A small Prince William County community less than two miles north of the U.S. Marine Corps base at Quantico keeps an eye on the past while it looks to the future.

Dumfries was once the most important Virginia port along the Potomac River. Mentioned in Thomas Jefferson’s “Notes on the State of Virginia,” its harbor on Quantico Creek thrived in the 18th century and rivaled the busy ports of New York and Boston as area farmers grew rich exporting tobacco. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, Dumfries was bordered by the thriving Black community of Batestown.

Today the 1.5-square-mile home to 5,755 features affordable apartments, townhouse communities and single-family houses and a diverse majority-minority population whose population is roughly 39 percent Hispanic, 34 percent Black and 21 percent White, Mayor Derrick Wood said.

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“It’s a melting pot of America,” said Charlie Reid, a retired Dumfries police officer who lives in Orange County but remains active in the community.

Dumfries Elementary School, which provides PreK to fifth-grade education, was built on the site of the Dumfries Academy, founded in 1760, said Edward Coulson, vice president of Historic Dumfries Virginia, the town’s historical society.

“It’s a nice, quiet town. It is close to D.C., but it’s not too close. The housing is more affordable than further north. It’s a nice community. It’s a friendly community. It’s generally a low-crime area,” Coulson said.

Bordered by more affluent communities to the north and east, Dumfries offers an affordable entry into homeownership. In August, a three-bedroom, one-bath single-family house was selling for $309,900 while a nearby four-bedroom, three-and-a-half bath single-family house is on the market at $599,000. Townhouses in Dumfries recently sold for $285,000 and $570,000.

The median housing price in the greater Dumfries area is $412,050, with 15 houses sold in the past year, according to Redfin.

Realtor Dana Tran said Dumfries attracts aspiring home buyers looking for something not too far from Washington. “The market in Dumfries is very affordable for first-time home buyers,” she said. “It’s right on their price point.”

Many neighborhoods are stable, with little turnover through the decades, said former mayor Butch Rawner, 78, a lifelong resident of the town who has lived for 55 years in the same house. “We’ve got people here,” he said, referring to his neighbors, “who’ve been here longer than us.”

Richmond Highway runs through the center of the compact community. Small businesses line the thoroughfare with residential areas on either side of the highway.

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It’s been like that for decades, but big changes are coming. An Arlington developer won approval in May for a 280-unit apartment and condominium project that Wood said will “beautify and transform our Main Street.”

Behind an 18th-century tavern and lodging house located on Richmond Highway that today houses the Prince William County Office of Historic Preservation, heavy equipment readies construction of a $370 million gaming and entertainment complex. The Rose will be operated by Colonial Downs Group and is projected to employ 500 people, the company says, when it opens next year.

In its early days, Dumfries ranked among the most important municipalities in Virginia. The colonial assembly in Williamsburg granted Dumfries a charter in 1749, making it one of the oldest towns in Virginia and the first to get a charter. George Washington and George Mason were frequent visitors.

Mason Locke Weems, the bookselling parson whose biography of Washington mythologized the life of the first president, made Dumfries his home and the headquarters of his publishing business in the early 19th century. Today, the Weems-Botts House serves as a museum, genealogical research library and focal point for community-wide historical activities, including events for children and adults.

Neighboring Batestown flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century as an unincorporated community where residents raised vegetables and livestock on truck farms, said Reid, who grew up there. Its residents came to Dumfries to shop and contributed to its political and economic life. In 1963, John Wilmer Porter, who grew up in Batestown and was Reid’s cousin, became Virginia’s first Black municipal official elected after Reconstruction when Dumfries voters put him on the Town Council. The Dumfries town hall is named after Porter.

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Tobacco was the engine of Dumfries’s growth in the 18th century, but it also proved to be its downfall. In the 1780s, silt resulting from the overproduction of tobacco on area farms clogged the harbor and choked off its booming trade. Farmers abandoned tobacco for wheat and sent their crops north to Alexandria for shipping, Coulson said.

Dumfries went into a slow, prolonged decline in the decades that followed. City officials believe a revival is at hand.

“We’re working to become a place where people just don’t drive through, but people drive to,” Wood said.

Transportation: Dumfries is near Exit 152 on Interstate 95. The Virginia Railway Express links Dumfries with Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia, with stations at Rippon and Quantico. A new station is under construction at nearby Potomac Shores. Local bus service connects Dumfries with the OmniRide Transit Center in Dale City.

Schools: Dumfries Elementary, Graham Park Middle School and Forest Park High School.

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