Virginia
Leesburg

European settlement of what is now Leesburg began in the 1730s, around the intersection of Potomac Ridge Road (now Virginia State Route 7) and Carolina Road (now U.S. Route 15). A couple of decades later, the Virginia Assembly picked the settlement as the location of the new Loudoun County Courthouse. A settler named Nicholas Minor, who owned the land, hired a surveyor to lay out a town that he initially called George Town, though the name was soon changed to Leesburg in honor of Thomas Lee, the great grand-uncle of Gen. Robert E. Lee. By 1859, Leesburg had grown to 1,688 residents, including slaves, and during the Civil War, the town was the scene of fighting and frequently changed hands between the Confederacy and the Union. In the late 1800s, Leesburg became a railroad stop, but it wasn’t until after World War II that the town developed into a booming Washington suburb that also strived to preserve its downtown’s historic character. Leesburg’s residential architecture is a mix of different periods, ranging from old Federal style Victorian, Italiante, Queen Anne and Colonial Revival homes to newer townhouses and condos.