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McLean (Images of America)

McLean was a farming community in 1910, when Henry Alonzo Storm established a general store that included the McLean Post Office; the opening of Storm's Store is considered McLean's unofficial beginning. The store was located on Chain Bridge Road beside a stop on the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railroad, an electrified trolley that ran from Rosslyn to Great Falls Park. The stop was named after John R. McLean, a founder of the trolley and owner of the Washington Post newspaper. A village and vibrant community gradually developed around Storm's Store. The Franklin Sherman School, the first consolidated public school in Fairfax County, opened near the store in October 1914; McLean Day, the first event of its kind in the county, started in 1915 to raise money for the school; and the McLean Volunteer Fire Department incorporated in 1923 as Station 1 in Fairfax County.