Hello Neighbors!
For my Girl Scout Silver Award project, my team and I assembled, sourced and documented research about the legacy of the Carper family and their relation to our neighborhood’s fascinating history – including its raw origins rooted in slavery and the Civil War and our long-storied past as a significant contributor to McLean’s founding and growth.
I learned that you don’t have to go into Washington, D.C. to see history. It’s right here – in and around our own wonderful neighborhood.
Did you know that Georgetown Pike was once an old trail used by Indians and explorers and was an unpaved toll road until 1934?
Did you know our nation’s first president George Washington traversed this area on his way to survey the Great Falls?
Did you know “Prospect Hill” – located on Bellview Road – was once owned by the Thomas Jefferson Carper Family (circa 1854) – an avowed pro-Union farmer who has a documented history of owning and emancipating some of his slaves and sending a least one former slave to live in safety in Washington, D.C. during the Civil War?
Did you know slaves once worked the fields here and throughout the area of McLean on other nearby farms?
Spring Hill Farm – located off of Spring Hill Road between Old Dominion and Lewinsville Roads – originally owned by William Swink 1800’s. The house was torn down approximately 2014 to make way for new housing in the Spring Hill Farm’s subdivision. Photo Source: Ancestry.com
Did you know the land upon which our homes now sit once had 200-300 Union soldiers camped out on it, and Confederate Commander John Mosby, known as “The Gray Ghost”, ran frequent raids within this immediate vicinity to disrupt Union forces?
Did you know that a thriving Black community called “Odrick’s Corner” developed after the Civil War at Spring Hill and Lewinsville Roads, and you can visit some of these historic sites today?
Photo dated 1873. This one-room schoolhouse was also used for community meetings and religious gatherings. Multiple accounts link Alfred Odrick to the establishment of this school. He was a former slave and respected landowner who donated 30 acres of land for the school.
Did you know Greenway Heights had a railroad running beside it for almost thirty years (1906-1934) taking visitors from Washington D.C. to the scenic Great Falls and that McLean is named after one of its owners?
Did you know two of these rail stops were located right at our neighborhood boundaries – one at the end of Bellview Road and one very close to the end of Kimberwicke Road – both on Old Dominion Drive?
Did you know Greenway Heights once had cows grazing here, and the farm property now owned by Robert and Debbie Glamb at the end of Riding Ridge Place was once a part of Fairfax County’s thriving dairy community from the 1920’s to the early 1960’s?
I hope you enjoy viewing all of the uploaded photos and historical documents and learning more about our area of McLean, VA as much as me, my family and my Girl Scout troop have enjoyed it!
My sincere thanks to the following neighbors, former residents, historians and Carper family descendents who kindly shared their time and historical documents with my team to complete this project: Mr. Robert Glamb, Mr. Howard Forman & Elaine Weinstein, Mr. Kent and Kathryn Colton, Mr. Chip Gasch, Ms. Rebecca Brooks from the Madeira School, Mr. Paul McCray from NOVA Parks, Ms. Victoria Thompson from the Fairfax Circuit Court Historic Records Center and Jessica Lawson, Great-Great-Granddaughter of Prospect Hill original owner Thomas Jefferson Carper and Lydia Slack Carper and Grandniece of G. Wallace Carper who built and owned the Carper dairy farm.
Sincerely,
Eloise Lorenze
Cadette Silver Project 2018
Girl Scout Troop 6963
Girl Scout Service Unit 50-6 – Nation’s Capital
