Photo Tour: Fairfax City (Washington: city hall, townhouses, construction)

[Caladium]

These are photos of Fairfax City, taken on a sunny afternoon in mid September. I hope Alicia will provide commentary on some of these photos, since she’s our local expert on the area. I tried to shoot public, commercial and residential buildings, as well as the CUE bus, street lights, bike paths, and other such every day things. I particularly liked the sidewalks, which had plenty of benches and planters.






Lots of nice restaurants, some with live entertainment.




Bike path leads into local park.

[Caladium]

Concert pavilion near City Hall.




Fairfax City runs it’s own bus line called the CUE bus.


Sidewalks in the historic area are wide, and have planters and benches.

[Caladium]

I don’t know where these two got ice cream cones but they sure seemed to be enjoying them. They were making me hungry!

[Caladium]

As with most of northern Virginia, there is plenty of construction taking place.

[Caladium]

[Tiger Beer]

Those rowhomes that are right up near the sidewalk look pretty interesting.

I like you have a lot of photos with the lanterns as well in the picture...nice.

[bmwguydc]

As always, great pictures!

I can answer the mystery...The ice cream cones were from Woody's which recently re-opened in its new location behind the Auld Shebeen. Basically, it was about 100 feet from where you took their picture, around the corner, in the little alley area, behind the old TT Reynolds. It's roughly behind the Firestation 3, which was the old Firehouse Grille unitl recently.

The townhouses run from University Drive to Chain Bridge Road, and were built in the 1970s. They are across from the site of the former library that is now under construction as a new residential project. They have carports to the rear of them, and are accessed via Whitehead Street, or the dead-end section of Layton Hall Drive. AFAIK, they are the only townhouses of that kind in Fairfax, where parking is to the rear. Newer townhouses have garages, and the other older development, which is to the south on University, closer to City Hall, has surface parking lots in front of the units, but those do feature small yards to the rear.

ETA: The fauxlonial, newer looking townhouses that are depicted in Post #2 are actually commercial buildings on Armstrong Street. I just wanted to be clear, in case someone thought I was discussing those in the comments above.

[normie]

Wow, not only did you take some terrific photos, but this is very thorough. You covered all the things people wonder about. Good job!

[normie]

Was the big white building the original court house?

[bmwguydc]

That is the Old Fairfax Town Hall, actually, at Main and University. What is now a parking lot to the north will become part of the Kitty Pozer preserve. Kitty Pozer was the garden editor for the Washington Post and willed her property to Fairfax City -- and she happened to live in the Ratcliffe-Alison House next door.

Prior to the gravel parking lot, this was an unremarkable 1950s era commercial building that was long and low, with restaurants on the lower level, and offices on the second level. It was deemed an eyesore in that it blocked much of the side of the Old Town Hall, so it was secured and removed as part of the redevelopment plans of the downtown core.

The Old Courthouse is the brick structure that appears in the third post, second picture. Here is a link to the library's images of the courthouse through history: The Fairfax County Courthouse: A Brief History - FCPL