Whereas the residents of the city of Manassas will celebrate the city’s historic 150th anniversary as an active and involved community on April 1, 2023, at Dean Park; Whereas, originally called Manassas Junction, the town of Manassas was incorporated in 1873 by the Virginia General Assembly; Whereas the town grew out of being located at the junction of the Orange, Alexandria, and the Manassas Gap railroad lines; Whereas the fortunes of Manassas and its establishment as a town are linked to the railroad; Whereas, when the Orange and Alexandria Railroad reached what was then called Tudor Hall in 1851 and connected to the Manassas Gap Railroad, the area became known as Manassas Junction, offering farmers a chance to move their grain and establishing a strategic location for growth after the Civil War; Whereas the first law enforcement in the then town of Manassas began in 1873 with Town Sargent Jacob W. Hornbaker; Whereas the selection of Manassas as the county seat and construction of the county courthouse in 1894 spurred a building and population boom and led to the growth of the town; Whereas seven of the city’s historic treasures are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including— (1) Liberia, the 1825 home and grounds where nearly 90 enslaved people toiled on a plantation, where both Confederate and Union forces set up headquarters during the Civil War, and where President Abraham Lincoln visited; (2) Mayfield Earthwork Fort, built by Confederate forces and the enslaved in 1861 to defend against Union advances; (3) Cannon Branch Earthwork Fort, built in 1863 to defend rail lines supplying Union troops; (4) Annaburg, the 1894 summer home of brewer Robert Portner, believed to be the first house in the country to have air conditioning after Portner invented and installed his own cooling machine; (5) the iconic 1914 Manassas Water Tower, built as the town established its own water utility