What did Northern Virginia look like back in the day (60s, 70s, 80s)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No bypass around Leesburg. Nothing on Route 7 between Leesburg and Sterling. When you got to the double decker McDonalds you knew you were about halfway to Tysons. There used to be big bird cages with live birds in the Tysons Corner mall.

I remember the bird cages. That was when Tysons first opened. They also had tropical plants around the cages (if I remember correctly).

In the 90s there was a restaurant that had parrots, I think in the vicinity where RH is today. You'd go in and they had thunder and lightning inside the restaurant. Special and horrifying both.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No bypass around Leesburg. Nothing on Route 7 between Leesburg and Sterling. When you got to the double decker McDonalds you knew you were about halfway to Tysons. There used to be big bird cages with live birds in the Tysons Corner mall.

I remember the bird cages. That was when Tysons first opened. They also had tropical plants around the cages (if I remember correctly).

In the 90s there was a restaurant that had parrots, I think in the vicinity where RH is today. You'd go in and they had thunder and lightning inside the restaurant. Special and horrifying both.

Rainforest cafe was a chain with that gimmick

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No bypass around Leesburg. Nothing on Route 7 between Leesburg and Sterling. When you got to the double decker McDonalds you knew you were about halfway to Tysons. There used to be big bird cages with live birds in the Tysons Corner mall.

I remember the bird cages. That was when Tysons first opened. They also had tropical plants around the cages (if I remember correctly).

In the 90s there was a restaurant that had parrots, I think in the vicinity where RH is today. You'd go in and they had thunder and lightning inside the restaurant. Special and horrifying both.

What is RH?

[Anonymous]

I've been around since the 70's. There has been a lot of development. There were shopping plazas and old houses and farms, and of course more and newer houses at city centers. There weren't big box stores, luxury townhome developments, cookie cutter housing, or McMansions. The road to Dulles was mostly trees, no businesses to speak of. There was a greater proportion of white people. Some people had southern accents but some didn't. That has stayed the same. There were fewer Asians and Hispanics, although Dulles being an international airport there were always people of different races in the DC area. Fairfax and Manassas mostly had a main street. It was a big deal when Fair Oaks was built. Other towns nearby were pretty small. Arlington and Alexandria were always more urban. Traffic of course has gotten worse. There was always traffic but there weren't as many roads or as wide of roads. The sprawl has extended further out.

[Anonymous]

Route 1 from the WW bridge and south for miles was seedy hotels and hookers and dealers walking the road at night.

When the old WW bridge span went up it took a long time for boats to pass. Especially in the hot summer, everyone would shut off their vehicle and get out to watch the boat go through.

Alexandria used to have 3-4 custom hat shops. The ladies coming out of church in Old Town on Sundays were gorgeous in their finery with matching hats, shoes, purses, and sometimes gloves.

[Anonymous]

Pentagon City Mall and the surrounding shopping centers (including Costco) was just a big open field with a few trees here and there. The local residents fought like crazy to stop the mall and shopping centers from being built but obviously their efforts were in vain. This was in the late 70s/early 80s.

[Anonymous]

Nobody who lived in NoVa in the 1980s would ever have considered DC a safe place to live.

Yes, go ahead and drive your minivan to the Mall and park for free right in front of the Air and Space, but be sure to get back across the 14th street bridge before sundown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No bypass around Leesburg. Nothing on Route 7 between Leesburg and Sterling. When you got to the double decker McDonalds you knew you were about halfway to Tysons. There used to be big bird cages with live birds in the Tysons Corner mall.

I remember the bird cages. That was when Tysons first opened. They also had tropical plants around the cages (if I remember correctly).

In the 90s there was a restaurant that had parrots, I think in the vicinity where RH is today. You'd go in and they had thunder and lightning inside the restaurant. Special and horrifying both.

Rainforest Cafe

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No bypass around Leesburg. Nothing on Route 7 between Leesburg and Sterling. When you got to the double decker McDonalds you knew you were about halfway to Tysons. There used to be big bird cages with live birds in the Tysons Corner mall.

I remember the bird cages. That was when Tysons first opened. They also had tropical plants around the cages (if I remember correctly).

In the 90s there was a restaurant that had parrots, I think in the vicinity where RH is today. You'd go in and they had thunder and lightning inside the restaurant. Special and horrifying both.

What is RH?

Restoration Hardware

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Intrigued to hear from anyone who’s been in the area for decades, and can share any insight into how this region has changed demographically, socially, economically, etc. Was it still culturally southern, and did people have southern accents? Were there still farmers in Fairfax/Arlington County? What schools did you attend, and how has the academic scene/boundaries changed since then? Always been curious.

Visit the old court house in Fairfax. Besides that it is beautifully preserved building, it has tons of records there (hand written on hand made paper). Very fascinating.

[Anonymous]

There was a huge farm land in the place where Oakton High School now and adjacent townhouses. However, the single family homes behind the school are really old, and one house proudly claims to be the oldest house in the area.

[Anonymous]

When I moved to Fairfax in the summer of 1976 I remember lots of pick up trucks with rebel flags and gun racks.

Fairfax has really changed. I think there is something like 140 languages spoken by students in FCPS today. It was mostly white decades ago.

The growth in the 80’s and 90’s was unbelievable. FFX co really transformed from a “bedroom” community into what it is today. Tysons Corner will have more office space than Denver in a few years.

Downtown DC was mess in the 70’s and 80’s Tons of crime and the DC government was dysfunctional under Mayor Barry.

[Anonymous]

Dulles airport back in the early days

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[Anonymous]

Ballston Commons came along at some point but it wasn’t ever booming that I can remember. It was odd. Kind of almost rarely known of for anything in particular. It always had such an odd vibe.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was Northern Virginia politically conservative?

Arlington moved from conservative republican to conservative democrat in the 1970s and -- fortunately -- the democracts were able to get Metro lines built to clean up slummy areas of the county.