Did you know back in 1950s, They wanted Dulles Airpot to be in Burke,VA?

Yes, thankfully its further out. Skyline Mall used to be where an airport was located. Then it became God awful Skyline Mall, now its a Target(Tarjet').

yeah, although it would have been nice to have a few less people coming from burke, nowadays.
that area is awful

Fairfax once had several airfields. Here's a good site for some:

http://members.tripod.com/airfields_freeman/VA/Airfields_VA.htm

I heard when they were planning the Capital Centre the first choice was off 395 and Edsal Rd where what is now Marlos but Fairfax County blocked it. Alexandria also blocked the Redskins stadium which would have been a much better choice than Landover Md, safer too

Woah, tripod is still hosting websites? I'm having flashbacks to 1997...

snowdenscold Wrote:
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> Woah, tripod is still hosting websites? I'm having
> flashbacks to 1997...


LOL! No kidding huh?

And how about the proposed Disneyland park in Haymarket.

The original site for Dulles airport is where Burke Lake is today. They had a lot of draingage issues (go figure)so they decided to build on the flat farmland further north. Since the land had already been taken by eminent domain the land was turned into the park we have today.

ws Wrote:
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> The original site for Dulles airport is where
> Burke Lake is today. They had a lot of draingage
> issues (go figure)so they decided to build on the
> flat farmland further north. Since the land had
> already been taken by eminent domain the land was
> turned into the park we have today.


I've always read that the Burke residents fought the planned airport and won.

­



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2013 07:22AM by chuckhoffmann.

There is a book about the history of Burke, I own it. In it is a circa 1950s map which shows the patchwork parcels of land the government acquired in hopes of building an airport in Burke. Eminent domain was never an issue, because as stated above the citizenry of Burke lobbied sucessfully to scuttle the idea. The location of the airport changed to Chantilly, where there was less friction; they just rousted some hillbillies off of cheap land. By 1958 the idea of an airport in Burke was done, and the previously acquired land was auctioned off, which as stated above,now is part of some sub-divisions and Burke Lake park. In 1962, Dulles Airport was dedicated. Kennedy gave a speech, and some dignitaries flew in from Newark on an Eastern Airlines jet. Eastern was the first airline to fly in and out of Dulles,officially. I worked an estate of one of the top dogs at Eastern Airlines who worked at Dulles when it opened, and culled his scrapbook. Within it are all the 8x10 glossies,and promotional material concerning the dedication and opening of Dulles Airport in 1962. Even a signed photo by Eddie Rickenbacker, still the head of Eastern Airlines in 1962...but I digress...

Hey Skav, what's the book name?

kevinbanks Wrote:
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> yeah, although it would have been nice to have a
> few less people coming from burke, nowadays.
> that area is awful


Where the fuck do you live? Burke is better than 90% of NOVA.

except for, y'know, murder............

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/news-releases/2009/021709suspiciousdeathinvestigatedinfairfaxstation.htm

http://fairfaxstation.patch.com/articles/police-businessman-s-murder-occurred-during-a-robbery

Ahem... Burke is not Fairfax Station. I agree Burke is a decent spot - it has crime just like everyplace else in Fairfax County but not nearly as much as some other locales. The trails back in the woods and around all of the lakes are great for walks and runs, the grass along the road always gets mowed, and finally some new restaurants moving in.

Gordon Blvd Wrote:
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> except for, y'know, murder............
>
> http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/police/news-releases/
> 2009/021709suspiciousdeathinvestigatedinfairfaxsta
> tion.htm
>
> http://fairfaxstation.patch.com/articles/police-bu
> sinessman-s-murder-occurred-during-a-robbery

Yeah those are from 2009, look up annandale, springfield, centerville, etc and see where more murders occured.

@GF - those are the ones that get solved LoLz
@fourleaf - yr analyzing my posts too much, my friend. Trust me - COMPLETE WASTE OF YR TIME :)

for the record, Station ROCKS as a place to live in. I just wanna see those murders solved.

And yeah, Station aint Burke.........it's BETTER ;)

except when you want food late....then you gotta go to Big Bite in Burke LoLz



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2012 06:24AM by Gordon Blvd.

I vaguely remember the debate about the location of Dulles. My dad was on the Fairfax Planning Commission for a number of years back in the late 1950s and early 1960s, though I don't know if he was directly involved with the location of Dulles.

I do remember, though, that the plans for Dulles were for a huge international airport, and there was some concern about Burke having enough space (even back then) for what was envisioned. Also, there wasn't the infrastructure around Burke. At the time, 123 was just a 2-lane road, as were all the other now-4-lane roads in the area. It was easier to put Dulles out in the middle of nowhere, and then build the necessary roads to connect it to D.C.

Any truth to Burke Lake once being the site of a landfill?

And the reason swimming isn't allowed is because of old trash leachage in the water.

Memories of Beautiful Burke Virginia is the name of the book I have.

In high school in the early eighties our big history project was a Burke history project. Back then there wasn't much to go and the teacher who assigned the project left before it was due. Some poor bastard who was the long term sub got stuck reading 150 papers that all had the same three facts.

I had a friend who lived in a house on a couple acres that fronted Burke lake. My band jammed outside parties there, took acid and fucked all night.

gfdghhg Wrote:
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> I had a friend who lived in a house on a couple
> acres that fronted Burke lake. My band jammed
> outside parties there, took acid and fucked all
> night.


So your band fucked each other???? FAGGOT ASSES!!!!

Nice Guy Eddie Wrote:
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> In high school in the early eighties our big
> history project was a Burke history project. Back
> then there wasn't much to go and the teacher who
> assigned the project left before it was due. Some
> poor bastard who was the long term sub got stuck
> reading 150 papers that all had the same three
> facts.

Since only one person would know what all 150 papers contained, I propose that the poor bastard long-term sub was you.

prevert the pervert Wrote:
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> So your band fucked each other???? FAGGOT ASSES!!!!

Bands were so ghey back then. They made all that noise in the garage to keep people from popping in and seeing what was really going on.

>And how about the proposed Disneyland park in Haymarket.

That is still remembered out this way - apparently they got pretty far in their preparations before it got vetoed by the locals. I think the rallying cry was that it'd have an adverse effect on the Manassas Battlefield, which it's pretty far from. They put up a gated community with a golf course instead.

skav Wrote:
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> The location of the airport changed to Chantilly,
> where there was less friction; they just rousted
> some hillbillies off of cheap land.

Annandale had been under serious consideration as well as Burke, but citizen opposition and concerns that land for future runway expansion would not be available drove the choice to build out west. They bought out and bulldozed the predominantly black town of Willard with most of the predominantly black town of Conklin (near present-day South Riding) being occupied as a materials depot during airport construction. Willard was named for Joseph E. Willard, a son of the man who owned the Willard Hotel in DC. The younger Willard had become one of the wealthiest men in Virginia and was a prominent area politico in the 1890's. He served a stint as Lieutenant Governor in the early 1900's as well.

Meanwhile, letters of condemnation were sent to 87 Willard area landowners in September of 1958. Just compensation came to an average of $500 an acre, with nearly 10,000 acres being acquired in all. The Shiloh church and cemetery (all five graves) were moved out of town at federal expense, but the rest of the 300 or so buildings were just knocked down. Runways now sit atop the rubble of what once was Willard. Landmarks such as Coleman's Corner and Horn's store are no more. No memory of Flora Croson's house. from which she operated the lone telephone switchboard for lower Loudoun and far western Fairfax counties. Nothing to recollect Miss Annie Middleton, who served lunch daily to school children who had not been able to bring one. Mobile lounges roll over the ground where once her good works were done.

But Dulles was not the first airport to operate out of Willard. The dual grass strips of the Blue Ridge Airport were opened by Herndon HS grad Harry Sager Jr. in 1938, and the field operated successfully until it was forced to close in 1942, as Sager could not afford to comply with war-time airport security requirements. Blue Ridge was one of the finalists for the name of the new airport as well, but then John Foster Dulles died. and a flunkie bureaucrat decided to honor him instead. The place really ought to be renamed.

I well remember Crossroads Airport, where Skyline Center is now located. I also remember the little pony ring that used to be in the SE quadrant of Bailey's Crossroads where you could pay a few bucks to have your kid ride a pony, before they built the big interchange there and obliterated it.