Taylor's Tavern

[2] An inscription on a historical marker placed by the City of Falls Church, Virginia, at Taylor's Tavern, reads: Two-story building with verandahs stood on 56 acres bought in 1856 by Wm.

Tavern faced Alexandria-Leesburg Pike west of Junction with Georgetown Road (Wilson Boulevard).

By October 1861 Union troops had reoccupied hills and added forts Taylor, Buffalo, and Ramsay as a separate group 4–5 miles west of main ring of Washington defenses.

[3]The tavern was the site of the first aerial reconnaissance mission in the United States, a balloon flight by Thaddeus S. C. Lowe on June 24, 1861.

With the assistance of a detachment of fifteen men, he carried his craft, the Enterprise, to the tavern site, from which he conducted a number of test flights.