Fairfax County General :
Fairfax Underground
Welcome to Fairfax Underground, a project site designed to improve communication among residents of Fairfax County, VA. Feel free to post anything Northern Virginia residents would find interesting.
Thanks for the post, Kelly. Brings back some memories. I used to buy soda pop there as a kid, and we'd comb the ditches for bottles to bring in for the 2-cent deposit return. I remember you'd go in, facing the checkout counter, and if you turned right, there was a step down to the soda cooler -- there were some toys up on the top shelf there. I have this really strong memory of some kind of a toy race car in a nice display box up on a shelf at that step that I longed for, would go in and pine for it. Funny the stuff you remember. I didn't know it was a Marrs-owned store... no doubt from the Marrs family that lived around the corner down the block. They were cool, recalling they would sell firecrackers "under the radar" around the Fourth.
To Hooptie and bingo --
Skyway Market was located on Route One near the intersection with Boswell Avenue where the Walgreens and Hybla Valley Veterinary Bospital currently are located (uses inbetween included a gas station and in more recent history, Dunkin Donuts). It had some big competition in it's day at the next intersection down, Rangers Market. That was also on Route One, at Woodlawn Trail, now the site of a Firestone Store. Amazing how those little mom-and-pop neighborhood stores flourished along the highway in the 50s, sort of the 7-Elevens of their day. In fact, now I recall there was a 7-Eleven in that block in later years too.
Thanks. I go by there quite frequently (even go to that Walgreens sometimes), and I remember the Dunkin Donuts. Interesting to know what was there before.
I bet you're recalling Belle Haven Lodge, which was a low-rent, often long-stay motel nearby, in the next block south, far outliving the other use there that only survived until about the 1970s, Bills Used Cars ("For a real deal, see Bill"). Both the lodge and the used car lot were all part of the property owned by Marx Realty in New York. Belle Haven Lodge actually survived until very recent history, up until an asbestos removal project, then sold to a developer for Fordson Place Shopping Center, which had its grand opening recently. So I'm betting the "flophouse" you're remembering is now the little center with a Peet's Coffee and Tea, Hair Cuttery, Verizon Center and others between Boswell Avenue and Fordson Road.
Anybody remember the competitor used car lot a little further south, Ledbetter Used Cars? Do we still have little sole proprietorship used car lots where high school students today can buy a $700 clunker that will at least get them through the next inspection?