For more than sixty years, a Giant grocery story has stood on top of Beacon Hill in Groveton. Lest we forget what this anchor has meant for the community and surrounding areas, let’s take a brief look at its story.
The Giant in Groveton opened in 1960. It was located where the current one is, near the corner of Richmond Highway and Memorial Avenue (then known as W. Oak Street). The address, as it is today, was 6800 Richmond Highway. The new store was part of a wave of supermarkets from the growing chain. The first Giant had opened at Georgia Avenue and Park Road in NW DC in 1936. Five years later, Arlington got bragging rights as the first outside the District, followed by Silver Spring in 1946.
In the summer of 1955, the supermarket company, based in Landover, opened their 30th store and eighth in Virginia at the Bradlee Shopping Center at 3708 King Street. It must have seemed like the company could not build them fast enough. The great suburban boom was on in the Washington region. Fairfax County’s population would leap from 98,557 in 1950 to 275,002 in 1960. Giant was on its way to a total that has now reached more than 150 stores in the greater DMV region.
A long forgotten figure in Washington’s retail history is Nehemiah Myer Cohen (1893-1984), who founded the company. A native of Jerusalem, he owned three grocery stores in Lancaster, Pennsylvania before opening that first Giant in DC in 1936.
The story of the Groveton Giant began in 1956. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors held meetings to discuss two proposals in this growing part of the county two to three miles south of Alexandria. One developer wanted a shopping center in Hybla Valley. Tower Construction, Giant’s shopping center builder, wanted one in Groveton on top of Beacon Hill.
At that time, this crown of land was occupied by the Beacon Airport and City View II, a landmark home built in 1920. Beth Mitchell's Interpretive Map of Fairfax County in 1760 shows small tobacco plantations made up the county. To get to Alexandria, George Washington took the colonial road that Route One partly follows today. Groveton sprung up on both sides of the road in the 1870s. The completion of the Richmond-Washington Highway in the 1920s signaled the start of a new era that would forever change the once rural landscape.
Harry Lehman, grandson of W.F.P. Reid and son of Franklin Reid, was born and raised in City View II. Its all-weather top deck provided sweeping views of not only Alexandria, but also Prince George’s County and Washington, D.C.
“When you sat up there,” Lehman said, “you were high in the sky.”
Note: City View II replaced City View I, which was built in 1868 and burned down in 1918).
Groveton was an early suburban neighborhood in the county. By 1937, a number of homes had sprouted up near the airport and on both sides of the highway. Route One was on its way to becoming a busy artery for both local traffic and travelers. Interstate 95, the Beltway and the Wilson Bridge would not be built until the 1960s. This part of the county, especially Penn Daw, became a mecca for travelers. Almost all of the motels are gone, but a few remain to remind us of those earlier times.
Another busy place in Groveton was the Dixie Pig Restaurant, a culinary landmark that fed many a hungry tummy from 1947 to its closing in the early 1990s. In her book, “Groveton, Images of America,” author and local resident Charlotte Brown tells us Benjamin and Helen Bishop of North Carolina imported the Tar Heel state’s signature recipe for moist pork and beef barbecue to their location. Their restaurant was situated across the street from City View II and the airport.
In 1957, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors initially denied the application by Tower Construction for the City View tract. The Board was worried that a shopping center there would pull business away from the one approved for Hybla Valley, about a mile to the south.
The dispute went to court. That same year Judge Harry L. Carrico ruled the Board of Supervisors could not deny a request for a commercial zoning on the basis of “fear of competition.” The Virginia Supreme Court upheld the lower court’s decision.
City View II (site Famous Dave's) was demolished in 1959. That summer Giant Food announced record sales and the start of their new “Super Giant” stores, which combined foods and department store items.
Photo: Historic Aerials, 1949
One of those Super Giants was the new Giant in Groveton, built right where the one is located today near the corner of Richmond Highway and Memorial Avenue.
Historic aerials show that for a few years, parts of the two runways were still there. The store was located steps from where the two runways had crossed. Even today, the long fence behind the store between Memorial and Southgate marks the location of the north-south runway. The site of City View is between the Panera and Famous Dave’s.
Photo: Historic Aerials, 1962
How exciting it must have been on Monday, August 22nd, 1960 when the new store opened their doors. The Washington Evening Star (August 21) reported “the store will display some innovations in super market design.” An ad in the Star said, “Super Giant, a new dimension in retailing.” A photograph in the August 23rd edition shows Cohen admiring a “modernistic 90-foot agricultural mural decorating each of two Super Giants, which the firm opened yesterday.”
The manager was James L. Tartar, 30, of Alexandria. He previously ran the Giant on North St. Asaph Street in Alexandria.
A Super Giant also opened in Springfield. The stores were 30,000 square foot combination supermarket and self-service department stores and “the first examples of Giant’s new market designs.”
In addition to food, shoppers could purchase clothing, small electric appliances, glassware, china, toys, and kitchenware, and “Charge It” with the company’s credit plan. Bonus stamps was another popular program.
It’s hard to know the store’s sales figures, but the 1960s was certainly a good time for retail in the area. The population of the county lept from 275,000 in 1960 to 455,000 in 1970. The surrounding neighborhoods such as Bucknell Heights, Jefferson Manor and Virginia Hills were on board or coming soon.
The store also brought good attention to Groveton. For example, an ad in the Star (December 6,1967) showed the manager of the Giant in Groveton, presenting a scholarship award to the Thomas Edison High School faculty advisor Miss Elizabeth Cofer and three students. Giant sponsored the popular TV Quiz program on WRC, Channel 4.
It’s also hard to know all the places where folks in Groveton went for groceries before the Giant was built. Alexandria was certainly an option. Anne Marie Hicks told this writer about “Chauncey's Groveton Market,” a full service grocery directly across from the airport. Margaret W. “Peggy” Chauncey’s obituary in the Post tells us she (1906-1996) she helped run the King Street store in the 1940s and 1950s.
In “Snake Hill to Spring Bank,” Jason Hoffman recalled Chauncey’s Market being “up here on the hill.”
The Giant store was initially the only building on the footprint that is now the Beacon Center (renamed in the 2000s. In 1972, the Washington Post reported the start of construction for “Beacon Mall,” the “first enclosed shopping mall in southeastern Fairfax County.”
The Beacon Mall grew throughout the 1970s. A 1978 ad in the Post listed 33 stores. Among them were Baskin-Robbins, Beacon Florist, Beacon Mall 4 Theatre, Beacon Tailors, Eastern Palace, Giant, Goodyear Tire, Mr. Foto, People’s Drug Store, Record Rack, and Woolco.
The Beacon movie theaters must have been a big deal. The first movies, shown in March 1974, were Jesus Christ Superstar, M*A*S*H* and Westworld. Prior to that, residents could choose between the Alexandria theaters and the Mount Vernon Drive-In that was located where Costco is today on Route One at the corner of Ladson and Richmond Highway. In the late 1980s, the drive in was demolished and replaced by a set of theaters that were later demolished to make way for the Costco.
Like neighboring Prince George’s and Montgomery Counties, Fairfax County’s population continued to grow. It reached 596,000 in 1980 and 818,000 in 1990. Giant grew with it every step of the way. In 1989, the company controlled 48 percent of the local grocery market. Israel Cohen, son of Nehemiah Myer Cohen, had kept the helm steady. In 1998, Royal Ahold, a Dutch conglomerate, acquired Giant for about $2.7B. It ranked 19th in sales in the US. Israel Cohen, the founding CEO and Chairman, had passed three years earlier.
The turn of the century saw the population of the county reach 969,749. In the mid 1990s, the Beacon Mall had gained more restaurants, including the Outback. In the first part of the 2000s, the design of the mall was tweaked to its current configuration. A big and popular newcomer was Lowe’s, giving the shopping center a one-two punch.
Groveton’s identity, lacking in historical and “third places,” continues to be juxtaposed with the popularity and size of the shopping center. The neighborhood had also lacked historical markers. But several years ago, a county historical marker was erected to honor the Beacon airport. It stands just a few steps from the Giant.
Last year, the Giant store was revamped with a new look. Perhaps pleasing many long time shoppers, the seafood section was moved from the far corner spot to a more central location. The self-service area in front was also reconfigured.
With competition from Harris Teeter, Whole Foods and others, Giant’s share of the market in the region has dipped to about 20%. Nevertheless, it remains the region’s largest grocer.
What the future holds for this landmark store we do not know. County planners have big ideas that would transform the Beacon Center into an urbanesque footprint with residential and mixed-use. Metro has said it could extend the Yellow Line to Groveton, possibly by 2040. A new Bus Rapid Transit line is on tap for later this decade and one of its stops will be Groveton (Beacon Hill).
They say you can’t eat history, but you can sure appreciate buying food from a place that now has six decades under its belt. We salute all the workers who have brought us and sold us the food these past sixty plus years and related items. Their efforts were especially noteworthy during the Covid.
Comments