A History Into the Fourth Decade - Hollin Hills

A History into the Fourth Decade
compiled from diverse sources
by Marion Tiger
Civic Association of Hollin Hills

for Charles M. Goodman and Robert C. Davenport
Copyright O 1984
by the Civic Association of Hollin Hills
1600 Paul Spring Road
Alexandria, Virginia 22307
All rights reserved
... it was quite an accomplishment
Contents
5 INTRODUCTION
7 AWARDS AND CITATIONS
10 THE CAST
The people who made it happen, or helped make it happen.
11 THE CONCEPT
All the details of what happened-and how-related through the
Davenport interview. . .and the writings of Eason Cross which appeared
in the Bulletin.
Writing not otherwise attributed is mine ................ Marion Tiger
THE BIRTHING. . .Davenport finds the land and bids on it.
AFTER THE PLUNGE. . .Davenport buys the land and finds
Goodman.
THE LAY OF THE LAND. . .siting and landscaping ..... Gordon Tiger
THE INNER HOUSE. .. decor
27 DID THE DESIGN WORK? .......................... Suzanne Quinlan
Demographics plus opinions on all sorts of subjects
39 EDUCATION FOR HOLLIN HILLS .......................... Ruth Dell
The schools from 1949 to 1984
45 THE CHRONOLOGY ................................... Sarah Brash
Life in Hollin Hills as recorded in the Newsletter and Bulletin.
61 APPENDIX
2B4K4. .. the grand design & construction
details ............................. Eason Cross, Jr.
Bibliography
Street names

02s
T r C : -
4
1956-Map showing layout of Hollin Hills with about 265 houses; roads are
incomplete.
Introduction
As part of the 1980 Hollin Hills House Tour there was a small exhibit of
photographs, old newspaper clippings and magazine stories about the
community. Interest was unexpectedly high, so Vicky Plutchock decided it was
time to publish a small history. It was also an opportune time to take advantage
of the collective memory which was bound to fade (we are, after all, into our
fourth decade). A committee was formed. . .with Vicky, Suzanne Quinlan,
Sandi Hackman and myself. By 1981, Sandi had completed some interviews,
Suzanne had finished a major segment-the survey and accompanying
statistics-and we had interviewed Bob Davenport. Then Vicky and Sandy
moved to other parts of the country and the project was shelved.
With a flicker of life still discernible in the collected material, we formed
another committee, this time with Suzanne, Ruth Dell and Sarah Brash. Ruth
drew on her vast experience with our schools and the Fairfax County School
Board to sketch the happenings in education. Others also contributed: Gordon
Tiger wrote the section on landscaping. The work of Kathleen Spagnolo, whose
lovely drawings have for years graced the Bulletin and House Tour programs,
appears on this cover and elsewhere in these pages. We are grateful, too, to
Eason Cross for permission to use so much of his material on architecture which
ran in the Bulletin in 1978. It seemed unwise to reinvent the wheel when he had
done it all so well.
These recollections, then, are the result of interviews, surveys and rustling
through what passes for attics in this unique community. To those of you who
have loaned maps, publications, photos, and other useful bits of paper: our
thanks.
It should be mentioned that as we sketched our plans, we realized that
incomplete records would prevent us from properly crediting each of the
individuals who have contributed so much to the colorful fabric of the
community's life. You have been active in politics, in civic affairs, in church life,
in organizing marvelous musical reviews, in promoting better schools, in
worrying about water, in arranging for tennis and swimming, in protecting the
environment, in supporting arts, crafts and literary pursuits, and occasionally in
mustering action on national issues. You have helped make Hollin Hills a special
place to live.
Marion Tiger

Photo: Robert C. Lautman
Awards & Citations
Listings are chronological. Names are those of owners of the houses at the
time of the citations. Addresses may differ because some house numbers were
changed by the county in 1965.
195Q Revere Quality House; Southwest Research Institute.
1950-51 Parents' Magazine "Best Home for Family Living" in their Builders'
Competition. Two Regional Merit Awards, announced in the
February, 1952 issue.
Residences: Mr. and Mrs. Alex Radin 7309 Stafford Road
Mr. and Mrs. Howard West 7313 Stafford Road
1951 Chosen by Life as one of "Best Houses Under $15,000. . .eight fine,
mass-produced examples show buyers what they can get in low-
priced homes, "
Residences: Mr. and Mrs. Allan Searle 7221 Stafford Road
Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Whiteley 7223 Stafford Road
Mr. and Mrs. James Anderson 7301 Stafford Road
1951 Certificate of Merit; Southwest Research Institute.
Hollin Hills named "Nation's Outstanding Development."
Charles M. Goodman named "Architect of the Year."
Robert C. Davenport named "Builder of the Year."
1954 American Institute of Architects (AIA) National Award Program;
Award of Merit: Original Square House design.
1955 Washington, D.C. Chapter AIA, National Award and Evening Star
Awards for Residential Architecture.
Residences: Mr. and Mrs. Clarence 0 .
Sk' ~nner 6 Recard Lane
Mr. and Mrs. Casper Neer 400 Paul Spring Road
1956 Evening Star Award for Excellence in Architecture.
Residence: Mr. and Mrs. M. E. Odoroff 1241 Rebecca Drive
1957 Washington, D.C. AIA and Evening Star Awards.
I 1956-57 Parents' Magazine Eighth Annual Builders' Competition.
"Best Home for Family Living; Special Merit Award for Distinctive
Design. "
Residence: R. Randall Vosbeck 407 Brentwood Place

1957 Merchant Built Winners of Homes for Better Living Awards: spon-
sored by AIA in cooperation with House O Home, Better Homes O
Gardens and NBC, "for best houses offered by builders since 1954 in
17 states east of the Alleghanies."
Award of Merit: Mr. and Mrs. Jeremy Hodson 7322 Rebecca Drive
Honorable Mention: 607 Sherwood Hall Lane
1957 Hollin Hills house selected as "One of 10 Buildings in America's
Future" in AIA Centennial Exhibition at the National Gallery of Art,
Washington, D.C.
1958 Included in Exhibit of U.S. Architecture shown at the Fifth Congress
of the Union Internationale des Architects in Moscow.
1977 The History Research Branch, Office of Comprehensive Planning,
reports there are now 217 historic sites and structures on Fairfax
County's Inventory of Historic Sites. Included is the community of
Hollin Hills.
1982 Test of Time Award, Virginia Society of AIA.
Residences: Mr. and Mrs. Gilbert Beebee 7311 Stafford Road
Mr. and Mrs. Howard West 7313 Stafford Road
The Hollin Hills sales office on Fort Hunt Rd.
1950-"Pave your roads and we'll deliver the mail to your houses."

The Cast
These are some of the people you will meet in the following pages. They may
talk to you directly, or we may tell you about their role in Hollin Hills.
Robert C. Davenport: Developer, builder. Before World War I1 he worked for
the Department of Agriculture. He began building with Tauxemont and then
moved on up Fort Hunt Road. An avid and successful farmer, he lived at his
farm in Paris, Virginia and commuted 65 milies a day during the development
of Hollin Hills. He was interviewed at his farm on April 20, 1981.
Charles M. Goodman, FAIA: Designer of the community, land planner, site
planner and architect of the Hollin Hills houses. He attended the Illinois Institute
of Technology, coming to work as designing architect in the Public Buildings
Administration in 1934. He subsequently served as head architect at the
Treasury Department and the Air Transport Command. After World War 11 he
worked closely with Davenport on the Hollin Hills venture-and headed his firm,
Charles M. Goodman Associates.
Eason Cross, Jr., FAIA: Architect, partner in the ~rlin~ton, Virginia office of
Cross & Adreon; resident of Hollin Hills since 1956. In the early 50s he was an
"associate" in Charles M. Goodman Associates; working an Hollin Hills.
President of the Civic Association of Hollin Hills in 1978 and author of a series
of articles on the community.
Lou Bernard Voight: Landscape architect who developed the general landscaping
concept for the community as well as the individual plans for resjdents.
He graduated from the University of Illinois in floriculture and received an MA
in Landscape Architecture from Harvard University. He assisted in the planning
of Oakridge, Tennessee, worked for the Department of the Interior National
Capital Parks, then opened his own office. After his death in 1953, Voight
was followed by Dan Kiley of Charlotte, Vermont, and later by a colleague.
Eric Paepke.
C. R. "Mac" McCalley: Construction foreman at Hollin Hills. He has spent
most of his time on historic lands, working for Mount Vernon, then for
Davenport at Tauxemont and finally, Hollin Hills. Since his "retirement" he has
continued to work on residentsf additions, reconstructions and repairs.
The Concept
THE BIRTHING
About one mile south of Hollin Hills on Fort Hunt Road lies
Tauxemont, a community of brick and cinder-block ramblers. Begun as a
co-op in the early forties and completed commercially during and after
World War 11, it is here that a history of Hollin Hills should begin.
CROSS: Bob Davenport sharpened his teeth on Tauxemont before
beginning Hollin Hills. One can see there the antecedents of a
builder who was capable of making a place like Hollin Hills go. . .
Davenport really took a huge gamble on this business of
contemporary design in merchant housing, but he himself believed
it was the best and right way to build housing. There was no
market survey made; there was just a conviction that there was a
market for good design in Washington, and the sense to find a
willing and competent architect.
Davenport was working for the government in the early forties and
living in Buckingham, an Arlington county apartment development. He
and ten or twelve friends, all restless to have houses, formed a cooperative
to build their own. An earlier attempt had failed to materialize, but
Davenport had done preliminary work on that venture and felt ready to
move ahead.
DAVENPORT: . . .we finally got the courage to make a $500
deposit on a piece of land which is the old part of Tauxemont. I
was president of the group. It was basically a very simple
house . . . very minimal.
Upon completion of the first group of houses, the co-op did not wish to
expand, but it granted permission to Davenport to build additional houses
on a fee basis. Work was in progress when World War I1 broke out and
suddenly all the rules changed. Priority certificates were required for
materials, and equipment had to be purchased in carload lots (when they
could find it). His agreement with the purchasers was to charge whatever
the house cost (not to exceed $7,500), plus a $750 fee. If the cost was

higher, he would absorb the difference. He finished those houses during
the war and lost $2,000 in the process. Nevertheless, he got an option for
the balance of the Tauxemont land in 1945 and completed the project.
DAVENPORT: Well, it was about that time that I first ran into
Chuck Goodman. A few people in Tauxemont . . .wanted him to
redesign their houses. I met Chuck. . .and he had some very fresh
ideas about what to do with a basic house. About that time. . .a
man on the school committee said, 'you know, that land off Fort
Hunt Road is going to be sold. . . ' (They had already sold the
Hollin Hall part down below.) I went over and looked at it and it
was a wonderful piece of land; I was quite enthused about it and
they said they were going to take bids. It was an estate that had to
be settled. So I went to the chap who was with me in Tauxemont
[S. J. Rodman] and said, 'Do you think we could buy it? At least
we can put in a bid.' So we did; it was 240 acres.
. . .we went out to that court early [in Fairfax] and sure enough,
the judge said, 'I'm going to auction it off right here.' Well, it
scared me half to death because. . .we kept going up and going
up. . .we didn't have any financing. We had no definite way we
were going to pay for it at that time. . . and we finally ended up
with it. I guess it was $500 an acre. Then our problem was:
howrre we going to pay for it? What are we going to do with it?
AFTER THE FL
This was 1946. With a minimum deposit made and 90 days to close on
the property, Davenport sought the advice of friends in the Federal
Housing Administration. He needed a first-rate land planner. Goodman's
name came up again and again. Goodman produced a plan and with it
Davenport set out to find financing. S. J. Rodman approached his brother
Morris with a proposal that the three form a partnership to buy the land
together. Davenport would be the primary working member of the team;
the Rodmans would be the investors. Morris agreed and they subsequently
laid out the lots, a section at a time, and then sold the land to the entity
known as Hollin Hills. This was another partnership, with Davenport as
Managing Partner, and co-partners Morris Rodman and Samuel C. Cohn
as trustees, with various members of Davenport's family as beneficiaries.
Thus Davenpoit was able to finance the project. It was the Hollins Hills
partnership which built and sold the houses.
The partners had bought themselves an historic piece of land. It was
part of a 2,000-acre tract which had been granted to George Mason by
King George 111. Mason distributed the land amongst his children. A
trustee of Alexandria, he wrote the Virginia Bill of Rights and helped draft
the new federal Constitution. His own home at Gunston Hall was south
of Lord Fairfax's Belvoir which was, in turn, adjacent to Mount Vernon
and Woodlawn.
The share of the land grant given to Mason's son Thompson included
what we now know as Marlan Forest, Wellington Heights, Tauxemont,
Hollin Hall Village and Hollin Hills. Around 1780 Thompson began
construction of an elaborate Mansion near the Gum Springs part of his
property and called it Hollin Hall after an estate in his wife's family. It
took a decade to build and ten years later it was destroyed by fire.
In the 1840s, Quakers from Pennsylvania and New Jersey came into the
area looking for good timberland. They began with Woodlawn, a large
estate left by Washington to his nephew, Lawrence Lewis. It had ceased to
be profitable to cultivate. They added Hollin Hall in 1852 and acquired
Wellington in 1859 from Charles A. Washington, another nephew. Quaker
families settled throughout these lands.
In 1910, a Mr. Wilson purchased 640 acres in the area and called his
house Hollin Hall. The land ran from around the Hollin Hills school,
south to the edge of Hollin Hall Village. Following his death in the 30s the
estate went into liquidation. Merle Thorpe bought the house and 80 acres
at auction in 1941, with ten acres going to the Mount Vernon Unitarian
Church in 1959. The estate was sold (except for the church property) in
the sixties and the Mason Hill houses were built there. In the meantime,
John McPherson and Associates purchased 25 acres of Wilson's land,
including all of the present Hollin Hall Village. Another member of the
McPherson family acquired 60 acres and sold individuals lots in
Hollindale. In 1946 the 240 acres which would become Hollin Hills were
purchased by Davenport and the Rodman brothers.
The first lot sold for $1,500. Once the loan was secured for the entire
acreage, it became necessary to decide on style of houses.
DAVENPORT: Chuck Goodman is a very competent architect,
but he is also a good promoter. He immediately sketched some
plans for houses and said, 'this is what you ought to do.' Of
course, you can't use a conventional house on that land. We
started on Rippon Road with that hillside. My God, you had to
have imagination to build on that area! And so we built the first
two houses. . . a two-level house and then a one-level house. . .
Goodman got a lot of good recognition because of Hollin Hills 13
and rightly so; we were able to work together because I wanted to

do something different and I think it was hard at that time for any
builder to conceive of doing anything basically different. Bucknell
was built about the same time. . .it was a lovely piece of land and
they took the bulldozers and stripped that whole land. It changed
the contour of the land and laid it out so each one of the houses
would sit nicely on its space, instead of saying, 'we'll build a house
that will fit the lot.'
CROSS: Chuck Goodman was, and I guess still is, a demanding
man to work for, but from the end of World War I1 until at least
1958 when I left his office, his was the best atelier in
town. . . Goodman's reputation on the national scene stemmed
from his work in housing design primarily, and from Hollin Hills
in particular.
One must realize that designing for speculative sale is a far
different game than working directly for a specific client, and
although there were plenty of good examples of contemporary
housing around 1951, very little of it could appeal to a number of
family types, the mark of a successful merchant house.
[His houses] relied more on rational detail and careful scale than
sculptural stunting. Their interior spaces were striking without
dominating their owners, and the way they sat in the landscape
made the new houses look like they had been there always.
Goodman and Davenport came along at the right time for each other.
Goodman had the means and imagination to create just the sort of
innovative housing that Davenport wanted to build at a price fledgling
professionals could afford. Goodman was interviewed for the pamplet, 10
Years of Hollin Hills, published by the community in 1960:
Blind faith is what keeps me going. . . an ingredient of this blind
faith of mine was my feeling that in a community of this kind
there should never appear intolerance-intellectual or otherwise.
Tolerance, of course, is a civilized quality. I'm interested in
civilized architecture. Tolerance comes from self-respect. If one
respects one's integrity, one respects the integrity of one's neighbor.
I never worry about Hollin Hills on any big issues. . .
Architecture reflects the social phenomenon. What we yearn for
and need is the flowering of the individual. We deeply need more
offbeat personalities, more people with unique interests, more
people strong enough to stand unafraid and be themselves. We
need them not just in houses, but in communities where their
influence can be felt. We need unity of diverse interests.
Hollin Hills reflects Goodman's deeply felt belief that architects and
builders needed to "develop fresh thinking on how to use land properly
and humanely." He also held the view that people of every age were
essential to the community. That mixture did come to Hollin Hills, but not
for some years. Initially, ages, points of view, values and politics were
remarkably similar. As to his hope that residents would move from
smaller to larger houses as their families expanded, some did just that.
Others increased the size of their houses through additions.
DAVENPORT-reflecting on housing in the forties: You could buy
lots of houses at that time that were the same size [as ours] and
had three bedrooms and one bath and a kitchen and a dining
room arrangement. The only difference was that we developed a
new style of architecture and a new style of land planning.
In Eason Cross's view, Goodman and Davenport came forth with "an
avalanche of new ideas. . . for the postwar American merchant housing
boom." The unique design elements of Hollin Hills houses brought forth
numerous awards as well as articles in books, journals, magazines and
newspapers (listed in the bibliography). Regardless of the acclaim, many of
the innovations on the land plan and in the house sitings sent opposition
stirring through the banking and mortgage establishment, which viewed
the entire undertaking with suspicion. For example:
The initial choice of such hilly land-and the accompanying decision to
avoid scalping it with bulldozers-was unique in the 40s and 50s world
of commercially-developed housing communities. Other builders had
shunned the land as too expensive and too much trouble to develop.
Goodman sited the houses to the fall of the land, rather than to the
street, and the individual house plans conformed to the requirements of
the land. Hence, the first houses-at Paul Spring and Rippon Roads and
Drury Lane-were different from later designs developed at other ends
of the community. The neighborhood would not be static; this was
some thing the builder and designer were determined to avoid.
0 High priced and low priced houses were intermixed not only within the
community, but on individual blocks. The common wisdom of the time
was that such a practice would bring down the value of the higher
priced houses. In conventional neighborhoods this may well still be the
case, because the less expensive house would be of a different style and
of different-and lesser quality-materials than the more expensive ones.
In Hollin Hills, quality and style was uniformly good throughout, and 15

the lots were similar. The difference was in size and shape. As a result,
values throughout were not only maintained, but residents whose means
and requirements changed could move from one size house to another
(as Goodman had envisioned their doing) without having to leave a
community they enjoyed .
The "cul-de-sac" was used on Recard, Bedford, Drury and Daphne
Lanes; Beechwood; Brentwood Place; Kimbro Street and Elba, Nemeth,
Saville and Hopa Courts. . . .even Martha's Road circle. The concept of
the dead-end turnaround was opposed by those who wanted to move
through the community in a hurry --firemen, postmen, milkmen,
delivery trucks. Admittedly, people are still seen driving 'round and
'round Martha's loop, trying to find their way out of Hollin Hills.
Nevertheless, the general use of the cul-de-sac throughout the country
today supports the planners' belief that it provides safety and quiet to a
residential area.
Some Hollin Hills lots (notably on the north side of Glasgow Road and
the west side of Rebecca Drive) lie below the roadway, an unacceptable
practice in 1949, but it was in keeping with Goodman's and Davenport's
conviction that the house should be designed to fit the land. Innovative
designing made it work and kept it looking natural.
Paul Spring and Rippon Roads are "single-loaded (having houses on
one side of the street only). This feature, while more expensive from the
builder's point of view, made for more beautiful roads, greater safety
and easier community access to the parklands.
a The setting aside of land to be owned by the community and used
exclusively for parks was in itself extremely rare and these parks have
enhanced the beauty of the community and the enjoyment of the
residents .
In the late forties, land value in a subdivision was based on "front-
footage." The planners of Hollin Hills, however, believed that back yard
and private space was of more importance than what showed from the
street side. Thus, many lots measure greater rear footage than on the
front. The significance of this will be apparent as we consider
Goodman's land and site planning, his landscape philosophy, and the
practice of landscape architect Barney Voight and those who followed
him.
Landscape plans were developed for all new houses. . .an important
means of integrating the beauty of the community as a whole and a
valuable form of guidance for the neophyte home owner who had the
right instincts, but no sense of horticultural direction. By way of
supporting the landscaping effort, Bob Davenport gave azaleas to the
residents for Christmas for several years. The landscaping of the
community is treated at greater length following this section.
Over and above the design, planning, siting and landscaping
innovations which distinguished Hollin Hills, Goodman implemented a
number of new construction ideas which would help to keep costs down
and design features high. He believed that millwork should be fabricated
in the shop and assembled on the site; that approaches to carpentry
should be simplified to make optimum use of less skilled labor; that
imaginative and cost-reducing use should be made of conventional
materials (flooring on walls and ceilings, for example). Additional
discussion of the technical and design features of various house models
appears in the Appendix.
C. R. McCalley, the Construction Foremandat Hollin Hills, had worked
with Davenport on the Tauxemont project, but he took a dim view of the
new glass houses and walked off the job. He was convinced that the
houses wouldn't stand up. He returned, however, to build his crew from
just a few men to over 100 and supervised the building of 463 Hollin Hills
houses. He lived in a trailer near the construction sheds on Rebecca Drive.
Mac is still on the job in "retirement". . .building additions and making
repairs. There are those who believe he is the only person left who knows
how the innards of these houses are put together.
By hindsight, it is apparent that if a number of things had been done
differently, some later troubles might have been avoided. In some
instances, the thinking of the time-or lack of thought (about energy, for
example)-explains such things as single-pane windows and scanty
insulation. Other features, such as air-conditioning, extra baths, etc., were
considered luxuries then, but as the perception grew that they were
necessities, they have been added, along with more efficient kitchens and
better storage space. Still, the houses had style and there was growing
enthusiasm for the light, the airiness, the sense of communion with the
outdoors.
DAVENPORT: . . .it caught on; we had huge crowds when we
opened up that first weekend [in November, 19491. We had
muddy roads; the mud was up to your knees and everything else.
The first couple that moved in their house. . . had no water system 17

18
and they weren't hooked up to a sewer yet, and we hauled water
in buckets-50-gallon drums-and put it up on a hillside and
piped it into the house with hoses. And they lived that way for a
couple of weeks until we got the water system in and got it
functioning. . . .we put a well on a vacant lot on Paul
Spring-there's a park there now (East Stafford)-and worked
from that well; we had to bring the lines back.
Gas was nothing; we had gas right away. That was one of the
things that made Hollin Hills so desirable. . .the gas company ran
a line down Fort Hunt Road and we were right in there as soon as
they knew we were going to start.
There was no sewer system, so they built a great big thing out
of wood-right behind our office-a huge, temporary septic
system which we chlorinated-an eyesore. We used it for three
years until they finally got the sewer constructed. If you went
wandering near that big tank, it didn't smell very good. They built
a special line down back behind the office and up over the hill. It
worked by gravity.
The Hollin Hills office was an old, cramped frame house on Fort Hunt
Road, south of the present tennis courts. The ambience was hectic,
delicately balanced between frustration over things gone wrong or inability
to locate plans or space or contracts, and the genuine excitement generated
by being able to serve up a new and interesting way to live amongst big
trees and affordable mortgages. In the midst of this heady atmosphere was
George Brickelmaier, a Hollin Hills resident and an associate of
Davenport's for many years. As trouble shooter and liaison, he took all
the complaints. He reminisced in 10 Years in Hollin Hills:
In those days (of course everybody was younger then), early
settlers had a kind of pioneer spirit. At that time these houses were
wildly unconventional. Besides, nothing worked right-the roads
weren't in-sometimes the sewer wasn't in-nothing but bare dirt
around-what the people put up with was astounding! Further-
more, most of 'em had come from apartments and they didn't
know how to do a damned thing anyway.
The question of who was the first in Hollin Hills is moot. Certainly the
first two houses built were the two-level Babb house and one-level Nelles
house on opposing comers of Rippon Road and Drury Lane. Davenport
isn't sure who moved in first. A number of residents say it was Nelles.
The Babbs' daughter, Barbara Wade, recalls that Nelles was first; the
Ames family up Rippon Road was second and Babbs third. A Washington
Post story of May 22, 1971-featuring the last house completed in the
community-stated that the Babb house was first, and they ran a picture
of it. Perhaps the confusion lies in the wording. . . "first house completed,"
"first house sold," or "first house occupied." There was no confusion,
however, about the last house completed. It belongs to the Christoffersons
on Kimbro Street in New Hollin Hills and to celebrate the event, the
community had a huge block party in tribute to Davenport in 1971. There
was a musical review and three roast pigs were provided by the guest of
honor himself.
Whoever was first, people commenced moving in. They got stuck in the
mud and picked up their mail at the thirty "rural" mailboxes down on
Paul Spring Road. They begged Ma Bell for telephones (the few who
boasted them were on ten-party lines). This was a time when milk was
generally delivered, diaper service came to the door and doctors still made
house calls, but no one, including the Post Office, wanted any part of it
until the roads were paved.
From the start, Davenport was anxious to see Hollin Hills function as a
cooperating community and he urged the formation of a community
association. A Certificate of Incorporation for the Hollin Hills Community
Association was set forth on August 25, 1950. The earliest concerns of the
association were, quite naturally, related to making the community work.
Among the first orders of business were: to contract for trash collection,
negotiate the installation of a fire hydrant and to build a culvert to handle
waters under Paul Spring Road.
THE LAY OF THE LA
The reason so many builder-developers in the late forties were appalled
at the idea of building glass houses on such a hilly terrain as that of Hollin
Hills was that they lacked the imagination or confidence to practice the
siting and landscaping principles that held the key to success for such an
under taking.
Not so Davenport and his designer, Goodman. Their innovative site
plans, developed well before the unit house plans were finally detailed,
incorporated a philosophy of working with, rather than against, the
contours of the land, curving the streets to avoid mutilating these
contours, retaining the natural woods, and siting houses on the land so as
to provide each one with as much privacy and solar exposure as could be
achieved on moderate-sized lots.

There was no inclination to feel bound or deterred by the prevailing
conventions of suburban siting in this county, which, for ease of mass
construction, fronted all houses facing the street, side-by-side, with front
lawns unobstructed by other vegetation until the "foundation planting"
was reached, and with "street frontage" the criterion of value. Instead, the
Hollin Hills developer/designers made choices from among the various
standard plans available, depending on the contours and situation of the
lots which themselves had been subdivided, not in terms of rectangular
principles, but again, in response to the land contours and the ultimate
living pleasure of the individual homeowner. The cul-de-sac, a bugaboo
among local government, fire officials, and delivery companies at the time,
was widely used anyway because of its privacy and safety benefits.
These siting principles tended in themselves to contribute to a sense of
community. To further foster this feeling, Hollin Hills incorporated
another idea almost unheard-of at the time, namely the establishment of
parklands through an owners' corporation set up to hold such lands in
joint tenancy. Such parklands were chosen in such a way as to preserve
natural drainage channels and, in the words of one-time Goodman
associate and Hollin Hills resident Eason Cross, to make some "intelligent
choices of places to surrender land to natural needs rather than attempting
to civilize it ."
The philosophies and practices mentioned so far, while exceedingly rare
for the period, were not entirely without precedent in this country. The
preeminent 19th century landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, fresh
from his triumphs with New York's Central Park and the U.S. Capitol
grounds, turned his attention, in partnership with Calvert Vaux, to the
design of suburban developments such as Riverside (a suburb of Chicago)
in 1868 and Tarrytown Heights (Hudson valley north of New York City)
in 1870. Olmsted and Vaux, obviously not as much in the driver's seat as
the designers of Hollin Hills, were limited to giving "advice" to the
developer. Much of this advice was virtually identical with the Hollin Hills
precepts, e.g., roads should be laid out in easy curves to take advantage
of the natural features of the land; one major aspect of suburban life to be
accommodated in the site plans was privacy for the indoor and outdoor
life of individual families; another aspect was to provide for community
interests and means of "recreating together on common ground." An
important element of the Olmsted/Vaux "advice" was finally ignored by
an apparently tight-fisted developer who decided to build houses on the
land set aside for community activities, but enough of the philosophy
prevailed s6 that Riverside was accounted a success on its own terms by a
critic writing as late as 1953.
20 There were, however, two major differences between the Olmstead/
Vaux experience and the approach used in Hollin Hills. First of all, they
were working with communities of the very wealthy (Tarrytown Heights,
for instance, comprised 159 "villas" on two to fifteen acre sites), and it
seems clear that no designer or developer of that period would have
considered it fitting (or, perhaps more important, profitable) to try to
provide such amenities for young middle-class families who would make
up the bulk of Hollin Hills homeowners. Secondly, there is no evidence
that they considered any overall approach to the landscaping of the
individual properties or tried to involve the homeowners themselves in a
community landscape plan that would integrate their individual garden
spaces into a harmonious whole as was done in what turned out to be one
of the most successful aspects of the Hollin Hills experiment.
Lou Bernard Voight, a landscape architect who shared the Davenport/
Goodman philosophy, joined forces with them to carry out such a plan.
Voight concerned himself in the first instance with problems of harmony
and continuity, eventually working out landscape plans for the individual
lots which, as Eason Cross said so well, "flowed sinuously across lot lines
with the intent of breaking down the image of so many regularly-spaced
dominoes one might ordinarily get through lawns and foundation
plantings." An individual landscape plan was included with each house
sale at a minimal but obligatory cost (initially $loo), including one
consultation with Voight prior to finalization of the plan.
When Voight died tragically and prematurely in 1953, his work was
continued by like-minded landscape architects, first Dan Kiley, then Eric
Paepcke, who survived long enough to provide a plan for the last Hollin
Hills house in 1m. Voight proved to be a master at parrying clientsr
sometimes rather weird preconceptions of what plant materials they
wanted for screening, accents, ground covers and other landscape effects
and at persuading them to accept suggestions that would do more to
coordinate their lots into the overall vision he had for the whole area.
This was a risky experiment. The young intellectuals, mostly from
urban backgrounds, who made up the bulk of Hollin Hills homeowners,
had little previous interest in or knowledge of horticulture and not enough
money to patronize expensive nurseries or hire landscape contractors to
execute comprehensive planting plans or to build patios, walkways and
retaining walls. Arming such people with drawings, plant lists, spades and
shovels seemed almost foolhardy. Reckoning with the potential pitfalls,
Voight undertook to write a regular column in the monthly Hollin Hills
Newsletter, providing information about types of plant materials, how to
choose good specimens, how and when to plant them, how to improve
the soil and, in general, how to think about landscaping problems.
The city lads and their wives took surprisingly well to these new
endeavors. A large percentage of them could be seen out on their muddy 21
lots in fair weather and foul, digging in the soil, carting away the building

debris buried by the construction crew (a time-honored "professional"
practice which even Davenport could not control), and generally acting
the way people do when they are succumbing to a new and seductive
addiction. To help them with the high cost of plant materials, the Hollin
Hills management introduced them to a unique nearby institution. . .a
wild and disorderly "nursery" operated by a Virginia character, Henry
Stabler, on Fairfax County farmland inherited from his father. There,
magnificent specimens of just the sort of broadleaf evergreens
recommended by Voight could be obtained-if old Henry could be
persuaded to part with plants he had come to consider good friends-for a
fraction of their cost at commercial nurseries. Stabler also contributed
Newsletter columns, crammed with earthy wisdom. Struggling with such
adversities as outrageous soil, rank inexperience, and occasional
exasperation when they mistook Voight's principled zeal for dogmatism,
many Hollin Hillers created beautiful and appropriate landscapes and
some, in the process, acquired an abiding new life interest.
And how did it all turn out? Enough homeowners joined the
'imovement" to bring the community fairly close to the integrated
landscape effect envisioned by Voight and nurtured by Kiley and Paepcke.
Early on, a national magazine ran an article (Popular Gardening, "The
Garden and the Glass House", August 1957) in which the author waxed
ecstatic about the marvelous visual effects already achieved in only six
years of this unique community undertaking, and included photographs
which inspired subsequent Hollin Hills homeowners. Today, twenty-seven
years after that article, Hollin Hills, its early planting having grown to
rich maturity and the native woods having aged still more gracefully, has
acquired a look of its own, with harmonious vistas of beauty on all sides,
such as the deodara cedars and Japanese Pagoda trees dotted along upper
Martha's Road, the hollies of Paul Spring Road, and the white pine groves
of Elba Road, Martha's circle and the Beechwood cul-se-sac. Those few
lots whose owners were less than enthusiastic about landscaping are more
or less covered by the general lushness and continuity of the landscape,
which surprises and delights almost all first-time Hollin Hills visitors.
But the results of the Davenport /Goodman/Voight /Kiley /Paepcke
vision can perhaps best be perceived from the air, Hollin Hills
unfortunately being on the flight path of many planes using National
Airport. Flying along the Potomac, south of Alexandria, one looks down
on many newer suburban communities which have followed Hollin Hills'
lead by adopting such features as curving streets, cul-de-sacs, etc., but
then one catches sight of what appears to be a densely wooded park
surrounded by those other communities. Looking more closely, one
glimpses structures nestled among the trees. Look again: is it a woods?-is
it a park?-is it a summer camp?-No, it's HOLLIN HILLS!
THE INNER HOUSE: DECOR
Goodman was as concerned with color in-and on-his houses as he
was with other details which made the difference between the ordinary
and a whole living arrangement which settled into the land. He began
with-and promoted-dark, rich earth tones which were in keeping with
houses set in the woods, and felt that some interior walls should serve as a
dark accent because the window walls let in so much light. Over the
years, people have held fairly consistently to the earth tones on the
outsides of their houses, but have pulled back to much lighter interior
colors. The latter may be due to the fact that residents have acquired art
works and hangings which respond better to white and off-white than
they might to the original pallette which included warm gray, gray-brown,
deep brown, clay red, black, gray-green, and cadmium yellow.
Top Recker, an interior decorator whose showroom was in Alexandria,
worked closely with Goodman and Davenport in the formative days, and
with residents for years thereafter. He was interviewed in March, 1982,
and he recalled:
Chuck, I understand, mixed the paint. I think he mixed quite a
number of gallons of some colors before he got them right. . .what
he wanted. As far as I know, in the first few years those colors
were all used on the interior and that was the way they had to
take the house. I believe there were twelve colors in the pallette.
. . .in the meantime, I had been asked by Bob Davenport and
Chuck Goodman how much it would cost to curtain these houses
because it was absolutely essential-they were nothing but window
glass-and in some cases, 40 feet of window wall, so it was
essential that before they moved in they got some kind of curtains.
We bought Oznaburg in large quantities and so we got a very
low price on it and we kept our curtains unlined and in most cases
we managed to [add] some very good contemporary and far-out
modern, printed fabrics in small quantities. We figured out a
minimum way of curtaining the whole house and I said that it
would be possible to do it for $500 (whether we'd ever be able to
hold to that budget or not, I didn't know), but of course in the
selling of the houses the $500 was quoted as what it would cost. It
would be interesting to figure out what it would cost today! In
one case I remember, all we supplied were a few bamboo blinds
because that's all the budget could allow and we were the first
ones to hang those in this area. . . to attach tapes to the sides and
hang those vertically, which was the only way to do it. We did, as 23
I recall, about three-quarters of the first 100 houses done. [By 1953

COST BREAKDOWN
1949 Split-level
house
Survey ................
Clearing Ri grading site
Clearing & grading lot
Footings ..............
Slab ...................
Masonry & materials..
Lumber & millwork ...
Carpentry labor .......
Doors, frames 6 fronts
Windows & glass ....
Plastering .............
Heating system .......
Plumbing .............
Electrical work ........
Roofing & sheet metal.
Insulation .............
Painting ...............
Bath & fixtures ........
One-level
house
$20
85
40
175
425
1,210
725
1,090
425
425
600
525
500
1 65
225
150
350
150
Weatherstripping .....
Kitchen cabinets ......
Appliances ............
Flooring ...............
Finish hardware .......
Iron & nails ...........
Grading 6 seeding ...
Utility connections ...
Terraces & slabs .....
Driveway 6 walks ....
House clean up ........
General project labor..
Overhead ..............
Contingency items ....
Building fee ...........
Lot ....................
Total ..................
some residents were offering Top Recker bamboo blinds for sale in
the Newsletter. Perhaps a sign of upward mobility. . .on to
Oznaburg? At the same time the Hollin Hills management
announced the introduction of two new interior colors, light plum
and light brown. Chartreuse was being dropped.]
Recalling that good lines of contemporary furniture were expensive,
Recker said that people turned to other styles, to some period pieces, to
items they inherited. Traditional pieces were simplified by means of newer
fabric designs. Early American, Shaker and country French styles worked
very well with the extreme contemporary architecture.
Joan Miller, co-owner of Market Square in Alexandria, and a Hollin
Hills resident, has been serving some of the community's households since
24 the early fifties. She remembers frantic residents who simply hadn't taken
into account the cost of all those draperies. In one instance, a customer
looked over her shelves of drapery fabrics and decided she'd go home and
weave her own. Another requested a discount on the basis of needing so
much more material than she would have required for a conventional
house.
There are those who have chosen not to hang draperies except where
necessary for privacy. The joys of large expanses of windows, light and
trees are very real. Whatever choices were eventually made, there were
ideas to be gleaned from the furnished demonstration/exhibition houses.
Top Recker remembered doing an early house in pine furniture. For the
innovative Butterfly Roof House in 1953, Florence and Hans Knoll, the
furniture designers of Knoll Associates, New York, were given a free hand
by Davenport in decorating, including colors, drapes, furniture and
accessories. Davenport then began carrying Knoll furniture and fabrics at
his office, along with the contemporary lighting fixtures of Kurt Versen.
Erich and Lucille Ursell, whose Georgetown shop opened in 1948, told
us that they decorated several early New Hollin Hills houses for a house
tour. . .complete with pictures, china and a lot of Knoll and Miller
[furniture]. When asked what people chose for their houses in those days,
Lucille Ursell said, 'We did a lot of sofas, a lot of wall systems, a lot of
draperies. . .draperies by the mile."
ARCHITECTURAL CONTROL
Although Goodman's house plans were not designed with specific
enlargement potential in mind, the houses have adapted very well to
change, and many have one or more additions.
Davenport set up the "Committee on Structures"-now the
Architectural Control Committee-in the earliest days of the development
in order to protect the integrity of the designs and the flavor of the
community. In due course, control of the committee was turned over to
the civic association and as now constituted, there are four members from
the community, two of whom are architects. As might be expected, there
have been misunderstandings over the years about jurisdiction over fences,
the meaning of "structure," the appropriateness of certain proposed
designs, etc.
CROSS: The good addition is the one which becomes not an
obvious graft, but forms an integral part of a complete design.
Further, the whole should blend with and respond to the adjacent
houses. Rear and side yards, front setbacks and height restrictions 25

are the province of Fairfax County; what's more to the point in
Hollin Hills is maintaining the neighborhood network of vistas and
exterior living space.
There are some obvious 'no-no'sf-little panes in sash, double-
hung windows, ornate trim and doors, shingles, stone, hip roofs,
multisurfacings, bow windows, broken pediments, classical
columns, louvred shutters, flamingos on the lawn, colored trim,
asbestos shingle siding, anchor and picket fences, and additions
which are in mass just a bump stuck on the basic house. . . It is
also possible to err in the other direction-to get carried away in
the modem vein, where dymaxion domes and clever architectural
sculpture intrude past the bounds of common courtesy.
[Goodman's] pallette was compatible with temperate and
deciduous Virginia-basically earth tones-made popular by the
San Francisco School of architects and later imported East. The
lines of Goodman's houses were always picked out with white trim
and eves to emphasize the volume, as seen through the branches
of the trees. When masonry was used, it was used brick and
neutrally-painted concrete block. The white house which works so
well in New England, and the blue, pink and pastels which work
so well in the tropics, were avoided. It was a limited but useful
range of colors and materials.
A tour through Hollin Hills in its fourth decade reveals that for the
most part, residents have been respectful of the general intent of the
commit tee's responsibility.
The convenants of owners' deeds were described as follows by the
builders in an early fifties buyers' information sheet: "standard FHA
requirements. . . they restrict the location of the houses to 25 feet from the
front line and 10 feet from the side line and provide for a 5-foot utility
easement on the side and rear of each lot. Park areas are dedicated for
community use, not public use. Park areas may be used for general
community purposes and for utility installation such as sewer lines,
electric, water lines, etc. County zoning regulations are more restrictive
and provide for a @foot set back requirement from the front line and 15
feet from the side line of the lot. . .Upon application, county regulations
can be adjusted, but in no instance can the restrictions in the deed be
changed except by common consent of the property owners."
Did the Design Work?
Hollin Hillers have a love/hate relationship with their houses, as nearly
any one of them will tell you. This is also what they said in the 1981
survey. It is irresistible to ask if, overall, the design concepts incorporated
in Hollin Hills houses worked. What the survey showed was that,
overwhelmingly, Hollin Hills residents do treasure those features that were
once (and often still are) unique. The flaws in design were also much
mentioned and fully described. What becomes striking in reading the
survey responses, however, is just how flexible the design has been. It has
been possible to correct flaws and expand in almost limitless directions.
The fact that people have done so, rather than moving on, attests that
indeed, the design has worked.
It was to be expected that the design features most often cited in the
survey as being the least desirable were those associated with
weatherability-poor insulation, dampness and condensation, upkeep and
operating costs and glass walls. Large expanses of glass coupled with slab
construction and little original insulation make damp, drafty houses that
are difficult to heat and cool. Not surprisingly, however, the amenities
afforded by the glass were most often noted as the best design feature of
the houses. To the survey question, "What do you like best about the
design of your house?" the response 'glass walls" was noted 150 times, "a
sense of harmony with the outdoors" 109 times, and "light" 65 times.
Apparently, the discomforts of glass houses are for many more than offset
by the needs that they fulfill. Some of the problems have also been
partially resolved by many in that at least 148 residents have added
insulated glass.
The least-liked design element mentioned second-most-often was
inadequate storage or "hidden" space. This has been remedied in many
houses with the addition of straight storage space (43), studio/workshops
(22), garage/carports (21), laundry rooms (9) and basements (5). While a
number of households have not eliminated the storage problem, almost a
third of the respondents described the "sense" of space and efficiency of
their houses as a best liked feature. Visual space for some seems to
compensate for actual square footage.
The third most frequently mentioned criticism of design had to do with
construction-considered poor (23) or with poor materials (8). Into this
category also falls dissatisfaction with slab construction (8), roof design (5)
27

and furnace, air conditioning and ducting systems (12). Fourth were
general design elements that were disliked such as floor plans (19), poor
soundproofing (8), lack of carports (7) and odd room shapes (3).
Additions have been widely used to solve specific design problems and
to enlarge space. Fiftysix per cent of the houses in the survey have had
one addition or more. Design elements described as inadequate by some
residents, such as the lack of carports and no foyers, have been remedied
by others-at least 21 carports and 29 foyers have been added. Other
additions have involved a major house redesign in the inclusion of 23 new
dining rooms, 16 kitchens and 11 living rooms. For the large part,
however, additions have been a response to growing families. Over 50 per
cent of rooms added reflect this-111 bedrooms, 78 family rooms and 70
bathrooms were noted in the survey.
Did the design work? It seems reasonable to conclude from the survey
that the elements that were essential to the original concept-the use of
glass to integrate indoors with out, flowing spaces, siting-continue to be
the ones most valued today. These qualities, often lacking elsewhere,
make it desirable to stay in Hollin Hills. Many people have stayed. In so
transient an area, nearly 45 per cent of the survey respondents have been
here more than 15 years, and 25 per cent are the original owners of their
homes. Sixteen per cent have owned more than one Hollin Hills home.
That the flexibility inherent in these houses was not explicit in the original
Goodman-Davefiport concept of the community is ironic. This flexibility
has allowed families to stay and grow and adapt their houses to their
28 needs. Thus the design continues to work.
HOLLIN HILLS SURVEY
April, 1981
The second survey of the residents of Hollin Hills, conducted in April of
1981, was an attempt to discover who our residents were and how they felt
about their houses and community. A total of 365 households, approximately
76%, of the community responded, although not every resident answered every
question.
An earlier poll of Hollin Hills took place in 1956. Where questions are
comparable, the surveys provide some insight into how the community has
changed. Not surprisingly, the residents have grown older and have become
more highly educated. Also, there are proportionately fewer Democrats in
Hollin Hills than in 1961. Hollin Hillers have endured, however. In 1981, 25 %
of those responding to the survey were original owners of their houses, and
16% had owned more than one house in the community. There were 3 second
generation residents.
The tabulations from the current survey are presented below in their entirety.
Section I provides a profile of our residents and, where possible, comparable
data from the original survey. Section I1 describes attitudes about houses,
Section I11 concerning community.
SECTION I
Demographics
The responses to the survey questions in Section I have been tabulated as a
percentage of the total number of responses in each category. The actual
number of respondents to each question for the 1981 survey are shown in paren-
theses under the male and female columns.
Total
AGE
Male Female
(315) (328)

Ph.D.
M.D.
J.D.
M.A. or M.S.
B.A. or B.S.
High School
Other
Tot a1
Democrat
Republican
Independent
Other
None
Total
Protestant
Jewish
Catholic
Unitarian
Other
None
Total
HIGHEST DEGREE EARNED PROFESSION
Male Female
(309) (311) Male Female
Administration & Management
Architecture
Arts
Business, Marketing, Sales
Computer Analysis
Consulting
Engineering
Finance, Accounting
Foreign Service, Foreign Policy
POLITICAL PREFERENCE Government
Male Female
(299) (302)
Housewife
Law
Librarian
Medicine
Military
Nursing, Physical Therapy
Nutrition '
Psychology, Sociology
Real Estate
Research & Analysis
Retired
Sciences
RELIGIOUS PREFERENCE
Secretary
Statistics
Teaching, Counseling
Writing, Editing, Journalism
Male Female
Other
(303) (311) Total
Notes. In the original survey, 64.88 of males responding worked for the government. A current com-
parable percentage cannot be derived, since most responses give occupation but not employer. The
original survey did not poll women as to occupation.
The category "Arts" includes music, design, photography, film-making, painting and sculpture.
The "Retired category includes persons who did not specify occupation before retirement. Retirees
were included under a professional category when both occupation and retirement were noted on the
survey.
The Sciences include physics, geology, chemistry and mathematics.

Northeast
Southeast
Midwest
Far West
West Coast
Other, U.S.
Foreign
Tot a1
< 5
5-10
11-15
16-20
> 20
Total
Total
BIRTHPLACE
Male Female
(322) (334)
NUMBER OF YEARS IN HOLLIN HILLS
Male Female
(333) (324)
CHILDREN'S SEX AND AGE
Male Female
(363 Children) (342 Children)
Tauxemont
Fort Hunt
Aldersgate
Aquinas
Montessori
Burgundy
Hollin Meadows
Total Number
CHILDREN'S SCHOOLS
(Actual Number At tending)
6 Stratford Landing
5 Bryant
5 Stephen Foster
8 Groveton
3 St.Stephens
7 St. Agnes
53 Other
SECTION I1
Houses
Section I1 of the questionnaire pertained to what residents liked best and least
about the design of their houses and community and to what sort of changes
they had made. The responses were many and varied. Tabulation involved
counting the number of similar replies to each question and then categorizing
the various replies.
The results of Section I1 are presented in their entirety. Each number repre-
sents the number of responses given in a particular category.
QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT THE DESIGN OF
YOUR HOUSE?
General Design Features 31 8
Glass Walls 150
Sense of Space 119
Efficiency 19
Contemporary Style 8
Floor Plan/Traffic Flow 8
Simplicity of Lines 8
Ease of Additions 3
Flexibility 2
Ease of Maintenance 1
Interaction with Surrounding 258
Harmony with Outdoors 109
Siting 70
Light 65
Privacy 12
Southern Exposure 1
Park Areas 1
Specific Design Features
One Level
Fireplaces
Skylights
Cathedral Ceilings
Decks
Large Living Room
Butterfly Roof
Exposed Brick
Texture of Materials
Separate In-Law Wing
Atrium
Good Furnace
Laundry Room

QUESTION: WHAT DO YOU LIKE LEAST ABOUT THE DESIGN OF
YOUR HOUSE?
Weatherability 151
Poor Insulation 128
Dampness & Condensation 13
Upkeep, Operating Costs 7
Glass Walls 3
Storage Problems 100
Too Little Storage 84
No Basement, Attic 12
No "Hidden" Space 4
Construction 44
Poor Construction 23
Poor Materials 8
Slab Construction 8
Roof 5
Size
Small Bedrooms
Size & Number of Baths
Small Size of House
Small Living/Dining Room
Design Elements
No Foyer
No Separate Dining Room
No Large Master Bedroom
General Design Features
Specific Design Features
Design Elements
Floor Plan
Poor Soundproofing
Poor Security
Little Privacy
Odd Room Shapes
Boxlike Character
Other
Furnace, A. C., Ducting
No Carport
34 Specific Features 18
14 Casement Windows 4
14 Tile Floors 2
4 Closet Doors 2
2 Little Kitchen Storage 5
21 Washer/Dryer in Kitchen 3
17 Other 2
3
1
NUMBER OF HOUSES WITH NO ADDITIONS: 138
NUMBER OF HOUSES WITH ONE OR MORE ADDITIONS: 175
QUESTION: WAS YOUR ORIGINAL LANDSCAPE PLAN COMPLETED?
Yes: 100
No : 116
Don't Know: 99
QUESTION: WHAT TYPES OF ADDITIONS HAVE BEEN MADE TO YOUR
HOUSE?
Bedroom
Family Room
Bathroom
Storage
Deck/Porch/Patio
i Foyer
Dining Room
S tudio/Workshop
Garage/Carport
Kitchen
Library/Study/Den
Living Room
Laundry
Greenhouse/Solarium
Basement
Breakfast Room
Playroom
Atrium
Darkroom
Music Room
Sitting Room
Loft
Galley
Dressing Room
QUESTION: WHO WAS THE ARCHITECT FOR YOUR ADDITION?
Tom Kerns
Cass Neer
Joanne Goldfarb
Eason Cross
Robert C. Smith
Howard Adler
Self-designed
Don Hawkins
Frank Mallalieu
Phil Brown
Jon Kline
Tony Rounds
Adler & Rosenthal
H. L. Johnson
W. J. Miles
Michael Marshall
David Gallagher
Brown & Page
Henley
David Rosenthal
Charles Eggbert
George Hartman
R. Holland
NUMBER OF HOUSES WITH INSULATED GLASS: 148
NUMBER OF HOUSES WITH WOOD STOVES: 14
QUESTION: DO YOU FEEL YOUR HOUSE IS FAIRLY ASSESSED?
Yes: 219
No: No Opinion: 39 79

SECTION I11
Community
The final part of the survey dealt with how residents felt about their
community-their reasons for moving to Hollin Hills, the changes they had
seen, their concerns for the future.
Because of the great variation in responses, and also because of the difficulty
of adequately condensing them, the tabulations are again presented in detail.
Each number represents the number of responses given in a particular category.
QUESTION: HOW DID YOU FIND OUT ABOUT HOLLIN HILLS?
Friends & Relatives 185 Lived Nearby
Newspaper, Publicity 93 Word of Mouth
Realtor 41 Raised Here
Driving Around 40
QUESTION: WHY DID YOU MOVE TO HOLLIN HILLS?
Contemporary Design
Natural Beauty
Sense of ~omhunit~
Community Spirit
Active Civic Group
Political Climate
Privacy
Individualism
Location
Schools, Children
Affordable
Overall Layout O Design
Pools & Parkland
Escape "Suburbia"
Planned Community
Harmony with Nature
"California" Style
Ambiance
Lot Size
People, Friends
Rented First
Escape Apartment
QUESTION: WHAT CHANGES HAVE YOU SEEN IN HOLLIN HILLS?
Neighborhood Composition
Fewer Children
Aging Population
More Children
Greater Mix of Ages
Fewer Young Families
Younger Neighbors
More Retirees
More Professionals
More Renters
Environmental Changes
Property Deterioration
Additions & Landscaping
More Traffic
Better County Facilities
Additions Not Harmonious
Surrounding Development
Upgrading of Houses
Upgrading of Property
Changes in Security
More Crime
Feeling of Fear
Unsupervised Animals
Community Changes
Less Community Spirit
Less Friendly
More Friendly
More Heterogeneous
More a Bedroom Community
Unwelcoming to Newcomers
More Community Spirit
Isolation of Residents
Old/New HH More Unified
Fewer Social Functions
More Transient
Changes in Lifestyle
More Working Wives
More Conservative
Less Family Oriented
Economic Changes
Increasing Affluence
Houses Less Saleable
QUESTION: HOW DO YOU COMPARE HOLEIN HILLS WITH OTHER
COMMUNITIES YOU HAVE LIVED IN?
People Community Spirit
Friendlier 18 More ~ornmunit~'~~irit
Less Friendly 7 Both a Sense of Community
More Interesting People 7 and Privacy in HH
Less Diversity if -
Backgrounds
Better Educated
More Liberal
More Supportive
More Politically Involved
More Concern for
Neighbors
More Pretentious
Interested in Aesthetics
More Creative
Greater Diversity of
Backgrounds
Parents More Afraid of
More ~ohesike
Less Community
Togetherness
Lifestyle
Like a Small Town
Tolerance for a Diversity
of Lifestyles
More Crime
Urban in a Suburban
Setting
More Privacy
Less Regimented
Less Clicquish
More Socially Conscious
Their Children 1 More ~ature-~ovin~ 1

QUESTION: DO YOU HAVE CONCERNS ABOUT HOLLIN HILLS?
Security Concerns 214 Environmental Concerns 56
Crime 188 Property Deterioration 43
Speeding Cars 13 Tasteless Additions 5
Dogs Running Loose 7 Air & Noise Pollution 4
Vigilante Atmosphere 5 Encroachment of Nearby
Crime Rate Leading to Communities 2
"Locked Door" Mentality 1 Old Cars 1
Social Concerns 38
out Young People
Houses not Energy Effi-
5
Less Community Spirit 19 cient-May Lead to
--
Pretentiousness
. + .. . .
Uniniormed Activists
Attitude of Uniqueness
5
2
Falling Prices 4
Alienates Others 2
Need to Welcome Newcomers 1
Newcomers not Involved 1
Increased Transiency 1
Few Caring Neighbors
Polarization between
1
Young & Old 1
Less Family Oriented 1
People too Homogeneous 1
Pressure for Conformity
Maintaining Original
1
Concept 1
Drugs 1
Education for Ho s: The Schools
from 1949-1984
THE PRESCHOOLERS
Pursuit of educational opportunities for children was high on the Hollin
Hills community agenda from the very beginning. The natural interests of
the residents (most of whom were parents and highly educated) were
spurred on by the overcrowded, spartan conditions of the local schools. . .
conditions which existed from the 50's and for most of the first two
decades of Hollin Hills.
Many of the early families had children 3 to 5 years of age and eagerly
sought preschool programs, including kindergarten. Public kindergarten
would not be available in Virginia until 1968. Tauxemont, a cooperative
preschool for fours and fives, had been established in the early 40's. By
1954, 48% of Tauxemont's pupils came from Hollin Hills and by 1957 that
number increased to 68 % or 43 children.
Other preschoolers, including three-year-olds, attended a variety of
schools which sprang up in the area, such as St. Paul's and Washington
Street Methodist Churches and the Presbyterian Meeting House in
Alexandria, as well as kindergarten at Burgundy Farms Day School. The
Mount Vernon Methodist Church opened a kindergarten in 1957 and
others followed as new churches came to the Fort Hunt corridor.
Tauxemont continued to have a waiting list, so in 1958 the Fort Hunt
Co-op started in rented space at St. Luke's Church with two classes and
eight children from Hollin Hills. They moved into the Mount Vernon
Unitarian Church in the fall of 1959, only a few months after the church
had moved into its buildings on ten acres of the old Thorpe Estate (now
Mason Hill).
THE EARLY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL SCENE
Since Hollin Hills Elementary School was not opened until 1955, Hollin
Hillers attended Hollin Hall Elementary in 1949. First and second graders
were in a four-classroom, cinder block building on the present Hollin Hall 39

site, and third-through-seventh graders attended school in a Fort Hunt
Park Service Building. There were 40 children in each first grade
classroom. . .the average first grade class size in Virginia schools at that
time. In 1951 seven more classrooms and a cafeteria were added, bringing
the building's capacity to 330 students. . .but enrollment was already over
500. The first grade went on double shift until six more classrooms could
be completed in January, 1954.
Many of the parents who were active in the Hollin Hall PTA were also
active in promoting the construction of a Hollin Hills School. In 1951 the
15-acre site adjacent to the community-then known as the "gravel
pitu-was acquired for $20,500 and HHCA immediately pushed for a
bond referendeum for building funds. (CAHH subsequently bought 3.6
acres back for use as parkland). Meanwhile, since the student population
in Fairfax County was increasing by about 3,000 per year and 40% of the
classrooms were in temporary trailers and buildings, there was much
competition to get on a referendum. In 1953 a successful referendum
funded Hollin Hills, Bucknell and Groveton High (Bryant, now) buildings.
And none too soon. In 1954 there were only nine children over ten years
of age in Hollin Hills.
Hollin Hills School, with eleven classrooms for seven grades, opened in
September, 1955. A HHCA committee was already fundraising to equip
the playground; the first HHPTA meeting had taken place seven months
before the school opened. . .with cafeteria equipment and library materials
being priority concerns. Fairfax County provided bricks, mortar and basic
furniture; "frills" were up to the parents!
Of the 350 students, 170 lived in Hollin Hills. Belleview, with 20
classrooms, had opened in 1952 and Bucknell in 1954. Students came from
both sides of Fort Hunt Road; from Belleview through Wellington and
both sides of Sherwood Hall Lane. . .as far as Gum Springs. By 1957-58 it
was necessary to add six more classrooms for 555 students, of whom 253
lived in Hollin Hills. In 1960 several trailer-classrooms were placed on the
''primary area" blacktop, with 35 students per class still standard and
storage closets used as classrooms for small group instruction, including
instrumental music.
The HHPTA engaged its members in many efforts to improve
educational opportunities. . .with varying degrees of success. In 1956 a
petition for early release of first and second graders was rejected by the
School Board. The PTA did, however, open Conversational French classes
in 1958 and enrolled 125 pupils from grades three through seven. Spanish
was added later. These classes were held three times weekly-before,
during and after school.
40 Efforts to bring science to the upper elementary curriculum was
accomplished by a group of parents with the aid of a grant from the
National Science Foundation. Science materials, equipment and instruction
were supported by the PTA. This enrichment program predated an
elementary science curriculum by the county.
A library volunteer aide program was adopted early on by a corps of
parents, each of whom donated a half day a week to free the librarian for
serving student needs and other professional activities. PTA fundraising
enhanced the library collection far beyond what was affordable with only
county allotments. An art collection and other special instructional
supplements were provided and an Art Fair, featuring the work of children
and adults began a spring tradition. Classroom instructional assistance,
however, was frowned upon and became a source of friction with the
county school administration until 1970 when a new Superintendent
acknowledged and welcomed his valuable resource. The art collection, an
art lab and an all-day Art Day for students evolved because of all the
parent support and cooperation with the school staff. Parents also gave
important assistance in math and reading labs. Thus, instructional support
which had been so strongly resisted in the 60fs, became well-subscribed in
70's.
THE EARLY UPPER SCHOOLS
From 1939 to 1956, Mount Vernon High School (now Whitman
Intermediate) served the entire area. Groveton High opened in 1956 with
1,000 students and a faculty of 48. The earliest Hollin Hills activities
included organizing a PTA and getting a gravel path across Popkins Farm,
since there was no through road from upper Glasgow. Interest in the PTA
was high and one of its first efforts was adding college preparatory
courses-advanced math in 1958, advanced chemistry and physics in 1959.
The era of "massive resistance" in Virginia in the later 1950's caused
many people to become active in the Committee for Public Schools
(Fairfax County and Falls Church). Compulsory attendance had been
repealed in the state and a tuition grant program was being utilized to
maintain segregated academies. One exception was Burgundy Farms Day
School where a "reverse protect" occurred by utilizing grants to attend an
integrated school. In 1960, when a full kindergarten-through-eighth-grade
program was available at Burgundy, 20 Hollin Hills students were
enrolled.
In October, 1959, the Hollin Hills PTA sent the unprecedented number
of 13 delegates to the state PTA convention in Roanoke, Virginia, to
successfully support a state resolution to reinstate compulsory education. 41

42
Fairfax County, however, did not desegregate until 1965. All black
schools, including Drew Smith in Gum Springs and Luther Jackson High,
were closed. Despite a low minority school population (2,570) in the entire
county, it took much community activity, including legal expertise in a
lawsuit, to achieve desegregation.
Following the School Board decision to use the 6-2-4 grade grouping,
ten intermediate schools were built in 1960, including Foster and Bryant,
the latter located on Quander Road and now a part of Gunston Hall of
Groveton. Several Hollin Hills teachers transferred to Bryant and parents
were again involved in establishing a new PTA.
Concurrently, the Hollin Hills School became so overpopulated that the
entire attendance area of Lower Shenvood Hall Lane on both sides,
including New Hollin Hills, was transferred to the newly opened Stratford
Landing in 1963. Hollin Meadows opened in 1965 with 437 students and
two years later 12 additional rooms were completed in anticipation of
continued growth. The county school administration was decentralized,
however, and a large portion of the new addition was occupied by the
new Area I Administration until 1973. By 1970, Hollin Meadows had 662
students with 20 classrooms, grades one to six; three kindergarten sections
(which the state and county were finally providing for) and three special
education classes.
The same community support and efforts for program enrichment-
particularly in foreign language, art and library support-were established
with the opening of Hollin Meadows. New traditions were also started in
both educational an. recreational activities. One example: "miniclasses"
provided by parents who were later joined by Groveton High students.
Hollin Meadows students attended Foster Intermediate until 1976, when
the Bryant and Groveton attendance areas were made congruent. With the
declining enrollment and closing of the Hollin Hills School in 1980, the
community children again could attend the same elementary school as well
as intermediate and high school.
The trials and torments suffered over a new Groveton High School
started in 1968 with a successful referendum to fund the Bryant/Groveton
and Whitman/Mount Vernon conversions. Less than two years later it
was very apparent that the approved funds were inadequate for both
conversions. Demographics favored Mount Vernon. The community had
been working with the school administration and faculty since 1968,
developing guidelines for the conversion. Community dissatisfaction with
the first building design led to the suggestion by a new Division Superin-
tendent for a "charette" which would bring the architect, faculty and
community together in planning. The campus design evolved after two
years of "charette" effort and a new Groveton for 2,800 students was to be
funded in a 1972 bond referendum. 'The referendum failed, however, due
in part to the apparent demographic changes downward.
Another year of activity-and frustration-saw attempts to revise the
plans once more. First consideration was given to renovation of the old
Groveton High, but this was discarded due to site limitations and
inadequate facilities for a high school program. . .all at a relatively high
cost. The School Board finally decided to modG the "academic
buildingu-Quander Hall-to accommodate 2,100 instead of 2,800
students. (Changes in program use have since lowered the capacity rating
to 1,900). A successful referendum allowed for construction and
completion of Groveton in the spring of 1976. . . eight years after the first
community involvement. During those eight years, the unique planned
cooperation between county agencies and the school to make many kinds
of educational, social and recreational services available in a school-
centered facility were largely dissipated. For example, the Mount Vernon 43

complex on Fort Hunt Road with library, swimming and skating facilities,
evolved in the interim. Nevertheless, Groveton is the only county school
with a Community Education Coordinator and efforts continue to provide
various educational programs and services to adults as well as to young
people.
We have only briefly sketched 35 years of community involvement and
a constant striving for excellence in education. There is no complete record
of all the individuals who have been a part of this pursuit. We know that
more than 35 people have been PTA Presidents, and a far larger number
have served as other officers, committee chairpersons, school volunteers,
and as members of the charette, special task forces, referendum
committees and the School Board. Many teachers, from preschool through
high school, have lived in Hollin Hills and many were parent volunteers
before taking up professional duties. All these years of commitment and
leadership from Hollin Hills residents have helped to enrich "our" schools
as well as the school system. As this sketchy history goes to press, we can
observe the latest evidence of progress: the renovation of Hollin Meadows
and the new addition of a gymnasium-a far cry from the overcrowded
four room, cinder block building where our connection started 35 years
ago l
44 A shopping center had been part of the original plan.
Key
1 Market . . .
2 Drug Store .
3 Delicatessen
4 Cleaner. . .
5 Beauty Shop.
6 Barber Shop.
7 Storage. . .
8 Boiler Xoom .
9 Gas Station.
10 Home Service
11 Parking
12 Service Area
13 Garden Court
l4 Pool
15 Paved Area
16 Covered Walks
One method of tracking a community's life is to collect anecdotes. The
disadvantage, however, is that many people have left and those who remain all
seem to remember the same stories. So, we turn to the monthly newsletter.
There weren't many community newsletters in the fifties, but three were cited in
Fairfax County, Virginia: a History, published in 1978 by the Fairfax County
Board of Supervisors (see bibliography) : p . 657:
Each community-Hollin Hills, Holmes Run Acres, and Pimmit
Hills-has had an active civic association which has published a
monthly newsletter. . . The newsletters furnish detailed documentation of
how each community developed a "root system" for the highly mobile
society that came to live in the area of Northern Virginia near the
nation's capital. They record problems and solutions, joys and sorrows,
and achievements and frustrations of the county's public and private
life. They reveal the social and business changes that occurred over
two-and-a-half decades of the accelerated evolution that turned Fairfax
County into one of America's leading urban-suburban centers.
Historians, sociologists, and anthropologists of the future will find in
these newsletters a wealth of information on the changing attitudes,
values and circumstances of the resourceful and well-informed citizenry
of Fairfax County.
For those who would like to delve more deeply into the contents of Hollin Hills'
newsletters, there is now a collection in the Virginia Room of the Fairfax City
Regional Library.
Hollin Hills did not have an official publication until the Newsletter started in
1951 (renamed the Hollin Hills Bulletin in 1953). The events of 1949 and 1950
included here are based on recollections found in later issues of the publications.
The items chosen for the chronology reveal the community's interests and
development through the years. It is difficult, however, to convey in these
isolated paragraphs the depth of feeling expressed in the Newsletter and Bulletin.
In reports on local government, general news items and letters to the editor,
emotions ran strong. Residents wrote about issues that concerned the
community at large and about their personal turf. There was a lot of good
humor and a fair amount of contentiousness. It was clear that people
cared. . .and they still do.
1949 First family to move into Hollin Hills. Well. . .it's a thorny subject and 45
has been treated in detail in the second section of the first chapter.

1950 Baby sitting pool is born. (A co-op pool was the only answer, with
virtually no baby sitters living within easy reach of the community and
few teen-agers or grandparents on the scene. Thus, baby sitting was just
another of the wide range of do-it-yourself projects to be tackled. By
1951 there were two sections of the pool with a total of 33 families.)
U.S. Post Office will deliver mail only as far as the long row of rural
mail boxes at Paul Spring and Fort Hunt Roads. . .until Hollin Hills
paves its streets.
First Hollin Hills baby: Sue Randall, born in May.
The Hollin Hills Community Association (HHCA) is formed, with Walter
Babb as President.
1951 The Hollin Hills Newsletter is established. . . the brainchild of Sarah
Radin. In 1953 it will become the Hollin Hills Bulletin.
Garbage Collection is provided by Mr. Yeager, under contract to the
community. At his request, HHCA presents him with a sign for his truck
which reads: "J. Yeager, Official Garbage Collector for Hollin Hills, Va."
First annual picnic is held at Fort Hunt Park on September 23rd.
Bus service on Fort Hunt Road is inaugurated. (Prior to this there was
not much choice: wage earners drove to work via car pool and left the
car at home. . .or took the car and left the spouse to walk. Who had two
cars?)
First annual Christmas Carol Sing is held at the corner of Paul Spring
and Stafford. Attendance: 80 residents.
Promise: Water tank on Paul Spring Road to be removed by the
county. . .at its convenience. (In 1949 Davenport had installed the tank
adjacent to his 400-foot artesian well to provide water to the community.
It was purchased in 1950 by the Fairfax Hydraulic Water Company, one
of fifteen private water companies supplying large parts of the county.
They capped Davenport's well and used their own sources. The
community was plagued by water problems. . .shortages, interruptions
and low pressure, requiring water to be hauled in by the Mount Vernon
Volunteer Fire Department in 1952.
To alleviate the shortages, Fairfax Hydraulic had to tie in with
Alexandria Water Company, a firm which had created the Lake Barcroft
reservoir on Holmes Run. In 1950 Alexandria Water had sold Lake
Barcroft for development and then created the Occoquan Reservoir. In
1957 the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors established the Fairfax
County Water Authority and ten years later the Authority acquired all of
Alexandria Water's holdings outside of Alexandria city. A Bulletin of
1978 notes that Tauxemont has one of the few remaining private water
companies. . .with water coming from an acquifer whose source is in
Pennsylvania.) See notes under 1958 for final disposition of Hollin Hills'
water tank.
Tauxemont Community Association invites HHCA to participate in their
activities and use the Tauxemont Community House, citing that the two
neighborhoods share "nursery, kindergarten, gardening problems, county
affairs, transportation and Bob Davenport."
Lou Bernard Voight, landscape architect, starts column in newsletter,
including Q/A section. At the same time, Lucretia Sargent begins her
column on birds. (Through the years there has been an ebb and flow of
columns on history, cooking, where-to-eat, how-to-fix-it, county affairs
and betterment of schools. There have been letters to the editor
concerning events big and small-sightings of new birds, black widow
spiders [which lived under construction material]; children walking
through other people's gardens; seagulls, mocking birds, deer, 'possums,
racoons; dogs running loose and messing up the azaleas or biting juicy
residents. One dog owner whose doberman bit mailmen and children on
bikes-to say nothing of eating kittens-informed his neighbors that they
just didn't understand; the dog was very sensitive.)
Doctor makes house call: A construction worker living in the farmhouse/
storage area on upper Martha's Road phones a doctor to ask that he
come and see his sick child. When told the address, the doc asks, "Is that
the community that appeared in Life magazine?" When told yes, he
agrees to come "because I want to see the place." (There is no record of
how the child did, but the farmhouse was torn down in 1952. . .to make
room for a custom Goodman house. The area. . .now 2215 Martha's
Road. , .had been known as Mount Hybla.)
Goodman complains about clotheslines: Hollin Hills' architect feels that
"a little ingenuity in screening the clothes from the road" will do away
with unsightlines. (His complaint, as well as the occasional observations
of Voight, brought forth irate responses from a few residents who saw
the criticism as an infringement of their rights as homeowners. All was
not sour, however. Another resident pleaded with his readers to assume
responsibility for seeing to it that Hollin Hills realizes its potential as "the
finest. . .community in the area, if not in the entire country.")
Roads in Section 3. . .upper Stafford and part of Martha's are paved,
approved and taken over by the county. Mail delivery to individual mail

oxes on the street begins. In 1952 the Post Office will re-classify Hollin
Hills as urban and deliver mail to the door.
Phone scramble is underway. In September, 94 houses have phones, 45
of which are on ten-party lines, and 20 others are still waiting. Ma Bell
says the delay is due to a "copper shortage."
League of Women Voters unit is founded.
The sewage pumping station on Rippon Road is approved and taken over
by the county, which will now bill residents for service.
1952 Alexandria Railway Express is requested to start home delivery (instead of
holding packages for pickup) since the Post Office is now delivering our
mail to the door.
Poll tax reminder: Residents are warned (in case they haven't learned the
rules of the game) that they must pay their poll taxes to be eligible to
vote. (The poll tax, more formally known as a "capitation tax" was later
abolished. In 1964 the 24th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
disallowed the poll tax as a prerequisite for voting in federal elections,
and in 1966 the United States Supreme Court extended the ruling to all
elections. Allison Brown, a Hollin Hills resident, was one of the attorneys
who argued the case before the Supreme Court. Throughout the years the
newsletters have provided useful information concerning local and
national elections. The League of Women Voters set up a program to
register newcomers. )
Swedish architects and builders visit Hollin Hills. (In 1951 a group of
Norwegian housing officials had also visited and carried back to Norway.
"inspiration and guidance.")
Fire hydrants are a burning issue, with speculation focused on: 1) Is the
community going to get them? 2) Is Goodman going to design them?
(Following years of wrangling with Fairfax Hydraulic, HHCA installed
the first hydrant on Stafford Road in 1955. Design: standard.)
Davenport's proposal for a small shopping center is rejected by the Board
of Supervisors. (A part of the original land plan, it was to be located on
the site of the present swimming pool and would have included a pool.)
Drawing classes are announced. . .the first of many classes of all kinds
conducted by residents . . . in art, music, foreign language, potting,
weaving, etc. One is offered in Einstein's Theory of Relativity for five to
ten persons-algebra and trigonomtry required. (There is no record of
how many signed up.)
Census of Popkins farm reveals 28 milk cows, 12 dry stock and heifers,
plus an undisclosed number of chickens and pigs. The Wilkinsons are still
operating their dairy farm on Shenvood Hall Lane, which has also been
known as Accotink Road, Gum Springs Road, and Shenvood Valley
Road. (Popkins Farm remained a dairy farm until 1961. Some land was
sold to Davenport; the remaining meadows were used for grazing land
for riding horses, with stalls rented to owners. In 1979 Popkinsf daughter
and her husband were planning to build a few houses and sell the
remaining lots. The new community is called Popkins Farm Estates.)
Newsletter expands its horizons to include recipes, county news and
school affairs.
Fatherly advice from Davenport: Oil furnace motors and furnace fans at
least twice a year with #30 oil. Clean filters twice a year; replace once a
year. (He knew that most of the community's young residents were
innocents, fresh from apartment living.)
Dogs continue to be a bone of contention.
Division on how HHCA funds to be spent. Some want dues to pay all
costs. Some want a kitty to build up to fund an "as yet undefined
community recreational facility." Early in the year the Community
Planning Committee of the community association meets to consider:
What type of community activities are needed? What type of facilities are
required to accommodate the above? Where should they be developed?
How much should they cost? When should they be constructed? How
should the money be raised? (These discussions continued through the
years as individual projects were proposed and either implemented or
rejected.)
AB&W bus schedule is reduced to nine runs a day on Fort Hunt Road,
with none running between 9 a.m. and 3:30 p.m. Reason: not enough
business. The full name of the red buses: Alexandria, Barcroft and
Washington.
1953 First Hollin Hills House Tour creates traffic jam (1,097 visitors). . .a
fundraiser for a proposed community house. Tickets are sold at Ursell's
and Modern Design in Washington, and the AAA ticket office, Top
Recker, Market Square and the Flying Needle shops in Alexandria.
(Initially, the community house was planned for a position adjacent to
the swimming pool.)
Old Hollin Hills nearly completed; only 10 houses to go. Building to start
on the "tract off Shenvood Hall Lane." (According to Davenport, it was
not feasible to develop the area contiguous to the developed portion of

Hollin Hills because of sewer line problems. He purchased 42 acres from
the SW corner of the original tract, down to Accotink Road [Sherwood
Hall Lane]. He then began construction from the other side of the
hill-calling the new section New Hollin Hills-and worked his way back
to what became known as Old Hollin Hills. The new community was
a-building and functioning long before the connection was made, leaving
the two areas feeling somewhat estranged. In 1967 Rebecca Road was
completed and the areas were finally united.)
Road paving finished on Paul Spring, Pickwick and Beechwood area.
Widening of Fort Hunt Road may start in the spring.
Community bursting with clubs: for the growing population of children
there are Brownies, Cub Scouts, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Campfire Girls.
When the swimming pool opens there will be swim teams competing
throughout the county. For adults there are the Garden Club, Round
Robin Book Club (book exchange), "Quad-Wranglers" (square dance),
Community Madrigal Group, and League of Women Voters. Later, the
community will welcome Dancing, Bowling, a Gourmet Dinner Club,
Fishing Club, Investment Club and an Orchid Society.
Ball field opens at the "gravel pit", thanks to financing and labor by the
HHCA. (It is bad enough that a house tends to be known as the house of
the persons who first owned it, but there is also confusion over areas
which were in existence while construction was going on-landmarks
which have long since been torn down. Thus we have the "gravel pit"
mentioned above; it was on the site of the Hollin Hills school. The "sales
office" was in an old frame building just south of the present tennis
courts. . .on Fort Hunt Road. The "construction sheds" were where the
pool is now. The "water tank" was on Paul Spring Road. The "farm
house" on upper Martha's Road.)
Committee on Structures is established by HHCA, taking over duties
initially performed by the Davenport-Rodman Committee. . . to protect
the architectural integrity of the community. It will later be known as the
Architectural Control Committee.
The Hollin Hills Office is offering for sale: eggs, azaleas, camellias and
rhododendrons. . .as well as houses.
1954 Phone Directory is published. Each year the cover will be designed by the
winner of a competition among school-age Hollin Hillers. Among other
essential bits of-information, the directory will carry the names and birth
dates of the community's children. This year only nine are above ten
years of age, but the listings will be invaluable in later years as the
middle-aged begin their search for mowers of lawns and shovelers of
snow.
The Bulletin reveals a shift of focus with the increase in the child
population. There is news of births and adoptions, the deaths of pets,
found pets, prizes won. . . and giveaways (lots of them; usually kittens).
There is a letter to the editor from a youngster who resents the broad
accusations against Hollin Hills children vis-a-vis stomping on people's
flowers and shrubs.
Parklands are deeded to HHCA by Bob Davenport. The parks are named
in a contest: Voight Park, Paul Spring Park, East Stafford Park and West
Stafford Park (later renamed for the late George Brickelmaier).
Swimming pool opens on September 4. Landscape plans for the pool and
entrance (memorial to landscape architect Voight) are drawn up by
architect Christopher Tennard of the Yale School of Fine Arts.
Davenport's bid to build a bathhouse wins; to be ready in 1955. The pool
is financed by capital contributions per household of $120/160,
depending on section of Hollin Hills. HHCA contributes c. $40 per
membership.
Martha Washington Branch Library opens, first in a New Alexandria
house and subsequently in a in Belle View store front. Since 1950 the
community has depended on Fairfax County's Bookmobile for library
service.
"In The Swim" is the musical review featured at the annual picnic held in
Popkins Pasture. Main course:' a 170-pound pig donated by Davenport.
1955 Tennis anyone? Yes! Sixty families have signed up to support a tennis
program and two courts are scheduled to be finished in the spring. 100
loads of fill from the Hollin Hills School site will be used to grade the
area.
May Dance and Musical Review by and for residents: "Glass Has Class."
It includes a "Fugue for Landscapers."
First all-day Fourth of July Celebration includes swim meet, food sale,
kids' art, hobbies, crafts, cavalcade of floats with decorated cars and
bikes, pony rides and fireworks. (The first fireworks display-an evening
affair-occurred in 1952.)
Mount Vernon Unitarian Church established; holds meetings at Holiday
House on George Washington Memorial Parkway.
1956 A hard-up gardener lifts a load of topsoil from Voight Park, leaving a
huge hole in the ground. The Bulletin requests that hereafter, hard-up
gardeners will please replace their divots.

52
Membership in the newly formed Fairfax Hospital Association is
encouraged so that the area can be represented by a trustee. . .in order to
promote the building of a hospital in this area.
Fort Hunt Road is widened to 22 feet.
Bulletin writer on protocol advises: "It is perfectly OK to wear Bermuda
shorts anywhere in Hollin Hills, whatever the occasion. More formal
affairs require knee socks. It is also OK to have no furniture or decent
lighting, but it is not OK to have a knicknack shelf."
Davenport presents a %-foot Christmas holly tree to community. Henry
Stabler, the Fairfax nurseryman who supplies us with much of our plant
material, chooses the tree, root-prunes it, and sets it on the corner of
Paul Spring and Rippon Roads. A formidable female, the tree is 18 feet
wide and Stabler uses 100 feet of drain tile in the planting. The holly tree
becomes the site of all future Christmas carol sings and in 1978 it will be
named "The Stabler Tree."
.Bulletin comments on life in the fast lane in 1956: "There is no topic on
which a car pool does not feel competent and happy to render judgment.
No man need remain at a loss in dealing with his business or extra-
curricular affairs; he has at his disposal the collective wisdom of six men
unhampered by any knowledge of the facts and generous to a fault in
[his] willingness to advise."
1957 The first New Hollin Hills family-Tom and Eleanor Fina-move into
their house on Brentwood and Elba.
"Old Faces of 195T' is the title of the musical review featured at the
HHCA annual dance.
Sitters' pool is organized in New Hollin Hills as more new families move
in.
Davenport lends a model house to New Hollin Hillers for their Christmas
party.
Hollin Hills swim team achieves big win over Springfield.
"Restrictive Convenants-the good kind, that is. . . ": one of periodic
reminders that the Architectural Review Committee seeks the cooperation
of residents in - submitting plans for additions or other structures.
1958 White tailed doe is spotted in yard on Martha's circle. A resident of the
Thorpe Estate woods, she visits for two days and then disappears.
The water tank is gone: frontier "Can Do" spirit motivates Chuck Dell to
organize and supervise the removal of the historic eyesore on Paul Spring
Road. The large, unused water tank, dating back to the earliest days of
the community, was owned by the Fairfax Hydraulic Water Company.
Chuck does what the county had promised to do (but did not do). He is
awarded a plaque, fashioned from a tin pie plate, on which has been
inscribed: "Tankum disgustum non es t !"
Census taken from phone directory: There are 256 households, with 511
adults and 474 children.
Letter to the Editor: "Is Hollin Hills going to the Dogs?"
Editorial cites changing focus within the community. . .from roads and
water to religion and education. The calendar for the month lists meet-
ings of Hollin Hills PTA, Groveton PTA, League of Women Voters,
Recreation Association, Unitarian Discussion Group, and Dr. Fritz Red1
(psychologist) speaking to Tauxemont Nursery School parents.
1959 Feminist notes: Susan Gutchess, age 10, attempts to organize a girls' Little
League team. A girl ahead of her time, she is not successful.
Glasgow Road is connected to Devonshire and "the other" Popkins Road,
opening the way to Route One.
Winter Dance and Musical Review features minstrels singing "Carry Me
Back to Fairfax County."
Mount Vernon Unitarian Church purchases ten acres of Thorpe Estate,
including mansion and other buildings.
Hollin Hills artists exhibit their work along with Washington artists at
Barnet-Aden Gallery in Washington.
1960 A desire for curbs and gutters for the streets of Old Hollin Hills is tested
by means of a questionnaire. Response is disappointing. (In 1964 the
subject was brought up again in a report detailing what it would cost to
accomplish the project. The issue proved to be a highly emotional one,
with some residents feeling that curbs would change the whole character
of the community from rural to a kind of slickness. Others were in favor,
citing inability to keep road edges neat, poor carry-off of water,
unsightliness, etc. One area of opposition lay in the costs. Charges would
be based on front footage, obviously leaving some residents paying more
than others. There were plans to equalize payments, but in the end the
proposal died.)

"1Q Years in Hollin Hills" is published, offering history and anecdotes
(and destined to serve as one of the sources for this volume).
1961 HHCA reorganizes as a non-stock corporation and changes its name to
the Civic Association of Hollin Hills (CAHH).
Hollin Hills Recreation Association votes down a proposal to let New
Hollin Hills join the group. Due to its limited size, the pool would not be
able to accommodate the increased use.
Lots more "classifieds" in the Bulletin, especially in the categories of art
classes, maids, baby sitters; furnishings, cars and bikes for sale;
giveaways . . . generally animals.
1962 A history of the Mount Vernon area, an extensive series by Edith
Sprouse, starts in the Bulletin.
1963 Squash Courts are voted down by the CAHH as not an appropriate
expenditure of funds for a facility of limited use.
Mount Vernon Area Youth Center opens on grounds of Mount Vernon
Unitarian Church; open five hours each weekday. Hollin Hills is largest
source of funding.
Christmas shopping amongst neighbors is active because so many in the
community are creative and productive in the arts. For sale: portrait
photography, paintings, pottery, collages, Christmas cards, jewelry, gift
wrap, sculpture, etchings, candles, and buttermints.
1964 New Hollin Hills news is appearing in the Bulletin and a joint phone
directory for New and Old is published, yielding these statistics: 357
houses; 717 children; 129 families with three or more children.
Hollin Meadows Swim and Tennis Club opens at Woodlawn, off Elba
Road.
Thorpe Estate is sold (except for ten acres purchased by the Mount
Vernon Unitarian Church in 1959). Construction of Mason Hill begins on
remaining acreage.
1965 New Hollin Hills Community Association votes to join CAHH.
Bulletin introdgces "Honest Tradesmen" column. While this column offers
residents' happy experiences and horror stories, later columns will add
consumer advice and referrals to official agencies in case of problems
with service or vendors.
Houses are renumbered by the county.
CAHH purchases three acres below tennis courts, site of Hollin Hills sales
office.
1966 Street lights are installed in Old Hollin Hills after years of negotiating
with the county.
Security concerns are increasing. . . over rise in vandalism, speeding,
driving across lawns, theft of signs.
"Hollin Hills Park Trail" is published. . . a pamphlet describing the flora
and fauna of East and West Stafford Parks and the stretch of Paul Spring
Road lying between them. (West Stafford is now Brickelmaier Park).
Biondi-Hooper zoning battle is resolved. Of the land on which the Mount
Vernon Square Townhouses will be built, Hollin Hills receives a five-acre
parkland west of Range Road to serve as a buffer. Called Popkins Farm
Park, it will be renamed for the late Sutton Potter, the man who was
instrumental in acquiring the land. Another piece of land will be given to
block access from the townhouses to Popkins Lane. The zoning and other
arrangements are approved by the County Board of Supervisors.
Another major re-zoning battle looms: The last large, undeveloped parcel
of land adjoining Hollin Hills is the 23.43 acre Jacobs tract, alongside the
Hollin Meadow Swim & Tennis Club. The owners want it re-zoned from
single to townhouses. It would make a thoroughfare of Elba Road and
Lisbon Lane, crowd the available schools, overwork the sewage
facilities and pose a threat in terms of vandalism.
CAHH buys 3.6 acres between Paul Spring Road and Hollin Hills
elementary School. . . from the school board. . . $5,204.60.
Census of Hollin Hills parklands: No less than 60 kinds of trees, shrubs
and flowers and 50 species of birds have been noted.
Rapid transit for Mount Vernon corridor to D.C. is endorsed by Mount
Vernon Council of Citizens Associations.
"Hollin Hills Bull," a naughty parody of the Bulletin, is published for
Christmas.
1968 Second Annual House Tour, benefitting the nonprofit Northern Virginia
Fair Housing, Inc., an organization active in the civil rights movement.
The public seems endlessly curious about the community and often on
weekends people drive out to see. . .sometimes getting out of their cars 55
and peering in windows.

Burglaries on the rise, a new dimension following several years of rising
vandalism.
Expansion of July 4th Fete: This year's celebration schedules: Judging
Little Miss and Mister Hollin Hills, age 3-5; Bubble Gum Contest, 6 and
up; Patriotic Bike Decoration, ages 6-13; Patriotic Body Painting, 13-20;
Father and Son Wheelbarrow Race; Mother and Daughter 3-legged race;
Red, white and blue raw egg-throwing contest for husbands and wives; a
Diving Exhibition at Hollin Meadows Pool.
New and Old Hollin Hills merge their sitters' pools.
1969 Art work of 30 residents featured in third annual house tour, again to
benefit Northern Virginia Fair Housing, Inc.
1970 Fourth Annual House Tour, the last to benefit Northern Virginia Fair
Housing, Inc.
Residents continue to write about trespassing. Those who live on the
path of least resistence for walkers (mostly school children) suffer from
shortcutters.
Possibility of widening Fort Hunt Road to four lanes with median strip is
probed by county. Shenvood Hall Lane would also be widened and
residents along that road are concerned that it will be more than four
lanes. They fear a highway.
1971 Sherwood Hall Regional Library opens on Sherwood Hall and Parkers
Lanes.
Block Party to celebrate construction of last Davenport house in Hollin
Hills. . .at 2312 Kimbro. Washington Post covers the story; see
bibliography. Celebrations include a musical, with food donated by
Davenport.
Reminder by Architectural Review Committee that residents should
submit building plans to committee for approval before implementing
them. (Such reminders have appeared from time to time over the years.)
Night lights at the Hollin Meadows Swim and Tennis Club are voted
down by the community association, following heated discussions.
The year's firs1 midnight serenade by a Hollin Hills mockingbird is heard
on April 28.
56 1972 New proposals for a community center are set forth. (While the idea was
brought up again and again, the necessary support was never
forthcoming and the center was not built.)
Downhill leaf-baggers of Rebecca Drive denounce uphill people who rake
their leaves into the gutter and let the rain wash them down.
1974 Hollin Hills Potters hold the first of their annual seconds sales. The group
will eventually move into Alexandria's art center, The Torpedo Factory.
(Other creative Hollin Hills residents have continued to work out of their
homes, some in specially designed studios. The heroic size statue of Stan
Musial, which stands in bronze splendor outside Busch Memorial
Stadium in St. Louis, was created by Carl Mose in his studio at 1952
Martha's Road. The house was subsequently purchased by a weaver, so
the studio remains in use. Three early enterprises in Alexandria begun by
Hollin Hills women continue to thrive: "Full Circle", featuring the work
of Japanese artists and craftsmen; "Why Not?" which specializes in
women's and children's clothing, and the fabric store, "Market Square."
1975 Ad in Bulletin: "a dog, a warranted azalea crusher, available on an
hourly basis in all bona fide Hollin Hills vendettas."
House Tour to benefit Hollin Hills School PTA.
Mayo Clinic Diet is printed without comment. Sign of a community well
into middle age and losing its shape?
Quote: "Hollin Hills School will definitely not close."
1976 Self-defense class for women is advertised in the Bulletin by the Fort
Hunt Academy of Martial Arts in the Hollin Hall Shopping Center.
The new Groveton High School opens on Quander Road and Bryant
Junior High moves from that site to the old Groveton building on
Popkins Lane.
Architects' House Tour is sponsored by the Northern Virginia Chapter of
AIA. In addition to viewing houses owned by architects in Hollin Hills,
the tour includes a look at Charles Goodman's house on Quaker Lane.
25 resident high school graduates are listed, along with the colleges they
will attend: UVA, Tufts, University of Chicago, Yale University, Stevens
College, Earlham College, University of Vermont, Smith College, Colgate
University, Oberlin College, Amherst College, Virginia Commonwealth
University, Carleton College, VPI, George Washington University.
Mount Vernon Hospital opens on Parker Lane, near Shenvood Hall
Library.

58
1977 Need to conserve energy prompts exchange of information in Bulletin.
There is extensive discussion of methods and costs of insulating, double
glazing, installation of storm windows, use of wood furnaces, etc.
League of Women Voters supports ERA (Equal Rights Amendment).
1,300 hot dogs consumed at July 4th celebration!
Water problems are discussed in depth, along with proposals for relieving
shortages which occur in Fairfax County. There are four reservoirs in
Northern Virginia: the Occoquan, Goose Creek, Lake Jackson and Lake
Manassas. The Fairfax Water Authority proposes construction of a new
treatment plant near Route 7, with the supply coming from an existing
intake from the Potomac. There are, however, the Council of
Governments, and political considerations to be dealt with, as well as
securing permission of the Army Corps of Engineers which has control of
the Potomac and has thus far not agreed.
Sad letter of complaint from newcomer who finds the community closed
and unfriendly. In response, another newcomer writes of the wonderful
sense of warmth and welcome his family experienced.
Noise pollution from National Airport plagues residents and is the subject
of confrontation between the FAA and committees representing not only
Hollin Hills, but other communities affected by the offensive flight
patterns. After some years of negotiation, a "scatter plan" for landings
and takeoffs will be tried in 1983 with mixed and emotional reaction
from newly affected communities.
Letter to the Editor: "On Dogs and Leashes".
1978 Ice Skating Rink opens at the Mount Vernon Sports Complex at Fort
Hunt Road and Belleview Boulevard. It is welcomed by a CAHH-hosted
skating party.
1979 Meeting of AARP at Groveton High. Area activities reflect the advancing
age of at least some of our residents as the Association of American
Retired Persons offers help with income tax and information on working
for legislation of interest to retired persons. The Hollin Hall School will
become a Senior Citizens Center in 1983.
Shopping by mail: all aspects are discussed, including what to expect,
consumers' rights, how to register complaints, etc .
1980 Hollin Hills Elementary School closes.
Hollin Meadows PTA benefits from House Tour. Incidental display of
historical material interests newer residents and ideas for a printed
history begin to take shape.
Woodburning stoves receive additional attention in a series of articles
filled with pros and cons and how-to-do-it. The energy crunch triggers
interest in conservation and more people are using public transportation.
As a result, the swimming pool lot is filling up with cars from other
communities (they park here and take the bus). HH stickers are
developed and used to identify residents' cars.
Fire hydrants are overgrown, hidden by weeds and shrubs. Residents are
asked to clear them in the interest of safety.
1981 Security Watch Program is established. The continuing problem of crime,
under study for the past year, is actively tackled with the cooperation of
local police. The program is an effort to reduce the number of break-ins,
robberies and incidents of vandalism in the community. The old parking
lot decals are replaced with a new design which all residents are asked to
apply to their cars to ease identification for the watch patrol.
Indoor swimming pool opens at Mount Vernon Sports complex,
adjoining skating rink.
"Test of Time" Award presented to Hollin Hills by Virginia Chapter of
AIA. Ceremonies in Charlottesville are attended by Betty and Bob
Davenport; their daughter and son-in-law; Minnie Odoroff (a resident
and long-time Davenport employee); and architect Eason Cross, who
presided. Charles Goodman was unable to attend, due to ill health.
1983 3Qth Anniversary block party is held by Beechwood residents in honor of
the coming of age of those and nearby houses. See Benjamin Forgey's
story in the Washington Post (bibliography).
Final agreement reached with county over bike path to be built along
Fort Hunt Road. Hollin Hills sign at entrance will be moved a short
distance and re-set and landscaped by the county.
Hollin Hills School property is up for sale. Possible uses include senior
center or housing. . . or perhaps commercial housing. Both loss of
recreation area and possible increase in traffic pose special problems for
the community.
Foot path along Paul Spring, between Fort Hunt and Stafford is
proposed.
1984 Subway is now within reach. Huntington Avenue station opens.

60
POSTSCRIPT: In 1977 the following appeared in the Bulletin:
"The purpose of the Civic Association is to serve the Hollin Hills Community
with the following activities:
- To preserve and protect the Hollin Hills community's interest.
- Take legal actions consistent with the community's interest.
- Send representatives to community, regional and county meetings that deal
with matters of interest to Hollin Hills, such as zoning changes and con-
struction of roads.
- Serve as a forum for the community.
- Maintain and pay taxes on parkland owned by the community.
- Issue a monthly community newspaper.
- Publish an annual Hollin Hills Directory with maps of the parks.
- Sponsor an annual picnic for the purpose of community fellowship.
- Collect and disseminate community information from other similar
organizations and government groups.
- Manage the Hollin Hills swimming pool.
- Maintain architectural standards of the community by an appointed board
of review.
Countless residents have served on local committees to achieve the goals listed
above, and many of them served time and time again as new needs arose. It has
also been clear, in reading through Hollin Hills pdblications, how many have
served in the broader community in order to protect our interests and keep us
informed. These are some of the organizations and committees to which
residents have been called: Fairfax County Council of the Arts, Inc., Industrial
Development Authority, Fairfax County School Board, Manpower Planning
Council, Human Rights Commission, Health Systems Agency, Citizens Task
Force on anti-Litter, Environmental Quality Advisory Council, George Mason
University Advisory Commission, History Commission, Mount Vernon Council
of Citizens Associations, Fairfax County Council of PTAs, Federation of
Citizens Associations, Civil Service Commission, Commission on Aging, Fairfax
County Library Board, League of Women Voters.
There have been confrontations, to be sure, but for the most part it has been
a long-term, quiet sort of activism. . .neighbors taking on responsibilities on
behalf of all the neighbors. We are all richer for it.
Appendix
2B4U. . . THE GW
CONSTRUCTION DETAILS. . . by Eason Cross, Jr.
The planning of Hollin Hills was done as part of a larger "super-block"
concept. Fort Hunt Road, Beacon Hill Road, Richmond Highway and Shenvood
Hall Lane were to be main traffic feeder streets bounding the block, from which
branched residential communities with no through traffic, This concept is still
generally the primary one in Fairfax County with perhaps more emphasis on
intra-block access. Originally, the Hollin Hills plan had a stub connection off
Martha's loop into the Thorpe estate (now Mason Hill), and another off
Rebecca into Popkin's pasture (now Glasgow Road, Section 11). These
anticipated future interconnections. The Martha's loop stub was abandoned
when Mason Hill was developed (even though I had made a connection to it in
the plan used to convince Merle Thorpe that he could carve out ten acres for
the Unitarian Church and still have a salable remainder). The other stub became
Glasgow Road. It was at first a cul-de-sac. Its continuation-and the completion
of Devonshire Road-was held up by a then-planned radial artery which would
have run along the entire western boundary of Hollin Hills. When that road
idea died, the connection to Popkins Lane opened up Hollin Hills to such
foreign places as Groveton High School, St. Louis Church, Route 1 and the
now-departed Beacon Hill and Hybla Valley airports. That un-built artery had a
major effect on the layout in New Hollin Hills. Many of the terminal lots at the
end of cul-de-sacs there were encumbered with potential artery rights-of-way
and, oddly enough, discouraged lateral connections into Hollin Hills.
What makes a plan work is how well it follows the roll and drainage patterns
of the land. The key is the designer's ability to 'read' the land both on foot and
on paper and a willingness to go along with what nature provides. The property
boundary and the main traffic access, combined with the sewer location and
zoning category are the man-made restrictions. All too often, a civil engineer
will devise a road plan which reaches all the corners of the property and gets
the most lots out of it without reference to the detail of the ground. Then he
comes back and forces the streets to drain and climb at a suitable slope. The
results are deep cuts, causeways across ravines, lost tree cover, unnecessary
piping of surface run-off and natural creeks, and much grading of the individual
lots. The Hollin Hills road plan goes with the land.
Rarely were houses sited with major glass opening up across an access street,
unless there was such a vertical separation between house and street that one
looked over rather than at. Living rooms did not open up into each other.
61

Building views for the most part opened to the rear, or slid by the adjoining
house for long vistas cutting across several lots. The sense of space thus
developed belies the 1/3 acre lots which make up much of the community.
Enclosure fencing was avoided from the start, and has been discouraged since. If
visual privacy was required, a spot screen fence of architectural character, or
dense hedges were used. It was gospel not to interrupt any potential vista with
any physical expression of lot line locations.
It was unusual in 1950 to have had the foresight to design houses tailored to
the type of land to be developed. The first part of Hollin Hills was the Rippon-
Paul Spring-Drury Lane corner, so the first house designs were a split-level
(#I-of which are several versions) and #2, a one-story oblong with a massive
chimney. These suited the ground conditions in that area: Rippon is all #Is, of
veried roof configuration and finish; Paul Spring Road is flat ground and all
#2s. Options for 4' and 8' enlargements were offered so that a basic design could
have, added athwart, an extra belt of space in the storage, dining, kitchen, or
bedroom sections. In Goodman's parlance, these additions developed descriptive
names such as "2B4K4" of "2SgD4B4" or, in the case of a "2" set on a walk-out
basement, "2B4K42LBU--f or lower bedrooms. Strictly technical; no "Regency"
or "Malibu" or "Salem"!
Except for the long straightaway of Elba Road in the new section, forced on
Davenport by the County, there is not a dull section in the whole Hollin Hills
complex. Nor are there are any examples of extensive cut-and-fill visible. Note,
as you drive about the community, how the roads ride by mature trees at the
edges, and compare this with almost any of the surrounding communities.
The idea is to handle the surface water runoff and to service with gravity
sewers each individual house without having to slice up the ground. I can think
of but one place in Hollin Hills where the rules had to be broken. That is the
2300 block of Glasgow which is a "cut" for its entire length. This was
necessitated by the need to run sewer service from 2313 all the way back to
Rebecca Drive, for this was a street not in the original plan, but added in order
to keep Davenport's operation going until New Hollin Hills could be started off
Sherwood Hall Lane. Note, however, how gradual the side slopes were made.
Without having read this, you would not know it is a man-made valley.
The site plan of Hollin Hills was also concerned with traffic and the dangers
of crossing intersections. Except for Mason Hill and White Oaks, there is no "Xu
intersection at all in the community, and no street continues through Hollin
Hills without being interrupted by some 90-degree offset to force drivers to
think their way through the community. The winding roads which look so irra-
tional on the map in the . . . Hollin Hills Directory are, from the vantage of
ground level, the best route to avoid chewing up the land.
Excellent though the land planning was in Hollin Hills, the ingredient I
personally credit the most for its unique character has been the housing siting.
The principles governing it were applied consistently throughout the new and
old parts of the community, whether the work was done in Goodman's office or
not. Davenport and Goodman severed their relationship about halfway up Elba
62 Road from Sherwood Hall Lane, so to speak, and Davenport (who had learned
his lessons well) completed the rest on his own. Besides the shape of the land,
house siting in Hollin Hills took into consideration the orientation, the tree
locations, the potential long views, and the relationship between adjoining
houses. The houses were seldom sited parallel to the street; more likely, they
were set at an angle to the street, for the predominant house in Old Hollin Hills
was a one-level house with a walk-out finished basement. . .a "2LB". This design
was planned to ride across the contours corner-to-corner. As the streets, too,
were laid out respecting the slope of the ground, the houses naturally fell
angled.
The #3 house was a one-level, bigger and wider than the #2, and with 2
bathrooms, but with the same exterior appearance-big chimney, etc. It was
built frequently on Martha's Rd. The #4 was another split-level, differently
arranged to fit a new site condition not previously dealt with. There are several
around the Stafford-Martha's intersection.
There are several versions of #5; the initial ones were built near the
intersection of Pickwick and Beechwood. They were pristine, flat-roofed elegant
boxes without overhangs and with an interior core of utilities. There were only 3
built. 5B was actually #5 enlarged and set on an unfinished basement plinth,
more suitable for the slope along the 2100 block of Paul Spring Road. At the
same time, #6 was born, the biggest house so far. It was a two-story house with
a butterfly roof set on the short way, and it, too, met a site need on Paul
Spring. This model has no counterpart anywhere, as far as I know, and it did a
great deal to add variety to the streetscapes it was built in. Goodman had done
a butterfly version of the #2 house before, the crease going the long way, and
the results justified repetition. Note the very shallow pitch on the slopes of the
houses; anything steeper would have made them look chunky and artificial. As
it is, they float.
Some Goodman-designed custom houses sprouted along the view side of
Martha's Road and Recard Lane. They incorporated some ideas spawned in the
merchant housing waters of Hollin Hills, as well as acting as locus for more
ideas which then were incorporated in later houses. The Lansburgh (2213),
Shapiro (2207), Goldberg (2219), and Lindberg (2215) houses come to mind; the
Minnie Odoroff looms in my memory. Goodman designed a new version of the
5B for Minnie and Maurice Odoroff for a site at 7308 Rebecca, downhill from
the road and overlooking the great view over Hybla Valley to the west. Minnie
was Hollin Hills, Inc. secretary and office force, and though the design was one
used many times later in Hollin Hills, it was a labor of love to suit the art
collection and personal style of the Odoroffs. It was worthy of the AIA
National Honor Award it generated. It's the one with the Yogi Berra roof-a
long 'bill' of an overhang on the west side to shield the house as much as
possible from the west sun, and sitting behind the (also Goodman-designed)
National Homes panel fence (and subsequently known as the Radin house and
the Hodson house).
The #7 house, a one-level three-bedroom house, was repeatea a dozen times
in the 2300 block of Glasgow Road. It is unique in that it is a "pre-fabricated
house, in part. A big, flat, steel jig table was set up in McCalleyls shop which
was then in the Kimbro Street woods.

4
All the exterior walls are made of 12' x 8' panels made off site (the only house
where one can measure one window opening for insulating glass and expect all
openings to be repeats!). There are exceptions to that last statement: one is a
Goodman-designed National Home on Rebecca Road, built by Davenport; a
fairly compatible Scholtz house at the bend of Rebecca Road (the one whose
roof is about level with the street), and an ALCOA Demonstration house,
designed by Goodman and built by Davenport, on Elba Road (the one with the
purple siding). These three are houses whose glazing openings were factory-
controlled. The rest of the houses' glazing members were site-cut and installed,
and vary considerably from the standard 36" opening set by Hopes Casements.
Davenport sold some lots in Hollin Hills without houses on them. There are
seven non-Goodman designed houses, built along Rebecca Drive on the slope
down to New Hollin Hills; one on Martha's Road. The Neer house (Tom
Wright), Ringwalt house (Scholtz), Dearborn house (Tom Kerns), Barnes house
(Rurik Rkstrom), Beckhorn house (Cass Neer), Hoover house (Abrahamson) and
the Chase house (Luis Vera). Architect Bob Smith also designed his own house
at 1704 Rebecca when he worked for Goodman. There is at this writing one last
vacant lot owned by William Phillips Brown on Rebecca, who at last reckoning
intended to build a home for himself thereupon.
When New Hollin Hills began, the #7 was redesigned to give it a pitched ceil-
ing and 2 full baths, and there's a two-level version of that design. The #8 is a
"T"-shaped model with spacious living-dining areas. It was designed for
sloping sites and first built at the end of Davenport Street. Beyond that, there
are two models designed by Bob Davenport after Goodman stopped working
for Hollin Hills, Inc. One, the "Decca", was an effort at economy, and the other
a grandiose 2-story "Atrium" house. Number descriptions and typical examples
are as follows:
Split-level 1819 Drury Lane
Pitched Roof 7315 Rebecca Drive
Butterfly 2227 Glasgow Road
Two-level 1913 Martha's Road
One-level 2200 Martha's Road
Split-level 2209 Martha's Road
Flat roof, central 7213 Beechwood Road
Utility Core 7211 Rebecca Drive
#5C
#6 Two-story butterfly
#7A One-level
#7 B One-level
#8 "T"-shaped
#9
Decca
Atrium Two-story
7204 Rebecca Drive
7105 Rebecca Drive
2306 Glasgow Road
7802 Elba Road
7805 Elba Road
7421 Rebecca Drive
2101 Mason Hill Drive
7422 Saville Court
In later years, some variations crept in to the original designs, as Bob
Davenport took on sole authority and tried to save costs. Only purists will be
able to sort out those houses with detail variations. The work done by
Davenport alone was an extension of the work of the original design team, and
it helped that "Mac" McCalley built them all,
The construction and appearance of the Hollin Hills houses broke new ground
in 1950, and continued until Goodman stopped Hollin Hills work. The detail we
see around us in ~oflin Hills doesn't look strange now, but the idea of using
fixed glass panes, mounted in un-trimmed rabetted structural grade wood frames
was terribly radical for its day. The &foot spacing of the standard window wall
stems from (1) a stock steel casement width, made then by Hope's and Ceco; (2)
Stock wood exterior door size; (3) the ability of 2-2 x 10's to span from 2 x 6
mullion to 2 x 6 mullion, carrying 1/2 the roof load. It all worked together; 2 x
6's checked out for posts upstairs; the lower level post in 2-floor houses had to
be 3x6's; it was figured that closely. The late Milton A. Gurewitz, PE, did a
very professional job in making sure that the structural design of Hollin Hills
houses was neither over nor under-designed. The #2, 3, and 7 houses have
trussed roof construction. The #7's have an odd 2 1/2 in 12 slope which was
chosen over 3 in 12 for the #2's on a very fine line of aesthetics-Goodman's
eye said it was better. The slopes of the two butterfly designs were chosen after
much study and deliberation. Such subtlties really matter if the visual effect
intended is to be reached. The trusses produced a clear span into which non-
structural partitioning was introduced. Permitted was the use of 2" thick plaster
partitions in part, and a clear span living room-dining room not available to
builders of center-bearing homes. The joy of being in these houses is a mix of
the daytime openness afforded by the glass, and the indoor spaciousness derived
from rooms which flow into each other.
The paper plan of the #7 house looks weird; it really shook up the FHA
people. In 3 dimensions, however, the genius of that weird plan appears. There
are six exterior corners in the single floor plan in one space. It includes the
living room, dining space, study, hall, entry, kitchen and laundry space. They
are all "just around the corner" from each other. You can see a part of the next
space, not all of it. There is always some implied larger space extending each
room. It makes a small house look enormous. One can sit by the fireplace and
see 50 feet to the kitchen wall, the wall without any cabinets on it.
So it goes with nearly all the Unit plans. There are separations between spaces
which are less than absolute; high ceilings which continue over lower dividing
walls; stairways in open walls at the end of living rooms to expand the space;
large used brick fireplaces and massive chimneys, implying more stability and
strength than wood frame and plaster can be expected to state; big panes of
7/32 crystal glass opening up the outdoors, in banks 30' long across the
living/dining area walls; delicate exterior wood trim work and mullions,
escaping from the heavy-handed vocabulary of the usual builder-turned modern
house designer. There are complaints, of course, generally made with feeling
only amongst loyal residents. Most people would have liked to have had a
separate entry to their houses and many additions have recognized this need.
Closet and storage space is neither thought-out from a homemaker's point of
view, nor is there enough of it. These flaws, I would guess, are not unique to
Hollin Hills houses, but are an attributable of most merchant housing of the
time. Currently, the expanses of glass so delightful to live with are perceived as
a costly energy drain if left as is. Eventually, all Hollin Hills houses will have to
be double-glazed in some fashion. We architects all knew about insulation and
insulated glass in the late forties. I had used Therrnopane extensively in houses
designed for Burlington, Vermont in 1950, and for comfort and frost-free vision
in custom houses here, locally. It wasn't until 1974, however, that it began to
pay off in terms of savings in fuel in the Washington area. Now, in Min- 65
neapolis, the use of triple-glazed windows has been commonplace for decades.

66
TV and central air conditioning have been developments to come on line since
Hollin Hills was first conceived. Thankfully, the trees in the community mostly
mask out the aerials and overhead power lines. Air conditioning condensers, if
they exhaust directly up, can usually be hidden in thick shrubbery. But these
houses had a pre-AC cooling system of value today. The low casements, low
enough to see over when seated in a lounge chair, and the ubiquitous attic fan,
combine to provide positive low-to-high movement of air throughout the house,
and particularly across the beds at night. In those houses with trussed attics, the
fan draws off the attic heat which normally would radiate downwards into the
living space, doing double duty in helping to cool off a hot Virginia house.
With the cost of cooling running more per month than the cost of heating in
some locations, this fan system has become respectable again.
In its story on the award-winning houses of the community, House Beautiful
(March, 1950) listed the equipment and materials used in the original Hollin
Hills houses:
EXTERIOR WALL SURFACES: Cinder block, furring, gypsum lath, and
plaster-U. S. Gypsum Co., Chicago, IL. ROOFING: 4-ply built-up.
WINDOWS: Steel sash-Hope's Windows, Inc., Jamestown, NY. Pittsburgh
Plate Glass Co., Pittsburgh, PA.
PAINT: Benjamin Moore, Inc., New York,NY.
FLOOR FINISH: Asphalt Tile-Armstrong Cork Co., Lancaster, PA; Ceramic
tile-U.S. Quarry Tile Co., Canton, OH.
HARDWARE: Schlage Lock Co., San Francisco, CA.
PLUMBING: Bathroom equipment-Crane Co., Chicago, IL; American
Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp., Pittsburgh, PA.
HEATING : "LuxaireU-The C . A. Olsen Mfg . Co . ; Water Heaters-Hoffman
Specialty Co., Indianapolis, IN. VENTILATING: Lou Blower Co .
INSULATION: Rigid-Celotex Corp., Chicago, IL; Sisalkraft Co . , Chicago,
IL.
ELECTRICAL FIXTURES: Kurt Versen, Englewood, NJ.
KITCHEN EQUIPMENT: Range-Tappan Stove Co., Mansfield, OH; Refrig-
ertor-General Electric Co., Bridgeport, CT; Sinks and cabinets-Midwest
Mfg . Co . , Galesburg, IL; Washing machine-Bendix Home Appliances, Inc.,
South Bend, IN. -
FIREPLACE DAMPER: Hea tilator, Inc., Syracuse, NY.
Each of these references is either about Hollin Hills specifically or refers to the community in a
larger context. The books and periodicals came to us by various means, including research, but the
newspaper items exist solely because of a tendency of old residents to squirrel away clippings in
which they take pride. The listings are in chronological order.
BOOKS
Ford, Katherin Murrow, and Creighton,
Thomas H. The American House Today.
New York: Reinhold, 1951.
Callender, John Hancock, A.I. A. Before You
Buy a House. New York: Crown, 1953.
Gutheim, Frederick. 1857-1957: One Hundred
Years of Architecture in America: Celebrat-
ing the Centennial of the American Institute
of Architects. New York: Reinhold, 1957.
Catalog of the A.I.A. exhibition at the
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Hollin Hills was featured. See also: Life,
June 3, 1957, and Washington Post and
Times Herald, May 14, 1957, cited below.
Ten Years of Hollin Hills. Fairfax County,
Virginia: Hollin Hills Community, c. 1960.
Jacobsen, Hugh Newell. A Guide to the
Architecture of Washington, D.C. New
York: Praeger, 1965. Shown: Jeremy
Hodson House, 7322 Rebecca Drive.
O'Neal, William B. Architecture in Virginia.
New York: Walker and Co., Inc., 1968.
See also: book review in Washington
Post, March 28, 1968, cited below.
Snake Hill to Spring Bank. Vol. I. Alex-
andria: Groveton High School, 1975.
Netherton, Nan; Sweig, D.; Artemel, J.;
Hickin, P.; and Reed, P. Fairfax County,
Virginia: A History. Fairfax, Virginia:
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, 1978.
JOURNALS AND MAGAZINES
"Builder's Project: Combines Intelligent Land-
planning, Handsome House Design, a
Unique Merchandising Plan. Result: a Pace-
setting Subdivision in the $10,000-$25,000
Price Field." Architectural Forum, December
1949, pp. 80-83.
Gordon, Elizabeth. "The Pros and Cons of the
Ready-built House," and 'You Couldn't
Build it Yourself for $12,800." House
Beautiful, March 1950, pp. 74-77.
Conklin, Groff. "Cheaper by the Two-Dozen;
the Story of a Self-Built Community."
Women's Home Companion, July 1950, pp.
56-58.
"Best Houses Under $15,000: Eight Fine, Mass-
produced Examples Show Buyers What
They Can Get in Low-priced Homes." Life,
September 10, 1951, pp. 123-27.
"Parents' Magazine announces winners of
home competition" for "Best Homes for
Family Living." Architectural Record,
November 1951, p. 110.
"Eine Amerikanische Kleinsiedlung in Alex-
andria, Va." Kunstins Volk, November/
December, 1951, pp. 441-43.
Bennett, Richard, A.I.A. "Judges Report on
Parents' Magazine's 1950-51 Builders'
Competition," and "A House That Fits Into
a Friendly Community," and "It's a Perfect
Family House." Parents' Magazine, February
1952, pp. 54-61.

68
"Uncle Sam is Boss to Most Civilians."
Living for Young Homemakers, August 1952,
pp. 38-39.
Issue devoted to living in Washington,
D.C. area; features home of Mr. and Mrs.
Lars Janson.
'This Utility Core Plan Sells the Most Advanced
Builder House in the U.S." House and Home,
January 1954, pp. 140-43.
"A Top Builder's House Architect Tries a New
House for Tomorrow." House and Home,
January 1956, pp. 128-35.
"Here are the Merchant Built Winners of the
Homes for Better Living Awards: Sponsored
by the A.I.A. in Cooperation with House and
Home, Better Homes and Gardens and
N.B.C." House and Home. June 1957, pp.
104-115; 139-151.
Best houses offered by builders from
January, 1954 in the 17 states east of the
Alleghanies. Award of Merit (class B) $15,000
to $20,000; Honorable Mention (class C) over
$20,000.
"Notable Modern Buildings: Architects' Institute
Picks Outstanding Designs of Past Decade."
Life, June 3, 1957, pp. 59-62 + .
Coverage of A.I.A. Centennial exhibit at
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
See also: listings under books and newspapers
covering this event.
Fisher, Jacob. 'The Garden and the Glass
House." Popular Gardening, August 1957,
pp. 38-39.
"Good Builders Do A Fine Job and "Nature
Preserved in a Tract." Life, September 15,
1958, pp. 72-73.
Part I of a four-part essay series entitled
'More Livable Homes."
Stark, Helen. 'They Made Old Furniture Look
Young." Better Homes and Gardens, January
1960, pp. 54-55. =
Features Jo and King Carr furnishing their
house with the help of Top Recker, A.I.D.
Rudolph, Paul. "Frank Adding Up of Assets,
Debits of a Fine House," and "New Homes,
Wacky and Staid: A Sensible Buy in the
Suburbs." Life, November 24, 1961, pp.
111-116.
Hufnagel, James A. "Home Improvement 1967:
Seven Subdivision Houses-How They Grew."
Better Homes and Gardens, November 1967,
pp. 82-83.
Eason Cross additions to the basic one-level
house.
Seney, Noel, and Haupert, David. "Remodeling:
How Good Houses Get Even Better." Better
Homes and Gardens, August 1975, pp.
34-37 + .
Features additions to seven Hollin Hills
houses by Architects Hawkins and Bruner.
Cross, Eason, Jr., F.A.I.A. "Hollin Hills: A
Postwar Pioneer Reaches 30: How the
Virginia Development has Met the Test of
Time." A.I. A. Journal, February 1980,
pp. 56-60.
NEWSPAPERS
"Hollin Hills Picked as Best Housing Develop-
ment in U.S." Washington Post, 14 February
1951.
"Hollin Hills Named Nation's Best Home
Development ." Washington Post, 18
February 1951, p. 3R.
"Hollin Hills Developers Get Two Magazine
Awards." Washington Post, 27 January
1952, p. 1R.
"Fairfax Hauls Water in 'Famine'." Washing-
ton Post, 17 June 1952.
Fairfax Hydraulic Water Company ran
out of water in 93" heat, so Hollin Hills
residents hauled water for several days.
"Hollin Hills Plans Tour to Raise Com-
munity Fund." Washington Post, 26 April
1953, p. 7R.
"Hollin Hills House Tour Set May 10"
Alexandria Gazette, 29 April 1953, p. 5.
"Hollin Hills House Tour Next Sunday."
Evening Star (Washington), 5 May 1953, p.
B-4.
"Hollin Hills Ladies Primping for Tour."
Washington Daily News, 5 May 1953, p. 27.
Holmes, Anita. "Agile Fingers Weave, Paint to
Boost Their Community: Hollin Hills Puts
Crafts on Display." Washington Post, 8
May 1953, p. 44 (Women).
"Hollin Hills Community Rolls Out the
Carpet." Washington Post, 10 May 1953, p.
1R.
Pepis, Betty. 'More and More Modern."
New York Times Magazine, 23 August 1953,
pp. 42-43.
Huges, Carolyn Bell. "Community Question-
naire: To: Glass House Owners." Wash-
ington Post, 14 October 1956. pp. F 10-11.
Portner, Leslie Judd. "100 Years of American
Architecture: National Gallery Sets a
Precedent: Growth of Architecture Told in
Exhibit." Washington Post and Times Herald,
14 May 1957, p. B1.
A photographic exhibit at the National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., celebrating
A.I.A. Centennial and featuring a Hollin Hills
house. See also: exhibit catalog listed above
under books, and Life story above.
Conroy, Sarah Booth. "Architectural Exhibit:
U.S. Garden Cities Go to Moscow." Wash-
ington Post and Times Herald, 6 July 1958,
p. F6.
Photo show of U.S. architecture shown in
U.S.S.R. at the "Fifth Congress of the Union
Internationale des Architects." Hollin Hills
included.
"Virginia's Architectural Guidebook Gives
Tour: Review of Architecture in Virginia. "
Washington Post, 28 March 1968, p. G11.
See also: book listing above.
Willmann, John B. "Farewell to a Builder."
Washington Post, 22 May 1971, pp. El,
E10.
Story on last house in Hollin Hills and
block party planned to celebrate.
Forgey, Benjamin. "Built to Beat Time: The
Economy, Craft and Dream of Hollin Hills".
Washington Post, 21 May 1983, pp. Dl,
D6.

70
Landscape plans for Voight Memorial Park
(including a community house, but
no bath house).
STREET MMES
Davenport chose the earliest names for the community. Bedford Lane,
Brentwood Place, Drury Lane, Glasgow Road, Pickwick Lane, Rippon Road
and Stafford Road were English names in keeping with Hollin Hills, itself named
after Hollin Hall. . .an English estate whose name was transplanted to this area
by George Mason's son.
Martha's Road was named after Davenport's mother; Recard was a family
name; Nemeth was Mrs. Davenport's maiden name; Rebecca after his daughter;
Elba for a bull named Elbamere; Nordok was also a bull; Paul Spring after the
creek; Daphne for a flower; Beechwood for a grove of trees; Popkins for
Popkins Farm; Davenport Street for himself.
The remaining names came from a county-approved list.

1980-Hollin Meadows swim meet,
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