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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I lived near Woodson HS in the 70s and 80s and there was a house 2 blocks away where they had a horse in a small pasture. This was right off of Little River Turnpike. We used to feed it apples.

Tyson’s mall was surrounded by fields and a few strip malls.

It was very white until I’d say the early 80s when Vietnamese started moving in and then Koreans. I remember when I66 was new and it had no traffic.

Restaurants were few and far between. Like Bobs

Hit submit too soon. I was going to say like Bobs Big Boy, Pizza Hut etc. I was an only child and eventually a latch key kid but was never lonely because there were always neighborhood kids out playing in the streets because it felt really safe and no one worried about crime.

[Anonymous]

We used to drive from Burke out to my cousin's house in what is now Ashburn. OMG. It felt like we were going out "to the country" and driving on 66 was a breeze. I learned to drive on the Fairfax County Parkway when it was first built. No cars, no lights, just back and forth.

[Anonymous]

I loved living in Arlington 1984=1991. I miss that time so much. My boyfriend lived in Old Town then. Bestest of the old days.

[Anonymous]

Vienna was the middle of nowhere -- loved to concerts there.

[Anonymous]

I remember when Alexandria & Arlington were so bad that you could get shot or mugged

[Anonymous]

I currently own a 150 acre farm in Western Loudoun. I wonder how long it’ll be until they ruin our beautiful rural nature and terraform it to look like the eastern half 🤧

[Anonymous]

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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.

Hardly any Hispanics in Manassas, like it is now. In fact, not many in VA.

It was your typical southern city; Mainly whites with some blacks trickled in the mix. African Americans from Fairfax would be transported to PW County for school because FFx didn’t have an all black school.

Holy cow, what year was this?

During the 60s right before Virginia integrated. I believe in the final few years of segregation they built an all black school in Ffx, but it didn’t really mean much because it only lasted a few years. I remember Virginia was often in the news because governor Byrd threatened to shut schools down if they integrated; it was monumental when six black kids surrounded by armed guards walked into their all white school in Arlington.

When I was a kid — a Black kid — with a bus pass, my Mom let me go anywhere in DC and MD (so Montgomery County and PG) that I wanted to go by myself. I was not allowed to go to Virginia, even with friends. This is why. It really wasn’t safe. Or rather, it really would not have been safe for Me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Went to high school in Arlington in the late 80s. My family and I shopped at Tyson’s on weekends but we never ever drove further down Rt 7. We knew Rt 7 continued on from Tyson’s but just had no reason to beyond that point. I saw Tyson’s II being built and my best friend moved to Herndon. We both joked that she was moving to the boondocks.

In early 2000, I moved back into the area and had to look for housing in Ashburn, way pass Tyson’s, way pass Herndon/Reston. Now I live in Leesburg. Go figure.

I grew up in Arlington and my mom had a friend who lived in Herndon. We thought it was sooo far away! We couldn’t understand why anyone would move out into the middle of nowhere (she commuted to DC for work).

[Anonymous]

I learned to drive in the Pentagon parking lot in the mid-80s. It was open and empty on Sundays.

[Anonymous]

I worked at Sears in Arlington on Wilson Blvd in the early to mid 70s. It was very conservative then. I can remember a quilt and craft store about a block away. The owner brought her baby to work each day and she was in a woven basket placed on the floor. There was not a lot of traffic in the area. I can remember Arlington Trust Bank within walking distance. I lived on Columbia Pike. There was a nice African-American neighborhood off of Columbia Pike close to the Pentagon. I think it was called Johnson Hill. The Columbia Pike area was pretty busy.

A co-worker previously worked for an apartment management company. She told me they had to mark applicants who were black in order to keep them out. Another co-worker lived in Culpeper on the weekends and in Sterling during the week. She had a strong Southern accent.

[Anonymous]

Grew up here in the 70s and 80s. It was not southern. It was not as diverse as it is now but my schools had a lot of Asian kids and there were lots of military and state dept families that had lived overseas. It was not at all southern.

While there’s been a ton of development, I actually think it was more similar than different by the 80s. My kids are in a different FCPS school pyramid but there’s a lot that’s very familiar to me having grown up here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Grew up here in the 70s and 80s. It was not southern. It was not as diverse as it is now but my schools had a lot of Asian kids and there were lots of military and state dept families that had lived overseas. It was not at all southern.

While there’s been a ton of development, I actually think it was more similar than different by the 80s. My kids are in a different FCPS school pyramid but there’s a lot that’s very familiar to me having grown up here.

Maybe in Fairfax, but my parents were farmers in Sterling and Ashburn during those times.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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?

I don’t remember Fairfax County Parkway being a road, it was planned as some type of outer beltway. The only road running from east/west was route 123, a 2 lane country road until about the 90s

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

I don’t remember Fairfax County Parkway being a road, it was planned as some type of outer beltway. The only road running from east/west was route 123, a 2 lane country road until about the 90s

was fairfax county country back in the 80s?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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?

I don’t remember Fairfax County Parkway being a road, it was planned as some type of outer beltway. The only road running from east/west was route 123, a 2 lane country road until about the 90s

was fairfax county country back in the 80s?

That part of it was far less developed than it is now.