The old Edgehill Texaco station on Main Street is a familiar sight to most Gazette-Journal readers. It is currently the headquarters of the Fairfield Foundation. But few know the story of Fairfield, the large colonial plantation whose fourth-generation owner, Lewis Burwell, served as an interim Virginia Governor and held meetings with government leaders at his home near White Marsh.

“We’ve been researching Fairfield since we were at William and Mary in the 1990s,” said Dr. Dave Brown, Fairfield’s co-director with Thane Harpole. “Since 2000 we’ve been conducting archaeological excavations there with students, interns, colleagues, and volunteers as the Fairfield Foundation.”

In November, the Fairfield Foundation received a grant as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan. The grant will foster discussions of the future of archaeology and preservation programs at Fairfield with stakeholders. These discussions will...