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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They wanted to build Dulles airport in Burke because there was so much undeveloped land. Let that sink in for awhile. The residents banded together and opposed that.

It was considered very modern and healthful to have classrooms without walls in the 70s. Eg orange hunt, lake Braddock. Literally as soon as they were built people realized this was stupid and impractical but it took many years to renovate.

There was no Fairfax county parkway until the 80s. Just a lot of 2 lane country roads. Plenty of farms and country folk who yes, had a very specific old nova accent and said things like “warshington”. But, there was a lot less traffic, too.

Fairfax county had a budget surplus in the 90s from all the construction so all these county programming was free. The county employees also voted themselves massive pensions and built a glass and marble monument to themselves in the form of the Fairfax county government center.

Children took a test in 2nd grade to track them as smart or stupid—the “smart ones” were segregated into GT classes away from their base schools. Not sure if that is still a thing.

George Mason was the school you went to “if you dont want to go to NOVA”.

My middle school was that way!

Robert Frost Middle School in Rockville was also partially open walled (math classrooms) in 1980. Hated that. So distracting! Totally stupid fad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They wanted to build Dulles airport in Burke because there was so much undeveloped land. Let that sink in for awhile. The residents banded together and opposed that.

It was considered very modern and healthful to have classrooms without walls in the 70s. Eg orange hunt, lake Braddock. Literally as soon as they were built people realized this was stupid and impractical but it took many years to renovate.

There was no Fairfax county parkway until the 80s. Just a lot of 2 lane country roads. Plenty of farms and country folk who yes, had a very specific old nova accent and said things like “warshington”. But, there was a lot less traffic, too.
what do classrooms withou
Fairfax county had a budget surplus in the 90s from all the construction so all these county programming was free. The county employees also voted themselves massive pensions and built a glass and marble monument to themselves in the form of the Fairfax county government center.

Children took a test in 2nd grade to track them as smart or stupid—the “smart ones” were segregated into GT classes away from their base schools. Not sure if that is still a thing.

George Mason was the school you went to “if you dont want to go to NOVA”.

Wow! They did’t have the National Airport then?! And what do classrooms without walls look like?

At Robert Frost in Rockville in 1980, they used blackboards on wheels or other movable walls as partial dividers in the math area. But you could see right across to other teachers and their projectors and classes of students. There were multiple classes going at once.

Other classrooms had four walls but on the hallway side they had openings with no doors. So they weren't fully enclosed.

The media center with library book stacks was a wide-open area between the English area and Social Studies area. It was fully open to the hallways and pathways between areas.

I think the school was not fully converted into an open school. Or it wasn't designed to be fully open. It is still an active middle school today. I hope they put rooms back into it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

No not true at all. I grew up in nova but went to a k-12 in McLean w/ about a third of the students from dc. The NW neighborhoods (Wesley heights, spring valley, AU Park, glover park, foxhall, CC, etc) actually seemed nicer then bc there was more open space and more old trees. We used to bike into Georgetown, spent hours on the canal w/ rope swings, all of the high schools would do senior grafitti there, etc. DC had much more of a small town feel, and there were lots of 2nd and 3rd generation families in the neighborhoods and at my school. Overall, I don’t think the area felt nearly as transient as it does now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:One of the PPs here, but a few more observations I'll add.

- Until the 1970s, everything was very low-rise. Then the mid-rise office buildings in Tysons Corner and apartments kind of along 395 started going in.

- Arlington, I don't remember ever being a bad area, but it wasn't desirable. If you moved up in the world, you moved to McLean or Fairfax Station. Arlington has always been expensive though. My parents priced out a houses off Route 50 in the 90s (basic brick houses, nothing fancy) and they were in the mid-300K range even back then.

- However, when the Rotonda condos opened in Tysons Corner in the 70s, that was the "it" address to have if you were a Nova yuppie.

- Being a civil servant was a big thing, but the whole contractor industry didn't really start booming until the 90s, and then soared after 9/11. Before then, you could easily go your entire fed career and not encounter a contractor, particularly if you weren't in DoD.

- Don't let anyone tell you otherwise, it was always expensive to live here compared to most of the rest of the country. My grandparents bought their Great Falls split level in 1962 for around $40K, which was an insane stretch for them, and that's all they could afford at the time. They had wanted to buy in Arlington for a better commute to the District but couldn't afford it. A decade later their Great Falls house was already worth $150K and the neighbors started being diplomats, executives, etc. When my aunts and uncles started their families, all they could afford was way out in Gainesville or Sterling, and this was 30-40 years ago. Never in my lifetime has anyone thought that the DC area was cheap to live in.

- I don't remember anyone, family or friends, ever talking about the "lost cause" or revising history to justify the south. I certainly wasn't around it growing up. We all called it the "Civil War" and not the "War of Northern Aggression" and school taught that slavery was evil and that the south fought for the right to keep slaves. I remember some my cousins having confederate flag stuff like bumper stickers (mind you, I'm talking 30+ years ago), but it was never really in your face in public.

- Nova was very white, had some pockets of black (mostly in Alexandria), and that was basically it until the 1980s. There was a big Iranian influx after the Shah was deposed. But the thing I think has changed the most is not the demographics, it's the land use. This used to be a sleepy, rural region, and it's amazing to see it now be a bustling, diverse, cosmopolitain place. I think the changes have been positive, which leads me to my last point.

- Traffic has ALWAYS been the pits. Yes, it's gotten worse, but in my lifetime it's always been the bane of the Nova drivers' existence.

I'm going to edit you a little - please don't take offense.

The contractors started arriving in large numbers in the 80s with Reagan because the philosophy at the time was that the government should do less on its own and procure more from the private sector. The primary reason there is a TJHSST now is that the Republican Board of Supervisors thought it would help attract contractors to office parks in Fairfax, rather than Arlington or MoCo, if Fairfax could tout its special "science and technology" school. To be sure it just kept exploding in the 90s, especially along the Dulles Toll Road and Route 28.

Agree that NoVa mostly felt very White/Black until the 80s, but there were Black neighborhoods scattered throughout the county, including in Falls Church as well as Alexandria. By the mid to late 70s there were a significant number of Korean immigrants, along with the Vietnamese who arrived after the fall of Saigon and the Iranians who arrived in the years leading up to and after the overthrow of the Shah. Most of the Hispanics I went to school with in the 70s were the children of well educated Cuban refugees - it wasn't until the 80s that Central/South Americans from El Salvador and other countries began to arrive in large numbers.

No offense taken at all, I agree with what you wrote. You are very right about the scattered black pockets, which were probably established by freed people post slavery, and your other observations about the demographic changes are spot on.

Virginia had de facto redlining, racial covenants, and housing segregation long after DC and MD. Virginia essentially forced its black residents to move to Maryland, as their kids could be safer and get a better education. The racial composition of NoVA prior to the 1970s was very intentional.

I'm not sure this holds up as a historical matter. Racial covenants were declared unenforceable in 1948, but persisted in deeds well into the late 1960s before being declared illegal in the Fair Housing Act, which was federal legislation equally applicable to Maryland and Virginia. So not sure the big increase in Black residents in suburban Maryland was due to people moving from Virginia to Maryland so much as people moving from DC to Maryland and Black Americans generally feeling like Maryland, having not formally been part of the Confederacy, would be more hospitable.

Relatedly, will echo those who note the teaching about slavery and the Civil War in NoVa public schools was slanted and biased towards an uncritical "states rights" perspective and lack of reckoning with the conditions under which slaves lived for way too long. Having said that, never heard the Civil War referred to as the "War of Northern Aggression" until classmates came back from schools like UVA and Duke and reported this was how some classmates from further south referred to the war (this is from the early 80s).

I'm from the Pittsburgh area. My high school friend went to William and Mary from 1985-1989. That's where she learned about the War of Northern Aggression from more local peers. I know this only because she wrote about it in an MLK day blog post. That's the first time I'd heard the expression.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:America was at its best in the 50’s and 60’s. What I’d give to go back to that time.

No way. It was the best in 80s/90s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

No not true at all. I grew up in nova but went to a k-12 in McLean w/ about a third of the students from dc. The NW neighborhoods (Wesley heights, spring valley, AU Park, glover park, foxhall, CC, etc) actually seemed nicer then bc there was more open space and more old trees. We used to bike into Georgetown, spent hours on the canal w/ rope swings, all of the high schools would do senior grafitti there, etc. DC had much more of a small town feel, and there were lots of 2nd and 3rd generation families in the neighborhoods and at my school. Overall, I don’t think the area felt nearly as transient as it does now.

So you weren't an adult yet. My mom was a working adult in DC at that time and recounts stories of me almost being abducted by a group of women one night. It was very dangerous back then with rape and lot of drugs and hookers at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My working-class grandparents moved the family out to Great Falls in 1962 because it was the only place they could afford a big enough house for the family at the time. They were originally from Falls Church but had been priced out. Yup, even in 1962 that was a thing. It was the middle-of-nowhere back then, surrounded by dairy farms, and Tysons Corner still was a tiny rural outpost.

In general, there used to be a lot more working class whites until the 80s, and some not-so-great white areas. Pimmit Hills had a really bad rap back then. The Pagans motorcycle gang was based there. Lots of rednecks. Manassas was considered hick country, very redneck. Lorton was pretty similar. Arlington wasn't redneck but was kind of dumpy (okay, maybe it still is). McLean was always a nice area.

Accents...there definitely is/was one here, a lot of my relatives have one. The transplants don't have it but it's definitely still around. I'd call it a faint southern accent though not particularly twangy and with some Appalachian thrown in. It's kind of hard to describe. My grandparents said Warshington/warsh but they didn't have that sort of genteel Richmond accent either.

I lived in Pimmit Hills in the early 90’s after college in a house with some college friends. It was working class and mostly white and the “Pagan”reputation was still a thing. Our rent was $875 for a 875 square foot house. 3 bedrooms and 1 bath. I think the lot was 1/3 acre. I think homes in iPimmit sold for $140-$150K in the 90’s. Should have bought one…

I avoided Pimmit Hills for many years because of the incident where the boy got chased from Pimmit Hills and killed in the parking lot at Marshall. When I finally decided to see what it looked like, I realized it was just a regular neighborhood of smaller houses. Of course many have since been torn down and replaced with larger houses.

Greg Garcia is from Arlington, and Pimmit Hills was the model for the town in which his "My Name is Earl" tv show was set.

It's a great show! It's cast is diverse like nova. Bengali, Bolivian, west African, black, etc

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:America was at its best in the 50’s and 60’s. What I’d give to go back to that time.

No way. It was the best in 80s/90s

IT WAS BEST IN THE OBAMA YEARS

[Anonymous]

Northeast and Southeast DC was safe back in the 60,70, and 80's. It didn't become violent until after 2020.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My wife and I remember when Fair Oaks Mall opened (July 31, 1980 -- approaching 44 years!), and recall in the early 1980's going to a casual American restaurant (but not a chain, such as Bennigan's, Ruby Tuesday, or York Steakhouse), which we believe was located where the Mezeh Mediterranean Grill is now -- on the lower level near where the Sears used to be. I believe that it had individual jukeboxes, where you could insert quarters and have a record play at your booth. The only food I recall eating there was sandwiches and french fries, but that may have been because we ate there only on Saturdays for lunch. I have a recollection that it was in operation in 1982, and it may not have lasted beyond that. Does anyone here recall the name of that restaurant?

I only remember Bennigan's in Springfield mall but man I miss that place. Fair oaks mall I miss the A&W root beer restaurant with foot long hot dogs. This area was sooooo much better back in the day. It's sad what it's become too many people and not enough cool places to shop or eat at.

[Anonymous]

PP here I also forgot the most AMAZING Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour at fair oaks mall. My god that place was heaven on earth. :'(

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PP and started kindergarten in 1974 in West Springfield. I wrote about the shacks and farm stand at the corner of Rolling and KM roads.

Vivid early memories were driving to Ft. Belvoir for medical care and to visit my dad at work there. His office was in one of the cluster of WWII era shacks seemingly in the middle of a field. The ID card issuing building was in that cluster as late as 1980 when I got my first ID card. We didn’t join the neighborhood pool but a few days a week our mom would drive us out to the Ft Belvoir OC pool. Also notable about Ft Belvoir, goats were fenced in under a water tower and I remember my dad taking me to see the goats and explaining that they ate the grass so no need for a lawn mower.

Back to school shopping meant ballet slippers and saddle shoes from Kinney, a red cardboard pencil box from Giant, my metal lunchbox from People’s or Drug Fair. Itty Bitties were tiny erasers sold only at our school store (run by 5th and 6th graders & had a Dutch door w/ shelf) and my second grade teacher banned these from her classroom.

Watched fireworks display in the Kmart shopping center in downtown Springfield in a heavily wooded area perpendicular to KM road - undeveloped with only Kmart there circa 1976.

Did you go to Laurel Ridge?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northeast and Southeast DC was safe back in the 60,70, and 80's. It didn't become violent until after 2020.

Beg to differ with this, 80s were kinda sketch (though I also disagree w/ the PP who indicated that DC was such a scary hellhole in the 80s that no one went there).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They wanted to build Dulles airport in Burke because there was so much undeveloped land. Let that sink in for awhile. The residents banded together and opposed that.

It was considered very modern and healthful to have classrooms without walls in the 70s. Eg orange hunt, lake Braddock. Literally as soon as they were built people realized this was stupid and impractical but it took many years to renovate.

There was no Fairfax county parkway until the 80s. Just a lot of 2 lane country roads. Plenty of farms and country folk who yes, had a very specific old nova accent and said things like “warshington”. But, there was a lot less traffic, too.
what do classrooms withou
Fairfax county had a budget surplus in the 90s from all the construction so all these county programming was free. The county employees also voted themselves massive pensions and built a glass and marble monument to themselves in the form of the Fairfax county government center.

Children took a test in 2nd grade to track them as smart or stupid—the “smart ones” were segregated into GT classes away from their base schools. Not sure if that is still a thing.

George Mason was the school you went to “if you dont want to go to NOVA”.

Wow! They did’t have the National Airport then?! And what do classrooms without walls look like?

We had national airport, but only the first terminal (where SW flies out). I don't think there had been any expansion of Dulles then. Likely DCA would have moved to FFX county. As far as classrooms without walls - literally sometimes only two walls in a classroom, so no door, maybe a room divider facing the hallways to reduce distractions. They spent a mint retro-fitting LBSS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Northeast and Southeast DC was safe back in the 60,70, and 80's. It didn't become violent until after 2020.

You mean "DC Don't Mean Dodge City" and that DC was the murder capital of the country in the 80s was all just mainstream media lying? Was it? Really?