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

[Anonymous]

The Fairfax County website has old aerial photography. If you live in the county you can see what your address looked like at various years. Mine was a farm before this house was built in the 80s.

https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/maps/aerial-photography

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ive seen some license plate toppers with county tags on them, does anyone know what they are/used for back in the day?

+1 saw some on ebay wondered what they were

[Anonymous]

In the 80’s, Arlington was mostly lower level government workers. The houses were small and unrenovated. Clarendon was a dump and deserted at night. I remember returning my cable box to the cable office there and thinking what a deserted creepy place it was. There was nothing upscale ant all until Bread & Circus (the predecessor to Whole Foods) moved in in the mid-90’s. There was a dirt field across the street that is now the Apple Store & Crate & Barrel where you could park if the grocery store lot was full.

This is why it’s ridiculous when people compare real estate prices in Arlington in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s to now. It was not even close to being the same neighborhood.

[Anonymous]

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?

[Anonymous]

When I was little (1970s) Seven Corners was an actual mall with Woodward and Lothrop on one end and Garfinkles (sp?) on the other. Lord and Taylor was across the street in the building which is now Sears. It had a restaurant on the top floor.

Also remember when Ballston was the end of the Orange Line and they first started tearing out single family homes to build townhouses between Washington Blvd and Fairfax Dr.

Clarendon was unremarkable. There was a Putt Putt mini golf at Ballston across from where the mall is now.

[Anonymous]

I went to high school in the 80s in Manassas with the 3 walled classrooms. The walls were like a tall cubicle to the ceiling with glass panels at the top to let in more fluorescent light. The chalkboard was opposite the open end. If you sat near the open end, you could lean your chair back into the hallway and see people in the other classes. It was noisy and there were only these few tall thin windows along the perimeter that didn’t let in much natural light. Despite the lack of room doors it still felt like prison because you couldn’t see outside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to high school in the 80s in Manassas with the 3 walled classrooms. The walls were like a tall cubicle to the ceiling with glass panels at the top to let in more fluorescent light. The chalkboard was opposite the open end. If you sat near the open end, you could lean your chair back into the hallway and see people in the other classes. It was noisy and there were only these few tall thin windows along the perimeter that didn’t let in much natural light. Despite the lack of room doors it still felt like prison because you couldn’t see outside.

Can’t imagine what Manassas PW county was like back then. Was it still overtly rural/country? I sometimes hear older folks speak with a twang in restaurants/stores; Were they the norm back then? I imagine many more farms in the are.

[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.

Dc still ain't safe. Native dc people are unwoke enough to know this. I still remember the news story about the young guy in dc who had his head caved in by thugs and lived to tell with head caved in. But I will always be a dc girl and Arlington girl. Anyone remember the trio pizzeria take out joint in dupont? The rainbow store and b Dalton bookstore in ballston mall from my youth? An old professor at nova said cows roamed the annandale or alexandria campus

[Anonymous]

This is a great thread!

Does anyone know if the Fairfax County Parkway was a road before it was built? Or were homes taken down to build it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I went to high school in the 80s in Manassas with the 3 walled classrooms. The walls were like a tall cubicle to the ceiling with glass panels at the top to let in more fluorescent light. The chalkboard was opposite the open end. If you sat near the open end, you could lean your chair back into the hallway and see people in the other classes. It was noisy and there were only these few tall thin windows along the perimeter that didn’t let in much natural light. Despite the lack of room doors it still felt like prison because you couldn’t see outside.

Can’t imagine what Manassas PW county was like back then. Was it still overtly rural/country? I sometimes hear older folks speak with a twang in restaurants/stores; Were they the norm back then? I imagine many more farms in the are.

My extended family had a farm (hobby, not working) in Manassas when I was growing up. It was the sticks, but so many of my best childhood memories took place there. Farm store and the volunteer rescue were pretty much the only things nearby. Very rural, but no accents.

[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 that….ages ago my dad and I went to Tysons, and he was sitting on a bench by the aviary. Some person with a bronchitis like voice said hello to his back, and he turned around to say hello back- it was a huge parrot!

[Anonymous]

Alexandria had a lot of southern accents .

[Anonymous]

I remember as a young teen maybe 1979, driving with my parents from Silver Spring to Dulles airport to pick up relatives visiting from overseas - and it was truly way the hell out there in "the sticks". Very rural, country roads with nothing but open land as far as the eye could see. We got lost on our way home (no gps) and all I remember is ending up at a farm somewhere, there was dirt road with a street sign something like "Blue Bell Rd" for some reason that name sticks in my head...but I can't remember what I ate for breakfast yesterday.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:WETA had a good documentary about Alexandria and Nova during that time frame, but it isn’t available anywhere. Kingstown used to be sand pits

That's sad we can't watch it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Was Northern Virginia politically conservative?

Yes, it was. Fairfax used to be very conservative in the 70's and 80's.