The Fairfax County Park Authority has owned the land that comprises Ellanor C. Lawrence Park since 1971. Development of facilities began in 1980. Most of the land that is now the park was once part of a farm called Walney. For the two hundred and thirty years from the time that farming began here until the Park Authority was given the land, it remained in the ownership of only three families: Brown/Lewis, Machen and Lawrence. Today, exhibits and programs educate patrons about the natural history of the park and tell the story of those families and the American Indians that were here before them.