Chantilly, a census-designated place in western Fairfax County, Virginia, is home to 24,301 people as of 2020. The area got its name from an 18th-century plantation in Westmoreland County, which in turn was named after the Château de Chantilly in France.
Chantilly is located 25 miles west of Washington, D.C. and is accessible via Interstate 66 and U.S. Route 50. It is surrounded by Centreville to the south, Herndon and Reston to the north and east, and Fairfax to the southeast.
In the 1700s, Chantilly was home to multiple plantations, such as the Sully Plantation, the Leeton Grove, the John Hutchison Farm, and the Chantilly Plantation. Cornelia Lee Turberville Stuart inherited a portion of Leeton in 1816 and, with her husband Charles Calvert Stuart, built the Chantilly Plantation.
However, during the Civil War, the manor house was burned down by federal troops. All that remains is a stone house near the Greenbriar Shopping Center, which many believe to have been an overseer’s quarters before the war and a tavern or boarding house afterwards.
Chantilly was a small village in the 19th century, which saw its population rise with the construction of the Little River Turnpike to Winchester. The area experienced a surge in growth in the 1980s, as residential subdivisions and commercial areas started to fill the farmland south of Dulles Airport.
The American Civil War also left its mark on Chantilly, as the Battle of Chantilly (or Ox Hill) was fought here on September 1, 1862.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee sent Major General Thomas J. 'Stonewall' Jackson to cross Bull Run and attack Major General John Pope’s Union Army of Virginia from the rear. During the battle, both Union generals Stevens and Kearny were killed.
Nowadays, the small Ox Hill Battlefield Park preserves a 5-acre portion of the battle site, although most of the area is covered by commercial and residential development.
