the friends of cherry hill

Historic Preservationists

In the early 1960s, Falls Church City purchased the Greek Revival Style Cherry Hill Farmhouse and frame barn built in 1845 with plans to demolish these buildings and develop the property.

Subsequently, the Friends of Cherry Hill Foundation was born. Ruby Bolster, Mildred Pope, Merelyn Kaye, Audrey Kelly, and Mary Madeline King led a successful campaign to preserve the property and restore the house and barn to their Victorian origins as a Falls Church City Museum. These Friends of Cherry Hill expended time, energy, and financial resources to research and acquire authentic 18th- and 19th-century furnishings in an effort to recreate the household of a well-to-do Antebellum farm family.

The farmhouse furnishings are owned and maintained by the Friends of Cherry Hill Foundation, and volunteer docents are trained by and are often members of the Foundation.

Today the Museum is part of the City’s seven-acre park and is open to the public for docent-guided tours and lectures. It is a popular destination for Falls Church City Public School field trips.

Cherry Hill Farmhouse and Barn are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, “deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance,” thanks to the friends of Cherry Hill.