Jaybird's Jottings

Historic Home on N. King’s Highway

Last week I posted a plea for help to save a 1940s era building that stands between the Huntington Metro and Mount Eagle Park.  I am still trying to find out its history.

There is a very good development, however, concerning the building materials.

Buildings are also cherished and saved for their architectural contributions. I was told yesterday at the Farmers Market (thanks Ed and Ellen!) that the roof of this building is slate.

This is great news.   This home could be a rare existing example of such material in these parts.

Below is some information from a website.

If anyone knows more, please let me know!

• American slating history dates back to 1734. The peak of slate production was around 1900.
• Most of the original slate quarries in America now no longer exist. Only a few remain.
• Slate roofs declined in the early 1900s and new slate roof installations almost disappeared after 1940. Asphalt roofs took their place.
• Slate roofing has almost become a dying art in America.
• From the 1940s to the present, asphalt shingles replaced slate as the primary form of roofing in America.

Prettiest Little Church in Southern Maryland

Appointments at Andrews take me from Alexandria to Prince George’s County via the Beltway.  Building in time, I’ve had some fun learning bailout points and alternate routes.   Prince George’s County is fun to explore this way.

Anyway, my latest Frostian adventure took me along Brinkley Drive, which runs through the Oxon Hill neighborhood. Spotted this beautiful church at 2317. Turns out it has two historical markers and some nifty history.

The highlights from the National Register for Historic Places

• Built in 1890.
• Architectural style is Queen Anne and Shingles but also taps into Gothic Revival. This is the only surviving example in the Potomac area of Prince George’s County.
• Corner stone from prior church (1849) incorporated into foundation.
• Eighty-foot tall tower.
• Cardinal James Gibbons called it the “prettiest little church in Southern Maryland."
• Church founded in 1849 by Father Joseph M. Finotti, S.J., first anthologist in the United States.

By the way, every time I drive through this southern part of the county, I’m reminded it is such an untapped treasure, with flowing hills and valley streams and proximity to the central part of the DMV.

I just hope the redevelopment is respectful to the natural beauty and the past.

It is also my observation that the northern part of the county gets more attention than the southern in terms of historical resources and interpretive efforts.

History in Southeast Fairfax County: The Sad, Sad Story of What We Have Lost

The other day I posted a plea for help to save a 1940s era building that stands between the Huntington Metro and Mount Eagle Park.   One part of my argument has to do with what we’ve already lost.

Here is a map I put together of those losses. All these are historic properties that were torn down, mostly in the 1960s.  This is not a complete list, but does reach towards that goal. The labels are not all 100% accurate for their location.

Let me know if you have any questions. I am continuing to see what can be done to save the brick home/building.  

(Mount Eagle from "Montebello at Mount Eagle" by Nan Netherton).

Arlington Historical Museum

Excellent visit yesterday to The Arlington Historical Museum, located at 1805 South Arlington Ridge Road and inside an historic building.

Arlington has a lot of history.  One standout individual is Frank Hume.   A grocer and “whiskey man” who lived and worked in Washington and summered at Warwick, Hume donated the land for a school.   The county built a Queen-Anne style building in 1891 and named it the Hume School.   This was a period when local governments were replacing one-room schools.

The Arlington Historical Society has done a wonderful job with the museum, which packs a punch in the limited space. The musty smell accents the feel of history. Exhibits include farm tools, bottles of whiskey sold by Hume, a lovely portrait of him, and a good selection of books.   The views across to Washington from the Arlington ridge are also part of the package.  

 

Saving Our Heritage in Southeast Fairfax County

Older buildings and neighborhoods in Fairfax County are part of Fairfax County's "heritage resources" and are economic and social investments that pay dividends.   These sites and buildings also tell the history of the built environment in the county…

The above words were taken from the Fairfax County Historic Preservation and Heritage Resources webpage.

Very good words indeed.

As part of the “Embark Richmond Highway” study, the county also recently produced a poster showing the location of Heritage Resources here in Southeast Fairfax County.  It lists 40 locations on or near Richmond Highway that are listed in the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites.

40 sounds like a healthy number, but for those of who live in the upper part of Richmond Highway (Huntington to Groveton), there’s virtually noting left but sites.   And almost all of those show nothing to suggest what was once there.   Adding to the scarcity, historical markers are but a few.

It may be hard for some to believe, but there was a time when historic homes graced the top of hills and and farm land along Route 1 between Alexandria and Groveton.   Where Montebello now stands stood Mount Eagle, the country home of Bryan, Eighth Lord Fairfax and close friend of George Washington.   Built in 1790, Mount Eagle had a rich history and was last occupied by the Fifer family of Alexandria in the 1930s and 1940s.

Shoppers at King’s Crossing in the Penn-Daw neighborhood step on the site of Spring Bank, the spacious home and brick beauty of a grandson of George Mason and others.   

On that highest spot in Groveton we call Beacon Hill, City View I and II were once landmarks.  Their stories tell us a lot about the history of Richmond Highway, Groveton and its surrounding neighborhoods.     

There were other places too, such as the Civil War’s Fort Lyon (near Huntington Metro), Beacon Field Airport (Beacon Center), Groveton Elementary School (The Beacon of Groveton), Spring Bank Colored School, a one-room school house that may have been the last of its kind in this part of the county, (Richmond Highway and Quander Road), the Mount Pleasant Tourist Home, a quant wooden structure on N. King’s Highway (Huntington Station Shopping Center), and motor lodges galore where summer vacationers spent the night and grabbed a bit to eat.

And perhaps the grandaddy of all the ghosts was the Dixie Pig restaurant, a culinary landmark that served North Carolina-styled BBQ for many years (northeast corner of Richmond Highway and Beacon Hill Drive).

All these and others are gone, taken away during the suburban building boom that swept across Northern Virginia like a tsunami. Sadly, none of the homes have a marker, and only two of the rest of the above (Beacon Hill Airport and Fort Lyon) has one.

So what is left here that is becoming older and might be worth saving?

(By the way, I have not forgotten about Historic Huntley.  It survived, but does not have the visibility it would have if it were located on or just off Richmond Highway).   

I used to think there wasn’t anything in that regard until last week when the “Smart Markets Huntington” farmer’s market moved from the Huntington Station Shopping Center parking lot to across the street at a vacant lot between the metro station and Mount Eagle Park and next to the Courts at Huntington Metro.  

Steps from the tents stand two structures.   One is a two story, five-window wide brick home that appears to this amateur to be built in the Colonial Revival Style.  Notable are symmetrical attached wings and a portico.

The other is attached and is a wooden smaller home with a gable front.   Both were last used by the Capitol Park Police as their Headquarters.

The question now is what do with this pair of homes.

Quite frankly, both have seen better days and to some people, they might not seem worth saving.   

But that is often the case with preservation.   It isn’t until new life is breathed into a place that everyone realizes how something old or older can add character and serve the community.    

And it’s worth pointing out that a building that is “only” 75 years old can be worth saving.   A recent example took place in Old Town Alexandria when the Carver building in the Parker-Gray neighborhood, built in the 1940s, was saved and adaptively re-used.   I don’t know when these homes were built but a guess would be the 1940s.

Before we go any further, let me say I am not “anti-development.”  Quite the contrary, readers of my blog know I am a proponent of “smart growth” and support it.   I read “Greater Greater Washington" everyday and I know of the importance of transit-oriented development and density.  Our suburban footprint is being transformed with more walkable places and that is a very good and needed thing.

In the case of these two homes, they are in a prime redevelopment spot and are, in fact, targeted to be torn down as part of an on-going mixed use development at the south side of the metro station.

So I am torn between the two approaches.

But given what I said about the lack of actual historic places in this part of Southeast Fairfax County, shouldn’t we try and save these two?   

I am currently organizing such an effort.   I’ve never done such a thing so I can use all the help I can get.

A friend of mine told me the first step is to get the assets on the Inventory of Historic Sites.  It still may not be enough to save the two, but I believe it is worth trying,

This is where I could use your help.

The only thing I know about these two buildings is that they seem to have architectural merit, and that there could be some history attached.  They might have been associated with Mount Eagle before it was demolished in the late 1960s.  I’ve been told they were also used by a doctor.

If saved, my thought is they could be incorporated into the re-development as an adaptive re-use.  One idea I have is to house a small museum for the history of this area -  Southeast Fairfax County.   Ronald Chase has done a terrific job with the Gum Springs Museum.  This counterpart would fill in the gap from Great Hunting Creek to Hybla Valley.   

In addition to the museum, the building could host other tenants.  Perhaps the Smart Markets farmer’s market could be a partner and find a permanent home on the lot in front.   Once fixed up, the rehabilitated homes would serve as an attractive and useful gateway piece for those using Metro or the King’s Highway.

At this early point in my effort, so much is uncertain.  

But I do know one thing.    If those words about heritage resources mean anything, then we who live here owe it to ourselves and the community to try and save these two homes.   

Fifty years ago, the late Nan Netherton tried to save Mount Eagle.  Unfortunately, our nation’s sense of historic preservation was in its infant stages, and in the end, the developers had all the cards.  In 1968, on what must have been a very sad day for some, the fire department was brought in.  Down in flames went the historic home and the visible attachment to our history.

We need re-development, but in this place we call home, can’t we save something old every now and then?

 

Sources:

Mount Eagle -  “Montebello at Mount Eagle,” Nan Netherton.

City View -  Beacon Hill Airport website.  

Groveton - “Groveton:  Images of America,” Charlotte Brown.

Historic Homes on Richmond Highway - Ghosts on the Hill.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chinese-Americans: Honor and Duty

 

Chinese-Americans speaking with a thick Southern drawl?

You better believe it bubba.

We’re talking about those who went to the Mississippi Delta after the Civil War, planted roots and stayed.   A forgotten chapter of Reconstruction and beyond, their stories are compelling and teach us something about who we are as a nation. 

Samantha Cheng has captured a cogent slice of this part of our history in a documentary titled -  “Honor and Duty:  The Mississippi Delta Chinese.” The three-part film was shown last night at the MLK library in the District.  Cheng answered questions from the audience.

 

 

 

Cheng interviewed dozens of Chinese-Americans.   Some operated small groceries stores.   Some fought for their country during World War II, including serving in the “Flying Tigers” squadrons.

Author John Jung has written on this topic.   He writes that some of these workers in the 1870s may have been fleeing violence in the West.  Their exodus stands in remarkable contrast to blacks who fled violence in the Deep South and made a diaspora to the West.

The film details examples of African-Americans and Chinese-Americans getting along just fine and helping each other as a way to deal with Jim Crow laws.

More screenings will take place throughout 2016.

The sesquicentennial of Reconstruction has begun.   Let’s hope that these stories and others of Chinese-Americans will be told.    Among the landmark events and legislation are:

 

1871 Lynching of Chinese immigrants – In the worst mass lynching in California history, a mob of white and Latino vigilantes murders 19 Chinese immigrants in Los Angeles after gunfire between two rival Chinese syndicates kills a white rancher.

1874 The California Supreme Court rules in Ward v. Flood that African American children have a right to a public education but not in the same schools as white children.  A new California law grants separate public education for blacks and Native Americans, but not for Chinese.  From 1871-1885, Chinese children are the only racial group denied a state-funded education.

1875 Asian Exclusion Act – Also known as the Page Act or the Immigration Act of 1875, this the first immigration law to exclude groups of people including women from the United States.   Often referred to as the Asian Exclusion Act, the legislation prohibits the importation of Chinese laborers who do not voluntarily consent to come to work in America and Chinese women for the purposes of prostitution.  Although the law is enacted to limit the trafficking in women for prostitution, it is used to prevent women who are single and unemployed from entering the United States when they do not appear to have a means of support.  This Act did not deter the immigration of Chinese men who were not indentured.

1882 Chinese Exclusion Act – Congress passes the Chinese Exclusion Act, suspending the immigration of Chinese laborers to the United States.  It is the first U.S. restriction on immigration based on race and nationality.  It says, “Whereas, in the opinion of the Government of the United States the coming of Chinese laborers to this country endangers the good order of certain localities within the territory thereof…”

1885-1886  Anti-Chinese riots, raids and purges take place throughout the west – in California, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Nevada and Colorado.  Chinatowns are set afire.  The Chinese government urges the U.S. government to take action to protect their nationals, but nothing happens.  The Chinese government concludes the inability or unwillingness of the U.S. government to protect Chinese living in America leads them to negotiate a new Sino-American treaty.

 

 

 

 

Parc Meridian and its Historical Connections with Cameron

 

Parc Meridian, one of the tallest buildings in and around Alexandria that rises to 25 stories and holds 500 residential units, is now open for business.

We visited and took these photos yesterday.

What’s really cool about this place is its location has historical connections that go back before the founding of Alexandria in 1749.   It lies perhaps steps from the site of the village of Cameron (named after Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax) that proceeded Alexandria and almost became the site selected for a tobacco inspection station.   

Diane Riker touches on Cameron in her research article.

The hard-driving merchants who were said by some historians to live there – John Carlyle, John Pagan and William Ramsay - occupied properties more than a mile to the southwest in the village of Cameron, near present day Telegraph Road, at the “head of the creek” on Great Hunting Creek. 

Why would merchants settled in such a fine location support a new town upriver from their own settlement? The commerce now flowing from the backlands to Hugh West’s inspection station would have attracted them and the fine anchorage there, the last one on the Potomac suitable for deep draft vessels before reaching Georgetown, certainly would have. Hunting Creek itself, more fluvial than tidal, did not offer such an anchorage.

 

Silting doomed towns and seaports in the Chesapeake region that placed their seaports where creeks like Great Hunting stuck a finger into the tidewater land.  (A great book on the ones in Maryland is  “Lost Towns of Tidewater Maryland” by Donald Shomette).   

 

 

This gives us a great "What if?"

What if the Virginia House of Burgess had chosen Cameron instead of Alexandria, and what if silting eventually prevented the ships from reaching its docks about two miles inland?  (A great book on the ones in Maryland is Donald Shomette's "Lost Towns of Tidewater Maryland.")

Alexandria, close to Washington, would have grown, but what would have the city looked like?

Where exactly Cameron was located has been a mystery.   We do have some clues, based on Beth Mitchell’s map, topography and assumptions.  Using them, I put together this overlay map.  

Anyway, welcome to Alexandria and enjoy the views!

 

 

 

Slavery’s “Trail of Tears”

 

In Smithsonian Magazine, Edward Ball writes an incredibly moving article that covers the forced migration of a million African-Americans in the decades leading up to the Civil War.   

This story is a recurring nightmare in the annals of Alexandria’s history.   As pointed out by the state highway marker in front of the “Freedom House,” on Duke Street, slave traders Issac Franklin and John Armfield often sold 1,000 people annually and shipped them to New Orleans.   

The marker uses the term "shipped," but as Ball notes, about half of those sold were forced to walk in coffles for the distant of over 1,000 miles.

Ball tracks the roads they used - Duke Street, Little River Turnpike, Highway 11 -  and stopped along the way to ask local historical societies what they knew about the forced migrations that took place in the 1830s and 1840s.    

In his piece he writes:

Franklin & Armfield put more people on the market than anyone—perhaps 25,000—broke up the most families and made the most money. About half of those people boarded ships in Washington or Norfolk, bound for Louisiana, where Franklin sold them. 

This forced resettlement was 20 times larger than Andrew Jackson’s “Indian removal” campaigns of the 1830s, which gave rise to the original Trail of Tears as it drove tribes of Native Americans out of Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama. It was bigger than the immigration of Jews into the United States during the 19th century, when some 500,000 arrived from Russia and Eastern Europe. It was bigger than the wagon-train migration to the West, beloved of American lore. This movement lasted longer and grabbed up more people than any other migration in North America before 1900.

 

 

 

700 N. Washington Street

This is a view of Saint Joseph Catholic Church, one not seen since the 1950s.

The Travelodge Motel at 700 N. Washington, built in the 1950s, is giving way to a four-story mixed use (Michael Neibauer with the WBJ has the details).  We like the bay window seen in the renderings.

Customers at the Flair Nail and Salon, which served the community from the corner spot, are pleased to know the four ladies are planning to return once the new place goes up.

 

Metro Woes: A Little Perspective

Raise your hand if you’d like to debate on the side defending Washington's metro system.

Yea, I didn’t think so…

As one recent report in the Post put it:

Metro’s failure-prone subway — once considered a transportation jewel — is mired in disrepair because the transit agency neglected to heed warnings that its aging equipment and poor safety culture would someday lead to chronic breakdowns and calamities.

But as bad as it is right now for Metro and its riders, I’d say a little perspective might ease the pain as the region girds its loins for months of more delays due to implementing the long overdue repairs and maintenance.

The alternatives to taking Metro are the buses, driving, biking, or walking.  I was not able to find the comparative figures, but overall, driving is the most dangerous form of transportation in the United States.   Sadly, fatalities have surpassed 30,000 annually, and upwards of a million are injured.

Unfortunately, walking and biking are increasingly hazardous. According to one article, 60 pedestrians were killed 53 in the DC area last year, up from 53 in 2014. The trend is similarly bad nationwide.

By way of comparison, in its 40 years of service, 14 people have died using the Metro portion of the WAMATA system.  

As far as delays, I’m not sure how to compare.  But in this category, I’d say both Metro and driving too often raise our blood pressures and make us late.  

So if taking Metro is many times safer than the other options, why are commuters so concerned and anxious, and why are some no longer using the system?

I’m certainly not a psychologist, but the field was my major in college. I remember being fascinated with heuristics.

The Wiki account gives a nice overview.

heuristics are simple, efficient rules, learned or hard-coded by evolutionary processes, that have been proposed to explain how people make decisions, come to judgments, and solve problems typically when facing complex problems or incomplete information.

Researchers test if people use those rules with various method.  These rules work well under most circumstances, but in certain cases lead to systematic errors or cognitive biases. 

In the case of Metro, we’re dealing with the "Availability Heuristic".

Once again wiki.

Media coverage can help fuel a person's example bias with widespread and extensive coverage of unusual events, such as homicide or airline accidents, and less coverage of more routine, less sensational events, such as common diseases or car accidents.

All this is not going to make the trains run on time, but perspective is always important.

And so is safety.   Be careful out there…