Top 10 Unusual and Macabre Locations in Northern Virginia

By Matthew T. Eng, Offbeat NOVA

Memories are tricky. They can evoke past moments, which have the power to elicit smiles and triumph, or grief and sadness. Often these memories are tied to people and places. But what happens when the people and the memories have faded, but the places still remain? 

Here are our current top 10 unusual and macabre locations around Northern Virginia.

1. Franklin and Armfield Slave Office (Alexandria, VA)

Some buildings are left standing to remind us of the darkest parts of American history. Located near the heart of Old Town Alexandria, the former Franklin and Armfield Slave Office is a prime example of the importance of understanding our scarred and painful past. 

The building was the headquarters of the largest domestic slave trading firm in the United States, Franklin and Armfield. Isaac Franklin and John Armfield became the largest traders of enslaved African Americans between 1828 and 1836, selling between 1,000-2,000 people each year. Slaves from the Chesapeake Bay were sold in the southern states to markets in places like Natchez, Mississippi, and New Orleans in what many called the “Second Middle Passage.” Slave traders owned the property until the Union Army occupied the city in 1861. The building included horrific slave pens, which were later torn down after the end of the Civil War. 

The building, now a National Historic Landmark, currently operates as the Freedom House under the National Park Service. The Freedom House educates visitors of the harsh realities of the American slave trade and Alexandria’s role in it through first-person accounts of enslaved men and women and the surviving details of Franklin and Armfield’s business. 

If you go: The building and its historical marker are located at 1315 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA. Currently, the museum is closed due to COVID-19, but virtual tours are available online. 

Source:
NPS, Franklin and Armfield Office, LINK.
Historic Alexandria, Freedom House, LINK.
My Geneaology Hound, Vintage Photos of Franklin and Armfield Slave Pen, LINK.

2. Lorena Bobbitt 7-ELEVEN (Manassas, VA)

On June 23, 1993, Lorena Bobbitt, an Ecuadorian nail stylist, cut the penis off of her husband and ex-Marine John Bobbitt with an 8-inch carving knife. He remained in bed, too drunk to realize what had happened while she left in her car. She threw the penis in a hook shot arch into a grassy field next to a 7-Eleven while driving down the road in Manassas, VA. When the police finally found John Bobbit’s missing appendage, they ran to 7-Eleven convenience store and placed it into a hot dog container on ice, where it was transported to the hospital and reattached on John. The rest is history.

I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again: do you know what its like to eat a hot dog at the same place where mortified policeman put a severed penis on ice? Well, here’s your chance. Bon Appétit. 

Read our full Offbeat NOVA story on Lorena Bobbitt in Manassass.

If you go: The 7-11 is down the street from the Bobbitts’ former residence at 8174 Maplewood Drive in Manassas. The hot dog stand is there, but it’s currently self-serve due to COVID-19. 

Source:
Offbeat NOVA, “Lorena Bobbitt Revisited: Examining NOVA Dark Tourism in Manassas,” LINK.

3. Bunny Man Bridge (Clifton, VA)

If you read list of haunted or creepy locations in Virginia, the Bunny Man Bridge is almost guaranteed to be on it. Located in Clifton, VA, the bridge’s legend stems from a variety of incidents in legend and lore dating back to the early 1970s. Both involve a crazed maniac wearing a white bunny suit and attacking unsuspecting travelers with a hatchet. Most of these incidents occurred in or around the bridge. The bunny suit-clad individual is oddly enough best known for appearing on several occurrences off Guinea Road in Burke, nearly seven miles away on Colchester Road. 

It is also one of the few roads that I have seen that Google Maps did not record. Check Google Maps. You can’t see it—in fact, you can’t go beyond the yellow sign that reads “Dead End.” 

The bridge in question is actually known as the Colchester Overpass, which was built in 1906 near the site of a former station of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. The spot is a frequent destination for ghost hunters and general fans of the weird and macabre, especially around Halloween.  

If you go: The road is incredibly narrow at the bridge point in Clifton, VA, and surrounds several private (wealthy) residences. There is no place to park, so you will need to drive through it or get out and take pictures quickly, as it is known to be patrolled by local authorities, especially during the Halloween time period. 

Read our listen to our cross-post with the Uncanny America podcast HERE.

Source:
Offbeat NOVA, “I am Rabbit. I can be anywhere: The Legend of the Bunny Man in Northern Virginia,” LINK.

4. Fort Hunt (Alexandria, VA)

Located 11 miles south of the Washington, D.C., Fort Hunt began as a way to defend fortifications around the capitol sometime around the late 19th century. Today, its an open air park where you can play with family and friends and have a relaxing barbeque. If you look deeper, though, a more sinister history exists in plain sight.

During the Second World War, it was the location of a top secret intelligence station known simply as “P.O. Box 1142.” At this location, members of the American Military Intelligence Service interrogated prisoners of war, over 4,000 of which came in and out of the camp for the duration of the war. One notable prisoner, German U-Boat commander Werner Henke, was shot when he tried to climb a fence at the complex. The camp was found in violation of the Geneva Convention due to the failure of the Red Cross to be notified of the location of the prisoners. Veterans of the camp insist that no torture was used. 

If you go: Fort Hunt Park is located off George Washington Parkway a few miles up from Mt. Vernon. Go to the NPS website to plan your visit. 

Source:
Washington Post, “Fort Hunt’s Quiet Men Break Silence on WWII,” LINK.

5. Congressional Baseball Game Practice Field Shooting (Alexandria, VA)

On the morning of June 14, 2017, twenty-four Republican congressman gathered at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria, VA to practice for the upcoming annual Congressional Baseball Game for Charity. While they practiced, a man approached them and asked them if they were Republicans or Democrats. After they informed the man of their political persuasion, the individual left. That person was likely James Hodgkinson, who proceeded to open fire with a SKS semi-automatic rifle and 9mm Smith & Wesson handgun on the politicians and Capitol police officers playing on the field. 

The ten-minute firefight left several individuals injured, including U.S. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was at second base when the shooting began. He was shot in the hip and he tried to drag himself off the field in the dirt while the shooting raged overhead. Although critical, Scalise survived after several surgeries. Without the quick thinking of the police on hand, it could have been a bloodbath, according to Senator Rand Paul. 

The kids playing baseball there probably have no idea that a mass shooting and assassination attempt was made in such a quiet upscale neighborhood as Del Ray. 

If you go: The baseball field is located on 426 East Monroe Avenue in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria. 

Source:
Alexandria Times, “One Year Later: Alexandria Leaders, Residents Remember Simpson Stadium Shooting, LINK.

6. George Lincoln Rockwell Death Spot (Arlington, VA)

It’s hard to think of Arlington, Virginia, one of the wealthiest and most expensive cities to live in the United States, as a hotbed of hate. For a time in the 1960s, however, it was the epicenter of the Neo-Nazi/white power movement in the United States. The man leading it was George Lincoln Rockwell, a former World War II naval aviator who build a hermit kingdom of bigotry and hate at the top of Upton Hill Regional Park in a large house he affectionately called “Hatemongers Hill.” 

Rockwell was assassinated by a disgruntled former member of the American Nazi Party, John Patler, in the Dominion Hills Shopping Center on August 25, 1967. Rockwell was planning to do his laundry at the EconoWash laundromat when Patler shot him from he roof of the building while he sat in his 1958 Chevrolet. The car was parked in front of a barber shop. 

Today, very little evidence of the assassination exists and the facade of the buildings in the Dominion Hills center have completely changed. However, as late as 2017, a small group of supporters gathered at the site of his death to offer the requisite “sieg heil” salute in his honor. 

Read the full Offbeat NOVA story HERE.

If you go: The location is at 6035 Wilson Blvd in Arlington, VA. Upton Hill Regional Park is just down the street. The former building was built near where a gazebo is located today. 

Source:
Offbeat NOVA, “All You Fascists Bound to Lose: The Assassination of George Lincoln Rockwell, LINK.

7. Amy Baker Exit Cold Case (Springfield, VA)

On the night of March 29, 1989,  an 18-year old was driving south on Interstate 95 when her car started experiencing trouble. She pulled off from the road, abandoned her 1970 Volkswagen Bug, and began walking up the exit ramp to Backlick Road and the nearby Exxon Station at what is now Exit 166 today. It was then that an attacker forced her into the woods near the exit ramp, where she was sexually assaulted and strangled. Her body was later found two days later covered by leaves. 

This has remained one of the top cold cases in Northern Virginia. Over three decades later, the case remains unsolved, even with DNA available from the case. 

If you go: The wooded area is located within the loop of Exit 166 on Interstate 95. It is not advised to pull off the road.

Source:
Fairfax Underground, “1989 Homicide of Amy Baker,” LINK.

8. Weems-Botts Museum Haunted House (Dumfries, VA)

The Weems-Botts house began as a vestry for the nearby Quantico Church. It is named after two individuals who lived in the house, Mason Locke “Parson” Weems and Benjamin Botts. 

Weems, the first owner of the home, was a clergyman who wrote George Washington’s first biography—which also contained the famous cherry-tree tale. Botts, who bought the home in 1802, was an attorney who defended Aaron Burr during his treason and conspiracy trial. He  later died in the 1811 Richmond Theater fire, which killed over seventy people. The house is now within the Historic Dumfries collection of museums and historic places. 

The home went into various phases of disrepair and restoration in its long history. According to lore, spirits have entertained the household since the colonial period. There have been dozens of recorded sightings in recent years. One director of the museum said in an interview that guests heard the sound of horses during one particular ghost walk. Others smell an “overwhelming scent of a violet-type incense.” The site is a hotbed for local and national paranormal investigative groups. The house was also featured on a Biography Channel show “My Ghost Story” in 2021. 

If you go: The museum is located at the corner of Duke Street and Cameron Street in historic Dumfries, VA. Visit their website for information on hours and availability. 

Source:
Potomac Local News, “A Dumfries House Full of History, and Chilling Experiences, LINK.

9. Stoney Lonesome Cemetery (Lorton, VA)

A small cemetery was built in 1910 across from the former Lorton workhouse prison complex for the burial of male and female inmates that died while imprisoned there. The spaces were reserved for those who had no friends or family to claim them or provide a proper burial. The earliest graves included men and women who died from fatal injuries and diseases like the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic. 

According to the Fairfax County Library website, the cemetery is situation within a 100-foot by 30-foot stand of trees along the south side of an access road to a fishing pond. The rows all have grave depressions with approximately 50-100 total burials there. The depressions in the ground are chillingly eerie. There are no grave markers to designate who is buried there. The only thing there within the gated cemetery is a small sign that reads:

Stoney Lonesome Cemetery
Occoquan Workhouse  
1910-1997

Visit at your own discretion. 

If you go: This land is on private property. Visit at your own discretion. The nearest address would be 9414 Ox Road on the other side of the street. The cemetery is just up from Workhouse Road and the current Workhouse Arts Center. 

Source:
Atlas Obscura, “Stoney Lonesome Cemetery, LINK.
Fairfax County Library, “Stoney Lonesome Cemetery, LINK.

10. Gunston Manor (Alexandria, VA)

Charles Severance unsuccessfully ran for Mayor of Alexandria in 1996 and 2000 as an Independent. He also ran for Congress for the 8th district in 1996 to no avail. He was known to be “a bearded eccentric” at his campaign events, often becoming loud, outspoken, and violent. In a 1996 forum with Representative Jim Moran, Severance pointed the spiked finial of an American flag at him before running out of the building. In reality, he was an early outspoken predecessor to the unhinged paranoia that has taken hold of the followers of Qanon today. 

After his political career was over, Severance focused on murder, killing three people in the span of 13 years: realtor Nancy Dunning in 2003, transportation planner Ron Kirby in 2013, and teacher Nancy Lodato in 2014. All of them were shot in broad daylight at their front doors after responding to a knock. Investigators later found writings of Severance that detailed his methods, which he called “Knock. Talk. Enter. Kill. Exit. Murder.” 

His murders all took places within the same area of Del Ray, Alexandria, near his two-bedroom townhouse at 3452 Gunston Road. He called it “Gunston Manor.” The murder spree was likely caused by a lengthy and ugly custody battle of his child with his girlfriend, who lived with him at Gunston Manor. 

Severance was sentenced to life in prison plus 48 years. The townhouse remains today as a poignant reminder of the unbridled rage that once festered inside its walls. 

If you go: The townhome at 3452 Gunston Road is a private residence.