Reston history | Reston Now

County Board Supports Proposed Soapstone Connector Route Amid Concerns about Historic Resources

Published October 3, 2018 at 12:00PM

The project is expected to cut through several office park properties.

County officials seek to proceed with construction of the Soapstone Connector, a major road extension between Sunrise Valley Drive and Sunset Hills Road, amid concerns the path of the half-mile extension would disturb potentially historically significant buildings on Association Drive.

On Sept. 25, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted to support the county’s proposed route for $169 million project because buildings on Association Drive are not likely eligible a historical designation on the national register. The board’s approval responds formally to a Virginia Department of Historic Resources letter that urged the county work with the Fairfax County Architectural Review Board (ARB) to determine if the buildings on Association are historically significant.

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Hunter Mill Road Historical Tour Set for Late August

By RestonNow.com

Published August 15, 2018 at 3:45PM

Want to learn more about the history behind Hunter Mill Road? Reston Association is offering a narrated bus tour conducted by local historian and tour guide Jim Lewis in late August.

The tour will take place on August 29 from 8:30-11:30 am. Attendees will get a chance to see locations of military forts, encampments, structures, cemeteries, mill sites and old roads. The tour will also stop by Confederate earthworks.

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Learn How Reston Defined Itself through Vintage Advertising

By Bridget Reed Morawski

Published May 2, 2018 at 3:30PM | Updated May 2, 2018 at 4:44PM

Reston received a lot of press attention back during its initial development stages, but what really helped attract people to live and work in Reston was the marketing, said local graphic designer Chris Rooney.

The Reston-centric advertisements of yore primarily ran in The Washington Post and the now-defunct Washington Evening Star.

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Reston Historic Trust and Museum Seeks New Leader

By Fatimah Waseem

Published November 20, 2017 at 10:15AM

Elizabeth Didiano is leaving her position, as she relocating. Didiano, who began her position in January, said is especially proud that she and the organization’s board of trustees were able to set RHT’s foundation to continue to grow as an organization and reach new audiences through programs and events.

“In 2017, we launched our inaugural Lake Anne Cardboard Boat Regatta, and I feel fortunate to have been a part of such a fun event. I am sure the new Executive Director with the help of the RHT’s Board of Directors and volunteers, will explore many wonderful opportunities to share Reston’s history with our community and beyond,” she said.

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Local Program to Highlight Buildings Under Threat, Preservation Challenges

By Fatimah Waseem

Published November 13, 2017 at 2:45PM

The event will take place on Thursday at 7 p.m. in the JoAnn Rose Gallery at Reston Community Center. The presentation will include an explanation about the National Register of Historic Places, the government’s official list of sites worthy of preservation.

Burns will discuss current issues in preserving the former API building, which was demolished last year to make way for a townhouse development project in Reston. The building was designed by 20th Century architect Marcel Breuer. The demolition effort drew vocal opposition from preservation activists and residents.

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Presentation Tonight Will Explore How Reston Was Created

By Dave Emke

Published September 20, 2017 at 10:15AM

Kristina Alcorn and Chuck Veatch will present “Meant to Be: How Reston Almost Wasn’t” at 7 p.m. at the Jo Ann Rose Gallery at Reston Community Center (1909A Washington Plaza). The public program is being put on by the Reston Historic Trust and Museum.

According to information provided by the museum, the presentation will “delve into the chain of improbable events and the forks in the road that paved the way for the creation of Reston.”

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Longtime Photographer Captured History of Reston Community Center

By Dave Emke

Published February 24, 2017 at 10:15AM

Reston Community Center recently bid a fond farewell to a woman who has been documenting its history for more than three decades.

Staff photographer Linda Rutledge, who had been with RCC since 1981, retired from the position last week. Leila Gordon, RCC’s executive director, said the impact Rutledge has had on the organization over the years has been practically immeasurable.

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Black History Month: Hudgins Family Found Acceptance in Reston

By Dave Emke

Published February 13, 2017 at 12:30PM

“[My two sons] went to school here, but schools were different. They were Virginia schools and we really did have to do some work as parents, as well as as a community. This community was very overt in saying to the Fairfax County school system, ‘Equity is not here.’ We saw overt discrimination and we had to speak up.”

“Lake Anne Elementary was the first school built here, and a group of families… realized that the history of Virginia that [schools were] teaching kids was not the history of real Virginia, and we don’t want our kids to learn just one side. This is not just African-American families, all families were saying that. ‘This isn’t the history.’ And so they went out and said, ‘We’ll help you create a curriculum, because this isn’t what we want.’ Those kinds of things took place often.”

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Black History Month: Looking Back on Simon’s Thoughts on Race

By Dave Emke

Published February 8, 2017 at 2:45PM

Robert E. Simon founded Reston in 1964 on the principle that it would be inclusive for all. Six years ago this month, during a Black History Month event at the Reston Historic Trust and Museum, a 96-year-old Simon shared some of his thoughts about racial inclusion.

His words, which are available on YouTube, are transcribed below:

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Longtime Reston Residents Release Kids’ Book on Local History

By Jennifer van der Kleut

Published November 1, 2016 at 11:30AM

“Reston A to Z,” a book by author Watt Hamlett and illustrator Jill Olinger Vinson, hits select stores today.

The book takes young readers on a tour of the community and teaches them the story of how it came to be, led by none other than its famous founder — who takes the form of an animal named Robert E. Squirrel.

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Hunt Club Residents Want Possible Slave Cemetery Properly Preserved

By Karen Goff

Published February 20, 2015 at 9:30AM | Updated February 20, 2015 at 11:45AM

Many residents of Hunt Club Cluster have written to the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Zoning to remember the possible slave cemetery in Reston when making the final changes to Reston’s Master Plan.

Here is what may be hiding in the woods, according to Hunt Club resident Heather Greenfield, a PR executive and former reporter who has been researching the site, calls Lake Fairfax Unnamed Cemetery #FX242.

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Reston’s Original Preschool Celebrating 50 Years

By Jennifer van der Kleut

Published January 22, 2015 at 9:00AM | Updated January 22, 2015 at 11:00PM

Early LANK Class/Courtesy of LANK

It’s not hard to find a Reston family with ties to Lake Anne Nursery Kindergarten. LANK, as the school is called, has been around nearly as long as Reston itself, and is celebrating its 50th anniversary in a big way in 2015.

And if you have ties to the school, they want you to be a part of it.

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2014: Reston’s Big Year

By Karen Goff

Published January 2, 2014 at 9:00AM

Simon likes to joke he only had to appease 3,000 residents when Reston was founded.

“And that was easy, because they were all cows,” he says.