far as the provisions thereof are not in conflict with the provisions of this act.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. G. W. Poole]
SEC. 2. Be it further enacted. That the government of said town shall be vested in a council of nine qualified voters, who shall be elected by ballot on the fourth Thursday in May, eighteen hundred and ninety-four; three of whom shall hold that office for one year, three for two years and three for three years respectively, the same to be determined by lot. The successors of the three whose terms expire each year shall be elected annually on the fourth Thursday in May and shall hold their offices for three years, or until their successors are duly elected and qualified. The terms of office of all councilmen shall begin on the first day of July of each year succeeding their election. Any person ent.i.tled to vote in the magisterial districts of Falls Church or Providence, in Fairfax County, or Was.h.i.+ngton magisterial district in Alexandria County, and residing in said corporation and duly registered by the town clerk, shall be ent.i.tled to vote at all elections for councilmen. The town clerk and two members of the council whose terms of office do not expire with that year, and who shall be designated by the mayor, shall conduct such election between the hours of one and seven, post meridian, and shall make return of the same to the mayor who shall issue certificates, countersigned by the clerk, to those elected. Tie votes shall be decided by lot, and contests shall be decided by the council under the law governing contests for the county offices.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. G. F. McInturff]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. M. E. Church]
Section five provides that the council shall annually levy and collect necessary taxes for roads, streets, school and corporation purposes, which tax for all purposes shall not exceed sixty cents on one hundred dollars without the consent of two-thirds of the resident freeholders of the corporation. An amendment gives the council the privilege of levying an additional tax of ten cents on the hundred dollars for the purpose of establis.h.i.+ng and maintaining a high school course in Jefferson Inst.i.tute, the public school, whenever requested by the town school board.
Section eight provides that the ”town sergeant shall be the executive officer of the council, and shall have the authority, jurisdiction and fees of a constable of Fairfax and Alexandria counties within and one mile beyond the corporate limits. He shall, unless otherwise provided, be the town treasurer and as such shall collect all taxes, fines and licenses, and disburse the same upon the warrant of the council, signed by the mayor and clerk.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. J. W. Brown, Store and Residence]
The same section makes the sergeant overseer of roads and streets, giving him the same powers as overseers of roads under the special road laws of Fairfax and Alexandria counties, his compensation to be fixed by the council.
Section nine provides that no district school tax and no district road tax shall be a.s.sessed and collected, except by the council, on any property within the corporation limits.
The last important section of the act of incorporation, which a.s.sures the peace and quiet of this village, is the restriction placed upon the liquor traffic. It reads as follows:
SEC. 10. That any person applying to the county of Fairfax or the county of Alexandria for a license to sell liquors of any kind, either as a keeper of an ordinary or eating house, or as a merchant, within the corporate limits of the town of Falls Church in the said counties, or within one mile beyond the limits of the said corporation shall produce before the courts or boards having control of the issuance of licenses for the sale of liquor of said counties a certificate of said council of said town to the effect that the applicant is a suitable person and that no good reason is known to said council why said license should not be granted. And the courts of said counties or boards having authority shall not grant the said license to sell liquors within the limits above prescribed until and unless such a certificate be given. And under no circ.u.mstances and in no event whatever shall the sale of liquors be licensed in any part of the corporation where license for the sale thereof has been prohibited under the provisions of chapter twenty-five of the Code of Virginia, known as the local option law.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Mr. Geo. L. Erwin]
The town is divided into three wards and each ward is represented by three councilmen.
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