Planning Office

The 19-acre Buckland Historic Overlay District (map) is located on both sides of Route 29 near the Fauquier County border. Buckland was established in 1798 as the first inland town in the County and is significant historically and architecturally as representative of the small, mill-oriented communities that characterized much of the region from this date to the mid-19th Century. The district's focal point is a grist mill which was constructed in 1899; believed to be the third mill constructed on this site. The mill is surrounded by a dozen buildings dating from the late 18th to mid-19th Centuries, now almost all residential, which once served a variety of commercial uses for the community. Buckland was also significant for its prominent position as a wagon stop on the main east-west road between Alexandria and Warrenton, and was visited by Lafayette on his farewell tour of the United States in 1824.

A group of property owners and residents in the Buckland Historic Overlay District have formed the Buckland Preservation Society. This organization is in the process of developing a Buckland Mills battlefield preservation plan. The Buckland Preservation Society published an article in Reliquary on the History of Buckland. Learn more about the Buckland Preservation Society. 

Buckland is the only historic overlay district in Prince William County. Proposed alterations within the district are reviewed by the Architectural Review Board in accordance with its Historic Overlay Districts Design Review Guidelines.

The homes in Buckland are under private ownership and are not open to the public. For further information, contact the Prince William County Planning Office at (703) 792-7615 (TTY: 711).