A Crossroads Through Time

A Crossroads Through Time. City of Alexandria Est. 1749. , Three roads formed this Fairfax County intersection by the early 19th century. Braddock Road, Middle Turnpike (later called Leesburg Pike/King Street/Route 7) and Quaker Lane were the wagon routes for trade between the port town of Alexandria and its western hinterland. This crossroads also provided a connection to another significant east/west trade route, Little River Turnpike (now Duke Street). While most rural crossroads developed a small commercial hub, the equidistant proximity of this area to Alexandria to the east and Bailey's Crossroads to the west appears to have stunted such growth. At the end of the 19th century, Thomas Terrett established a general store to serve locals until its replacement by Donaldson's gas station and store from the 1930s to the 1950s., A series of events during and after World War II dramatically changed this area and increased commercial activity at the crossroads. The decade from 1942 to 1952 brought construction of wartime housing at Fairlington and Parkfairfax, the opening of Shirley Memorial Highway (I-395), and the City of Alexandria's annexation of "The West End." A commercial hub formed here in the mid-1950s serving thousands of families in nearby "garden apartments" with a state-of-the-art Safeway grocery store and a strip-style shopping center. These "mid-century-modern" retail designs were fueled by their reliance on the automobile and featured expansive parking lots with car-friendly spaces. The significance of roads to this suburban way of life was underscored by the 1957 shopping center's name , Bradlee , for BRADdock Road and LEEsburg Pike., The Safeway Stores Company began as a Los Angeles-based grocery store chain founded by Sam Seelig in 1911. Merrill Lynch purchased the business in 1926 and it merged with the Skaggs Cash stores create a chain of 750 groceries. Primarily located in the western U.S., Safeway acquired the D.C.-based Sanitary Grocery chain in 1928. The first Sanitary Groceries started in Alexandria in the 1930s, and operated after 1941 under the Safeway name as small, neighborhood stores with less than 5,000 square feet at 1636 King Street and 1603 Seminary Road (now North Quaker Lane). The first Safeway opened here at 3526 King Street on August 18, 1955, with nearly 17,000 square feet and many amenities. Part of Safeway's rapid expansion to meet post-World War II demand, this store was one of 19 opened in the Metro area the same year. Safeway shoppers were greeted with innovative grocery technology, automatic doors, refrigerated display cases, and large frozen-food sections. The original Safeway was enlarged in 1967 and replaced with larger stores in 1982 and 2014., [Captions:] , In 1862 this area was characterized by the crossroads with the surrounding and divided into large parcels, including Cassius Lee's "Menokin" and the Virginia Theological Seminary. Middle Turnpike was laid out by a company in 1813 to connect Alexandria and Leesburg, but was not completed until 1838 with additional funds from the Commonwealth of Virginia. Over the years, it has been called Leesburg Pike, King Street and Route 7. Turnpikes were toll roads built by private groups due to insufficiency of county funds in the 18th and 19th centuries. The name was derived from a "turning pike", a turnstile with two pointed crossbars, that served as a barrier to enforce toll payments. Gates or toll booths, such as the one located at this intersection for Middle Turnpike, eventually replaced the turning pikes. This turnpike ended operation due to the Civil War and competition from railroads., Cassius Lee, an Alexandria merchant and Robert E. Lee's cousin, established the 125-acre estate "Menokin" in the 1850s. It included this land and extended west along Braddock Road. the land was used to produce market crops, such as apples, peaches and potatoes, and dairy products. The Lee country home was situated across the road from Virginia Theological Seminary, for which he was treasurer and trustee. Lee's uncle, the revolutionary Virginian and signer of the Declaration of Independence Francis Lightfoot Lee, had named his home on the Northern Neck "Menokin" almost a century earlier. This 1870 U.S. census notes two African Americans, Birney and Samuel McKnib (McKnight), residing in Cassius Lee's household. At this time, fie years after the Civil War, other members of the extended McKnight family lived in the newly forming black community near Fort Ward, west of "Menokin.", The development of Virginia's first superhighway, Shirley Memorial Highway (I-395), and Fairlington, a defense housing community, transformed the landscape in the mid-1940s. Both of these project were part of the larger war effort. The highway provided faster transportation for government employees to the Pentagon and Washington, D.C. The Defense Homes Corporation built Fairlington, a 3,439 rental-unit development, to house workers critical to the defense industries. Fairlington exemplifies a new "garden apartment" style, which featured clustered buildings around landscaped open spaces. Fairlington is listed on the National Register of Historic Places., African Americans lived in this area before the Civil War. Often enslaved, they provided farming, domestic, and construction labor at estates and two nearby educational institutions, the Virginia Theological Seminary and the Episcopal High School. During and after the Civil War, African Americans from western counties came here seeking freedom and opportunity. Many bought land and created African American neighborhoods, churches, and schools. Homes radiating out from this intersection along King Street, Braddock Road, and Quaker Lane formed clusters such as "The Fort" (now Fort Ward Park) and "Seminary" (including what is now T.C. Williams High School). After the congregation's formation in 1888, the first Oakland Baptist Church was constructed at this intersection in 1893. Rebuilt by 1940 after a fire, the church was renovated in 1999. It stands as a continuing legacy to African American heritage at the crossroads.