Have you ever had that feeling when you’re having a panic attack and your heart is jumping into your throat? You feel like you can’t breathe and your mind is spinning out of control? That’s how I would describe listening to the mathcore band Dillinger Escape Plan.
And honestly, I am probably being conservative with my explanation.
If you put on any Dillinger record, you are in for a wild ride. Throughout their twenty-year career, the New Jersey band brutalized audiences large and small with their aggressive blend of mathcore and metalcore, often using odd time signatures and elements of progressive rock, bossanova, and jazz intermixed with piercing vocals. They aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but they were for me. Their debut album, Calculating Infinity, is still in my goto rotation when I am mad at the world and just want to listen to somebody else scream so I don’t have to. If you ever feel that way, I highly suggest it.
If you were into underground or indie music in the early 2000s, you knew of two main bands you didn’t want to sit in the front for. The first was Les Savy Fav. Of course, the performances I saw were always electric and fun, but that didn’t stop the lead singer Tim Harrington from trying to suck face with you while wearing only underwear. The other was Dillinger Escape Plan. No, the lead singer would definitely not make out with you, but he might violently attempt to bash your head in with a microphone stand.
Anybody who saw Dillinger in the early 2000s knew to stand clear of the front, because everyone from the singer to the guitarists would repeatedly smash their instruments like weapons on unsuspecting fans. I can recall seeing a young fan get hit in the head with the backside of a guitar neck in the early 2000s. If metalcore had a “most dangerous band” award, they would be the undisputed winners. I only managed to see them a few times before they broke up a few years ago, but every time was both impressive and scary to watch. Who doesn’t like a band that keeps you on your toes, right?
So why bring this up on a blog for Northern Virginia history? Although their connection to the area is minimal at best (one of the original guitar players used to play in a seminal hardcore punk band in the early 1990s in the Hampton Roads area called Jesuit), an act of theft occurred in Fredericksburg in 2006 that LITERALLY lived up to their name.
On June 10, 2006, Dillinger Escape Plan traveled down to begin their tour in Fredericksburg, VA, at KC’s Music Alley, a medium-sized music venue just off the main downtown area of the historic district on Princess Anne St. The band was just a few days away from releasing a digital EP of cover songs, called Plagiarism. It was the first time the band had performed in the area since they formed. Needless to say, kids who attended the show were not ready. They did not get the memo about the front row that I had known about.
The band performed in their usual fashion. A YouTube video from user “Metal Nick” has the first two songs of that concert.
From their official press release of the show:
This was their first show ever in these parts and it wasn’t too much unlike any other Dillinger show prior. Greg climbed on the P.A., hung from the ceiling, blew fire… Ben swung his guitar violently and jumped off of his gear a lot. The band has been doing this for several years and it’s part of what people come to expect when paying to see DEP live. Any damages incurred by the venue always get covered from the band’s guarantee.
lambgoat.com
A few people in the audience apparently took the violent stage act as a threat of violence. Dozens of people huddled around their tour bus and threatened violence of their own against the band after they finished playing. Although nobody was hurt, somebody managed to snag fill-in guitar James Love’s guitar, a custom pink Ibanez, in the process. The thief only just managed to escape, as a member of fellow touring band Cattle Decapitation put a hammer through the window of his blue Cooper Mini. Apparently, the thief’s name was “Jeff.”
The Ibanez Guitar (Flickr)
I do not know if the guitar was ever recovered. If you look at age-old message boards on the topic (yes, they were very big in 2006), you will see everything from sympathy and anger to expressing that the band was due for a “good old fashioned ass kicking” anyway.
KC’s Music Alley is now known as “KC’s Music Alley at Central Station and is still open today. It seems like a typical sports bar and venue during the week. You have standard poker nights, comedy nights, and other assorted events reminiscent of similar venues. There is full restaurant there, as well. Feel free to visit them and get some loaded cheese fries or a “Central Station Burger” and think about that time you almost got your head sliced open by a guitar. Just don’t, you know, steal it.
This is the last of a three-part series on the an assault case that happened in the opening year of Washington Luna Park in 1906. Read the first article HERE. Read the second article HERE.
The facts continued to repeat in the newspapers. Ms. Gooding failed to identify the prisoner when she first saw him in the lineup. This was corroborated by four officers who saw her pick another man. The man she identified had been in jail since January of that year. She was also the only person to testify of the assault because Forrest Gooding had run away to the park gate for help. She also claimed to have throat bruises, but no physician was ever called to testify to that condition, and she appeared otherwise normal, if not a bit frazzled.1
“Do these facts seem to justify an impartial, unbiased mind in reaching a conclusion of guilt and fixing the punishment at death? Was not the alibi proved by a preponderance of testimony, or was it not certainly sufficient to raise in the minds of the jury a reasonable doubt of the prisoner’s guilt, and was not the failure to identify at once, at first sight, a fatal obstacle to the prosecution’s case?”2
Evening Star, November 14, 1906.
Clements fully believed in the man’s innocence. He wasn’t the only one. With the appeal put in place, the only thing to do was wait.
The answer came in the second week of December, just one week before Wright was sentenced to hang on the following Friday. On December 11, 1906, James Clements received a writ of error from the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals. That in the least postponed the hanging from happening the following week. The writ claimed that new evidence had been found and that the verdict was circumstantial and largely due to public clamor than actual evidence. The case went under review once again because of Ms. Gooding’s inability to recognize the individual at first and Wright’s strong alibi on the night of the alleged incident. The liveryman’s testimony that Wright returned to the stable around the same time of the incident made it very difficult to connect the two. Wright was hopeful he would get a new trial.3
The case was argued before the higher court on January 10th of the following year, with no decision made after the first week in February. Throughout this, Wright continued to proclaim his innocence. A decision was finally made by the Court of Appeals in Richmond in mid-March, which affirmed the decision of the lower court on a decision of three to two.4
Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 22, 1907
The next day, the Richmond Times-Dispatch ran with the headline “Court Divided, But Wright Must Hang.” The verdict could not be reversed in a case like this unless it was found that new evidence was insufficient to warrant the finding of the jury. The decision also stated that no new trial would be granted. The article ended with a haunting and foreboding warning for trials of its kind to come in the future:
“It is further stated that the guilt of the accused is purely a question of fact, and that if the witnesses for the Commonwealth were worthy of credence, of which the jurors were the exclusive judges, there can be no question that the verdict is neither contrary to the evidence nor without evidence to support it.”5
Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 15, 1907
John Wright was a dead man walking. Wright was sentenced to hang on May 31, 1906.
Interest in the case continued to grip the local community. Clements continued to fight for Wright. He went to work and prepared another petition to the court of appeals for a rehearing. More revelations came out regarding the other crime Wright was accused of, the murder of Jackson Boney. According to one report, a woman named Anna Green, a woman of “debased character,” accused Wright of murdering Boney when she herself was with Boney on the night in question near the Long Bridge that connected Virginia to the district. The details she offered authorities was “beyond belief,” and put Wright nowhere near either incident. Her testimony would have undoubtedly spread doubt to Wright’s conviction. Yet these facts and information were summarily dismissed from appearing at the case.6
In the midst of these appeals, it was reported in the Alexandria Gazette that Forrest W. Gooding had gone missing on April 26, 1907. Mrs. Gooding noted in the article that Gooding had been in a nervous condition since the conviction of Wright and that Black individuals in the neighborhood had “threatened to kill him.” No mention in the news was ever made of his reappearance.7
A small community movement began towards the end of May 1907 to present Virginia Governor Claude A. Swanson with a request to overturn the execution by hanging. Governor Swanson put another stay in the execution until August 30th so he could fully absorb all details of the case. It was decided by Governor Swanson on that date that he would commute the sentence, and instead give Wright a life sentence in prison. With all the facts laid before him, Swanson had in his official statement “a serious doubt as to the identity and guilt of the prisoner.”8
Wrongfully accused or not, Wright escaped the gallows but was resigned to live his life as a prisoner, not a free man, for a crime he undoubtedly did not commit.
THE END
The park continued to run for nearly another decade before it met its untimely end in 1915. On April 9, 1915, a fire destroyed the roller coaster. According to the Washington Post, “the origin of the fire is thought to have been from sparks from a blaze in the woods adjoining the park.” The closest fire stations were in Washington and Alexandria, so the park’s premier attraction was a total loss, even if very little else was taken by the flames. Regardless of this fact, the park was closed and dismantled later that year.9
The site of Luna Park today is the Arlington County sewage treatment facility. Nearby on the corner of Glebe and South Eads is an unassuming transportation marker hidden in a tree. (Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
Today, the land on the corner of Glebe Road and South Eads St. near Four-Mile Run is occupied by the Arlington County sewage treatment facility. No evidence of the park exists. Only a small transportation marker for the Washington, Alexandria, & Mt. Vernon Railway exists behind a gate and an overgrown tree. I couldn’t help but think how close I was standing to the incident with John Wright and Mable Risley on a warm evening in the later summer of 1906.
I wanted to come out of my research on this once beautiful park with sanguine thoughts and waves of nostalgia. Instead, I have very mixed emotions about the park’s legacy. In the wake of the racially motivated violence we have witnessed in recent memory, I take pause and think about how many of these incidences have occurred in American history. Too many.
How many like John Wright were lucky enough to narrowly avoid the gallows? How many more were lynched without the benefit of a trial? There are multiple examples in the area when mob mentality won out at the turn of the century. It’s sobering to think how little some things have changed over the course of one hundred years. With so much progress, society continually lags in the pack. All you have to do is read the news. It would be at least comforting to say incidents like that of Mr. Wright were unprecedented. But the world sadly does not work that way. Not then. Not now.
Forest S. Gooding Death Notice (Ancestry)
I don’t know what happened to John Wright at this moment in time. There are prison records in Richmond, but that will take time to find out at this time. Life was easy for the Goodings, however. Census records show that the couple settled in Wheaton, Maryland, in Montgomery County, shortly after the yearlong trial and commutation process ended for Wright. By 1910, the two had two children, including a newborn son named James. When the 1920 census was collected, the Gooding’s had four children. Forest Gooding died on September 23, 1929. Mabel remained a caretaker beyond her husband’s passing, dying in 1976.
But what happened to John Wright?
Should I look up Joseph Thomas or his more common alias, John Wright? These are questions I will ask myself self in the future when it’s safe to venture out and research more intimately. Rest assured, I want to bring some sort of closure to this story. I think John would want that — a slice of freedom he was never given. His story, like those both known and unknown by the public today, matters. His life matters. Especially since the only life he got was one attached to a sentence from a broken system.
Footnotes:
Evening Star, November 14, 1906.
Evening Star, November 14, 1906.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, December 12, 1906.
Alexandria Gazette and Virginia Advertiser, March 14, 1906.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 15, 1907.
Richmond Times-Dispatch, March 22, 1907.
Alexandria Gazette, April 27, 1907.
Virginia Citizen, August 30, 1907.
“Luna Park – 1915,” Arlington Fire Journal & Metro D.C. Fire History, June 24, 2009. Accessed April 24, 2021, LINK.
This is the second of a three-part series on the an assault case that happened in the opening year of Washington Luna Park in 1906. Read the first article HERE.
Forrest W. Suddenly Gooding took the stand on Halloween in John Wright’s trial at the Circuit Court of Alexandria county. He identified Wright, the defendant, as the one who assaulted them on the 9th of September. Gooding retold his side of the story to the jury and Commonwealth’s Attorney Crandal Mackey, whose job it was to prove Wright’s guilt. Mackey would later make fame in Arlington and Alexandria as a champion of prohibition.
Crandal Mackey (WETA/Boundary Stones)
It was noted in the Alexandria Gazette article that the two had been married in the month and a half since the incident.
A variety of other witnesses took the stand that day. Ms. Risley’s sister, Mamie L. Sullivan, took the stand to testify that she had, despite being happily married, been in “ill health ever since the occurrence.”1
Mabel Risley, now Mabel Gooding, took the stand in the late afternoon until almost six in the evening. She also identified Wright as the assailant who committed the crime. She also testified that Mr. Wright had jumped out of the underbrush, knocked Mr. Gooding unconscious with a club in one hand and a pistol in another before choking her, assaulting, and robbing her. Hannah Thomas, the common-law wife of Mr. Wright, testified that he had taken her out for a drive that Sunday afternoon, returning the horse and buggy to a livery stable between 8 pm and 9 pm.2
Testimony opened up on the first of November with Captain Edward S. Randsell of the Washington District jail. Randsell testified that the couple came to the jail on September 22nd to identify Wright. According to him, when given a lineup of Wright and five or six other individuals, she pointed to another African American man named Henry Johnson, alias “Alabama Joe.” A police officer with her let her know that that was not the correct person, and she correctly identified Wright as the accused after some gentle persuasion by the policemen, Officer Wood. Yet Randsell testified that Wright was not correctly identified first and that it was “not done properly.”3
More corroborative testimony happened that day in the defense of Wright. A total of four officers at the jail, James Corrigon, William A. Sword, Thomas S. Hope, and Captain Randsell, all stated that Mabel Gooding identified Henry Johnson as the responsible individual, and kept her eyes on him most of the time. The warden of the jail testified to not taking an active interest in the case, yet told Mr. Mackey that Mr. Wright should not sign papers presented by Mr. Mackey. He felt it was in the best interest of John Wright to seek counsel before signing anything presented by a Commonwealth’s Attorney. He was absolutely right. A cross-examination from Mrs. Gooding yielded little results.4
At 3 pm, Wright took the stand. He denied all charges, accounting for his whereabouts that evening. As corroborated in his wife’s testimony, Wright declared that he was driving when the crime took place. He denied ever owning a pistol. He noted that the policemen Wood directed Ms. Gooding toward Wright, asking her “Is this the man” after incorrectly picking him out in the lineup. She only identified him after he spoke. Wright also denied ever being near Luna Park. The Evening Star included a play-by-play of his testimony, going further into the allegations made against Officer Wood:
“He stated that he was arrested by Policeman Wood of Washington, and that the officer said” ‘I have got $100 on you.’”
Evening Star, November 1, 1906
The jury was then sent away to deliberate after the evidence and testimonies wrapped up around 8:30 pm.5
If you opened up the newspaper on November 2, 1906, you would see one of the local headlines read: “Joseph Thomas, Alias Wright, Sentenced to Be Hanged.”
Evening Star, November 2, 1906
At midnight that night before, the jury indicted John Wright for criminal assault on Mabel Risley, now Ms. Gooding. The deliberation only lasted forty-five minutes. The punishment was death. When asked if he had anything to say, Wright said nothing. The sentence was to be carried out on December 14, 1906, between 6 am and noon. The article noted that Wright “did not apparently realize the gravity of the penalty imposed.”6
A motion was put forth by Wright’s attorney, James E. Clements, to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial. This was immediately overturned by the judge in charge, Judge Charles Edgar Nicol. Clements moved for a stay of execution for forty days to allow counsel for the defense to prepare an appeal to the state supreme court. The judge reiterated that Wright had received a fair trial before “an intelligent jury.” At that point, the death penalty had not been conducted by Alexandria County authorities since 1873.7
One of the other attorneys for the defense argued that there should be some consideration as to whether a crime was actually committed, as it was shown that no rape has been committed. He arraigned Commonwealth Attorney Mackey for not trying Mr. Wright on the murder of Jackson Boney, something that was completely tossed out through the course of the trial. Mackey surmised that attempted rape was “punishable by death, and he asked that Wright be sent to the scaffold.”8
Circuit Court in Alexandria today (Library of Congress)
A reported for the Evening Star contacted defense attorney James E. Clements a week and a half later, asking him about the progress of Wright’s case. It was noted that the sheriff and Crandall Mackey had all but secured a guarantee for a December 14, 1906, hanging. Clements stressed he still had room for an appeal to Judge Nicol, and was in preparation to send the necessary papers to Richmond at the court of appeals of Virginia. He also said that he had not understood that “it was a part of the duty of a commonwealth’s attorney to personally assist in hanging a man he had prosecuted.” By then, the public in Alexandria County was well aware of the trial, asking if the swift verdict of a death penalty justified by the case’s shaky evidence? Why the haste?9
I love amusement parks. I love the smell of fried food, the ambient crescendo of screams heard on roller coasters, and the sounds of laughter amongst the tightly packed crowds. As a father, I try to give my daughter the same wonderful experiences I had as a kid in amusement parks. Some of my best memories were spent in places like Walt Disney World, Busch Gardens, Kings Dominion, and Six Flags.
When I found out that an amusement park once existed in the immediate D.C. metro area, I had to learn all about it. The initial reviews of Washington Luna Park were promising.
I wanted to know everything about a location that once declared itself the “greatest amusement resort west of famous Coney Island, New York.”1 Just a ten-minute trolley ride south from Washington, D.C., the park’s creators chose an ideal place to attract citizens from the entire region to have fun in the summer sun.
Unfortunately, pictures of Washington Luna Park are relatively scarce. I could only tell the story of the park through the newspaper reports. Thankfully, the Alexandria Gazette was a great place to start combing through the history of the park, from its opening day on May 28, 1906, to its demise nearly a decade later.
What was Luna Park?
Washington Luna Park (Arlington Historical Society)
The Washington Luna Park was one of many similar establishments built around the country at the turn of the century. The park was the brainchild of Frederick Ingersoll, a well-known jack-of-all-trades who excelled in business, building design, and invention. The Luna Park theme parks were a wildly popular and lucrative model for entertainment complexes around the United States. The best example that still survives today is Luna Park in Coney Island, New York City.
The January 15, 1906, edition of the Alexandria Gazette included an article on a “Proposed Park” that would offer residents of Northern Virginia and Washington, D.C. a “new place of summer amusement, in the way of a magnificent park.” Washington Luna Park was built and designed by Ingersoll, fresh off the success at Luna Park in Cleveland. He envisioned a new 40-acre park located “midway between Washington and Alexandria, near the Four-Mile Run powerhouse.” The park was estimated to cost $300,000 and would include approximately 75,000 electric lights, still a novelty for the era.2 It was designed to serve as a “trolley park,” meaning the patch of land it rested on along the Four Mile Run crossing ran straight past the electric-powered Washington, Alexandria, and Mount Vernon Railway that skirted the old water route of the Georgetown-Alexandria canal. The short trip between Washington and Alexandria meant visitors had a high potential of stopping at Luna Park for a day or afternoon of diversion.3
Alexandria Gazette, May 15, 1906
Opening day for the “Coney Island Near Washington” was set for May 28, 1906. The park offered scenic views of the river, daily concerts of big band music from a free outdoor hippodrome, a large outdoor picnic area for several thousand people, Japanese tea gardens, and saltwater taffy.4 No alcohol was permitted on the site. The lagoon in the park boasted 350,000 gallons of water. The biggest draw for the park were the rides. Although there were a total of thirty attractions throughout the trolley park, several stand out. The park had a figure-eight roller coaster, circus arena, and, most notably, a chute-the-shoots slide, a ride concept still in existence today at Kennywood in Pennsylvania.5 The ride had a 350-foot incline on it before it plunged into the large lagoon of water. Washington Luna Park was “a city in itself…equipped with the best gifts of nature.”6
Map of Luna Park (Arlington Historical Society)
Attendance was steady in the opening weeks. The park organizers had high hopes after the first initial flurry of visitors at the end of May that it would be the most popular theme park of its kind in the country. Organizers continued to offer the same amusements each day, with several relatively popular “B and C list” acts to draw more paying customers into the park. The Norins high divers, a well-known family of death-defying performers, took twelve dives a day in the opening weeks. In June, famous aeronaut Roy Knabenshue made scheduled flights in and around Luna Park on a six-day stint from June 12th to the 18th. For two ascensions daily, he was paid $1,000. By the beginning of August, the park was well on its way to making its first season both successful and profitable.7
THE EVENT
If you asked anybody who knows about the park’s limited history, they would most likely say the most sensational thing that happened in the inaugural year was the escape of elephants from the park in late August. Any mention of Washington Luna Park in papers or online articles mentioned the flight of four elephants (Tommy, Queenie, Annie, and Jennie) into Alexandria. The elephants “smashed a barn, decimated a cornfield, and trampled a graveyard” before being caught. All four elephants were rounded up a week later near Baileys Crossroads in what some call “The Pachyderm Panic of 1906.”8
After reading through several articles in the Alexandria Gazette about the elephant escape in late August of 1906, I was satisfied with the direction a proposed segment on it would take. For posterity, I decided to press through and see all news and incidences before the end of the first season in September. That’s when I found out about the unfortunate story of John Wright and his alleged assault of a woman at Luna Park in September 1906. Although the incident occurred over one hundred years ago, it felt as if it was ripped from our headlines today.
Less than two weeks after the drama of the elephant escape, a new challenge to the park’s reputation emerged on a pair of warm evenings in early September. On the night of September 6, 1906, two individuals were assaulted just outside of Luna Park’s grounds. Local D.C. resident Joseph Saddler accompanied Ms. Tassie Bywater from Rappahannock County to the park when they were both assaulted just after 10 pm that evening. According to the article on the “mysterious assault,” Saddler was shot in the neck and beaten outside the picnic grounds by an unknown assailant. The article stated that:
“There was intense excitement at the park when Saddler, with the blood spurting out of his wounds, rushed through the park gate, and in hand with Miss Bywater, whose clothes were literally covered with his blood.”9
Alexandria Gazette, September 7, 1906
The bullet penetrated into his body and lodged in his jaw. He also had visible wounds on his cheek and scalp. He later confessed that a black man came upon them while they were waiting for an Alexandria trolley car. The man began beating him on the head with a stone and fired the shot into his neck. According to Bywater, the blast was so close to them that the shot burned her, also splattering the wound’s blood all over her clothes. Although Saddler was confident in his own testimony, Ms. Bywater was unsure if “the man who did the shooting was white or black.”10
It was surmised in the news the following day that the assailant was “either a jealous lover of Miss Bywater or an angry relative,” not a black man. Just three days after the first assault reported at Luna Park, on September 9, 1906, another incident occurred nearby where the first took place between 8:30 pm and 9 pm. This time, however, the presumed aggressor would not remain unfounded.
According to the news report in the Alexandria Gazette, Washington-area residents Mr. Forrest Gooding and Ms. Mabel Risley were the victims of a similar assault. The article stressed that the assailant was once again “a negro.” They were reportedly beaten and robbed of their jewelry and $16 nearby where Mr. Saddler was shot.11
First mention of the assault (Alexandria Gazette, September 10, 1906)
Mr. Gooding and his companion took a stroll beyond the main gate that evening before deciding on a trolley car back to Washington. It was then that a “colored man emerged from the bushes,” and beat his head with a club. He then turned to Ms. Risley and demanded her jewelry and cash. She began to run when he pulled out a revolver and threatened to shoot her. He then grabbed her, “burying his fingers in her throat,” and “choked her until almost fainting.” Two gold rings, a pocketbook, and a watch were taken before the assailant ran off. Mr. Gooding did not witness any of the events involving his date and the assailant. Risley, who was “nineteen years old and attractive,” stayed in shock from the incident through the night. Both individuals were treated at a hospital for reported injuries.12
Authorities at the park had a competing story about the incident. According to them, no pistol was discharged, and both individuals were approximately a quarter-mile away from the gate. It was only after they were confronted that Gooding ran towards the park to raise an alarm. One of Goodings’ ears were bleeding at the park, but nothing that would exactly deem as serious head trauma. The park stressed that they were not liable for any visitors who strayed outside the confines of the park itself.13
One newspaper, the Evening Star, included some proposed dialog between the “colored ruffian” and Gooding. When Gooding supposedly asked what the man wanted after he popped out from a cluster of bushes, he replied that he was going to kill him. He then proceeded to hit Gooding in the head near the ear with a two-foot-long club. Stunned, the assailant turned to Ms. Risley, who was told at gunpoint to give him her handbag or he would kill her. He then lunged for the bag, grabbed it, and left. There was no mention of forced trauma to the woman, despite saying so earlier in the same article.14
A black man was arrested the following day under suspicion of being the attacker. He was held in the county jail. The next day, the Luna Park managers offered up a one hundred dollar reward for the arrest of those responsible for the “murderous assaults” near the park. The police believed the person who assaulted Ms. Risley and Mr. Gooding on September 9th was the same person who attacked Tess Bywater and Joseph Settle. The assaults were committed in almost the same spot, three days apart. Although Ms. Risley denied Mr. Gooding fired a shot at the assailant, she was still in shock from her abrasions on her throat and arms. Despite her shock, she was positive she could describe the perpetrator as “a negro of medium height, wearing black clothing” and possessing a “slight mustache.” In the meantime, the individual who was arrested had yet to be interrogated.15
The park closed for its inaugural season on September 22, 1906. Yet Luna Park stayed in the news for well over a year. The name of a verified suspect stayed out of the papers until October 8, 1906, when the Alexandria Gazette included a short article “On the Charge of Murder.” The African American individual’s name was Joseph Thomas, who also went by the alias of John Wright, found a week after the incident occurred in Washington, D.C. It was reported on the 8th that a requisition from Virginia Governor Claude Swanson for the removal of Wright to Alexandria county for a trial on charges related to the murder of another African American man, Jackson Boney. It was noted that Wright was also wanted on the charge of assaulting Risley and Gooding. At the time, Wright was being held in the Washington Jail.
From there, things escalated quickly. What began as an assault case for Wright became a trial for his life within a few weeks.
Footnotes:
Alexandria Gazette, August 7, 1906.
Alexandria Gazette, January 15, 1906.
Marty Suydam, “From Trolley Park to Sewage Treatment: Luna Park,” Arlington Historical Magazine, May 2016. Accessed April 24, 2021, LINK.
Alexandria Gazette, May 16, 1906.
Suydam, “From Trolley Park to Sewage Treatment.”
Alexandria Gazette, December 30, 1905.
Alexandria Gazette, May 26, 1906; Alexandria Gazette, June 11, 1906.
Alexandria Gazette, August 21-27, 1906.
Alexandria Gazette, September 7, 1906.
Alexandria Gazette, September 7, 1906.
Alexandria Gazette, September 10, 1906.
Alexandria Gazette, September 10, 1906; Evening Star, September 10, 1906.
This is an update to our January 23, 2021 Offbeat Eats article on the Taste of Asian restaurant in Gainesville, VA. You can read it HERE.
Fear leads to panic, panic leads to pain Pain leads to anger, anger leads to hate – “Danny Nedelko,” Idles
I have previously mentioned that I do not get to see my parents that often during this COVID pandemic. Although my parents moved up to the Northern Virginia in December 2019 from Virginia Beach, our plans to get together often were prematurely cut short due to the Coronavirus. Since then, this last year has only saw my family visiting my parents a handful of times. They are thankfully taking precautions as serious as we are.
Not everybody should be Florida…nor should they. Anyways.
We had a chance to get together this past weekend. If you read our brief Offbeat Eats article on Chinese food, you might venture to guess where I wanted to pick up food after our visit: Taste of Asian in Gainesville. My dad took out his take out menu from the restaurant and jotted down several soups, appetizers, and dishes for everyone to share. That of course included my personal favorite, egg foo young. My dad left the room to make the phone call to place our order while my daughter played with my mom. Several minutes later, my dad entered the living room from his office looking perturbed. When I asked why, he said he tried calling several times without an answer. Puzzled myself, I went to find the number on Google to make the call when I saw a short line of text written underneath the restaurant’s name: Permanently Closed.
It seems that Taste of Asian had closed between the last time we visited in late January and March 2021. When I told my dad, he lowered his head and held the takeout menu a little tighter. He seemed a little upset while he stared at the order he would never make. I knew why. He didn’t even have to tell me.
My father is Chinese. He was born in Hong Kong in 1951. He lived in a one room apartment in the slums of the city. No running water. No toilets. Yet, through all of that, his family was resilient. His father left his family when he was an infant to work in a Jersey City laundromat to save up money for his family to immigrate. Jesuits taught my father English in the meantime, and when it came time for my family to come to the United States, my father was armed with a love of the New York Yankees (something still many feel is distinctly “American”) and the myriad possibilities America had to offer.
Some Chinese call America the “Golden Mountain.” My family felt that way and took it to heart. Facing his own challenges of adversity, my dad worked hard and carved out his own path on that mountain. For him and countless other Asian immigrants of the “model minority,” I can only imagine how it must feel to see similar situations dashed due to Coronavirus. Sure, there are other businesses that have been forced to close due to the pandemic, but not at the rate and intensity of Asian businesses. And if you don’t believe me, there are facts and information. 2,800 hate incidences since March of 2020. Between February and April of 2020, an estimated 233,000 Asian-American small businesses closed. Restaurants, service industries, small businesses. There are two kinds of viruses that exist. One of the body and the other of the mind.
I can’t tell you exactly why Taste of Asian closed. I can only speculate. But if I have learned anything, I have learned to trust my gut. My gut tells me that this wonderful restaurant was another casualty to Coronavirus and a decline in sales due to the prevalent thoughts of the time. I felt compelled to drive out to the restaurant to see if anyone was there. It was empty. The owners left a lovely note about their fifteen-year business. It breaks my heart to pieces.
Taste of Asian Closing Note (Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
I’ve seen racist comments from friends and family over this past year. I was mocked to a degree as a kid. There were only two or three other asians in my elementary school growing up, so I know I stuck out like a sore thumb. A few bullies squinted their eyes and thought it was funny. Seeing those comments took me back to a place I never thought I would have to visit again. I’ve kept my mouth shut for the most part. I am upset and ashamed for not speaking up. I mostly did it out of respect for family members or friendships. For one, I think of my daughter. She may only be one-quarter Asian, but I want her as proud of her heritage as I am. You can’t fight hate with hate. Only knowledge and understanding.
What I do know is that Taste of Asian was a small family business. When we were able to visit them in person, they always gave us excellent service with a smile. They served excellent food, and I hate updating my previous post on their egg foo young by telling you that I’ll never have it again.
The egg foo young from the new place was okay, but not nearly as good as Taste of Asian’s.
We ended up supporting another Chinese restaurant down the street in Gainesville. Yes, we ordered the egg foo young. Unfortunately, it was not as good as Taste of Asian’s.
Stop AAPI hate. For more information, visit this LINK.
Offbeat Postscripts is a series of short posts where we cover small topics of offbeat history in Northern Virginia.
By Matthew T. Eng, Offbeat NOVA
When we started this blog in July of last year, I talked about the reasons we started the project. One thing that prompted us to begin this endeavor was, like so many other people borne out of boredom and the nearly infinite amount of time on our hands, a Netflix binge. For us, the binge-worthy show in question was Netflix’s Mindhunter.
Above all other shows I binge watched (or rewatched) in while in quarantine (Cobra Kai, Black Sails, Gotham, Stranger Things, etc.), I enjoyed Mindhunter the most. After all, it got both of us thinking about this project. As much as Holden Ford wanted to discover the psychology behind serial killings, I wanted to learn more about the history, legend, and lore of the area where I now call home.
Interestingly enough, that show happens to “take place” largely in several locations in Northern Virginia. I use the term “locations” because the majority of these scenes take place at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia. The academy is located in Prince William County. Quantico is a frequent location in many popular films and television series, including Mindhunter. Whether it be Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal, Criminal Minds, or the short-lived eponymously-named show on ABC, “Quantico” is never really Quantico.
(Top) “Quantico” from the Highland Park VA Hospital; (Center) Highland Park VA Hospital; (Bottom Left) Guard Station at “Quantico;” (Bottom Right) Highland Park VA Hospital from the Sky. Images: Atlas of Wonders, SetDecorators.org, Google Earth.
In the case of Mindhunter, the film’s third scene begins in Quantico as Holden heads back to train Academy students on hostage negotiation. The exterior shots of the building, all done up in perfect late 1970s nostalgia, was shot at the former Veterans Hospital in Highland Park in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.1 Looking at the images on Google Maps, I can see why producers chose the location: it is a large complex (168 acres) with ample space set within a small forest of trees on all sides for privacy.
The hospital, which opened in 1953 as a neuropsychiatric facility for World War II veterans suffering from PTSD, was officially closed by the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System in 2013, allowing Netflix the use of a relatively new abandoned property along the Allegheny River.2 The interior shots of the building were filmed at a place called 31st Street Studios, a few miles down the bend in Pittsburgh in the hip Strip District. The studio was also where the interior shots of Holden’s apartment in Fredericksburg were shot in the second scene of the first episode.
Looking at the actual building Quantico, you can see a small resemblance. The architecture and style is similar, reminiscent of the Soviet-style Brutalism that is either loved or hated by DMV residents. The doll-up passes muster, as does most of the production for the show. The budget was undoubtedly high, allowing them to take creative license within acceptable taste.
Entrance of George Washington Hotel in Washington, PA, where Holden and Debbie exit (Wikimedia Commons)
Also in the first episode, Holden has a drink with another instructor at an unnamed bar near Quantico. We only know that it is south of Quantico, because Holden later tells his future girlfriend Debbie that he worked “up the road.” Reading too far into it, one might assume the bar would be fictionally set in Fredericksburg near where he lived. The exterior location of the bar in question was filmed at the George Washington Hotel in Washington, Pennsylvania, just south of Pittsburgh where many other scenes for the series were shot.
So the next time you are in the “Steel City” and its surrounding bedroom communities, take a look and think about that show where Kristoff from Frozen is naked a lot and basically becomes a serial killer/sociopath by the end of the second season. You know, just normal thoughts we all have in quarantine, right?
Images courtesy of Atlas of Wonders/Filming Locations.
Footnotes:
Ra Moon, “Filming Locations Guide: Where was Mindhunter Filmed?” Atlas of Wonders, October 2017. Accessed March 3, 2021, LINK.
Bob Bauder, “Pittsburgh closing in on acquisition of former VA hospital in Highland Park, Trib Live, July 14, 2020. Accessed March 3, 2021, LINK.
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)
Franklin and Armfield Office (Wikimedia Commons)
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.
Interior of Slave Pens, Civil War-era (My Genealogy Hound)
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)
7-Eleven where John Bobbitt’s penis was not part of a combo meal (Offbeat NOVA)
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.
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)
Bunny Man Bridge (Offbeat NOVA)
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)
Memorial to P. O. Box 1142 at Fort Hunt Park (Wikimedia Commons)
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)
Simpson Field (Photo Credit: Louise Krafft)
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.
6. George Lincoln Rockwell Death Spot (Arlington, VA)
George Lincoln Rockwell Death Spot (Offbeat NOVA)
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.
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)
Location of Amy Baker Murder off Exit 166 (Google Maps)
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.
Amy Baker (Inside NOVA)
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)
Weems-Botts Museum (Wikimedia Commons)
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)
Stoney Lonesome Cemetery (Atlas Obscura)
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:
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.
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.
Charles Severance (Northern Virginia Magazine)
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.
“This is the way the world ends Not with a bang, but a whimper.” – The Hollow Men, T.S. Elliot
By Matthew T. Eng, Offbeat NOVA
When I was a kid, I didn’t eat out that often. Most of the meals I ate in the late 1980s and early 1990s were served by my parents at home, often around 6:00 pm with military precision. If we did go out to eat on an evening that: 1. Wasn’t someone’s birthday, 2. Wasn’t a parental work celebration, or 3. Wasn’t an easy alternative with friends our family from out of town, then we would most likely go to a chain restaurant. And you know what, I was okay with that. I’m still okay with it. Hell, even in these times of Corona, our favorite go-to is TGI Friday’s (don’t sleep on the cobb salad).
At some point between going off to college and starting a job, I noticed a large number of these restaurants began to vanish like a Marty McFly polaroid. While some of these establishments are still around and going relatively strong (Chili’s, TGI Friday’s, Outback), others are struggling (Applebees, Ruby Tuesday, Red Lobster). There are a few from my childhood, like Bennigan’s, ShowBiz Pizza, Pargo’s, and Chi-Chi’s, that are no longer around at all—relics of a forgotten past.
These are, of course, just establishments that are from my own personal life. A cursory look on Wikipedia shows nearly 100 now-defunct restaurant chains in the United States alone.
One of these chains that have not weathered the financial storms of the past two decades was Steak and Ale.
First opened in Dallas, Texas, in 1966, Steak and Ale was billed a casual dining steakhouse chain that would offer “an upscale steak experience at lower prices.” Popular dishes over the years included the New York strip, Hawaiian chicken, and Kensington club. Notably, it was also one of the first chain restaurants to have a salad bar. Several opened in Northern Virginia over the years, including at least one in Alexandria on the busy intersection of Kenmore Avenue and Seminary Road near Interstate 395.
Abandoned Steak and Ale in Alexandria, VA (Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
Unfortunately, there isn’t much information available online about that particular Steak and Ale Restaurant. One source about the property’s history said the familiar tudor-style facade was built in 1975, which was likely when the restaurant opened. The entire plot measured 34,848 feet, which included 91 parking spaces. one commenter on a website called menuism.com had this to say about the former establishment:
“Great location for a new restaurant. I say keep the building and decor and do something interesting with it. German Bierhaus?”1
menuism.com
The restaurant likely closed around 2008 when the company that owned Steak and Ale, the S&A Restaurant Corp, filed for Chapter 7, 2008. By the end of July 2008, all of the remaining Steak and Ale locations closed as part of the Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceeding.2
Although the restaurant chain folded over twelve years ago, the building and adjacent parking lot still stand today. The restaurant plot is located in the Mark Center area of Alexandria, an area that has no doubt seen better times. Much of the Mark Center of Alexandria is on the verge of reinvention and construction, which are just fancy words in Northern Virginia for “gentrification.”
The 6,800-square-foot building and its attached parking lot property, according to realty website XOME, is worth approximately $4,667,781 and was last sold in November 2013 for an amount of $3,835,348. The owner is a real estate company known as HSRE-Capmed Alexandria Land, LLC. The plot of land is now known simply as “Colonial Parking Station 483.” The increase in price and the eventual construction of Amazon just a few miles away in the upcoming years almost guarantees that the projected demolition will not only occur, but will occur soon.3 According to the Construction Journal, as of February 13, 2020, the project demolition of the Steak and Ale building on 4661 Kenmore Avenue is delayed still to this day. One other source online has put in an approved request to turn the area into valet space for the 91 car parking lot.4
Visiting the location today is eerie. The lot sits abandoned with a hotel, medical officers, and a shopping center nearby. Several apartment buildings can be seen across from Seminary Road near the interstate. Evidence of the valet parking is already evident, as there is one Colonial Parking sign near the vacant valet stand directly under the still-standing Steak and Ale neon sign. Any visible lettering has been removed from the large sign near the valet stand, but you can still see the rivets where the neon lighting for “Steak and Ale” must have connected to circuitry. Still visible beneath it, a smaller sign reads “Immediate Seating.”
The facade is in fairly remarkable condition, considering it has been closed and vacant for over a decade. The windows are boarded up and much of the roof has been stripped down to the wood. One can only assume there is massive mold and water damage inside. Signs for no trespassing dot the front facade of the building where so many happy families like mine once entered its doors to share a meal.
There is a elevated walkway leading to the other side of Seminary Road around the back side of the building. Walking up it gives you a great view of the still visible “Steak and Ale” sign, albeit faded, as it once displayed on the roadside. The lettering has been removed, but you can still see evidence of what it once was. in a way, that statement is reminiscent of the entire restaurant — with everything removed, those familiar with the restaurant chain could still pick it out easily.
Elks Lodge #758, formerly the Jolly Ox (Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
You will be incredibly hard pressed to see the inside of a Steak and Ale restaurant nowadays. Although the company, which also owns Bennigan’s, had made plans to revitalize the chain, we have yet to see anything of that bearing much fruit. Thankfully, one such establishment does exist bearing the bones of a former Steak and Ale off Interstate 1 in Fairfax County, Alexandria (7120 Richmond Highway). Back then, the restaurant was known as the Jolly Ox, as it was custom to remove the “ale” from the name in Virginia. Driving by it, however, you can see all the old familiar tudor-style facade wrapped around the building. The building is now the Elks Lodge #758. A look at the Lodge’s facebook page shows that they have retained much of the restaurant’s facilities, including its kitchen and horseshoe bar. Even during a pandemic, the Elks Lodge #758 regularly hosts weekly events, although it mostly sits vacant and unassuming during the day.
The Steak and Ale in Alexandria will eventually go away entirely. It’s property will be swallowed up by gentrification. For businesses, this is the circle of life. COVID has only accelerated the process.
I don’t get to see my parents much because of COVID, so whenever we do get together safely, it is an event. My daughter counts down the days before we head over there to spend some quality time with her grandma and grandpa. They recently moved into a Gainesville semi-retirement community from Hampton Roads at the end of 2019 when my father (thankfully) retired.
The first time we visited their house in Gainesville back in pre-COVID times at the end of 2019, we decided to go out to eat and celebrate their new and exciting future in Northern Virginia. The problem was we didn’t know where to eat. We did what anybody does in an area they aren’t familiar with: go immediately to Yelp and see what restaurant is rated best. For the area, the highest rated place in the vicinity was a barbecue joint called “JIMBO’s.” We figured we would give it a try. Hey, maybe it would be our new favorite spot to come when visiting mom and dad. Right?
Wrong.
We walked in, and the place was crowded. It smelled of smoke and the music was too loud. It looked like somewhere I would love to go to when I was younger and dumber. It definitely wasn’t somewhere you take your three-year-old. We walked out of there and kept looking in the shopping center off Heathcote Boulevard. It was cold in December 2019, so we knew we had to make some fast decisions. Thankfully, there was an asian restaurant right next to JIMBO’s called Taste of Asian. There were a few people in there, thus passing my dad’s “won’t go anywhere that is COMPLETELY empty, so we decided went inside out of the cold.
The first meal there was fantastic. Enthusiastic service. Hot food. They even gave Zelda some fried donuts, most likely because my father ordered so much food. THAT became our go-to place every time we visited my parents. It still is. The more we went, the more dishes we tried, until I found the one I can’t live without when I make a visit. Every time I visit my parents in Gainesville, I only have one thing in mind off their menu: egg foo young. I’ve eaten this particular Chinese-American fusion dish in almost every Chinese takeout place I frequent. I can confidently say, without reservation, that Taste of Asian in Gainesville has the best egg food young I have ever had.
What makes it so special and delectable for casual Asian-American diners and Chinese food purists alike? Well, it turns out that answer is a bit complicated.
As chef and food blogger Melissa Joulwan said in her excellent writeup on egg foo young, the dish has a “deliciously confused identity.” I won’t bore you with the history, mostly because she has already written an incredibly succinct one on her website HERE.
I like to get rid of the stigma that eggs are only for breakfast. Culinarily, that seems distinctly American, doesn’t it? Look, James Bond ate eggs for dinner quite often in the novels. You can, too.
As unique as the dish is, egg foo young falls in line with a lot of strikingly similar egg-centric dishes in Asian cuisine. The Filipino torta. Japanese okinomiyaki. Malaysian roti john. Indian masala omelette. Korean gyeran jjim. The list goes on.
While there are obviously variations to each of these, they all follow a similar pattern of some sort of egg omelette or pancake with vegetables, meat, and a sauce. Think of what you would normally get at your Chinese takeout place as another version of Americanized Chiense food, like Chop Suey or a crab rangoon (sorry if you think people from China people eat that).
The traditional ingredients include several eggs, onions, bean sprouts, cabbage, and some sort of meat to help bind everything together. The version at Taste of Asian skips a lot of the vegetables and focuses more on the cabbage, onion, and egg. In a sense, it somewhat resembles the okinomyaki previously mentioned. It is then fried in hot oil until crispy on the edges and soft and fluffy in the center. A gravy is made from the leftover oil using a simple flour mixture and served on the side to pour over the hot and greasy egg pancakes over rice.
It truly is a dish to die for, and you very well may die from it.
Let’s get one thing straight. This dish is absolutely delicious, but it does have its unintended (or intended?) consequences. The calorie count is not for the feint of heart. Looking online at a single serving of egg foo young will give you a sticker shock to say the least. Add in a healthy amount of steamed white rice and you have, at least for me, a once every few months guilty (and I mean guilty) pleasure. And trust me: it tastes MUCH better than it looks.
Egg Foo Young from Taste of Asian
When we first got the pork egg foo young from Taste of Asian, I was expecting to eat only a half piece. After all, the pancakes are as large as the circumference of a traditional round Chinese restaurant takeout container. I ate a full piece, complete with two helpings of gravy. I wanted more, but knew that would probably be a bad idea. Nowadays, I limit myself to a half piece on top of my rice with gravy. You can’t give a junkie a full fix all the time, right? By the end of the meal, my dad and I are fighting over the remaining pieces to take home for leftovers.
D E S T R O Y E D
I know this doesn’t need to be said, but if you are in the area, you should check out this restaurant. In fact, if you are looking for takeout, get one from an asian-run business. One thing that isn’t talked about is the negative stigma of COVID against asians, especially for Chinese. I shudder to think how many Asian-owned businesses have been negatively impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic. So, do yourself a favor and order yourself this heartbeat-racing comfort food (and a few others) and enjoy it with your family.
I’ve never been a big fan of golf. I think it’s honestly how I feel about most sports. I understand the appeal, and I can certainly appreciate it at times. But that does not make exactly like them. That goes double for golf.
I’ve tried. I’ve honestly made several attempts to like golf, either to make conversation with people at work or to impress my father in law. But I can’t. The closest I ever got to appreciating “the gentlemen’s game” is Tiger Woods Golf on the Nintendo Wii or Happy Gilmore.
Mostly Happy Gilmore.
When I first heard about the Topgolf brand of hybrid driving range and entertainment complex, I gave it little attention. I couldn’t get into what amounts to a modern day batting cages for upper middle class suburban whites. One recently closed right down the street from where I live across the street from the busy Kingstowne shopping center. I chalked it up to the economy at first. As it turns out, that specific Topgolf has an interesting history to the company itself, and the reason behind its closing highlights a much deeper symptomatic problem of northern Virginia businesses.
Brothers Steve and Dave Joliffe began the Topgolf enterprise in 2000 after opening its first location in Watford, United Kingdom. The brothers were fed up with the inefficiencies of traditional driving range and felt that a new, larger design would attract large groups of people would be better. They installed microchips into the golf balls and guests would hit them into large targets on the driving range field. The idea was simple: build a large driving range and turn it into a video game. While you’re at it, have a giant entertainment complex complete with televisions, food, and booze. Bingo. It’s a similar concept to the Lucky Strike bowling alley franchise.
(Alexandria Living Magazine)
They would quickly go on to develop two other locations in the UK. As excited as the golf community was for the redesigned driving ranges, the PGA was not. Eventually, an American investor was brought in, the WestRiver Group, to create Topgolf locations overseas in the United States. In 2005, they selected the first location stateside in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Alexandria, Virginia.
The WestRiver Group chose Alexandria as its location due to its close proximity to Washington, D.C. and the myriad government officials who frequented golf courses.1 They were right. There is no shortage of golf courses in the D.C. metro region, especially in northern Virginia. They built out a a facility in an already established driving range in the Kingstowne neighborhood of Alexandria in Fairfax County. The facility featured 70 hitting bays an two adjacent 18-hole mini golf courses. The total cost of the build was reportedly $4.5 million. The official opening date was Friday, August 5, 2005. An article on the opening of Topgolf Alexandria in the Washington Post pontificated on the joys of competing with your friends in a golf game while gorging yourself on “chicken fingers and glasses of wine.”2 God bless America.
It quickly grew to become a popular weekend destination for amateur golfers looking to improve their game and friends and family members looking to have a little fun. The modest 17.4 acre location was the perfect place for a date night or casual outing. The location prospered through the early 2000s. Unlike newer locations, this specific location ran on how the UK locations were run, which charges individuals per game rather than per hour.
By 2015, there were 28 locations located around the United States. Only one had the title for the first, and that was in Alexandria. It was the only location in the area. That is, until it wasn’t.
In August of that year, Topgolf opened its second location in Virginia, and the 21st overall, in Ashburn. The new 65,000-square-foot facility in Loudon County had 102 climate-controlled hitting bays, a full-service restaurant, three bars, and 250 flat-screen TVs. The rooftop terrace even had a fire pit.3 In essence, Topgolf Alexandria was stylistically obsolete. The Washington Business Journal reported to no surprise in October of 2015 that the landowner of the establishment had decided to end their lease with Topgolf, leaving the future of the establishment in flux. Then-Fairfax County Supervisor Jeff McKay noted how many complaints he received about the location’s noise and parking issues. He noted how “Topgolf needs a bigger facility but cannot expand on the heavily constrained current site,” As the report noted in the end of its litany of issues, Topgolf “had simply outgrown its property.”4
Things slowly deteriorated from there. There were complaints.
You can track the slow decline of Topgolf Alexandria by looking at its business page on Yelp. One person online commented that they “never felt more like my business wasn’t wanted.” Most people online were perplexed at the old system compared to newer ones they had already visited around the country. Some apparently just felt they were straight up confused with what to do once they walked in.
Top Golf Alexandria Complaint (Yelp)
The eventual nail in the coffin for the location came with the announcement of a brand new Topgolf facility in nearby National Harbor, Maryland. The location opened in the summer of 2019. A few months later, in November, the Washington Business Journal reported its closure of the Alexandria location, which included laying off nearly two hundred employees.
Apparently, the owner of the land on South Van Dorn Street filed plans a year before with Fairfax County to replace the site with townhomes, multifamily units, and commerce space.
In an official statement, Topgolf said the following about the future of their first location:
“In January, Topgolf Entertainment Group will be consolidating operations of Topgolf Alexandria with our nearby, modernized venues at National Harbor and Loudoun, as well as at our soon-to-be-opened, technology-equipped venue in Germantown — all serving the Greater Washington D.C., Northern Virginia and Maryland-area communities.”5
Topgolf Corporate Announcement (2019)
If Topgolf ran a driving range like a video game, then Alexandria’s location had the two words nobody wants to hear flashing across its building: Game Over.
Land is a premium anywhere in northern Virginia, and the parcel on Van Dorn street next to a busy shopping center is prime real estate for another mixed use development. You can almost see real estate developers frothing at the mouth.
(Washington Business Journal)
The announcement came with the caveat of laying off 198 employees by January 2020 at the Alexandria location. Naturally, the work ethic at the location slackened. One Yelp commenter as late as December 28, 2019, left a long comment on her one-star rating of the location.
“our sever sniffed our pitchers– like she put her nose in our pitcher– to determine which was the miller lite and which was the cider. What a disaster. Go to Maryland.”6
The lot has sat abandoned since January of 2020. In the new era of COVID, driving by the location is especially ominous. The Ruby Tuesday, under separate ownership, closed its adjacent location. This was not due to Topgolf’s closing necessarily, as it was announced in July 2020 that the restaurant group that owns Ruby Tuesday had quietly closed 150 of its restaurants since the beginning of the year, including the Van Dorn Street location.7
I recently back to work for three days a week. On my way to my work destination, I happen to travel down Van Dorn Street to hook up with the 495/I-95 interchange to points south. Every time I drove past the empty lot, I noticed more and more of it going away. Signs disappeared. Grass grew in unwelcome places. I didn’t know how long I’d have before it was either gone to development or swallowed up by the poor decisions of reckless teenagers bored in quarantine.
Somebody in the NextDoor app posted images inside the abandoned TopGolf on the grounds and in the hitting bays. From the picture he posted, it looked like the wear and tear was beginning to manifest. Although I was not as adventurous as this individual, I decided to bite the bullet and drive into the abandoned establishment’s parking lot to see what I could find.
In the halcyon days of Topgolf Alexandria’s glory, the clubhouse proudly displayed a sign that said “America’s First Topgolf.” The sign no longer exists.
(Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
I noticed a lot of visible graffiti on the side walls of the establishment. Thankfully, most of the front looked relatively in tact, all save a few windows on the top floor of the driving range. The miniature golf course is completely overrun with weeds and debris. Some of the sculptures and course obstructions are beginning to rapidly decay from misuse.
The landscaping looked decent enough with the beginning signs of neglect. You could see the neglect more in the areas around the parking lots, which were completely derelict. Ironic, given the headache it was to park at this place on a Friday or Saturday night.
(Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
Even though the walkway leading up to the driving range level of Topgolf was completely open, I didn’t necessarily feel completely comfortable doing so. I knew I would be the one guy who would get caught, so I stayed within the confines of a casual visitor instead of somebody violating trespass.
The Ruby Tuesday nearby is also completely abandoned. Unlike Topgolf, the signs still exists. Looking into the building, you can still see the seats and a few menus scattered about. No word on what will happen to that building, as it is owned by a separate landowner than the former Topgolf.
(Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
There is a police cruiser or security vehicle holding court at the end of the parking lot nowadays. I’m glad I got some footage when I did. Honestly, I bet the only reason it hasn’t been completely demolished by now is the ongoing pandemic. For now, you can still drive by the first Topgolf in the United States and remember the good days when the chicken fingers were in abundance and servers didn’t smell your beer. Maybe she was right. Just go to Maryland.
If you have a personal experience from Topgolf Alexandria, let us know in the comment section. We’d love to keep it as a document to an interesting piece of northern Virginia business history.
Footnotes:
Jason Notte, “The Topgolf Founders Fought Through Countless Rejections — and Built America’s Favorite New Game,” Entrepreneur, September 19, 2018. Accessed January 4, 2021, LINK.
Ellen McCarthy, “In Alexandria, TopGolf Livens Up the Driving Range,” The Washington Post, August 4, 2005. Accessed December 30, 2020, LINK.
Topgolf, “Topgolf Opens Thursday Thursday Morning in Loudon County,” Topgolf, August 31, 2015. Accessed December 28, 2020, LINK.
Michael Neibauer, “More information on the likely future of Topgolf Alexandria,” Washington Business Journal, October 20, 2015. Accessed December 27, 2020, LINK.
Michael Neibauer, “Topgolf Alexandria to close, lay off nearly 200,” Washington Business Journal, November 30, 2019. Accessed December 27, 2020, LINK.
Irene Jiang, “Ruby Tuesday has quietly closed over 150 restaurants since later January. Here’s a list of closures.,” Business Insider, July 8, 2020. Accessed December 30, 2020, LINK.
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