Historic Street Improperly Spelled?
Is it S-A-G-E-R or S-A-G-A-R?
By William Sagar
May 9, 2012
http://fairfaxcity.patch.com/articles/historic-street-improperly-spelled

It's a small street that begins at the steps of the Old Courthouse and runs a few blocks to Roberts Road. For those who know the rich history of Fairfax, however, Sager Avenue represents a spelling error in the commemoration of a once prominent family.

But correcting the spelling could lead to a host of problems for the city.

“Well, first we would need to prove the street had been misspelled.” Fairfax City Manager Robert Sisson said.

He added that misspellings can often be attributed to the lack of written records, or the lack of writing in general, where names may vary in spelling because of their phonetic pronunciations.

This was certainly the case with Sagar, phonetically pronounced (sey-ger). Over the years, the name was frequently recorded in land deeds, court cases, and government related appointments.

“We had a similar issue raised a couple years ago over the spelling of Willcoxon Tavern Ct.," Sisson said. "A man believed it should be spelled Wilcoxson. Eventually our records, as well as local gravestones, showed that the street was correctly spelled after all.”

The Sagar family first moved to the area from New York in the 1850’s. They buying a plot of land that stretched from Braddock Road to Little River Turnpike, encompassing nearly all of what now is the George Mason University campus.

Their house, which has traded many hands since, is a historical landmark. Historians say it was used as a station on the Underground Railroad, and later battled for as a hospital in the Civil War.

It has become notorious for its rumors of being haunted, and was featured on HGTV’s series “If these Walls Could Talk” in 2008.

Sharon Day, who was raised in the house, will be publishing a book entitled “Growing up with Ghosts,” this summer. Day recounts her mother, a local teacher and historian, referring to the Sagars as “one of the founding families of Fairfax.”

The Sagars donated part of their property to create the first Fairfax school, which has since become the Sager School for students with special needs.

Althougha good number of listings use Sagar, there were occasions when the recorder listed the exact same people under the spelling S-a-g-e-r.

“If our records have past residents listed under both spellings, it then becomes very difficult to tell who the street was named after,” Sisson said.

News reports covering the years of 1886-1936 offer 48 listings of the last name, all spelled Sagar. Even more significant is that William and Dolly Sagar, as well as their son A.J., were all at one time incorrectly listed as Sager, but are all buried side by side in Vienna’s Flint Hill Cemetery under the name Sagar.

“Fixing the street signs is only a minor part of the issue,” Sisson said.

There are nine intersections on the small road, which would require the replacement of 18 signs at an estimated cost between $200 and $300 dollars.

“The real impact is on the families that will have to change the address they have had their entire lives,” Sisson continued. “Then there are legal documents to consider, it can be really overwhelming. I imagine the city would get some push back from the local community.”
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If the city had the money to put up them quaint old timey streetlights all over town they should have the money to fix the street signs!

Isn't Sagar the guy who created Popeye?

@bob - didja even read the article? more to it than just replace signs. If this was 198-something back when we had monet to burn, it would have been fine. But it's VERY stupid to waste money on this now when the city fire dept is complaining it doesnt have enough money to do it's job............................

For the record, Flint Hill Cemetery is in Oakton. Flint Hill was the original name for the community before the old US Post Office Department made them change names because there were multiple Flint Hills in Virginia.

The city cemetery has like 9 Sager stones and 0 Sagar stones. Case closed!
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The evidence is overwhelming that it is a mispelling. Anyone attributed to having ever built anything in the city, including the first school for special needs, is buried at Flint Hill with the SAGAR spelling. And in terms of the money, they have it, and how would you feel if was your family name?

What did Minnie Sager do? or the other 8? Do your research

Demographics are changing. They want to rename it to honor Sagar Gupta.

Land records, Tax records, Census records, Military records are official and better than some fool walking around a graveyard with a smartphone.

Will Wrote:
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> The evidence is overwhelming that it is a
> mispelling. Anyone attributed to having ever
> built anything in the city, including the first
> school for special needs, is buried at Flint Hill
> with the SAGAR spelling. And in terms of the
> money, they have it, and how would you feel if was
> your family name?
>
> What did Minnie Sager do? or the other 8? Do
> your research


Sager is juvenile detention school ... "special needs"(?)

Kirby Wrote:
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> For the record, Flint Hill Cemetery is in Oakton.
> Flint Hill was the original name for the community
> before the old US Post Office Department made them
> change names because there were multiple Flint
> Hills in Virginia.

You know, I don't disbelieve this, but I do have to wonder why TF USPS created the Oak Hill post office (20171) in 1998 or so when there were already Oak Hills in Albemarle County, Page County, and Pittsylvania County. Maybe they forgot to check...

A search of FamilySearch.org for: [SagAR] [born in Fairfax, VA] [anytime] produced 21860 results. The same search for [SagER] produced 21860 results. I think they are interchangeable.

Does it really matter? Before the 20th century many people were illiterate and spelled names as they sounded. Name spellings often varied in same families

Does it really matter? After the 20th century many people are illiterate and spell names as they sound. Name spellings often vary in same families

9CvXN9 Wrote:
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> Does it really matter? After the 20th century many
> people are illiterate and spell names as they
> sound. Name spellings often vary in same families

that’s funny

Greybeard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kirby Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > For the record, Flint Hill Cemetery is in
> Oakton.
> > Flint Hill was the original name for the
> community
> > before the old US Post Office Department made
> them
> > change names because there were multiple Flint
> > Hills in Virginia.
>
> You know, I don't disbelieve this, but I do have
> to wonder why TF USPS created the Oak Hill post
> office (20171) in 1998 or so when there were
> already Oak Hills in Albemarle County, Page
> County, and Pittsylvania County. Maybe they forgot
> to check...


The only reason Oak Hill was created was the pretentious pricks in Franklin Farms didn't want to tell people they lived in Herndon.

Nova1 Wrote:
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> The only reason Oak Hill was created was the
> pretentious pricks in Franklin Farms didn't want
> to tell people they lived in Herndon.

Well, I misdoubt USPS built an entire post office just because of that, but indeed, I always used to laugh at the Franklin Farm (not "Farms") people who'd say they lived in Reston! "No you don't", I'd say, "you live in Herndon". Dirty look in response, but they couldn't argue.

There is documentation included in the article, and there is corroboration with the fairfax historical society. Sure, names get altered spellings all the time, but when you know the people who built several great institutions to warrant the street name are spelled differently, why wouldn't you change it? The mailman will understand, and if the two are indeed interchangeable, there wouldnt be a problem anyways.

Let it go. Within a year, it will replaced by Trayvon Martin Avenue, anyway.