Aldie

 

Aldie is an unincorporated community village located on the John Mosby Highway (U.S. Route 50) between Gilbert’s Corner and Middleburg in Loudoun County, Virginia. It is located in a gap between the Catoctin Mountain and Bull Run Mountain, through which the Little River flows.

 

The town hosts two annual festivals: in May, the Treasures on the Turnpike, and in October, the Harvest Festival. Aldie has three sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places. This includes the Aldie Mill Historic District, which includes the Aldie Mill and other historical buildings, the Loudoun Agricultural and Mechanical Institute, and the Mount Zion Baptist Church.

 

Aldie’s beginnings were laid in 1765 when James and George Mercer established a mill at the location of the present historic edifice. The location was a natural choice, as the gap contained the intersection of the Belhaven road between Winchester and Alexandria and the Mountain road which ran northwest to Snickers Gap. By 1809 the Little River Turnpike was completed from Alexandria to the Mercer Mill, replacing the older rutted section of Belhaven Road. With the opening of the road, James Mercer’s son, Charles Fenton Mercer, in a partnership with William Cooke, set out to develop a village on 30 acres at the turnpike’s western terminus. Mercer named the village for Castle Aldie, his Scottish clan’s ancestral home. The Aldie Mill Historic District, Furr Farm, Loudoun Agricultural and Mechanical Institute, and Mount Zion Old School Baptist Church are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.