Lake Barcroft History Book

ut efficient housing for the masses. The
extent of Gropius’ contribution to the
architecture of Lake Barcroft Estates is not
clear, but his influence on the design of
American homes is set forth in Tom Wolfe’s
book, From Bauhaus to Our House. Wolfe
castigates the Bauhaus style as being “bare,
spare, impersonal and highly abstract
architecture” not reflecting the energy and
exuberance of the American century.
The article in the Washington Post on Lake
Barcroft reported that Gropius planned to
construct a large nursery for children and to
plant azaleas throughout the area to make
“the rolling hills a riot of color.” He
suggested that homes have built-in barbecue
pits on the porch to emulate country living.
His plan reportedly included designing four
moderately priced, three-bedroom, twobathroom
ramblers in four different price
ranges. Each house would feature separate areas for sleep, work
and play. It would seem that Gropius was prescient in
recognizing the need for communal nurseries and, at the same
time, aware of the changing culture in the fifties, when a
barbecue in the back yard was the rage. However, only one
Gropius house—located at 6325 Lakeview Drive—was ever
designed and built. It is not clear if the design was actually put
to blueprints or if it was merely the result of sketches on a
napkin. In any case, the house was expensive at the time and
difficult to sell.
Starting Out
Such were the dreams of the developers and designers of Lake
Barcroft Estates as they cleared the land. The beginning was
shaky at best. Bailey’s Crossroads featured little more than
Blackwelders Barbecue and the old Payne Grocery Store. Seven
Corners was a primitive one-grade roadway tangle with a
perpetual traffic jam. And, there was no Seven Corners
Shopping Center. The beltway did not exist; the Tyson’s
Corner area had only a general store; Route 7 was a winding,
two-lane road; and what is now Skyline Plaza was a busy
general-aviation airport. Having been a reservoir, Lake Barcroft
was preserved in a park-like setting that had no roads to speak
of and certainly no easy access. The whole scene took on the
appearance of a logging camp: roads carved out of the woods
were paved with gravel or a combination of oil and wood
chips. The roads were used both to haul trees and to reach the
properties Barger hoped to sell. Perhaps Barger saw these roads
as a way to preserve the rustic flavor of the project, but at first,
it was a real mess. The access problems slowed sales, and some
of the more grandiose ideas fell by the wayside.
A grim Colonel Barger listening to Stuart Finley
7
The first settlers—and it must have seemed like the New West
(of Washington, D.C., at least)—broke trails to their home
sites. Sales representatives used jeeps to show prospective
buyers lots, navigating nonexistent paths through the forest, in
what must have been a difficult sell. The very first of the
pioneers lived in a tent while their house was being built.
The first family to move into their permanent residence also
laid claim to being the first residents of Lake Barcroft. For the
new homesteaders it was a very rustic and challenging life
in a wooded paradise so near to and yet so far from the
nation’s capital.
As the number of residents grew, leaders, followers and
dissidents emerged. Activists and organizations would come
together to set the community’s course for the next fifty years.
Barger worked with these people and—despite all the growing
pains and despite being a shrewd businessman not given to
ethereal thoughts—the Colonel said that being in Lake
Barcroft was “like being in heaven. It’s just a glorious spot.”