Just Outside DC
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A handsome home listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Sully
Plantation is located in Fairfax County, Virginia on north Route 28 (Sully Road) in Chantilly, Virginia.
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| Sully Plantation is easy to miss in your fast-paced drive along north Route 28. Sully's driveway, on your right, comes up quickly after the Route 28 bridge over Route 50. A traffic light currently exists at this intersection, but will probably be removed as you can no longer (due to concrete road dividers) access south Route 28 directly upon exiting from Sully. A patch of mature, dark green holly trees divides Sully's asphalted driveway into single entry and exit lanes. | |
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At the driveway's end, Sully's dirt parking area will be to your left. This photo shows the view looking across the parking lot towards the driveway which is below the parking lot's slight crest. The dense line of pine trees seen in the photo delimits the outer boundary of the Dulles Airport property. The numerous lanes of northbound and southbound Route 28 (unseen in the photo) are located right in front of these miles of evergreen trees. |
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| If you need to sit a spell, Sully's bricked walkways offer inviting wood benches. Sully Plantation is a wonderfully relaxing, quiet retreat. As can be seen in the photos, when we visited Sully, snow still blanketed the ground in shaded areas. Under the leafless trees the sun-drenched bench offered us a much needed moment's rest on that cold winter day as we took in the gentle views of Sully. | |
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After sitting, enjoying the off-season peace of having no other visitors around, we visited the little log building with the sign 'Entrance and Tickets.
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This log building, up on a slight knoll at the end of the parking lot, is used
as a gift shop. Though a brick walkway leads to the building, it would be difficult to approach or to
enter with a wheel chair or stroller. Want to experience how it feels to be in a log cabin of rural 19th century Virginia? Feel the dimensions of the schoolroom that could have easily been used as a one room cabin for a frontier family? Duck your head and enter the gift shop. This log building originally stood in Haymarket, Virginia but was moved to Sully Plantation in 1963. Now well-cared for, seated upon a new stone foundation, this building's hewn log walls are chinked and plastered, and its 6-foot wide field-stone chimney is an impressive reminder of the massive reconstruction effort. The upstairs area of the cabin (inaccessible) was the living quarters for the school teacher. This cute gift shop offers informative handouts regarding Sully Plantation and an item sorely missing at many other day trip locations we have visited ... an extensive publication covering the history and features of the attraction. At just under $6.00, this 200-plus page book, written by Robert S. Gamble, covers outside events affecting the five families that owned Sully and the history of Sully itself from the early 18th century years through Sully's acquisition for the Dulles Airport Project. We appreciated the well-informed Fairfax County Parks staff member whom we met at the gift shop. He spoke effortlessly about the schoolhouse's points of interest and informed us that the Sully main house tour would start at the beginning of the next hour. View Sully's Event Calendar for special tours and the park usage rules. | |
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| The Federal period main home, built in 1794, has a clapboard siding exterior. The home's interior is furnished with Federal period furniture. Unusual for homes of that time period, there is a covered walkway from the main house to the outside kitchen. At Sully the clapboard has been removed from the walls of several of the outbuildings so that visitors can view the log construction. Most of the outbuildings — kitchen, laundry, smokehouse, and dairy — were built for the second owner, Richard Blane Lee, who inherited the property and expanded it into a profitable farm. Representative of the 18th century period, other log buildings, a slave cabin, formal and kitchen gardens have been constructed at Sully. | |
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The picnic area, along with the wide lawn areas and walking trails, offer a
welcome place to enjoy a break on a fair weather day. Food, except for sugar stick candies, are not available on site,
but nearby fast food eateries (click map link below) can provide you the makings for a picnic meal. Trash cans are available about the property.
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Leaving the Sully Farm entrance/exit roadway you immediately enter onto northbound Route 28 (you can only make a right hand turn onto Route 28). To
access southbound Route 28 drive briefly on northbound Route 28 to the Air and Space Museum Parkway,
taking that cloverleaf towards the Air and Space Museum, and then
come back down onto southbound Route 28.
But instead of going back down southbound Route 28, why not visit the Air and Space Museum, Frying Pan Park or the Washington and Old Dominion Trail! Click here to view a detailed map showing fast food eateries, pharmacy, hospital, grocery stores, and most importantly, the other great nearby attractions to visit. Return to JustOutsideDC home page.
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