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.
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