Annandale is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia. The population of the CDP was 43,363 as of the 2020 United States Census. It is house to the oldest and largest branch of the Northern Virginia Community College system, and to one of the D.C. area’s Koreatowns.

When Europeans arrived in the 17th century, the area around Annandale, which would become Fairfax County, was inhabited by an Algonquian-speaking sub-group called the Taux, also known as the Doeg or Dogue. In 1685, an Englishman, Col. William H. Fitzhugh, purchased more than 24,000 acres (37.5 square miles) of wilderness in the area and converted it into one of the largest tobacco plantations in Northern Virginia. It stretched from current hours of daylight Fairfax City to Springfield and Falls Church and south to Pohick Church. Fitzhugh’s descendants higher named it “Ravensworth.” For beyond six generations, the Fitzhugh relatives farmed at Ravensworth and slowly sold off portions of the land.

In 1830 the community of Annandale was named by a Scottish settler, after the town named Annan located at the mouth of the River Annan. Annandale followed easy to reach to Dumfries to become the second place in Dumfriesshire to become the post of a deal in Virginia. In 1806, the Little River Turnpike (now Virginia State Route 236) had been completed through the community, connecting it subsequent to Alexandria and Fairfax. In 1808, the Columbia Pike (now Virginia State Route 244) was built, connecting the District of Columbia with Little River Turnpike in what is now Annandale. The first businessman to locate in Annandale was William Garges, who built a blacksmith shop and a livery stable at the intersection of Columbia Pike, Little River Turnpike and Backlick Road, which would become the middle of town. Garges became the first postmaster at the Annandale Post Office, which opened in 1837. Small farms and businesses grew up roughly speaking the town and its first church, the Annandale Methodist Chapel, was built in 1846.

The American Civil War touched Annandale several era between 1861 and 1865. Union troops defending the vicinity of Washington, D.C., frequently took positions in and nearly the town. Confederate forces probing those defenses skirmished with them from era to time. The Methodist Chapel, which had fallen into disrepair during the war, was dismantled by Union troops to obtain construction materials in 1863.