How did McLean get such a Sterling Reputation? (Arlington, Alexandria: real estate, house)

[normie]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Ah, Vienna certainly has a history, It's been there since the 1700's and it's been a town for over 100 years! It most definitely has a past! Town of Vienna, Virginia, Town Government . (http://www.viennava.gov/Town_Info/history.htm - broken link)

You know, it might be fun to start a thread about the history of a lot of our towns. I had a post awhile back about how Herndon got it's name. Interesting story, but unfortunately it was a response to a racist comment so both posts got deleted. This might be a good way to tell that story--and other interesting tidbits of local history. What do you think--would anyone be interested in a thread like that?

[cdmurphy]

Originally Posted by normie

You know, it might be fun to start a thread about the history of a lot of our towns. I had a post awhile back about how Herndon got it's name. Interesting story, but unfortunately it was a response to a racist comment so both posts got deleted. This might be a good way to tell that story--and other interesting tidbits of local history. What do you think--would anyone be interested in a thread like that?

Do it! I have something to contribute.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by Denton56

Ah, Vienna certainly has a history, It's been there since the 1700's and it's been a town for over 100 years! It most definitely has a past! Town of Vienna, Virginia, Town Government . (http://www.viennava.gov/Town_Info/history.htm - broken link)

Yes, I'm aware of the history of Vienna -- the Broadwaters, Moses Cummins, Dr. Hendrick, Major Hine -- and the town did a good job in turning to local historians to compile that Town History page, though it does leave out some seminal events, such as the opening of The Vienna Inn in 1960. :-) Still, at the time that John McLean was busy making an upscale name for his own neck of the woods, Vienna was still a remote little village with just a few hundred residents. Even with the influxes of population that came along after WWII and during the 1960's, Vienna remained an insignificant and distant outpost, not at all a chic or destination address. It may be hard to imagine today, but in 1970, the first (and much smaller) Tysons Corner had just opened, the Galleria and environs were hilly, undeveloped land criss-crossed by dirt-bike trails, and there was no such thing as the western County at all. Dulles Airport was seen as a white elephant that nobody wanted to fly out of and airlines didn't want to fly into. While McLean was already by this time decades into its history as a notable and reputable community, Vienna was still hicksville -- a behind-the-times and outside-the-beltway backwater that people knew of but rarely had anything to do with.

I would say that my moving at about this time from McLean to the Vienna/Oakton area changed all that, but in actuality, there were probably more significant factors that came along, such as the opening of I-66 inside the Beltway in 1982 and the arrival of Metro four years later. That put a commute into DC (still the dominant pattern at the time) at about 30 minutes, basically on par with many of the inner suburbs. The subsequent growth and success of both the Tysons business district and the Dulles Tech Corridor also made a big difference, such that Vienna today is no longer any remote outpost at all, but rather a comfortable and picturesque community set at the heart of NoVa's economic and cultural landscape. But that is all a relatively recent thing. McLean was once a relatively recent thing as well, but it got there perhaps 50-60 years before Vienna, and has deservedly maintained its top-drawer reputation since. McLean was already a highly regarded address when Vienna was still centered along Church Street, and that lack of any long-standing reputation and tradition is what I meant by Vienna's having a history, but not necessarily a past...

[JD984]

Originally Posted by saganista

McLean was already a highly regarded address when Vienna was still centered along Church Street, and that lack of any long-standing reputation and tradition is what I meant by Vienna's having a history, but not necessarily a past...

It's an interesting turn-of-phrase, although it sounds a bit like "Faux Faulkner" to me.

In any event, Vienna, while never as upscale as McLean, was already considered an affluent and desirable part of Fairfax County back in the early 1970s - keeping in mind that the entire region was considerably less diverse (both economically and in other respects) back then. The disparities in incomes and the perceptions of the local schools, for example, was far less pronounced.

[saganista]

Well, Vienna moved the town center off of Church Street and onto the newly-widened Maple Avenue in the late 1950's. At that point Tyson's Corner (it still had the apostrophe then) was a dusty, at-grade intersection with a gas station and a general store. Vienna wasn't much at all yet, but McLean was already a well-noted upscale community with many well-known residents.

By the early 1970's, Vienna had been built out significantly and was into the early stages of its blossoming. Something of the suburban "new frontier" at that time. It was still however very much of an outside-the-beltway hinterland, with cows and goats and in some areas at least, free-range chickens of a sometimes ornery sort.

Haven't found a picture of John McLean's eponymous railroad station, but below is a link to one from the early 1920's of the Great Falls terminal. Cars made the run from 36th & M Streets in 40 minutes. The round-trip fare was 35 cents.

Great Falls Railroad Station

[Caladium]

Originally Posted by cdmurphy

Do it! I have something to contribute.

I'd like to see a thread like this.

[normie]

It's funny that McLean, Great Falls and Falls Church are areas we don't hear much about. Well, we do hear about the schools and about Tyson's Corner... but not that much about day to day life there. I wonder if we have any forum members who live in that neck of the woods?

[buildinginva]

Originally Posted by normie

It's funny that McLean, Great Falls and Falls Church are areas we don't hear much about. Well, we do hear about the schools and about Tyson's Corner... but not that much about day to day life there. I wonder if we have any forum members who live in that neck of the woods?

I live in Falls Church - what do you want to know?

[Caladium]

You live in Falls Church? Woo hoo--we need photos! I think we've had 3-4 different people moving here who said they want to see photos of Falls Church.

[saganista]

Yeah, but winter photos don't do a place justice. Wait till the trees and the flowers get going again...