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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I lived in Vienna in the late 50s and Arlington in the 60s and 70s.  My mom took us to see Reston when they were building it as a planned community in the 60s.  When we drove from Vienna to DC we passed through Tyson's Corner which was an intersection with a gas station and a big TV tower.

There is a fascinating book about Arlington in the area called Hall's Hill which is around Lee Hwy and Glebe Rd., I highly recommend it.  https://hallshill.com/books-my-halls-hill-family/[/quote]

What was Reston before it became a residential community? Was it just rural farmland? [/quote]

Here is an excerpt from the Wikipedia article on Reston, there is a lot more info if you're interested that continues the history into the mid 60s and on:

Wiehle's heirs eventually sold the land, which changed hands several times before being purchased by the A. Smith Bowman family, who built a bourbon distillery on the site. By 1947, the Bowmans had acquired the former Dunn tract south of the railroad, for total holdings of over 7,000 acres (2,800 ha). In 1961, Robert E. Simon used funds from his family's recent sale of Carnegie Hall to buy most of the land, except for 60 acres (240,000 m2) on which the Bowman distillery continued to operate until 1987.

Simon officially launched Reston on April 10, 1964 (his 50th birthday) and named the community using his initials. He laid out seven "guiding principles" that would stress quality of life and serve as the foundation for its future development. His goal was for Restonians to live, work, and play in their own community, with common grounds and scenic beauty shared equally regardless of income level, thereby building a stronger sense of community ties. The initial motto of the community, as articulated by Simon, was "Work, Play, Live" (or, as more often was memorialized onto Reston merchandise, "Live, Work, Play.")

Simon's seven principles are:

The town should provide a variety of leisure opportunities, including a wide range of cultural and recreational facilities as well as an environment for privacy;
Residents would be able to remain in the community throughout their lives, with a range of housing meeting a variety of needs and incomes;
The focal point of all planning would be on the importance and dignity of the individual and would take precedence for large-scale concepts;
Reston residents would be able to live and work in the same community;
Commercial, cultural, and recreational facilities would be available to residents immediately, not years later;
Beauty, both structural and natural, is a necessity and should be fostered; and
Reston should be a financial success.
Simon envisioned Reston as a model for clustered residential development, also known as conservation development, which puts a premium on the preservation of open space, landscapes, and wildlife habitats. Indeed, Reston was the first 20th-century private community in the U.S. to explicitly incorporate natural preservation in its planning (Greenbelt, Maryland, was a publicly supported community).[/quote]

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