Virginia Rambler: Blink and You'll Miss It

In the late 1800s, the village of Accotink was a thriving northern Virginia hamlet. Situated adjacent to Route 1, Accotink and the nearby Woodlawn area were founded by the growing local Quaker community. The Accotink Mill, a grist mill, was built on the Accotink Creek, probably by Zachariah Gardner after 1804. It was situated on land that is now the lower part of Davison Army Airfield, Accotink village, and the area around Tulley Gate at Fort Belvoir.

Here's an 1857 ad from the Alexandria Gazette, for the land that is now Accotink Village:

Today all that remains of the village is one street, which runs for about two blocks; the rest has been swallowed up by the mammoth Fort Belvoir and the high-volume Route 1 corridor. If you turn onto Backlick Road from Route 1, you'll find what's left of the village. The street boasts some early-20th-century houses and a Methodist church that dates to the late 1800s. But the days are numbered for this quaint little slice of the past; the county has approved the plans to build a mixed apartment/retail complex here (283 multifamily dwellings [read: "apartments"] and 24,825 square feet of "secondary uses"--on land that's currently occupied by just 8 single-family houses). The rest of the street probably won't last long either; the "Statement of Justification" by the developer assures us that "the consolidation and design does not preclude any of the other parcels in the Village of Accotink from redevelopment to their highest and best use." (emphasis added)

Here's a map showing the location of Accotink village. The yellow rectangle shows the entirety of what's left of the village. Note the red oval on the left side of the map. This is more or less the terminus of the old Accotink Road. The train tracks there were part of a spur of the Richmond-Fredericksburg-Potomac Railroad that split off at Long Branch Station and ran to Fort Belvoir (originally Camp A. A. Humphreys). See my blog post Ghost Roads for more about this train route and about Accotink Road.

Because this region was settled in the 1800s, I wonder what artifacts lie beneath the surface in what's left of Accotink village. The 2013 Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan says that "Large portions of the Mount Vernon Planning District have not been surveyed to determine the presence or absence of heritage resources. It is important that these areas be examined before they are developed and appropriate action taken to record, preserve and/or recover the significant resources." I've read almost nothing about this in the plans to repurpose the village of Accotink.


Click on any of the photos to see a larger version.

Accotink United Methodist Church, founded 1880. (This church is a local landmark
as identified on the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites.)

Above and below: interior of the Methodist church. Below, there's an upright piano

 in the foreground and a very old pump organ at rear.

Bell tower. The bell used to call children to the school that once stood next door.

Cemetery at Accotink United Methodist. (For a complete list of graves, see http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=2182249)

Graves of Jane and John Cawman

Grave of George B. Fairfax, husband of June Fairfax; Fairfax is a 

rather famous surname in these parts. Since this church is on property adjacent to Fort Belvoir, and the army purchased the land for the fort from William Fairfax in 1741, I'd wager that this gent was related to that family. (Note the Confederate flag, a common fixture
at cemeteries in this area.)

Does anyone know what this metal plaque represents?

"In loving remembrance of Ralph A. Stout (Oct. 26, 1898 - June 27, 1911):
A beautiful bud taken from Earth to blossom in heaven."

 And next door to the Methoidst church we have Chua Hoa Nghiem Pagoda: 

Buddhist Association of America, a shiny new addition to the block, circa 2009.

9108 Backlick Road: the house is across the street from the Buddhist Pagoda and
appears to be owned by the same organization; this house was built in 1925.

9121 Backlick Road: the oldest house on the street. It was built in 1900. In the 2011 Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan, they recommended that this house be documented and evaluated for inclusion in the Fairfax Co. Inventory of Historic Sites. It's was foreclosure and was for sale for $239,000. (See http://tinyurl.com/m6nnz53.) UPDATE: It's no longer for sale, and it has new siding; you wouldn't recognize it.

Words fail me.

Ditto.

The same house, from the street view of Google Earth, before it fell on hard times 

(it's now boarded up and the bay window is broken).

This 1903 house is a time capsule; beneath the white siding, there is brick, stone, and wood,
evidence of various owners' efforts to remodel.

Magnus Masonic Lodge, built in 1925. It's at 9012 Backlick Road. The county is looking into the possibility of granting historic status to this structure. The lodge is home to a local chapter of the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shrine of North and South America and Its Jurisdictions, Inc. (more commonly known as "Shriners). The Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order is a historically black order of the Shriners, organized in Boston in 1784.

 Maybe if you have to ask, you don't need to know.

Reserved parking for the Elected Imperial Officer

Parking reserved for the Illustrious Potentate

Looking toward the end of the road, which dead-ends at the border of Fort Belvoir
and curves to the left to take you to the Fairfax County Parkway.

Looking toward Route 1

The end of the road: Backlick dead-ends here. The overpass was used as part of a spur that went from the Long Branch station to Fort Belvoir, a story in itself.

Beyond the overpass is a gate to Fort Belvoir; the road used to continue on to Beulah St. here.

The original grist mill, on a survey map made in 1859:

And a look back at the village in 1862:

And the village in its heyday (circa 1900):

The proposed mixed-use development that's going to swallow up a corner of Accotink Village:

The tiny, remaining slice of Accotink Village is virtually surrounded by Fort Belvoir (in fact, its mailing address is Fort Belvoir, Virginia). The families who live on this street have no other neighbors. The children have no one to play with, no nearby parks. This kind of situation is ripe for demolition and replacement by a subdivision or commercial development. I've seen it before--well-kept, tidy homes and mature trees are bulldozed, and residents are displaced. Land in Fairfax County is very dear, and I acknowledge the need to maximize the available space. But there are only so many houses left from the turn of the twentieth century. When all the old houses are gone, it's going to be a long time until there are old houses again. Today, if you blink, you'll miss the village of Accotink. Soon, even if you keep your eyes peeled, it won't be there to see.


Sources:

• 2011 Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dpz/comprehensiveplan/adoptedtext/2011-04.pdf
• Zillow.com: http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9121-Backlick-Rd-Fort-Belvoir-VA-22060/51989590_zpid/
• Northern Virginia History group on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/199423696893155/)
• South County Federation Land Use Committee: http://tinyurl.com/nr9oe8r
• Mills and Mill Sites in Fairfax County, Virginia, and Washington, DC: http://tinyurl.com/nudbxda
• Belvoir in the Antebellum Period: https://www.belvoir.army.mil/history/Antebellum.asp 
• Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles Mystic Shrine of North and South American and Its Jursdictions: http://www.aeaonms.org/ 
• ANCIENT EGYPTIAN ARABIC ORDER OF NOBLES OF THE MYSTIC SHRINE et al. v. MICHAUX et al.: http://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/279/737 
• "Narrative Statement of Justification for Village of Accotink Mixed-Use Project": http://www.mvcca.org/pz/2012-09_Accotink-SOJ.pdf 
• Belvoir Enters the Twentieth Century: https://www.belvoir.army.mil/history/20C.asp
• Realtor's blog: http://activerain.com/blogsview/3378032/village-of-accotink-if-you-blink-you-will-miss-a-piece-of-fairfax-county-history
• Find a Grave: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=cr&CRid=2182249

Note: Information in this article is accurate, to the best of my knowledge. Please contact me via the comments if you see any errors or omissions. Thanks!

Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.

Virginia Rambler: Ghost Roads, Part 1

Maps show us where we are, where we've been, and where we're going. And sometimes, they also show us where we can't go. "Ghost roads" appear on maps, but when you get to them, they aren't drivable, and maybe not there at all.

Accotink Road in Lorton is one of these ghost roads. At the point where it intersects with Fisher Woods Drive, it devolves into a deeply rutted gravel path. Clearly it's been many years since it was fit for vehicular traffic, but it's still there on the map.

Here's the start of the abandoned stretch of Accotink. You can see the end of the paved "driveway" that extends down to the Thorsen house (the last house on the paved road), tucked into the woods just to the left of this vista.

Off to the left, two pillars rest on the ground. They appears to have been gateposts.... somewhere. Possibly at Twinbrook, an estate that was formerly near the start of this stretch of Accotink Road. Or possibly at Mount Air, the 18th century plantation whose ruins Accotink Road borders.

This road becomes increasingly rutted as you continue. It had rained hard a few days before our visit, and you can see the mud deposits and pebbles. For such mundane materials, it's oddly picturesque.

This hollow would make a perfect den for a fox, rabbit, or other small creature.

At a T intersection, to the right is Kernan Run; from here, this stream runs through adjacent Mount Air. (See map at top of this post.) The stream is named for Mrs. George Kernan, the mother of the last owner of Mount Air.

Further down the road, on the left, is a rusty gate. You have to look hard to see that beyond this gate, there was once a road. This is Swank Road, subject of my next Ghost Roads post.

And to our surprise, a posted hunting area. (Remember: this is suburbia--lots of houses, schools, and convenience stores, not so many hunting zones.) While we were hiking, we heard shots. Yikes.

Only platform hunting is permitted here. Could this wooden structure be the remains of a platform?

Beyond the posted hunting sign, the going gets rougher. To continue, you have to scramble over, under, and around the fallen trees that cross the path.

If you weren't looking down, you'd miss it: a section of abandoned rails; beyond it, an inexplicably paved short stretch of road. On or very near this site was a railroad spur that connected the Newington line to the former Camp A. A. Humphreys (present-day Fort Belvoir). It was built by the Army Corps of Engineers during World War I to transport troops to the army base to be deployed. [4], [5]

The engineers who built this spur camped on the grounds of Mount Air. The rails tell a story: they were originally ordered by the Russian government, but the country, which had its hands full with the pesky Russian revolution, couldn't accept delivery in 1917, so the rails were diverted to Lorton, Virginia instead. (Thank you, Communism.) [1], [2]

Here's a close-up of the rail, and another section, painted and embedded in the ground at an 80-degree angle. Soon, these remnants of a past era will be gone, replaced by the grounds of the new National Museum of the United States Army. [3] Few people know the rails are here now, and no doubt few people will notice when they're gone. It's sad to think that process of building the museum created to share the history of the U.S. Army will obliterate part of that history.

Just beyond the rails, Accotink Road ends where it meets the Fairfax County Parkway. Half of this ghost road will vanish when the new museum is built. Perhaps it will continue to haunt the maps for a bit longer.

Notes

[1] from Mount Air by Edith Sprouse (p. 51), C 1970, Division of Planning, Fairfax County.

[2]  http://www.trainweb.org/rf&p/archive/stations/stations.htm

[3] http://thenmusa.org/

[4] http://www.army.mil/article/33827/Mount_Air__Former_homestead_tied_to_Fort_Belvoir_history/

[5] http://worldofdecay.blogspot.com/2012/07/railroad-warehouses-fort-belvoir.html


Copyright 2013. All rights reserved.