Haymarket Museum
History of the Museum
The Haymarket Museum chronicles the story of a small, 19th century town and its surrounding agricultural community. Haymarket was established in 1799 and was well known for the Red House Tavern, built along the historic Old Carolina Road, as well as the Jockey Club, an organization that sponsored horse races at the town’s track. In 1862, the Town was almost destroyed completely by a Union patrol that, sent to uncover a suspected sniper, wound up setting fire to most of the homes. Decimated by the destruction of the Civil War, the town nonetheless rebuilt and many of the buildings from the reconstruction period survive, as do the only two buildings that survived the 1862 fire. The Haymarket Museum is located in the old Town Hall, originally built in 1883 as the town’s combined school house and town hall.
Please visit us often! We hope that if you have memories of living in or near the town, this site will inspire you to contact us in order to share your memories and help document both the town and the greater Haymarket area.
1860 Demographic Chart for Haymarket Area
The information in the following chart is an attempt to provide a demographic "snap shot" of the greater Haymarket area in 1860. The 1860 Federal Census provides the following: the census enumeration number of the household (the order in which the house was visited by the census taker), the name and age of the head of household, the occupation of the head of household, the number of free people living in the household, and the total value of any estate owned by the head of household.
On the afternoon of September 1, 1945, the Town of Haymarket suffered what is likely the second most destructive fire in its history. Two important structures in the center of town - the U.S Post Office and the building housing the Tri-County Telephone Co. and the Western Union offices - burned to the ground. While this was happening, Haymarket was cut off from the rest of the world ...
To read more about the devastating fire of 1945 please click the File in Supporting Documents below to access the story as originally released by Haymarket Lifestyle in May 2014.
Haymarket High School was once located on Fayette Street, north of Washington Street (Route 55). "In September 1909, the School Board purchased a lot on the north end of Fayette Street from Franz Peters, and began construction of a new schoolhouse, which opened in 1910. It was originally a two-room frame building, with 'one room up and one down,' that costs $2,500, according to Lucy Walsh Phinney in Yesterday's Schools." ...
Circa - 1885
Located directly across from the Haymarket Museum at 15020 Washington Street.
The land for the Haymarket Post Office was purchased by George A. Hulfish in 1883 and the small weather-boarded, 2-story, gabled-ended structure was built in 1885 and served as the Township Hall.
Even before the Declaration of Independence, the founding fathers addressed the need for a postal service. At the Second Continental Congress in May 1775, they determined that "The conveyance of letters and intelligence was essential to the cause of liberty."...
To read more about our local historic postal routes and post offices please click the file in Supporting Documents below to access the story as originally released by Haymarket Lifestyle in February 2015.
Did you know ... "Thoroughfare Gap west of Haymarket was also a strategic site during the Civil War. The Manassas Gap Railroad passed through the narrow gap, as well as the main road linking the Shenandoah Valley with the cities to the east. It was also the location of the Chapman's Mill industrial/commercial complex on Broad Run."
"The earliest references to the settlement that became Thoroughfare date back to the late 1820, when the gap in the Bull Run Mountains west of Haymarket was known as "The Thoroughfare".
