Virginia Rambler: All Aboard!--Cinder Bed Road

**DRAFT--Please visit again to see the finished article.

One day, my husband and I decided to explore Cinder Bed Road, a road we'd seen on maps. It appeared to parallel the CSX train tracks and run from Alexandria to Newington, like so:

We went to the northern terminus, which is near the Franconia Springfield Metro (see top red arrow on map). We turned left onto a gravel road, thinking we were on the ever-so-rustic Cinder Bed Road. Very quickly we realized we were, in fact, on an access road used for railroad maintenance. It was not even remotely paved. It was so pitted that I feared our subcompact car would bottom out. The road was about as wide as our car, so turning around was out of the question. We rattled on, down the road, wondering what we'd do if we encountered a vehicle traveling toward us. Finally we found a place where it was wide enough--barely--to turn around, and we clattered back to the start of the road. I think a few of my fillings came loose that day, and I don't even want to think about what happened to my brain cells.

So, okay, two mistakes here: (1) That wasn't Cinder Bed; and (2) Even if we'd correctly driven onto Cinder Bed, we would have had to stop soon when woods overtook the road. That nice, solid white line on the map is a lie.

It's possible to walk the length of this road, although you have to cross Long Branch Creek en route. Here's a view of the "road" just past where you can't drive any further:

But we were still curious, and so we drove to the southern terminus of the road (see bottom red arrow on map). The southern end of Cinder Bed is a mix of industrial sites and a few old houses.

All of the houses are on lots that appear to now be zoned as commercial, not residential. At least one parcel of vacant land formerly had a log cabin on it, as recently as 2000. The presence of homes in the midst of industrial compounds is a bit of a mystery until you look at pictures of the area from 50 years ago, when this was a rural area.... but more about that later.

Click on any photo for a larger view.

7801 Cinder Bed Rd.
Appears to be owned by a family trust.
2,176 SF GFA (gross floor area). According to the Fairfax County property tax records, it was built in 1900 (most likely incorrect). Previous sale was in 1978 for $39,000. Assessed value is $427,480 in 2015. The land area is 49,602 square feet.

The house is large , and the exterior appears to be in good condition. But the best part of this property is behind the house: There's an honest-to-goodness barn! In this picture, we're standing behind the barn, looking toward the house:

Someone has planted trees on part of the land behind the house. In the distance, you can see houses in the Landsdowne community. (They are much closer than they appear here.)

Just look at this beautiful barn. What a surprise to find this on an industrial road in a very developed part of the county. Its nearest neighbors are the very expensive houses in the upscale Landsdowne subdivision.)

Ceiling of the barn.

View of the "big house" from the interior of the barn.

It looks like the barn was most recently used as a garage and workshop.

Tell me this next photo doesn't remind you of the color palette and textures of Andrew Wyeth's "Christina's World." (Please click on this one to see the larger version--it's worth it.)

7813 Cinder Bed Road
Last sold for 3.6 million in 2015; on a 2-acre lot; owner listed in tax records is Iglesia Penecostal Bethel Inc. It sold for much more than its assessed value, which is
$739,480 for 2015. Tax records say it was built in 1900 (most likely incorrect). "Improved land with dilapidated structure," according to tax records.

A small house on a large lot. The opposite of the "McMansions" (large houses on small lots) that are becoming entirely too prevalent in northern Virginia. The house is unoccupied, but the grounds of this house are beautifully cared for.

Note the "door" in the ground just beyond the For Sale sign. Where does it lead?

A garage that appears to also have living quarters (note the ornate doors on the right).

7819 Cinder Bed Road
County tax records describe this one as "improved land with dilapidated structure." 1404 sq. ft. Year built listed as 1900 (most likely incorrect). Land area is 43,599 SF. GFA is 1,404. Last sold in 2005 (amount not listed). Owner is BAM Properties LLC, in Lorton.

You could easily miss this house, which is set back from the road and well-camouflaged by greenery.

There's ivy on the side of the house and moss on the roof.

The tall green shoots are evidence that someone once cared for this property and landscaped it.

[To come: more photos of the rustic and charming house at 7819 Cinder Bed Road, plus pictures of the environs and narrative about Cinder Bed Road. Also, photos and text about the "other end" of Cinder Bed Road, starting at the Franconia-Springfield Metro.]

Context: By 2002, this stretch of Cinder Bed was in atrocious condition. There were junkyards, chop shops, and squatter. The county launched a massive cleanup. Here's a screenshot from HistoricAerials.com, taken in 2002:

Sources

• Fairfax County Historic Marker (Newington), http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/histcomm/historicmarkers/newington.htm
• County Cleans Up An Old Road," Alexandria Gazette Packet, http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2003/aug/05/county-cleans-up-an-old-road/
• Cinder Bed Road Bus Garage (developer's site), http://www.turnerconstruction.com/experience/project/2AC8/cinder-bed-road-bus-garage
• "WMATA Breaks Ground on Cinder Bed Road Metrobus Facility, Greater Alexandria Patch, http://patch.com/virginia/greateralexandria/wmata-breaks-ground-on-cinder-bed-metrobus-facility-in-lorton
• http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7813-Cinder-Bed-Rd-Lorton-VA-22079/51971091_zpid
• Fairfax Co. Dept. of Tax Administration's Real Estate Assessment Information Site,  http://icare.fairfaxcounty.gov/ffxcare/Main/Home.aspx
• HistoricAerials.com

Copyright 2015. All rights reserved.

Virginia Rambler: Charm City

Your Virginia Rambler correspondent and a companion crossed the Potomac and headed to Baltimore, a.k.a. Charm City. From a home base at the Brookshire Suites (120 E. Lombard St.), we explored the Inner Harbor and nearby neighborhoods.

One day, I headed out the door of the Brookshire Suites and down Calvert Street. I had no specific destination in mind, just a desire to see what there was to be seen. In the space of half an hour, I saw a wide array of buildings representing different styles and functions. There were such riches; I hardly knew where to look first. Here are some highlights. (Click on any picture for a larger version.)

We had a direct view of this lovely building (the Jeweler's Building, 31 S. Calvert St.) from our suite at the hotel. The first, second, and fifth floors are occupied by Quintessential Gentleman, a charming barbershop, day spa (for men and women), club, and retail store.

Street art on a pillar across from 31 S. Calvert Street (helpfully labeled as "street art").

207 Redwood Street (corner of Calvert and Redwood). This building, formerly called the Keyser Building, was originally an office building. Developers bought it in 2005 and planned to convert it to a hotel, the Hotel Indigo. Progress on the renovations stalled in 2010, when the developer sought bankruptcy protection. This neo-gothic 1906 structure has 72,000 square feet of space longing to be occupied. Attempts were made to get the money needed to finish renovations, so that revenues from the hotel could be used to pay creditors, but without success. There's a rumor that a nightclub will open soon in a small portion of the building.
     I haven't been able to trace the origin of the building's name. I'm guessing it may have been named for Michael Franklin Keyser, a 19th-century Baltimore businessman and descendant of a founding family.

The Chesapeake Shakespeare Company will have a new home in the 1885 Mercantile Trust and Deposit Company building (200 East Redwood), a lovely Romanesque Revival structure that's on the National Register of Historic Places. The company says it hopes to create a "modern Globe" theater that will combine the intimacy of a traditional Elizabethan playhouse with a contemporary sense of design and convenience. The theater is scheduled to open this year.

Decorative iron (?) work over a doorway on S. Calvert. If you didn't look up, you'd never know
it was there.

This 1815 monument (Battle Monument Square on North Calvert St. between East Fayette and East Lexington) commemorates those who lost their lives during the battle of North Point and the bombardment of Fort Henry, September 12 and 13, 1814 (War of 1812). The monument was designed by Baltimore architect J .Maximilian Godefroy, sculptor to the Court of Spain. The "ribbons" that criss-cross the column list the names of soldiers who died during the battle;  the names of officers who died are at the top.

The gold-lettered signs for Mosler Safes & Vault Doors, in the second-story windows of this building, caught my eye. Mosler was an Ohio-based company, in business from 1867 to 2001. Its safes and vaults were legendary for their strength. In the 1940s, four Mosler vaults were installed in a bank in Hiroshima, Japan, and they survived the atomic bomb blast. Other vaults in the same bank did not. (Much was made of this fact in Mosler's advertisements, a move both canny and in dubious taste.)

From Calvert St., I turned onto Baltimore Street. There appeared to be a commercial district, and since I never pass up the chance to do a little souvenir-shopping, I decided to investigate. Ooops.... the establishments on this stretch are selling something, but it's not souvenirs.
     Above, we have Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, on the site of the former Gayety Theater building, the last of the burlesque, vaudeville, and movie theaters that lined this block in the first half of the 20th century. (The building burned in 1969, but the spectacular Baroque/Art Nouveau facade was salvaged.) And across the alley from the Hustler Club is Club Pussycat.

Across Baltimore Street from Club Hustler is the 2 O' Clock Club; I liked the sign so much I'm including two shots of it. (By night, the sign glows red and is illuminated with neon, and a stylized woman's figure is superimposed on the "2.") Back in the 1950s, famed burlesque dancer Blaze Starr performed at the 2 O' Clock (and for a time owned the building). Unfortunately, this neighborhood (The Block) has changed in character, for the worse. The 2 O' Clock Club was the location of a murder/stabbing incident on Feb. 10, 2014.

 At the end of the block with the Hustler Club, Pussycat Club, and many other, um, establishments, is the Grace & Hope Mission (4 South Gay St.), which would appear to have its work cut out for it. The building, which the Mission has occupied since 1919, has three very large stained glass windows on its facade, protected by metal grillwork (a marriage of beauty and pragmatism).

Standing on Baltimore Street near the Hustler Club, if you turn 180 degrees, you see the dome of City Hall. (Odd bedfellows, indeed.)

The former offices of the Baltimore American (one of the two major Baltimore newspapers for some 200 years), now home to a 7-Eleven. The illustration between "Baltimore" and "American" is the newspaper's masthead, with the Statue of Liberty and the inscription "Liberty Enlightens the World," which was the statue's original name. (The date 1773 represents the first newspaper's founding; 1904 stands for the year in which the building was erected.) You can see the reflection of another classic building (the former offices of the competing newspaper?) in the windows of the second photo.

 This building (next door to the Springhill Suites) is being converted to condos.

The Springhill Suites (120 E. Redwood St.) was built as a bank headquarters over a century ago, and has been lovingly repurposed.

The lobby is spectacular, and the facade is in excellent condition. Above is a domed entryway (a side entrance). Below is an old night depository slot.

Take the stairs from the lobby down to the lower level, and you'll see the original vault, repurposed as a board room. It's gorgeous--don't miss it.

Etched metalwork on the inner edges of each door, and part of the mechanism. Hardly anyone would notice these decorative touches because of their location, but the pride in craftsmanship is there nevertheless.

Handle on the outside of the vault doors (steampunk fans' delight).

Sign in the window on the side of the Springhill Suites. If you look closely, you'll see a reflection of four actors' faces from the sign advertising the new home of the Chesapeake Shakespeare Company, across the street. (See photos of the theater building earlier in this article.)

Alleyway on Redwood Street; to the right is the Goodwill building (222 Redwood St.).

Werner's Restaurant (231 E. Redwood St.), a vintage 1950s restaurant that's unchanged by the decades. This little time capsule of bygone days has been the set for television shows and movies, including "The Wire," Syriana, Tin Men, "Homicide: Life on the Street," Ladder 49, and Liberty Heights.
     Compare picture 2 below with the picture of the Greensboro sit-in luncheonette counter at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensboro_sit-ins--the stools are identical except for the coverings (vinyl-covered padding in the Greensboro picture and wood in the picture below). The owner, John, assured me that all the furnishings at Werner's were original. When he bought the restaurant, quite a lot of restoration/cleanup was needed. They've done a fine job!

Soda fountain.

 Pickle pyramid.

I walked past the mini-monument above several times without noticing it--thank-you to Dave from Werner's restaurant for bringing it to my attention. This item consists of a cannonball on an iron stand. The cannonball was fired from a British warship during the bombardment of Fort Henry, September 13-14, 1814. It fell inside the fort. It was presented to Michael Keyser by an officer. (This is in front of the building formerly known as the Keyser Building; see photos of the Hotel Indigo earlier in this post.) The iron base is a rack that was used to bend bar iron so it could be best loaded into the old Conestoga wagons before the railroads replaced the wagons.

Above and below: Graffiti on a wall in an alley off Water Street, near Commerce. The caption beneath Edgar Allen Poe reads "Consumers, and nothing more."

"Here to stay" has special meaning in downtown Baltimore, an area that was devastated by the 1904 fire. Like the Phoenix, the city has risen from its ashes. Here's to the next 100-plus years, Charm City.

Sources

• Kilduffs Baltimore Buildings: http://www.kilduffs.com/Buildings.html
• Baltimore Business Journal, "Hotel Indigo developers seek approval to finish work." http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/news/2011/01/13/hotel-indigo-developers-seek-approval.html?page=all
• Hotel Indigo Baltimore: http://www.emporis.com/building/hotel-indigo-baltimore-baltimore-md-usa 
• CSC's New Indoor Home: http://www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com/building.html
• Mosler Safe Company: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosler_Safe_Company
• Unbreakable: Hiroshima and the Mosler Safe Company: http://conelrad.blogspot.com/2010/08/unbreakable-hiroshima-and-mosler-safe.html
• Damon Safe and Iron Works Company: http://www.certificatecollector.com/html/certs3/damonSafeIron.html 
• "It's 2 o' Clock. Do You Know Where Your Husband Is?" http://www.charmcityhistory.com/2013/03/its-2-oclock-do-you-know-where-your.html 
• "Built to Last: Ten Enduring Landmarks of Baltimore's Central Business District." http://www.nps.gov/history/hdp/exhibits/baltimore/7.htm 
• Grace and Hope Mission Incorporated: http://www.gracehopemission.com/

Copyright 2014. All rights reserved.