The Birch House stands out as one of the few surviving relics of the city of Falls Church’s mid-19th-century heritage. Preserving a nostalgic image of a quieter era, the house is conspicuously located on Route 7, the former Alexandria-Leesburg Turnpike. The original portion of the house was erected as a farmhouse before 1845 and evolved to its present form by the 1870s, when it received its tall gable with Gothic-style bargeboards. The house was long the home of Joseph E. Birch, who assisted in the incorporation of Falls Church as a town in 1875 and served on the first town council. In 1968 his grandson deeded the house to Historic Falls Church, Inc. for preservation. The Birch House was then restored and sold with protective covenants.