Local city information for Leesburg, VA

Leesburg is a historic town in and county seat of Loudoun County, Virginia, United States of America, approximately west-northwest of Washington, D.C. along the base of the Catoctin Mountain adjacent to the Potomac River. Leesburg is the northwestern terminus of the Dulles Greenway (a private toll road which connects to the Dulles Toll Road at Washington Dulles International Airport). It is largely a bedroom community for commuters to the national capital.

Current growth of the town and its immediate area (Ashburn, Virginia) concentrates along the Dulles Greenway, and along the Leesburg Pike (State Route 7), which roughly parallels the Potomac River between Winchester to the west and Alexandria to the east.

Washington Air Route Traffic Control Center is located in Leesburg.


John Lederer (1670) testified that the entire Piedmont region had once been occupied by the "Tacci, alias Dogi", but that the Siouan tribes, driven from the northwest, had occupied it for 400 years. According to local historians, a pitched battle was fought near present Leesburg between the warring Catawba and Lenape tribes, neither of whom lived in the area. A war party of Lenape had traveled from their home in New Jersey and neighboring regions, all the way to South Carolina to inflict a blow on their distant enemies, the Catawba. As they were returning northward, a party of Catawbas overtook them before they reached the Potomac, but were defeated in a pitched battle two miles (3 km) south of Leesburg. The surviving Lenape buried their dead in a huge burial mound, and early settlers reported that they would return to this mound to honor their dead on the anniversary of this battle for many years thereafter. The date of this conflict is unknown, but it seems the Lenape and Catawba were indeed at war in 1732.

Established in 1758, Leesburg is the seat of government for Loudoun County. As of 2007, the town had been county seat for 249 of the last 250 years.

The genesis of Leesburg occurred sometime before 1755 when Nicholas Minor acquired land around the intersection of the Old Carolina Road (present day U.S. Route 15) and the Potomac Ridge Road (present day Route 7) and established a tavern there. Despite lack of growth around the tavern, Minor dubbed the sparse collection of buildings about his tavern "George Town" in honor of the reigning monarch of Great Britain upon Loudoun's formation in 1757. The village's prosperity changed the following year when the British Colonial Council ordered the establishment of Court House at the crossroads. Accordingly Minor had a town laid out on the traditional Virginia plan of six criss-cross streets. On October 12 of that year (1758) the Virginia General Assembly founded the town of Leesburg upon the that Minor laid out. Leesburg was renamed to honor the influential Thomas Lee and not, as is popular belief, his son Francis Lightfoot Lee who lived in Loudoun and brought up the bill to establish Leesburg nor as is sometimes thought, Robert E. Lee. Interestingly, when the post office was established in Leesburg in 1803 the branch was named "Leesburgh", the 'h' would persist until 1894.

During the War of 1812, Leesburg served as a temporary haven for the United States Government and its archives (including the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution and portraits of early American leaders) when it was forced to flee Washington, D.C. in the face of the British Army. When reconstruction began on the Capitol, Potomac Marble from quarries just south of Leesburg was used.

Early in the American Civil War Leesburg was the site of the Battle of Balls Bluff, a resounding Confederate victory. The battlefield is marked by one of America's smallest national cemeteries. The town frequently changed hands over the course of the war as both armies traversed the area during the Antietam and Gettysburg campaigns. The Battle of Mile Hill was fought just north of the town prior to its occupation by Robert E. Lee in September 1862. Leesburg also served as a base of operations for Col. John Mosby and his partisan Raiders, for whom the Loudoun County High School mascot is named (the Raiders). The local courthouse was built in 1894 and thus is not, as thought by many, one of the few courthouses in Virginia that were not burned during the war.

In the 20th century, Leesburg was the home of World War II General George C. Marshall, architect of the famous Marshall Plan that re-built Europe after the war, and radio personality Arthur Godfrey, who donated land for the town's first airport.

Today Leesburg continues to serve as the center of government and commerce for Loudoun County. The town's Historic District was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and cited as one of the best preserved and most picturesque downtowns in Virginia. Downtown merchants have recently labelled themselves "Loudoun's (or, Loudoun County's, depending on the audience,) Original Town Center," largely in response to the growing number of mixed-use shopping in proximity.

On September 14, 2008, The Town of Leesburg celebrated its 250th birthday. During that celebration, the town unveiled its new flag.




Colors: Red is the color from the Lee Family Coat of Arms.
White is from the Lee Family Coat of Arms.
Blue is from the Lee Family of Virginia Coat of Arms.
Yellow is from the Lee Family Coat of Arms.

Symbology: This flag represents the coat of arms that was in use by the Lee Family of Virginia
when Leesburg was founded in 1758. The blue and yellow checkerboard band
on the red back ground represents the Lee Family Coat of Arms at which
Leesburg is named for and the white Cinquefoil (five petal flower) on a blue
background comes from the Astley Family Coat of Arms. The coats of arms were
quartered like the flag is showing. The white cross indicates Leesburg as a
crossroads.

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