Whether your stay here is for a few days or a few years, you’ll come to know Fort Belvoir as more than a beautiful place to call home. You’ll also find that "Excellence Through Service" is both Fort Belvoir’s unofficial slogan, and also a way of life.

Temporary housing may be available for new arrivals and visitors. The cost varies from $35 to $84 a night, depending upon the location, the number of people and type of room. Fort Belvoir has 539 rooms available and 13 distinguished visitor rooms. Reservations may be made six months in advance for personnel with official orders, TDY and PCS. Personnel with no official orders can make space-available reservations 30 days in advance, for five nights.

In 2003, the military housing at Fort Belvoir became privatized under the Army’s Residential Communities Initiative program. The program’s goal is to improve the quality of life for military families by offering safe, affordable and attractive residential communities. The intent of the program is to provide military families the same quality of life in housing as the civilians they defend.

A variety of retail, food and services are available to Fort Belvoir customers. The Main Exchange Mall, complete with a food court and a host of concession activities, and the Class Six/Shoppette, which includes Dunkin’ Donuts and Church’s Chicken, are located on North Post. The Home and Garden Center, Service Station, Military Clothing Sales Store, and the new Village Commons Stores are located on South Post.

If you are looking for a variety of ways to spend your free time, Fort Belvoir is the perfect place. Looking for exercise? Check out one of the two fitness facilities on post or the swimming pools (there are three outdoor and one indoor), or the golf courses (a nine-hole and two 18-hole courses here).

Fort Belvoir’s history is interwoven with the founding of Fairfax County, the settling of Virginia and the birth of our nation. The 8,656-acre tract along the Potomac River that is now Fort Belvoir was once part of a grant from a 17th century English king. Control of the land, known as the Northern Neck, was handed down through the Culpeper family to Thomas, the sixth Lord Fairfax, who, in 1734, persuaded his cousin, Col. William Fairfax, to come to Virginia and oversee the family’s holdings.

The Department of Defense released its Base Realignment and Closure recommendations on May 13, 2005, and the recommendations became federal law on Nov. 9, 2005. Under BRAC law, Fort Belvoir will gain approximately 22,000 military and civilian employees, the largest gain of any DoD installation.

Few areas in the world can match the diversity of the Fort Belvoir area. The installation is minutes from Mount Vernon, Old Town Alexandria, the nation’s capital as well as so much more of America’s heritage. Alexandria’s Town Crier can usually be seen calling out special events and happenings in the historic port city of Alexandria.

The Fort Belvoir Newcomer’s Guide and Telephone Directory is an authorized publication of the Fort Belvoir community. It is printed by Comprint Military Publications of Gaithersburg, Md., a private firm in no way connected with the Department of the Army, under an exclusive contract with Fort Belvoir. All editorial content of the guide is prepared and edited by the Fort Belvoir Public Affairs Office.

• About Fort Belvoir