Jaybird's Jottings

From Howson to Amazon: A Brief Look at the History of the Land Where HQ2 Has Landed

A hot topic in the DMV right now is the coming together of planners in Alexandria and Arlington to develop dovetailing strategies in the wake of the arrival of Amazon’s HQ2.   Although the majority of the office space will be in Arlington, Alexandria got a few slices of the pie, too.   

We thought it might be helpful, especially to our newcomers, to talk about the history of the land where the company is setting up shop. 

First of all, let’s nail down exactly where the workers will be located.  Because the offices are in parts of Crystal City and Pentagon City (Arlington) and Potomac Yard (Alexandria), some confusion of the precise location remains for the less informed.

To the rescue is this nifty map prepared by the New Haven Register.   As you can see, this axe-shaped part of Alexandria and Arlington (some might say that is appropriate), is south of the Pentagon and west of National Airport.

What the novice can’t see is where Alexandria ends and Arlington begins.   Fortunately, it’s easy.   The eastern most boundary between the two is Four Mile Run, that ribbon of blue running across the screen and flowing into the Potomac River south of National Airport. 

Cyclists and walkers have a fondness for Four Mile Run, but what many folks may not know is that this body of water can tell us a lot about the history of this part of the area.   Let's take a look.

 

The first roads in the colony of Virginia were the rivers and their feeders.   The native Americans, who were the original watermen, fished and ate off this bounty.   When they arrived, the planters built their homes overlooking the rivers.   Their wharfs dotted the landscape, the place where the tall ships sailed in, discharged the merchant goods, and picked up the hogsheads of tobacco for the markets in the Old World.

In the first part of the eighteenth century, when the northward push of the tidewater  planters began to arrive in this part of the colony, Four Mile Run served as one of the few place identifiers in what became this part of Alexandria and Arlington.   In his oldie but goodie research, Charles W. Stetson tells us the name Four Mile Creek was used as early as 1694 on land records.   Four Mile Creek or Four Mile Run was labeled on maps as early as 1737 (Robert Brooke’s, “A plan of Patomack River)” and 1747 (“A Survey of the Northern Neck of Virginia, being the lands of the Rt. Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax”).    

Note:  The Fairfax Northern Neck Grant included what we know today as the Northern Neck and northern Virginia.

 

Whence Four Mile Run got its name is muddy waters.   Educated guesses have pointed to either a faded sign (Flour Mill Run), the distance (actually about 10), or the favorite as stated by Stetson.  In his presentation before the Columbia Society in 1932, he said -  “It was the first considerable estuary above Great Hunting Creek and was about four miles north of it.”  

Four Mile Run is not very wide, but it can take us deep into the history of this part of the Washington region.   George Washington’s diary tells us he used the term a good number of times, including his 1774 purchase of a 1,200 acre tract of land from James and George Mercer.   The modern day equivalent of this tract is south of Barcroft in Arlington, and southward across Route 7 into Alexandria.   

This land later became known as the “Washington Forest.”  Always a stickler for accuracy, Washington got on his horse a number of times and rode to his property to check his survey points and look for squatters. 

In 1746, three years before Alexandria was founded as a seaport two miles south of Four Mile Run, Daniel Jennings prepared a “Survey of Robert Howson’s 6,000 acre patent.”  It shows the “Howson Tract,” a shelf of woodland east of the Fall Line and lying between a spine of hills and the Potomac River.  These lands on both sides of Four Mile Run became the easternmost portions of Alexandria and Arlington which include Old Town, Potomac Yard, Crystal City and Pentagon City.    Early research thought Howson to be a Welsh sea captain, but this may not be the case.  Either way, Howson gained title to these lands as payment for bringing immigrants to the part of the New World.  

Histories of Alexandria sometimes begin in 1669, the year John Alexander (1603-1677) acquired this tract of land from Howson.  Alexander came from Scotland, a country that gave Alexandria a good number of its first residents and a pride seen every December with the Scottish parade in Old Town.  Alexander lived in Chotank, a riverside establishment about ten miles upstream from where George Washington would be born on the Northern Neck.

In a complicated twist we can’t explain here, Margaret Brent (1601-) also owned a smaller portion of the land that would become Alexandria.  In 1638 she landed on the Maryland shore in a British ship.   An obvious minority, Brent had to fight for her rights as a landowner and lawyer.  With the overlap, Alexander had to pay twice for that part of his holdings.

It’s worth pointing out that, as it does today for Alexandria and Fairfax County, Great Hunting Creek was the southern divider for what became Alexandria.   Its mouth was much wider then and its waters deep enough to float ships a mile or so inland to the village of Cameron (roughly, modern day Telegraph Road and the Beltway).

Seven years before Alexandria was founded in 1749, Fairfax County came into being.  As seen on Beth Mitchell’s 1760 map, Fairfax County included all of northern Virginia.  In 1801, Virginia officially ceded Alexandria and the future land of Arlington to the new District of Columbia.   That land became Alexandria County, north and west of Alexandria.  Virginia re-gained these lands in 1848.   Remnants remain, including a down pipe in Old Town marked with “Alexandria, DC.”  A number of boundary stones used to mark the Federal District can be found in both Alexandria and Arlington.  The ceremonial first one was laid in what is now Jones Point Park, the southeastern tip of Alexandria.

In the days before Alexandria was founded at a crescent-shaped bay about two miles south of Four Mile Run, placing a location was a relative thing.  For example, Hugh West’s tobacco warehouses, located at modern day foot of Oronoco Street in Old Town, were initially referred to as the warehouses at Great Hunting Creek.   This has probably confused people through the years because West’s Point is about a mile north of Great Hunting Creek.  

In the 1730s, John Alexander’s great grandsons  inherited what had been the Howson Tract. South of Four Mile Run went to John Alexander (1711-1775).   The Jenkins survey shows his dwelling located just south of the creek.  The modern day equivalent is somewhere near the Barnes and Noble in Potomac Yard and within shouting distance of where Virginia Tech will built its new Innovation Campus overlooking Four Mile Run.  

North of Four Mile Run went to Gerard Alexander (1712-1761).   He lived in and probably built Abingdon (circa 1746), a landmark plantation home just north of Four Mile Run.  Its historic site was saved in the 1990s, a win-win that sandwiched the ruins between the two large parking lots at National Airport.   If you have a few minutes to spare before or after a flight, it’s quite the novel experience.

In 1778, John “Jackie” Parke Custis, Martha Washington’s only son and George’s adopted son, acquired Abingdon.   In the distance southward, they could see the tall ships sailing in and out of Alexandria.   The Georgian homes that dotted the seaport bespoke of the good times.   For business and pleasure, George Washington visited the town many times.  By the turn of the century, Alexandria had become the seventh largest port.

Washington scolded Jackie for paying too much for Abingdon, but he no doubt enjoyed the convenient location.  The mansion home was roughly halfway between Mount Vernon and Mount Airy, the Maryland home of Eleanor Calvert, Jackie’s wife, and her family.    

Eleanor gave birth to four children -  Eliza Parke Custis (1776-1831), Martha Parke Custis (1777-1854), Eleanor (Nellie) Parke Custis (1779-1850) and George Washington Parke Custis (1781-1857).   They each spent their first or earliest years living at Abingdon.

One can learn quite a bit through the lens of these four step grandchildren of George Washington.   For example, their footprints are all over three of the most famous historic mansion museums in the DMV.

The county of Arlington gets its name from Arlington House, the Greek Revival mansion George Washington Parke Custis completed as a shrine to his step grandfather in 1818.  It seems likely the name of the house came from the Custis family ancestral home, Arlington, whose site is in Cape Charles, Virginia.  

The source of that one’s naming is up for grabs.  Lord Arlington was a family friend.  More is known about Arlington Row, a set of limestone cottages built in the fourteenth century in Bilbury Parish.   Captain John Custis (b. 1592), high above George Washington Parke Custis on the family tree, is thought to have been born in Bilbury Parish.   The great grandson of Captain John Custis is John Custis IV (1678-1749) who is buried at Arlington in Cape Charles.  His son was Daniel Parke Custis who married Martha Dandridge.  After he died, the wealthy widowed Martha married George Washington. 

As a wedding gift to Eleanor and Lawrence Lewis, George Washington built Woodlawn, the impressive Federal style home is tucked away in woods overlooking Route One near Fort Belvoir.  

Martha and her husband lived in Tudor Place, one of Georgetown’s finest examples of the Federal style and also financed by George Washington.   

 

After all those years of use for agriculture, the land above and below Four Mile Run became a transportation corridor.   Getting to and from Alexandria and the new Federal capital was made a bit easier with the construction of the Washington and Alexandria Turnpike in 1808.   Its basic course followed where Route One runs today.   

Joining the turnpike was the Alexandria Canal, which had a modest heyday hauling coal from the 1840s to the 1870s.   The canal ran along the western edge of modern day Potomac Yard and crossed over Four Mile Run at a unique x-shaped bridge/tunnel where the railroad went through.  Before connecting with the C&O Canal at Georgetown, the Alexandria Canal went along what became South Eads Street in Arlington.  This is where Amazon will build two new tall buildings between 13th and 15th in Pentagon City.   

 

The competition to win the coveted prize of landing Amazon’s HQ2 was a fierce one.  270 years ago there was another fierce competition to land a coveted prize.  This one determined where a new tobacco port and town would be located below the Fall Line of the Potomac.  

Two main groups petitioned the House of Burgess.  One wanted the location to be the village of Cameron.   Perhaps archaeology near the Eisenhower Avenue Metro will someday uncover its wharfs.

The ultimate winner was a coalition of powerful men in Fairfax County who had touted a crescent-shaped bay located a mile north of Great Hunting Creek.   In the early 1740s, Hugh West had constructed a couple of tobacco warehouses at what would become known as West’s Point at the foot of Oronoco Street.   

The lineup for this group was a who’s who of influentials in Fairfax County, including Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax and Lawrence Washington (George Washington’s half brother and the son-in-law of Colonel William Fairfax, cousin of Thomas).

What made the difference in the decision will probably be never known.  It does give us a great “What If?”   Had the Cameron site been chosen, silting would have doomed it as a seaport.  Dumfries and Colchester suffered from this fate.

At first, it appeared the Cameron site would be chosen,  Philip Alexander did not want to sell his land.   It has been suggested that in order to “sweeten the pot” of the sale, the Fairfax County group agreed to name the town Alexandria.

Whatever the case, Alexandria was founded in 1749, and took off like a rocket as a seaport.   In one of the Washington region's first major re-development projects, landfill in the 1780s created the straight line of shore seen today.   A zip through Alexandria's long history starts with an initial golden era of international shipping and ship making.  Helping to forge a new chapter after the Civil War were the iron horses of the railroads and manufacturing.  

In the first part of the twentieth century, Potomac Yard, one of the nation's largest freight transfer operations, put paychecks in pockets and bustled with activity.  After years of being contained to the oldest part of the city at what is now mostly Old Town, the City annexed its way more than five miles to the west.   Four Mile Run formed some of the northern boundary.

In 1920, the name Arlington County was adopted on land that been called Alexandria County (mostly north of Four Mile Run).   At that time, the land that is now Crystal City and Pentagon City was mostly a gritty landscape of brickyards and junkyards, and merely a place to pass by on the way to and from the job in Washington.   

Closer to that spine of hills, what became known as the Aurora Highlands neighborhood sprung up.   Initial praise included The Washington Post calling it, “the garden suburb of Virginia Highlands.”   Beginning around 1894, residents used the Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Electric Railway line, which was part of the area’s first mass transit system.   Long time residents there will tell you they remember when they could see the full flight of planes taking off from and landing at National Airport.    

The Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Electric Railway moved hundreds of thousands of people, but the coming of the cars signaled its demise.   The paving of Washington-Richmond Highway, which was part of the predecessor of Route One, was a big deal.   With everybody a captain behind the steering wheel, more bridges were needed across the Potomac.  One of them was the Arlington Memorial Bridge.   It opened in the bicentennial year of 1932 and symbolically linked the Lincoln Memorial with the Arlington House high above on the hill.  

Then came the Pentagon and National Airport in the 1940s, forever changing the landscape of that part of Arlington.  In 1954, the  United States Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial) was unveiled.   In 1958, Arlington House officially opened as a museum.   Five years later, the nation, watching on TV, cast its eyes on Arlington in numbers never before seen.  Ever so sadly, the reason was the laying to rest of President Kennedy at Arlington National Cemetery. 

Mirroring what was happening in Montgomery and Prince George's County, the population of Fairfax County kept from 98,000 to 275,000 in 1960 and 455,000 in 1970.  Land values in this part of Arlington began to rise as the suburban sprawl increased commute times to painful proportions.   Named for a chandelier placed in the lobby of one of the new residential buildings, Crystal City sprung up with tall buildings rarely seen southward in Alexandria.  After a late afternoon swim, a resident could pull up a chair on the balcony, sip a drink, and watch the commuter hell below them.   

Arlington attracted visitors, but according to a travel-development story in 1974, some didn’t know they were in Arlington.   As part of a tourism campaign, a number of Arlington signs went up on the major roads.

The county continued to work hard.  It became a place that would earn accolades for progressive planning.  Arlington began to show up on lists such as Best Places to Live.  In recent years, both Crystal City and Pentagon City have emerged as places with great appeal for those who want walkable urban landscapes and a variety of mass transit options.   A Metro ride from Crystal City to L'Enfant Plaza takes just ten minutes.   Long Bridge Park has blossomed into a jewel.  Eyeing the future, look for the roll out of Short Bridge Park at Four Mile Run.  This will bring the Alexandria and Arlington in ways never seen before as the land belongs to both.

And so, another chapter in the history of these lands is being written.  Our advice to the newcomer is to think larger picture, DMV, and not get hung up on place names such as “East of,” terms that can be divisive.   Enjoy the bounty of history and nature, and be sure and take a walk along Four Mile Run.

 

Maps

1. Google, New Haven Register

2. 1736-37 map of the Northern Neck Proprietary, Library of Congress

3. Howson Patent, Survey Showing Land Ownership, 1741, Library of Congress, edited for Interpretive Marker at Potomac Yard

4. Fairfax County, Interpretive Map, 1760, Beth Mitchell 

5. Atlas of Fifteen Miles Around Washington, G.M. Hopkins, 1878, Library of Congress, Edited for Interpretive Marker at Potomac Yard

6.  Aerial, 1966, Historic Aerials, $12 paid.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mistress of Mount Air, And So Much More

A famous George, lived south of Alexandria in a mansion with a portico, first word of its name is Mount.

Aw, come on Jay, that’s too easy.

For sure, but can you name another George who lived south of Alexandria in a mansion with a portico, first word of its name is Mount?

We're talking George Shirley Kernan (1866-1962).   Her story comes to light in a book on Mount Air (1970) by the late Edith Moore Sprouse.  I bought a used copy several years ago and finally got around to reading it.   We also learn about her daughter, Elisabeth Kernan Enochs.

The ruins of Mount Air are located between Fort Belvoir and Newington, near Telegraph Road (8600 Accotink Road) in the Village of Mount Air neighborhood.  Sitting like a crown, the landmark home had a bird’s eye view of the main road into Alexandria (Potomac Path/King's Highway/today’s Telegraph Road) and a sweeping look down to a valley that ran to Accotink Creek and Pohick Creek.   Mount Air also had a moat of sorts, wrapped by Accotink Creek and two of its branches.    

Mount Air was initially part of a small world south of Alexandria that included some of the first families of Fairfax County -- Washington, Mason, Fairfax.   Where three  prominent necks jut out north of Occoquan River stood their landmark homes. Together, they signaled the coming prosperity to this part of the colony of Virginia.   As members of the vestry of the Truro Parish, they held responsibilities such as caretaking.   Sadly, they owned enslaved humans.

Much, of course, has been written about Washington's Mount Vernon, Mason's Gunston Hall and Belvoir, the grandest of them all.   The Georgian manor, which burned down in 1786, was home to Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax and other members of the English family whose descendants included Lords of Cameron and distinguished ladies.  

Mount Air, however, had something those and others did not.   Across the span of more than 250 years, and on a continuous basis, some one lived here.   Four different families and their succeeding generations called the place home until it burned down in 1992.  

Note:   There was continuous habitation, but the original home was lost, possibly through fire.  Some of its materials such as the basement might have survived.  The date of the original dwelling is not known.   Bills of laden for material point to the 1740s.  The Greek Revival rebuild took place in 1859, with later additions.  

The Mount Air story starts in 1727, twenty two years before Alexandria was founded and fifteen before Fairfax County came into being.   Dennis McCarty (1703-1743) acquired land north of the Occoquan River.   The McCarty clan's roots were in Ireland.   Dennis held leadership roles as a Sheriff, Justice of the Peace, vestryman, and member of the House of Burgess.  In 1724, he married Sarah Ball, cousin of George Washington.

Dennis McCarty built two dwellings north of the Occoquan River.    Cedar Grove came first, probably around 1732.   Described as a "low rambling frame building," the home overlooked both Pohick and Accotink Bay.    

Mount Air stood about two miles to the north and had sweeping views of what became that small world of planters including George Washington and George Mason.   

(Map, 1760 Fairfax County, Beth Mitchell).

McCarty descendants lived at Mount Air for almost 100 years.   Daniel, son of Dennis, owned 3,000 acres between modern day Newington and Fort Belvoir and knew George Washington quite well.   In his diary of February 1768 ("Where & How -- my time is Spent"), Washington penned --

"Fox hunting with Colonel Fairfax, Captain McCarty, Mr. Chichester, Posey, Ellzey & Manley who dined here with Mrs. Fairfax & Miss Nicholas.  Catchd two foxes.

 

The next family to own Mount Air was the Chichesters (1817-1860).  Bringing together two known families, Richard Chichester married Sara McCarty, daughter of Daniel McCarty.  Their first home was Newington, the name they gave to the Truro Parish Glebe house located less than a mile to the north and west.   Likely made of wood, it was finished in 1760.  Its site is less than a mile from Mount Air, somewhere along Newington Road and near the Chichester family cemetery.   

When the fractures between North and South widened to a chasm in 1860, Frances Chichester sold Mount Airy to Aristides Landstreet and his wife Mary.   The war not only divided the country, it split the Landstreet family.   Don Hakenson tells us son Edward wore a rebel uniform while his brother William donned a blue Union one.   When Union soldiers occupied the house, the family moved southward.  When they came back, repairs were necessary.   As Elizabeth Crowell tells us, the value of the property declined. 

The next and penultimate occupant of Mount Air was Mrs. George Shirley Kernan (1866-1962).   She bought the property from the daughters of Frances Aristides in 1914. 

George (sometimes referred to as Mrs. Elisabeth Shirley) gave Mount Air a French flair.   Born in France, her father was John A. de Sayve, great grandson of General De Blanmont, one of Napolean’s generals.  Her mother, Caroline Shirley Randolph, gave her Virginia royalty blood.   

George, who twice became a widow (John Carter Shirley and Dr. Thomas Kernan), filled her cups to the brim every day.   She served as a correspondent for the Paris desk of the New York Herald, and helped get legislation passed for an eight-hour work day in St. Augustine, Florida.   She rubbed shoulders with Eugenia de Montijo (1826-1920).  Born in Spain, Eugenia was the wife of Napoleon III and the last Empress of France.   Eugenia gifted George a suite of furniture that made an eye-catching addition to Mount Air.

George lived at Mount Air from 1914 to her death in 1962.   Sprouse’s book includes a photograph (1918) showing the Second Battalion of the 304th Engineers posing for the camera in front of her house.   They helped build the Fort Belvoir Military Railroad.   Its nomination form tells us its construction in 1918 was “expedited due to the urgent need for troop mobilization for the World War I effort” and that “the railroad was the primary means of moving supplies to and from the installation for Camp A.A Humphrey’s initial construction, as well as Fort Belvoir’s later development.”  

The tracks of the spur are mostly gone, but the eight-mile long right of way runs from Newington to the installation.  Along the way it runs  within shouting distance of the Mount Air ruins.

Feeling a sense of patriotic duty, George allowed the soldiers to bivouac near her house.   Citing the "Official History of the 304th Engineer Regiment," Sprouse tells us the soldiers affectionately called their temporary home, "Camp Merry Widow.”  After the soldiers left, George used some of the lumber from their camp to construct a garage and panel one of the rooms.

Service to others was a hallmark of George's life.  In February 1941, she opened the doors of Mount Air and hosted an afternoon tea.  Proceeds went to the Fairfax Committee Aid to Britain.  Around the same time she donated a "large English boxwood bush" to the Red Cross.

George passed away in 1962 at the Circle Terrace Hospital in Alexandria's West Side.  Her obituaries were published in the New York Times, The Washington Post, and a number of other newspapers.   The Washington Evening Star called her, "Diversified Career Woman."

Services were provided by Demaine Memorial in Alexandria and held at the St. Louis Catholic Church in Groveton.  George was laid to rest at Pohick Church Cemetery, joining some of the early famous people such as John Alexander, Hugh West and Daniel McCarty.

The story of a distinguished woman living at Mount Air did not end with the passing of George.  Her daughter, Elisabeth Shirley Kernan Enochs (1890-1992), lived there and like her mother, lived her life to the fullest each day.  

Elisabeth’s father, Thomas Barron Kernan, passed away in 1906.  George and Elisabeth set sail for Europe and Russia.   The ex-patriots returned to native soil in 1914 and purchased Mount Air. 

A graduate of George Washington University, Elisabeth’s resume included President of the Inter-American Children’s Institute, President of the Society of Women Geographers, and a writer for The Washington Post.   

In 1932, Elisabeth married Matt Enochs, a US Naval Officer.   She was friends with Frances Parkinson Wheeler Keyes (1885-1970), who was born in Charlottesville.   Keyes wrote books with Washington (Capital Kaleidoscope and All Flags Flying) and Southern settings.   The two shared a passion for historic preservation.  

Keyes' novel “The Explorer” (1965) uses Peru and Mount Air (Hill's End) as its setting.   An artist's depiction of the home spreads across the inside cover.  Keyes thanks Elisabeth for "checking all references to a typical ancestral estate in northern Virginia."

In her book, “Two Sisters for Social Justice: A Biography of Grace and Edith Abbott,” Lela B. Costin tells us Abbott once praised the work ethic of Elisabeth, saying,  “She is a race horse type.”   

In 1939, Elisabeth spoke in front of the Alexandria Business and Professional Women’s Club at the George Mason Hotel.  It must have been a real treat.   In the mid 1930s, she had covered global affairs with a specialty in Latin America and had just returned from Peru.

Elisabeth was also in the news in 1939 when she spoke a conference at the YWCA in Washington (614 E Street, NW).  Perhaps she met Civil Rights activist Dorothy Height (1912-2010), who had spoken on "Problems of Negro Women Workers."  

At age 65, Elisabeth was not slowing down.  She wrote, “The Children of Latin America in an Age of Anxiety,” published in The Journal of Educational Sociology, Mar, 1955.

The August 30, 1961 issue of The Washington Post featured an article (Marie Smith, "She Works for Nobody's Children") on Elisabeth.  In what might have been her most shining moment, President Kennedy had appointed her as US Representative on the Directing Council for the Inter-American Children's Institute.    

Smith pointed out Elisabeth's mother had filled Mount Air with historic antiques collected from the surrounding area.   Elisabeth owned religious paintings carved statues of saints she had collected in her many travels.  She was quoted as saying she loved the Latin America people.   After a trip in 1958 to Venezuela, the government awarded her the Order of Francescia de Miranda.

Elisabeth spoke five languages and served as a translator for the War Department.  Somehow, she found time to care for Mount Air.   The General Management Plan for Mount Air Historic Site tells us Elisabeth helped preserve Mount Air.  In 1969, the house was registered with the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites.   Sprouse wrote the book the following year.   

Elisabeth passed away in 1992 and was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sadly, this story includes one more obituary.   Just weeks after Elisabeth was laid to rest, Mount Air burned down.  The county made the ruins into the Mount Air Historic Site and erected several markers.   Elizabeth Crowell tells us it was the county's first interpreted cultural resource park.    In the April 2006 ceremony, Catherine Thorsen was recognized as "a champion for the preservation and protection of the site."

The county marker tells us:

Mount Air Mount Air represents in microcosm a history of Fairfax county -- the rise and fall of an economy based on tobacco in the 18th century; the subdivision of vast tracts of land after the American Revolution; and the damage that occurred from military occupation during the Civil War.

George and Elisabeth didn’t make the cut.  Nevertheless, they, too, made their mark on the world.

 

 

Newington: Part Six: Subdivisions, Highways, The Hotel and Final Thoughts

In Part Five, we looked at the Fort Belvoir Military Railroad.  In our sixth and final part, we look at some of the growth of Newington from the 1940s up to present day.

In the late 1940s, readers of The Washington Post, some of whom were veterans of World War II, turned their eyes to more and more news coverage of the “Iron Curtain” the Soviets were building in Europe.   This was the beginning of the Cold War, Civil Defense, air raid alarm tests, and the Nuclear Age.

No bombs were ever launched, but an explosion related to the Cold War did occur in Fairfax County.  Fueled in part by the GI Bill and VA loans, the population soared from 40,000 in 1940 to 98,557 in 1950.  On its way to hitting the 1M mark in 2010, the number lept to 275,000 in 1960.   A tsunami-like wave of suburban growth was at hand.

Aerial views from the 1940s show about a dozen homes along Newington Road.   This was the beginning of the residential portions of Newington as we know it today.   Ads in the paper touted affordable, new single family homes with a yard.   Servicemen returning from the war qualified for VA and FHA loans.

A 1953 aerial shows homes dotting the new streets of Catskill, Higham, Franklin and Buckley, Hamilton and Ona.  The 1967 aerial shows Hunter Estates labeled for those homes and streets.

The Washington Post of September 27, 1953 showed an ad:

For Sale or Rent, Hunter Estates, VA.   3 bedroom brick ramblers, 1/2 acre lot, convenient to Fort Belvoir and Shirley Highway.   Price $16,950.   Edna B. Hunter, Builder and Developer.

These homes may have gone quickly, as no other ads for the Hunter Estates appeared until 1962.     A bi-level home was priced starting at $27,750.  Ads continued for Hunter Estates in Newington.  In 1978, a 5 bedroom home was selling for $93,000.

As late as 1995, Hunter Estates builders were placing ads in the newspapers.  A large one appeared on February 11, 1995.   Convenience to the Springfield Mall and close to I-95 were touted.  These were larger two story homes with wings and the locations shifted to west of Accotink Road.  The price - from only $239,000.

The following year, more ads were seen -  Hunter Estates, Alexandria Area.   Bi-levels, split foyers, ramblers and 4 bedroom homes were for sale.  Directions were given as South on US Route 1 to Penn Daw Hotel, right on S. King’s Highway, left on Telegraph Road to right on Newington Road.   

In the 1920s and 1930s, residents of the area around Newington had seen road improvements such as the full paving of the Washington-Richmond Highway (Route One).    Another game-changer arrived in 1949 with the construction of the Shirley Highway, the predecessor to I-395 and Interstate 95 south of the Beltway.    It ran less than 2000 feet to the west of the railroad tracks in Newington.   Six years earlier its first segment had become Virginia’s first limited-access freeway.    

Before the Shirley Highway, residents of Newington had used Back Lick Road to get to points northward.  Parts of Back Lick Road may have gone along the same way as the old Road to the Courthouse seen on Mitchell’s map.

The Shirley Highway spawned businesses such as the Hunter Motel and Restaurant, whose site is the Embassy Suites in Newington.   The hotel pays homage to its forerunner with a set of photos near the lobby and a framed primer.   It tells us the motel was built in 1954 by Herbert C. Hunter with the help from his mother Edna B. Hunter.   Hunter came down from upstate New York and with his wife Shirley, managed the hotel and restaurant until his death in 1976.   

What the highway gave, it took away.   1971 marked the end of an era in Newington when passenger service on the trains ended.  

Nathaniel Lee covers this nicely in his book.   In 1955, the train station there had been renamed Newington.   Lee writes:

"the name change better reflected the neighborhood that grew up around the station in the past eighty years, becoming a distinct community from its neighbors."   

But passenger service was on the decline as drivers rolled down their windows and rolled down the highway at speeds that thrilled and killed.  Freight hauls dropped too when trucks could do it cheaper and faster.   In 1970, Congress passed the "Rail Service Passenger Act."   The National Railroad Passenger Corporation was born.  The RF&P became a member.   Its cars and tracks were used, but the new service became known as Amtrak.    The sparse usage at Newington and Lorton stations ended their 99-year long service. 

The wooden train station at Newington was demolished.   A December 1971 article in The Washington Post included a photograph.   One sees a basketball hoop nailed to the porch.

Once again, something was lost but something was gained.   In 1971, an Auto Train service was established at the Lorton Station.    Still in use today, the car-filled trains leave around 3 pm and arrive at Sanford, Florida as the Sunshine State wakes up.    A new facility at Lorton was built in 2000.   Lee writes the Auto Train wins awards for its top notch service.

In January of that year, residents of Newington were shocked by a news report published in the Washington Evening Star.   A pair of robbers shot and critically wounded Hunter.   Fred Tyler, a family friend and his sons took the helm and managed the operation until its closing in 2010.   Embassy Suites demolished the hotel and built the current one, popular with travelers.  The Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce gives an annual award in Tyler's name to an individual who has helped improve the quality of life in the area.

Like a lot of places in Fairfax County, Newington saw new buildings and infrastructure go up and old ones come down in the second half of the twentieth century.   Perhaps the saddest lost for some was the old country store.  At a website, the grandson of Samuel T. Pearson commented he holds great memories of the store and the people of Newington.  

One of the biggest and most visible structures in Newington arrived in the late 60s when a tank farm was built in the sliver of land between I-95 and the Fairfax County Parkway.   The tanks were fed by the Plantation Pipeline.  Financed by Shell, Texaco, Chevron and Exxon, they transported the refined petroleum products from Louisiana. 

According to Kinder/Morgan, the 25 tanks at Newington can store 1,348,000 barrels of commodities such as ethanol and jet fuel.   After being blended with additives and ethanol, trucks deliver the product to gas stations.

The facility made the news in 1979 when Phil McCombs of The Washington Post visited the operations.    Washington, he reported, received 90% of its gasoline, heating and commercial oil and aviation fuel through the Plantation Pipeline “tap point” and another near Fairfax City.   R.K. Richmond ran the plant in Newington. 

The plant was back in the news in 2000, after approximately 4200 gallons of jet fuel were discharged due to a failed gasket.  Some of the fuel polluted Accotink Creek.

Photographs found at the Virginia Room in the Fairfax County Library shed some light on other buildings that were located in Newington in the 1960s and 1970s, but are no longer with us.

The industrial park on either side of Fullerton Road was a gravel pit in the 1960s.   The neighborhoods on the other side of Rolling Road were built in the 1970s and 1980s and include Newington Forest.

In the 2000s, a new segment of the Fairfax County Parkway was laid out, a missing link that better connected the county with Fort Belvoir and perhaps pleased residents of Newington.

Back on the east side of the railroad tracks, the aerials show that the four buildings at 8178 Newington Road were the first built on that stretch, constructed sometime before 1979.   The distinct look of school buses can also be seen in the 1979 aerial view.  The 1990s brough much of the footprint seen today on both sides of the railroad tracks.

On September 17, 2005, the Fairfax County History Commission and the Franconia Museum, Inc. held a Dedication Ceremony for the historical marker for Newington.   The marker is located at Dupell Park, 6812 Newington Road.   Levelle W. Dupell passed away in May 2009.  Her obituary told of her service as a registered nurse and long time community involvement.     She was laid to rest at Arlington Cemetery, alongside her husband, Lt. Col. Alfred Dupell (USAF).

 

Concluding Thoughts

A drive through the oldest part of Newington today reveals the mix of suburban homes, town homes such as those at Newberry Station, and businesses located in industrial and office parks.   The historical marker is a great addition and makes for a good start.   Perhaps some interpretive markers will touch on the other stories made here and nearby.    

For the newcomer, part of the learning process is the mailing addresses.   Newington residents and business use Lorton or Springfield.   But don't let that fool you.   Newington is rich in history.

 

 

Part Five: Here Come The Cars and The Fort Belvoir Military Railroad

The summer of 1909 must have been an exciting year for residents of Newington and nearby.  In June, the papers reported on the story of Major Jack Cohen and Hamilton Peltz.   As part of an effort to advocate for good roads, the two scout car drivers had completed the Richmond to Washington leg of their "endurance drive" in their steamer demonstration automobiles.  

In late July, the crowds felt an even greater level of excitement at Shuter's Hill in Alexandria.  With the sun dipping below the trees, Orville Wright and Lt. Benjamin Foulois flew into history.   They made a breath-taking 180 degree turn above the landmark hill in the Wright Brothers flying contraption, before landing safely at Fort Myer.   This baby step of aviation proved once again to the US Army the capabilities of the Wright Brother's aeroplane.   This flight sealed the deal and earned them a contract and more headlines and fame.

The good roads story would stay in the new for the next couple of  decades.    The trails the American Indians had carved out were being paved and new one made.  A report in the Post ("Rally for Good Roads," July 26, 1909) provided accounts of those desiring better roads.  C.C. Snellings wrote:

I live on the old stage or telegraph road.   If I can be of any service to you in this great movement toward good roads, I am at your service.  

We should point out that the Post was still using the telegraph road reference in terms of the entire stretch from Washington to Richmond, or perhaps Fredericksburg.   Sometimes it used the term "Old Telegraph Road," and sometimes the telegraph road.   Either way, the term had yet to take a hold in the way it did later as the road we know it today from the Pohick Church up to Duke Street at Alexandria.  

In the 1920s, reports started to use more specific references, such as "Telegraph road in Fairfax County."    It's hard to know when the Post began to capitalize both Telegraph and Road.   The earliest we found was 1942.  In the 1950s, ads used Telegraph Road as a reference point.  

For all those years, the road that became known as Telegraph Road had been the main way to get north and south in that part of Fairfax County.    But with the coming of the Richmond-Washington Highway, the predecessor to Route One, which ran mostly along the old River Route used by George Washington, a greater number of people would use that way instead of Telegraph Road.   

The Fort Belvoir Military Railroad

With over 50,000 men and women, the largest employer in Fairfax County is Fort Belvoir. The installation is the keeper of the sites of Belvoir and Cedar Grove and some of the sites of Accotink.  Its land on the north side of Route One was once part of the Truro Parish Glebe lands as well as over to where the Boggess Race Track and Ordinary too.

The installation got its start in 1917 and its name from the mansion home the Fairfax family made famous.   It began as an Army engineering training facility.    In support of the World War I effort, Camp A.A. Humphreys opened with ceremonies in May 1918.   

A HABS document tells us the RF&P rail line that passed by Newington was a crucial factor in the final site selection.   Not yet paved, the road that would become U.S. Highway One was a muddy disaster.    

An eight-mile long spur was built from Newington to the Quartermaster Corps warehouses at the training camp that same year.  The HABS report points out that the construction of this spur “was similar to conditions that engineers might encounter in the field.” 

Fort Belvoir has done a terrific job with historical marking (We are hearing that new markers will replace the dozen or so ones at the Belvoir site.)   Their most recent work is on the Fort Belvoir Military Railroad.

The spur began about a thousand feet south of the underpass at Newington Road.   The bridge spanning Cinder Bed road and Accotink Road remain extant.  The spur continued past Mount Air, home of Mrs. George Kernan.   It's a side story but one worth pointing out.

Edith Moore Sprouse ("Mount Air, Fairfax County") provides terrific information on Kernan (1866-1962).   Born in France, both her father and mother had pedigree blood.   George wrote for the New York Herald and helped get legislation passed for an eight-hour work day in St. Augustine, Florida.   She rubbed shoulders with Empress Eugenia, the wife of Napoleon III, who gifted her a suite of furniture that made its way to Mount Air.  George lived at Mount Air from 1914 to her death in 1962.   When she was not traveling, her daughter Elisabeth lived there until fire destroyed the home in 1992.

Spouse’s book includes a photograph (1918) showing the 2nd Battalion of the 304th Engineers posing for the camera in front of her house.   They helped build the Fort Belvoir Military Railroad.  Feeling a sense of patriotic duty, George allowed them to bivouac near her house.   Citing the Official History of the 304th Engineer Regiment, Sprouse tells us the soldiers affectionately called their temporary home,, "Camp Merry Widow."  

The spur ran to Route One where it crossed over using a railroad bridge, and proceeded down to just past 23rd Street.   Narrow and dangerous for many years, the narrow underpass were demolished in 2012 as part of the road widening for Richmond Highway (Route 1).   

Most of right of way of the spur still exists up to the railroad at Newington.   The future of the right of way is up for grabs.   Some have eyed it for a cycle/pedestrian path, while others have asked a light rail be considered.   No doubt, some residents of Newington would like the calm and quiet to remain.

The Historic American Engineering Record document tells us a trestle first went across Route One in 1918.  After it deteriorated, a new bridge went up in 1928, with modifications in 1935.   The railroad remained functional through the 1990s.    The last locomotive left Fort Belvoir in September 1993.    The report notes the FBMRR historic corridor "still maintains a strong level of integrity."    

Fort Belvoir has erected a series of markers that touch on some of this history.   One titled, "Warehouse District," tells us the warehouses were built parallel to the rail line.   Their number reached 45 in 1943.  

The arrival of what became known as Fort Belvoir seemed to portend the coming of more and more growth in Southeast Fairfax County.   One of the first set of suburban homes in the county popped up in Groveton in the late 1930s.   A boom was at hand, one that would forever reshape the landscape where the Truro Parish Glebe House and the nearby homes and communities had stood.

We pick up that story in Part Six.