A history of Mason Neck,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Mason Neck from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story
from WikipediaRead it all ↗The Mason Neck peninsula was inhabited by the Doeg prior to the arrival of European settlers. The recorded history of Mason Neck began around 1755 with the construction of Gunston Hall, the plantation house of George Mason, author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights. Mason Neck is also the location of Pohick Church, frequented by both Mason and George Washington, and Cranford Methodist Church, which was built in 1857 and served as a hospital during the Civil War.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Mason Neck’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
1 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewGunston Hall, [Virginia], 1910: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Mason Neck, decade by decade
![Gunston Hall, [Virginia]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/47286/7e9db0be976df2bfac2a-s.jpg)
![Gunston Hall, [Virginia]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/47286/2cd560c22deae9d6e92a-s.jpg)
![Gunston Hall, [Virginia]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/47286/cc5f0216d5c9824041a4-s.jpg)
![Gunston Hall, [Virginia]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/47286/0a2b483adfc5e0707306-s.jpg)
![Gunston Hall, [Virginia]](https://images.towntapestry.org/story/47286/d650946d9882b3121a8a-s.jpg)
1990s
2 historic places in Mason Neck
2 places in Mason Neck are on the National Register of Historic Places, the country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving. One is a National Historic Landmark, the highest tier, which fewer than 3% of listings reach.
Where they are
Architectural styles
When they were listed
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Gunston Hall, [Virginia] (1910) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom the Library of Congress (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.