The land on which Hayfield Secondary sits was historically part of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate.

Because of a small natural spring underneath the school, the land served as a hay field.

Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, a large majority of Hayfield's students were white, it was racially integrated from the day of its first opening in 1968, drawing the majority of its students of color from the children of military men and women at nearby Fort Belvoir, home to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The desegregation encouraging word "diversity" even headed a section of the 1973 yearbook, the fifth volume of the "Harvester.

Further helping to relieve the pressure on Hayfield was the opening of South County Secondary School, also in 2005.

As of Spring 2007, the number of exams on which a score of 3 or higher was achieved (on a scale of 1–5) rose to 57% from 46% the previous year, the best results found on record for Hayfield.

Many special effect projectors are also used to demonstrate certain astronomical and atmospheric phenomena, such as lunar and solar eclipses, different types of lightning, auroras, and the phasing of the moon.