“Irish Exit” – Leaving a social gathering without saying goodbye. Also known as an “Irish Goodbye.”
Picture this. It’s Saturday night. You’re in your late twenties at a party with your friend. You only know a few people. It’s been over half an hour since you talked to somebody you knew. Every attempt to converse with strangers near the beer cooler had mixed results. Most of the time, you stare at your phone while the people you know engage in meaningful conversations. And then it happens: an idea. At that moment, you see the door to the apartment, with some delicious takeout and reruns of The Office within an hour in the comfort of your own home. You take your chance. You rush towards the door…to your freedom.
You did it. You performed an “Irish Exit.”
Now, you only have time to think about that brief moment before COVID-19 when a local Northern Virginia restauranteur performed the perfect LITERAL “Irish Exit:” Martin White and Fiona’s Irish Pub.
Fiona’s Irish Pub opened at 5810 Kingstowne Centre in May 2014 in Alexandria, across from America’s first Top Golf. The new restaurant replaced one of the area’s King Street Blues locations. Martin White, owner of King Street Blues, chose to shutter the barbecue and southern food experience for something more authentic to his native Ireland. White is no stranger to local eateries in the region. Arriving in the United States from Ireland in 1986, White quickly started working in the restaurant business at the Hamburger Hamlet. Since then, he worked his way up in the industry, eventually buying four King Street Blues locations and developing Donato’s Pizza (several still exist in the area). He became a U.S. citizen on St. Patrick’s Day in 1996 and served as the parade’s Grand Marshal that year. According to an Eater DC article, opening an Irish Pub has always been his dream. “My desire is to continue to pass my good fortune forward through ongoing support of the local and Irish community,” White said.
His wish finally came true with the opening of Fiona’s. From the start, the reviews and responses to his menu were favorable. White modeled the food and decor from his hometown of Dublin in a cozy and relaxed atmosphere. The description of the restaurant read:
“Catch the Irish Spirit at Fiona’s Irish Pub. Fresh, authentic Irish Fare—fresh seafood stew, lamb chops… 14 draft beers, 20+ bottles, extensive Irish Whiskey and Scotch collection.”
A Yelp review from “Marissa D” boasted about the restaurant’s family-friendly atmosphere on top of the Guinness stew and Dublin mixed grill. The restaurant maintained a four-star rating throughout its time in service. As the business owner, Martin commented on people’s food ratings on Yelp, from the positive to the slightest of negativity. Despite some negative reviews, the Dublin transplant operated well on the surface.
The Guiness Stew looks….good?
Things were going so well that White opened a second Fiona’s location on 23rd Street in Arlington’s Crystal City, along the busy row of restaurants in April 2019. According to an Arlington Now article, White stated that things were “going gangbusters” at the Kingstowne location.
Things were not going well. Fiona’s official social media accounts last posted on April 29, 2019, primarily about the opening of the new establishment. Within two months of opening a new location in Arlington, Fiona’s in Kingstowne closed without warning.
Patrons (and employees) came to work on June 10, 2019, to locked doors. A small printed sign on the door read: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, Fiona’s Irish Pub is permanently closed.” Their website also had a short message thanking patrons for their support. According to a report from Alexandria Living, an employee of a tenant next door did not know why they closed either. The biggest news was that the owner of Fiona’s exited the company. No explanation.
The Crystal City location on 23rd Street in Arlington was also closed, but they initially reported that it would reopen after resolving some issues with the building. To say the closure was unexpected and abrupt is an understatement. After everyone lamented the closure of their favorite local watering hole, questions began to arise as to WHY. Thanks to Nextdoor and Reddit, some of the proposed questions have answers.
Some users on Reddit said the lease was up, and White could not pay the high rent due to the raised prices in recent years. Others said it was as simple as a lease agreement. With the other Fiona’s restaurant closed, the questions kept coming. Some claimed he went to Florida to start fresh. User “Technoslave” had a much more concise (and plausible) reasoning:
“The owner absconded with rent money, plus whatever else, since I think October, probably back to Ireland. Landlord/Management/Owner of the property finally went through all the processes necessary to get the place shut down. Sheriffs came in and closed the place.”
Reddit User “Technoslave” re: Fiona’s Irish Pub Closing
According to a user on Nextdoor, Martin was over $450,000 in arrears on his rent “based on the judgment entered against him in Fairfax a few years ago.” If that is true, the opening of a completely new restaurant in a busy and expensive area of Northern Virginia makes it sound all too wild and financially irresponsible. But everybody has to dream. Mr. White dreamed a little too big.
Former Fiona’s location under construction for new “mystery” project, 2022.
Whether he left back to his home country or not, Martin White, the once-celebrated pillar of the Irish community in Alexandria, made an exit for the ages. To this day, no information exists on his whereabouts or location. Only months after its closure, the second Fiona’s location never reopened, with its reporting that it had closed for good by June 12. The location remained an Irish pub, albeit mediocre, called McNamara’s.
What happened to the Kingstowne location?
In February 2022, Fairfax Now announced that, despite delays, Chick-fil-A planned to open a 5,200-square-foot location in the former location of Fiona’s, a formerly popular Irish bar. Plans to build the Chick-fil-A at this specific location date back to April 2020, when plans were initially filed. The plans were to include a wrap-around drive-thru similar to the nearby Springfield location.
The new restaurant opened on May 26, 2022, with a balloon arch with black and white “cow” balloons, reminding you, amongst other things, that their advertising works. Eat More Chicken. The Yates gas station across from the new restaurant even put a large banner on the back of their garage welcoming Chick-fil-A into the shopping center.
Individuals who purchase food there can bring a receipt for special discounts. When I saw that, I couldn’t help but think of the George H.W. Bush “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard USS Abraham Lincoln back in 2003 when I saw. And for the restaurant chain, maybe the mission is done. If Martin White exited the area without a word, fast food chicken made an entrance that greets countless customers today. Unfortunately, the fast food chain does not sell Guinness stew or shepherd’s pie. That is a distant and fond memory for all who once went to Fiona’s.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. When you leave a party without letting anyone know this year, remember to do it without skipping out on the bill like Martin did.
It is the middle of March. Today’s temperatures crept up to 74 degrees, and tomorrow’s will be similar. After a freezing and dreary winter filled with lots of rain, this warmup, albeit way in advance for my global warming consciousness, felt amazing.
Twenty-one years ago, however, the weather in Northern Virginia was anything but warm. A massive system from Florida to Maine dropped a foot of snow in this region. The warm air and moisture from the Gulf region hit the cold air from western Canada with a shallow barometric pressure that yielded terrifying weather results. The storm caused 11 tornados in Florida and over 200 deaths after its hurricane-force winds finished ripping through the East Coast and Canada on March 14th. According to some news reports, snow drifts in Northern Virginia measured upwards of 12 feet in height. The storm left thousands of travelers and citizens without heat and electricity for days.
The Superstorm of March ’93, sometimes referred to as the “Storm of the Century” or snowicane,”did not have as significant an impact as many previous or more recent snow events in the region. The most recent event, the snowstorm of 2016, dumped over two feet of snow into the area. However, according to Accuweather, that snowstorm was not a Category 5 storm on the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) scale. Accuweather’s article on the event said the 1993 blizzard was “one of the most devastating storms of the 20th century.”
Steve Marvill, a senior forecaster for Accuweather back in 1993, said in a Washington Post article that the event “had all the conditions for a powerful storm. It was as if there was a hurricane, but in the winter.”
It certainly felt like a hurricane to many who lived through it. At the Gov. Harry W. Nice Memorial Bridge near Dahlgren, VA, the wind speed topped out at 73 mph. When the dust (and snow) settled, the storm caused nearly $6 billion in damage in 1993 USD. That’s over double the $12.8 billion in today’s money. That’s enough to build four new stadiums for the Commanders. That gives them four chances to win a game, right?
Unless you live under a rock, you probably heard about the recent news of the potential move for two major Washington, D.C., sports teams to northern Virginia. Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin reached a tentative deal two days ago with the NBA’s Washington Wizards and the NHL’s Washington Capitals (via Monumental Sports & Entertainment) to move the team’s sports venue from the Capitol One Arena to a “visionary sports and entertainment venue” at Potomac Yard in northern Alexandria. The proposed development would include a new arena for the two sports teams, as well as a practice facility, performing arts center, hotels, convention center housing, and shopping.
The proposed stadium/complex area (JBG Smith)
Naturally, most people in the area are split on the potential move. On one end, the location of the team at Potomac Yard near the new metro would mean potential job creation and a boom for surrounding real estate property values. With that, however, comes the traffic hassles in an already crowded area. This of course does not account for what D.C. natives feel for losing two major sports teams, leaving just the Washington Mystics, D.C. United, and Washington Capitals as the only pro-level teams vying for a competition in the nation’s capital. Mayor Muriel Bowser offered a very hefty counter offer which raised the eyebrows of locals wondering where the substantial figure came from.
A very poignant comment (AlxNow.com)
This would be a major deal for Youngkin and his administration. However, this is not the first time a pro sports team tried to play in Potomac Yard. In the early 1990s, then-Redkins owner Jack Kent Cooke attempted to move the franchise from RFK Stadium in Washington to “Kent Cooke Stadium” at Potomac Yard. The huge announcement came on July 9, just several months removed from what would be the last Redskins Super Bowl Win (a game I remember watching fondly as a 7-year-old). On that day, Jack Kent Cooke made the announcement with Virginia Governor K. Douglas Wilder for a plot of land in the approximate area where the shopping area resides today next to Richmond Highway.
Like today, the announcement was highly controversial. The Washington Post reported that many Alexandria-area residents and several City Council members expressed their distaste for the plan, adding that they were “angry that Wilder and Cooke hatched the proposal without consulting the city.” Given that the Metro official was also not notified by Youngkin or the investment firm about the newest iteration of the sportsplex, history repeats itself.
Cooke proposed a 78,600-seat stadium with plans to be ready for the 1994 season. Ultimately, the plan fell through after Cooke “rejected concessions that Wilder said were necessary to keep the proposal alive,” just three months after the initial announcement in October 1992:
“I still believe that Potomac Yard is an ideal site for the new Washington Redskins stadium. I thank the governor for his valiant efforts to bring this plan to fruition, but in light of the dramatic changes which were proposed that I cannot abide, I now have no further interest in the Potomac Yard site.” – Redkins Owner Jack Kent Cooke
Washington Post (Thursday, October 15, 1992; Page A01)
The Redkins later received their long-awaited replacement stadium in Maryland, Fed Ex Field, which is (in my humble opinion) a poor replacement for RFK and considered one of the worst stadiums in pro sports.
Will Youngkin forge a new history and ink a deal for pro sports history? Given what happened outside of Reagan National (just up the street from the proposed site) at Thanksgiving, I am personally finding it hard to fathom what would happen to the stadium when somebody like LeBron James and the Lakes comes to town. Ample parking has never been a strong suit for Alexandria, and I don’t see that happening here.
The Bunny Man may be the most well-known urban legend of Northern Virginia, but there is a lesser-known story about a creature that haunts a small patch of woods in the Fairfax County side of Alexandria: the Mount Vernon Monster.
The Mount Vernon Woods are in part of what was originally George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. A 1979 Washington Post article states the land was specifically within an “area where George Washington’s slaves once grew wheat and raised pigs.”1 Today, the woods sit right off Mount Vernon Highway, between two neighborhoods. Grist Mill Park sits on the southwest edge, and a golf course borders the northwest edge.
Approximate area of the Monster in Mount Vernon, Alexandria. (Google)
Unlike a lot of urban legends, there is no discernable origin story of the monster. It simply appears in the form of “nocturnal screaming” sometime in the fall of 1978.2 The screaming occurred only at night and was described in a variety of different ways from witnesses:3
They described the sound as something like a wild boar, really loud frogs, some guy blowing in a wine bottle, a barred (or hoot) owl, a broken microphone on a CB outfit, a parrot, a mouse with an amplifier, a strangled dog, the ghost of George Washington and the ghost of George Washington’s pigs.
Blaine Harden, “The Mount Vernon Monster,” Washington Post (May 12, 1979)
I don’t know about you, but I want to know more about ghost pigs.
A blog article from Sam Hartz also describes the sounds as “something like: “ooahkra-ah,” or “eeveakgoo-ah” or even “aaaoohauoa-ah-oo.”4 A short video about the Mount Vernon Monster recalls the testimony of an 11 year-old witness, claiming it seemed most active between midnight and 5am and the sound was so loud it would cause the windows to rattle.5 A post on Fairfax Underground forum posted, “[The sound] rattled windows. It was very deep and not like any animal I have heard and I had spent time in the outdoors. The sound moved quickly from one end of the street to the other . . . There were large woods with marshy land behind our home. It sounded like it came from that area most of the time.”6 Though the descriptions of the sounds vary, all of the witnesses agree that it was an out-of-the ordinary sound, and it was loud.
Spottings in the past occurred at the end of Union Farm Road and Southwood Dr. directly in the back of the Mount Vernon Woods. (Matthew T. Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
There are far less acknowledgements of sightings, however. The Washington Post mentions that Thelma Crisp, who lived nearby, reported “a creature in her backyard that stands 6 feet tall and walks upright.”7 Perhaps her account is why the creature seems to be closely associated with Sasquatch or Bigfoot. I was able to track down another sighting online, though it is not within the correct timeframe or area. Others within the correct timeframe and area mentioned strange occurrences, like rabbit hutches ripped apart, trees breaking, and even, in one instance, an impaled deer.8 One person even produced a recording of the sound his father made. Listen to it here.
Depiction of the Mount Vernon Monster. Most other versions closely resemble a classic “Bigfoot” character.
The brouhaha was so large by spring of 1979 that the Fairfax County Police got involved. They combed the woods, complete with searchlights and a helicopter, but found nothing. After the police search, the monster seems to have disappeared. There are no other records of the monster or any weird sounds in any official news sources, and there’s only a smattering of comments about it in forums and sites dedicated to Bigfoot research. As quickly as it appeared, the monster faded into obscurity.
There are posts on the Fairfax Underground that claim the monster was a hoax—that kids put speakers in the open windows of a house or in the woods. However, some posters insist that the monster was real, and that there was no way those sounds could be faked. Real or not, the monster holds a place in Northern Virginia lore—and reminds us of our fraught relationship with nature and the fear of the unknown.
Footnotes:
Harden, Blaine. “The Mount Vernon Monster.” The Washington Post, May 12, 1979. LINK.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Hartz, Sam. “Mount Vernon Monster Haunts Woods, Wrecks Peace.” Kentucky Daily Independent Newspaper, May 20, 1979. LINK.
Author Denver Michaels. “The Mount Vernon Monster.” YouTube, December 16, 2022. LINK.
D.N. “Re: Mount Vernon Monster.” Fairfax Underground, December 25, 2013. LINK.
Although summer is officially over, who says you can’t bring on the new season in style? Here is a very early fall playlist on books, film, and records — all with a NOVA connection.
As far as Northern Virginia landmarks go, the Pentagon ranks at the top. For many, it’s the MOST recognizable fixture of the region — a veritable symbol of the military-industrial-government complex we all tap into. If Northern Virginians are Romulus and Remus, the Pentagon is the wolf mother we suckle from.
…Anyways.
Most films that include the Pentagon feature it the same way. There’s a large, nondescript room with government seals and television screens on the wall. There’s usually a mix of military and civilian workers with one guy in a suit yelling at everyone. When I think of the stereotypical “Pentagon” in film, I look no further than 2007’s action blockbuster, Transformers.
Equally fake (but way more interesting), my first NOVA-inspired film or television show you should watch this fall is Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The film’s cinematography surrounding the massive ring pendant table inside the “Pentagon” is worth it alone. The insane conversations around that table throughout the movie are a joy (and a terror) to watch. Cue…any year in recent memory. WIRED Magazine called the film “Basically a Documentary.“
AF Archive/WIRED/Alamy
The war room, with its giant screens that any sports bar would die for, is another prominent feature throughout the film. The suits and the smoke swirling through the room’s dead air are marvelous. Looking at the table and the people who portrayed fictional (yet not so fictional) characters during Cold War hysteria is like seeing a bizarro version of the Knights of the Round Table — like Spectre from the James Bond movies or other nebulous evil syndicates surrounded by a cocoon of giant screens with world targets (why always Prague…what did they do?)
Just watch it. The Air Force general’s name is “Jack D. Ripper,” for gods sake.
2. National Treasure: Book of Secrets – Walt Disney (2007)
There are two levels of imbibing alcoholic spirits when you are approaching forty and have been a parent for a few years. The first has the adult drinking one or two alcoholic beverages in a relaxed atmosphere. In the end, these drinks make you sleepy (which you gladly oblige in fear of getting a four-day hangover). The second is what I like to call “Greater Than Two,” or the “I’m Going to Steal the Declaration of Independence.” Thank you, Nicolas Cage…you are truly a national treasure.
Although there are bits and pieces that seemingly feature Northern Virginia locales in the first National Treasure film, National Treasure: Book of Secrets features a set piece filmed on location at George Washington’s estate, Mount Vernon.
Screencap (Walt Disney)
In the scene early in the film, Ben (Cage) uses a no-so-clever ruse with his father (who fishes at night that close to Mount Vernon on the Potomac River?) to break into the President’s birthday party at Mount Vernon in order to corner him for crucial information about the supposed “book of secrets” hidden at the Library of Congress. There are secret doors and pithy dialogue throughout the 10-minute scene. According to the Mount Vernon website, the scene took a week to film. Playing off the success of the film, you can still book a “National Treasure Tour” at Mount Vernon where guests “hear stories about the filming, and learn how the locations were used during Washington’s time.” The cost is only $10 additional to the regular cost of admission.
Is the scene a bit hokey and hackneyed? Yes. Do I still find it entertaining? Absolutely. Say what you want, the National Treasure films are like downing Krispy Kreme doughnuts — completely empty yet utterly fulfilling.
3. Jack Ryan – Amazon (2018-2023)
After four seasons, Amazon’s hit show with Jim Halpert — I mean John Krasinksi — finally wrapped to moderate fanfare. To be honest, the last season was not phenomenal. As a lifetime fan of the Clancy series since The Hunt for Red October, I was a bit disappointed.
Why does a show that spent the majority of time internationally make the list? The first two minutes of the premiere episode. In the shot, Jack bicycles to work from his home in Georgetown to CIA headquarters in Langley in McClean.
Screencap (Amazon/Spy Culture)
Put simply, Jack Ryan’s bicycle route from Georgetown to Langley is insane. At one point he is biking from Georgetown to the Tidal Basin and back to Georgetown from the opposite direction before making his way to CIA Headquarters. It may be a 7-mile trek from Georgetown to Langley, but Jack’s route would add at least 5 more.
Sure Jack Ryan may have claimed Annandale is in Maryland and had him bike an asinine route from Georgetown to Langley, but the biggest flaw of the show was definitely that all of the escalators were working at a Metro station
Although the opening shot was actually filmed at the CIA, the end of the episode included this disclaimer (via Spy Culture):
If you want the full breakdown of his route, go HERE.
4. Mission Impossible – Paramount (1996)
Speaking of Langley, does it get any better than the nail-biting espionage scene at the CIA headquarters when Ethan Hunt rappelled from the ceiling to grab the NOC list? I especially love it because it truly dates the film – the NOC list was stolen on a floppy disk. It seems both dated and nostalgic at the same time when you watch it with 21st-century eyes.
“It’s a Unix system.” (Paramount Pictures)
I will die on the hill that action films peaked in 1996: The Rock, Independence Day, Mission Impossible, Twister, etc. It was the golden age and we didn’t even know it (But not Goldeneye…that was the previous year).
I always felt bad for Agent Donloe. The man just wanted some coffee to wash down the top-secret work. He didn’t need to be poisoned by a secret agent hooked up to a suspension system that looks like it belongs in a BDSM dungeon.
I have a pleasure room. (Paramount Pictures)
Although the exterior shots of the CIA Building are the real deal in Langley, the interior was filmed in the old London County Hall near the Westminster Bridge. It’s not quite as authentic as the Jack Ryan series because nothing was ACTUALLY filmed there, yet I choose to believe this is actually what the CIA headquarters up the road looks like from the inside. I have to tell you, I have been to many of the government buildings and Washington, D.C., and I am holding out hope that there are a few that have moderately interesting interiors.
5. Wonder Woman 1984 – Warner Bros. (2020)
Let me just go on the record before I even talk about it — this movie was very, very bad. I don’t even want to go into the specifics of it. I think we can all say that the high hopes were dashed almost from the very start. At least the mall scene filmed in Alexandria’s former Landmark Mall was neat. It was the perfect location. The scene filmed in the atrium and food court took advantage of the huge bank of windows and open concept.
(Warner Bros.)
The producers of the film decided to take the then-recently closed mall (Jan. 2017) and turn its largely vacant state into an 80s-themed mall that gave Starcourt a run for its money. I’m not sure how much money Warner Bros. poured into fixing that mall, but it must have been significant. The last time I was in the mall, it was almost completely empty save for the Chick-Fil-A at the top and the eyewear store at the bottom near the parking garage.
Taken in 2020 after filming wrapped for Woman Woman 1984.
Landmark Mall is completely gone now. I think we should think of it as burying the memory of watching this film. Great memories and cool locations, but not much else. Keep it as a historical document.
Can we just talk about how she and Steve stole a jet from the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum to make a nearly 6,000-mile trip to Cairo, Egypt? Ooof. Big oof.
Honorable Mentions:
The Americans – One of the best shows in television history has the Jennings’ living in the fictional “Falls Church Commons.”
American Dad – Set in Langley Falls, which I can only think is a facsimile of McLean.
Breach – Kind of stating the obvious, but I want to do a deep dive of this for a future post.
Mercy Street – Set in Union-occupied Alexandria during the American Civil War. Ted Mosby stars in a role where he isn’t simping on women. Refreshing.
One of my favorite movie lines comes in the middle of High Fidelity. In the scene, John Cusack’s character, Rob Gordon, recaps a date night with a local musician he hit it off with at his record store. After explaining the finer points of flirtation, he says this line:
“I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like… Books, records, films – these things matter.“
As much as I don’t agree with his character on several things (even if I have been told I can be grumpy and opinionated like Rob), I wholeheartedly am on board with his statement. These truly are the things that matter.
Although summer is officially over, who says you can’t bring on the new season in style? Here is a very early fall playlist on books, records, and film — all with a NOVA connection. Look at it this way – if you are part of the impending government shutdown, I’ve provided you with a few things to occupy your mind.
Part I: Books
All the President’s Men – Carl Bernstein and Carl Woodward
Before it was the incredibly gripping 1976 film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, Bernstein and Woodward published a book about their experience investigating the 1972 Watergate scandal.
Although most of the book/film takes place in Washington, D.C., the pivotal moments where “Deepthroat,” AKA Mark Felt, provided secret information occurred inside a Rosslyn garage off Wilson Boulevard that (unfortunately) no longer exists. Even if you know the story, All the President’s Men is always gripping. The New York Times called it “maybe the single greatest reporting effort of all time.” They may be right.
2. Silence of the Lambs – Thomas Harris
This is another tangential one, but SOME of the book takes place at the FBI Academy in Quantico. Sure, it’s the more mundane parts of the book, but it frames Clarice’s mindset for the search for Buffalo Bill and the trips up to the psych hospital where Hannibal Lector temporarily took residence. It’s hard to say the book is better because (unfortunately) the movie was so damn good. Both are incredible – read it then watch it. Afterward, try to sleep without thinking somebody is watching you with night vision goggles on.
3. Bridge to Terabithia – Katherine Patterson
The setting of this timeless YA classic takes place in the fictional town of Lark Creek, a rural locale in Virginia that can be described as “a car ride to Washington, D.C.” Some of the book is set in Washington, so one can surmise the fictional small town is somewhere in the outstretched parts of Northern Virginia. Make sure you read the book instead of watching the 2007 film. Yikes.
4. Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War – Tony Horwitz
As a long-time wannabe historian and occasional museum professional, I will always flock to any book about history. That goes double for books about the American Civil War. Acclaimed war correspondent Tony Horwitz traded the battlefields of Bosnia for the make-believe bivouacs of Northern Virginia in this brilliant piece of investigative journalism.
Americans have a strange love affair with the Civil War. For me, it was more about the battles and the heroism fought on fields I could see with my own eyes and much less on the many monuments and statues that caused so much familial heartache, pain, and frustration from protest picket lines to kitchen tables at Thanksgiving as of late. Tony Horwitz nails this dichotomy, visiting and interviewing “Soldiers” from battlefield reenactments primarily in Northern Virginia (Fredericksburg, Manassas, Fairfax Courthouse, etc.). A stand-out part for me will always be the hardcore reenactor who pissed on his buttons for historical accuracy:
“My wife woke up this morning, sniffed the air and said, ‘Tim, you’ve been peeing on your buttons again.”
Confederates in the Attic
That’s hardcore. Insane — but hardcore. If you haven’t, please read this. He passed away right before the pandemic, but his indelible legacy lives on. I wouldn’t say he was prophetic, but think about how many people today still say the Civil War remains unfinished? I bet a new edition of this book would have been incredible.
5. The Hot Zone: A Terrifying True Story – Richard Preston
Nowadays, most people do not want to hear about the origins of infectious diseases. Disregarding that, Richard Preston’s deep dive into the antecedents to filoviruses like Ebola, Margburg, and Ravn was an early 1990s best-selling book.
Preston devoted an entire section of The Hot Zone to what he called “The Monkey House.” It described the 1989 incident where lab workers discovered a viral relative to Ebola, known as “Reston Virtus,” in a primate quarantine facility in Reston, just fifteen miles away from the nation’s capital. Eventually, the U.S. Army and the Center for Disease Control were involved. Sound familiar? Although the planned film Crisis in the Hot Zone was never made, the project’s planned director, Wolfgang Peterson, later directed Outbreak. It’s a riveting read, especially in this day in age.
Honorable Mention:
The Walking Dead – Robert Kirkman
Spy – David Wise
Firestarter – Stephen King
More to come!
Next Up: 5 Favorite Songs from Northern Virginia Musicians
Internet trends are weird. More often than not, people who perform them for online audiences toe the line between entertainment and insanity. Are followers that important?
Everything from asking strangers on the street what song’s on their phone to stopping people for obviously staged tours of their apartments, I often find myself cringing as I’m scrolling through Instagram at night. And then there are the pranks. Internet pranks range from the kitschy stuff your seven-year-old watches to the moments that spark public outreach. Say what you want about Jackass, but they were innovators.
Tanner Cook, part of the YouTube channel Classified Goons, has amassed around 40,000 subscribers. Their videos primarily feature “IRL prank videos” that Cook is filmed performing. If you wanna know what kind of people the Classified Goons are, their video with the most views is titled “Fake Target Thug Employee Prank!”
So it should come as no surprise that Mr. Cook got pranked himself last week when one of his IRL stunts went horribly wrong inside the food court of a quiet Northern Virginia shopping center. Tanner was inside the Dulles Town Center Mall last week pulling pranks on strangers using Google translate. That was when 31-year-old Alan Colie of Leesburg pulled a semiautomatic pistol and shot Cook in the Stomach inside the Sterling Mall.
There are only two reasons you should be in this area: to go to the airport, or if you live there for some reason.
Cook was taken to the hospital and underwent surgery but survived even though he was in critical condition. The bullet pierced through his stomach and liver. Colie surrendered to the police and is in custody after the gunshot caused a mild panic inside the mall.
Video footage on Instagram (@thisismyu5ername) showed Colie lying on the ground of the second-floor food court. Tanner, commenting after his recovery, stated that he was “playing a prank and a simple practical joke,” noting that he clearly “didn’t take it very well.” Tanner’s father also made a statement on the news:
“They were making a video at the mall and trying to have fun with people and this guy wasn’t having fun,” added Jeramy Cook. “There was a phone that was around him and they were interviewing or talking to him, and he didn’t like it and he pulled out his gun and shot my son.”
The dad later said to ABC7 News that he forgives the man who shot his son. Despite this, Colie is still under arrest and charged with multiple felonies after the incident. It is unclear whether the YouTube influencer will also be charged for the events that led up to the incident.
A side by side comparison of Colie being arrested and the same spot over the weekend. (Offbeat NOVA/Matthew Eng)
I went to the Dulles Town Center over the weekend to see the spot where Cook was shot. The area where Colie was taken down and arrested is near a small convenience store and a Popeyes. A few guests quietly ate their food as I walked by. Nobody really seemed to notice why I kept staring at that specific spot near the massage chairs. It’s almost as if people were minding their business and wanted to be left alone. Imagine that?
Most families have some sort of communal food tradition that brings them together. Maybe it is a Sunday supper or spaghetti on Wednesday nights. My family always came together by eating Chinese dim sum on the weekends.
Originating from the Cantonese food tradition in tea houses, dim sum is a Chinese meal traditionally enjoyed during the “brunch” hours. Delicate dishes of shareable items, smaller than American appetizers and larger than a snack, are traditionally brought around to tables in steam carts for guests to choose and share. As such, dim sum is translated to “touching heart,” a term used to denote small food and the drinking of tea.
This alligator don’t want none unless you got bao buns, hun.
Unfortunately, finding good Chinese food (or dim sum for that matter) in Northern Virginia is hard to find. Let me clarify: I am talking about Chinese food, not Asian food. If you open the realm to all Asian food, there are myriad excellent options in the area. Chinese food, however, is less easy to find.
If you talk to anybody from Northern Virginia about Chinese food, they undoubtedly will say “go to Peking Gourmet Inn.”
Ok. Is the Peking duck there good?
Yes.
Is anything else?
No. Sorry. That’s a hot take, but I wasn’t impressed by its offerings outside of the Peking duck. What else is there? Peter Chang? Peter Chang is a chain that was impressive fifteen years ago. I’ve been to a few of his restaurants around Virginia, and I wasn’t wowed.
All of the good Chinese food in the DMV is in Maryland. If you read the Eater guide to the best Chinese food in the DMV, the first seven are in Maryland. If you want the best in the area, look no further than Noodle King in Colesville. Get the Hong Kong Fried Fish.
But if you are in Northern Virginia, I think I’ve found the best Chinese food (i.e. Dim Sum). Far superior to other area heavy-hitters Hong Kong Pearl, Mark’s Duck House, and Han Palace, Springfield’s Hot Peppercorn Asian Cuisine & Bar offers hot and fresh Chinese food at prices that won’t break the bank (unlike Han Palace).
This excellent restaurant is almost never mentioned, therefore it is a perfect qualifier for something offbeat. It’s not in Trip Advisor, Yelp, or NextDoor suggestions for local Chinese cuisine. But it’s better than anything else out there. Located in the far corner of a bustling shopping center (Springfield Plaza) off Old Keene Mill Road, the restaurant sits next to TWO busy grocery stores, Trader Joe’s and Giant. It would be easy to look past the restaurant in the ocean of vehicles and cart returns. But it’s there, and it is delicious.
For years, the space was occupied by Golden Hong Kong, a decent restaurant that offered select dim sum delicacies. In March 2021, chef Alvin Zhang took the helm and renamed the restaurant Hot Peppercorn, adding spicy dishes inspired by the Sichuan province.
Every time we have gone to the restaurant, it has been only half full. I think that is largely attributed to its location and not the quality of the restaurant itself. The space is well lit, clean, and adequately distanced.
Unlike most dim sum restaurants, you order your dim sum from a sheet of paper like a sushi roll order at a Japanese restaurant. There are no carts to wheel around your food to you. Although the restaurant takes a hit for authenticity, you are also almost always guaranteed your food is coming out hot and fresh each time. It also might explain why dim sum at Hot Peppercorn is served all day. I can’t tell you how many times we have been served lukewarm or cold dishes at other restaurants in the area.
Some of my favorites for dim sum are the fried taro dumplings (Woo Kok), sticky rice in lotus leaf (Lo Mai Gai), and of course, the Siu Mai.
The Xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, are not earth-shattering but hit the spot. They come out hot and fresh, which makes them delicious after slurping the pork broth under the chewy dough that surrounds it. Pair that with the restaurant’s tangy black vinegar, and they are a staple for your meal. When is Din Tai Fung opening a DC area location?
Unfortunately, there are only a few items my family has ordered aside from the dim sum. The lo mein (for the kids) was decent and the more “adult” gai see chow mein was crispy and flavorful. It just means I need to go back for more dishes, right? The fried calamari was another off-dim sum item that I would highly recommend. The batter is light and spicy — a perfect companion to the Jasmine tea they serve there. My wife loves the fried turnip cakes and the Sesame Shrimp (from the regular menu).
As always, you need to eat all of your dim sum with copious amounts of hot chili oil, which is unsurprisingly spicy at a restaurant of its kind.
For a restaurant not exclusively known for dim sum, Hot Peppercorn tops my list for the best Chinese food in the area. If you don’t mind suffering PTSD from the parking situation, I highly recommend this offbeat eat for a weekend meal shared with your family.
What comes to mind when you hear the words “Northern Virginia?” Maybe it’s something about the traffic or the job market. What else does everyone talk about when they live here, right? Maybe an image of high-priced homes and real estate comes to mind. One of the last things you would think about would be “weird and unusual monuments.” But here we are. There are several in the area that come to mind, from the oddly-themed statues in oversized business parks to the downright head-scratching advertisements of local businesses. These statues and monuments are often hidden in plain sight. Some have become local legends in their own right, with stories of their construction and placement toeing a thin line between truth and lore.
Here’s ten strange statues and monuments in Northern Virginia.
The Northern Virginia area is familiar to a diverse array of cuisines from around the world. Virtually anywhere you go, you will find restaurants to satisfy whatever your appetite may be.
If you are in the mood for the food of the Mediterranean, there is a place just down the street from the busy Tyson’s Corner area in Vienna called the Phoenicia Resto & Lounge. According to their website, the restaurant offers a “classic mezzo-style Mediterranean menu of dishes served in a laid-back environment.” Users on Yelp say the food served there is everything from absolutely “amazing” to “meh” and “just ok.” The hummus is a particularly good menu item, apparently. Part of that laid-back feel might be due to the large concrete model of a Phoenician ship directly adjacent to the restaurant.
The concrete ship is built on the top of a roof of an underground garage. The ship is decorated with an ornate mosaic pattern, with floral accents near the hull and a criss-crossed line pattern on either side of the ship. The sail of the ship is also an advertisement for the restaurant, with the business logo also proudly displaying the likeness of a Phoenician ship. The figurehead at the prow of the landlocked ship resembles an eagle or some sort of bird.
You can actually walk up a small bank of steps into an outside seating area and take pictures with the ship atop the garage. According to one user on roadsidemerica.com, the sail bearing the name of the restaurant was lowered in 2019. When Offbeat NOVA was there to capture the ship several months ago, the sail was thankfully back on.
Having a ship as your design with the restaurant’s name makes sense. Phoenician’s were the epitome of trade, culture, and intellectualism in their time, all bolstered by their maritime dominance. Need more proof? If you’ve ever had a chance to ride Spaceship Earth at Epcot Center, the most famous line of the entire ride is “If you can read this, thank the Phoenicians.”
The next time you are driving down Gallows Road on the way to mall, look to your left and thank the Phoenicians, or at least stop in for some of that hummus.
When the tin man embarked on a soul-searching quest in the Wizard of Oz for a heart, I doubt he thought his journey along the yellow brick road would take him to Lee Highway in Fairfax.
This “tin man” sits atop the Lee-High Sheet Metal building. HIs body is made completely of ductwork. A crude face with a smile is drawn on the unusually small statue. In fact, it’s small enough that the casual passerby would completely miss it while driving past. In recent years, it has shown signs of wear on the body, particularly its chest.
This particular statue should not be confused with the Tin Man Sheet Metal Fabrication, LLC, located in Manassas, VA. That particular business has a “tin man” in their logo, but no physical statue like at Lee-High Sheet Metal. The business is so proud of it that the statue is included in all of their advertisements at the front of the shop. Currently, the tin man is holding an American flag. If anything, the flag the statue is holding will help you spot it easier from the road.
This next one follows the same basic principle of the ductwork tin man.
Atop the Vinyl-Lite Window and Showroom company sign in Lorton, VA, is a stark white mannequin holding (what else, but) a window. The mannequin is wearing a uniform of the company — another excellent product placement. The sign sits facing north on Telegraph Road on the edge of the large property and showroom building. Looking back at Google Street images, the digital sign was erected sometime between 2009 and 2012 without the man atop it. The earliest date where the figure is shown is October 2016.
The property, like so many similar businesses, is adorned with American flags. According to the company website, Vinyl-Lite has been manufacturing and installing replacement windows for more than thirty years in the Lorton, VA, area. The mannequin is a reassuring message of their “personal, professional, and trustworthy local service.” Prospective customers know exactly what they are getting, even if they might miss that rather odd statue traveling along Telegraph Road.
You may have heard of the phenomenon of “spite houses.” These are buildings constructed or modified to intentionally irritate neighbors and developers. Although there are many around the United States, some of the most famous are located in Northern Virginia, in particular Alexandria. But have you ever heard of a spite flamingo?
According to urban legend, the origin of a pink flamingo statue the height of a basketball backboard is based on a disagreement amongst neighbors. The overly tall lawn ornament stands at least twelve feet tall along Franconia Road in Alexandria.
According to the Fairfax Underground message board, the statue has resided there for nearly thirty years. A rumor from one of the message board posters on Fairfax Underground solved the origin of the statue. The poster stated that someone in the county code enforcement office said that the owner of the house where the pink flamingo was wanted to make an addition to his home. The addition apparently required approval from his neighbors due to the size of the project. According to legend, the neighbors to their left declined, and Fairfax County told the homeowner that “in order to proceed, the addition would have to stay within (a certain amount of) feet of his home and no taller than (a certain amount of) feet.” In response to this, the owner put up the large flamingo conforming to the county’s specifications just to make the neighbor angry.
One commenter pointed out the story’s likely falsity because of the process for approval of new construction solely resting in the hand of the county, not neighbors. Either way, it makes for an interesting piece of Northern Virginia lore.
One particular user of that forum, “Hennessy,” said this about the statue:
“I like the flamingo. It sticks a finger in the eye of all the stick up the ass people who demand homes all be exactly alike.”
Fairfax Underground Message Board
In a historic neighborhood like Rose Hill, they are exactly right. Unlike a lot of other statues and monuments on this list, this one is assuredly something you can’t miss.
The Beyer family is no stranger to Northern Virginia. Don Beyer currently serves as a U.S. Representative for Virginia’s 8th congressional district in the heart of Alexandria, Falls Church, and Arlington. He previously served as the 36th Lieutenant Governor of Virginia from 1990 to 1998 and the United States Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein after that, from 2009 to 2013.
Before Don Beyer began his storied political career, Beyer graduated from college and began working at his father’s Volvo dealership. He and his brother eventually bought the dealership from his father, expanding to nine in the Northern Virginia region. Back in the early 1980s, Don decided to place a sculpture at the front of his Volvo dealership in Falls Church. He was inspired by the work of his uncle, Richard Beyer, a World War II veteran of the Battle of the Bulge who abandoned a career with Boeing to pursue his passion of art and sculpture on the West Coast. Beyer was known for his overly eccentric art pieces, including an image of a man grabbing the breasts of a fish in Des Moines, Washington.
After talking it over with his uncle, Don decided to commission a sculpture as an important landmark to the city. He ultimately chose a sculpture of a man feeding pigs, inspired by Richard’s family farm in McLean. The official title of the piece is “Man Slopping Pigs.” The statue was dedicated in a small ceremony on May 6, 1984. The statue is made of wood and dipped in cast aluminum.
The sculpture depicts a man feeding five pigs at a trough. The man’s tongue appears to be sticking out as he is feeding the hogs. Although the sculpture is meant to merely represent a fondness for Richard’s childhood growing up on a farm near Washington, D.C., Richard Beyer’s personal sculpture website database notes in their description of the piece that it may actually represent “five bureaucrats at the government trough.”
The statue sits on the on the corner of Beyer’s Volvo dealership today on West Broad Street in Falls Church, VA. Directly across from it at the Beyers’ KIA dealership sits another Richard Beyer original with a far more interesting origin. Unveiled at its present location on Gordons Street, “Man Eating Dog Food” depicts a life-sized man sitting down, eating what appears to be dog food from a can. Beyer described it as “our retirement plan,” whatever that means. Don’t ask Don Beyer, he doesn’t know or understand it either, apparently. From 2010 to 2012, the statue was placed on the streets of Lake Oswego, Oregon. The statue had obviously mixed reviews amongst the residents of Lake Oswego, with some loving It, while others simply confused by its intention. Why? Not only is the man eating dog food, he has a tail growing out of his backside as well.
The statue made its way to the East Coast in 2014, and was unveiled opposite Beyer’s other sculpture as a posthumous tribute to the renowned artist. Richard Beyer died in 2012. Some news articles speculate that the sculpture was inspired by the Great Depression and Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Others owe it to the wonderfully odd mind of Richard Beyer himself.
Either way, these two sculptures have made an impact on the Falls Church community and the Beyer family. Dan Beyer, grandson of Richard, was so inspired that he created two large bronze feet coming out the ground in front of the Beyers’ Alexandria, Virginia, Subaru location.
Statue of Feet at Beyer Subaru in Alexandria. (Matthew T. Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
Once again, we ask why? I think that will be left as a Beyer family secret. For us, we can drive by and simply enjoy the eccentric art installations.
Scrap Metal Cowboy on Gordons Road, Falls Church (Matthew T. Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
Just down the street from the Beyer sculptures on Gordons Road is a ten-foot-tall cowboy made out of sheet metal. This piece is an excellent compliment to the tin man made out of ductwork in Fairfax earlier on this list.
The cowboy is standing in front of the Dixie Sheet Metal Works building. His bright red and blue clothing, albeit faded now, is complemented by a head made of a wind turbine that sits beneath a cowboy hat. The cowboy is pointing to the south, perhaps to the main entrance into the building. His arm even has the likeness of an arrow. Given the proximity to the previous entry, one might assume the area along Gordons Road and W. Broad Street is a hub of roadside attractions. Two odd sculptures in one area is one thing, but three? That’s much more than just a coincidence. If you are ever in Falls Church, do yourself a favor and take a quick detour down the road to check out these interesting statues and sculptures.
Most people will know this next sculpture simply as the “Giant watering can.” The functional sculpture is located at the Holly, Woods & Vines garden center off of Richmond Highway in Alexandria, VA. The watering can is approximately eighteen feet tall and twenty feet wide. Several neon palm trees flank the watering can. In warmer weather, the sculpture actually flows water from its end into a flower pot resting in a small pond filled with water and decorative reptiles. Driving by, you can always see a customer or two marveling at the giant structure, especially when its flowing in the warmer months. The garden center also has a terra-cotta warrior statue in the middle of a gazebo among other similar lawn statues you can purchase.
There is an identical can and flower pot in downtown Staunton, Virginia. That sculpture was made by local artist Willie Ferguson in the 1990s. Ferguson has several sculptures in an around the Staunton, VA, area. One would assume the giant watering can in Alexandria is also Ferguson’s creation.
Sandwiched in between two large office buildings just south of the mind-numbing Seven Corners area is a small and unassuming statue of a fighter jet covered entirely with pennies. The sculpture, called “Pennies from Heaven,” is the creation of artist Courtney S. Hengerer of Alexandria, Virginia. The sculpture is in the middle of a sitting area between the two high rise office buildings, complete with benches, an archway, and some halfway decent landscaping.
According to an article in the Washington Post, the genesis of the project began back in 2007 as a campaign by the Crystal City Business Improvement District to commission artwork to commemorate the area’s connection to flight. In all, fifty works of art were commissioned, including “Pennies from Heaven,” in April 2008. The planes are reminiscent to other cities commemorating their history with repetitive statues, or “statue events:” think of the cow statues in Chicago, Mermaid statues of Norfolk, or the horse statues of North Carolina’s Outer Banks.
The artist, Courtney S. Hengerer, described her take on the statue as “sort of monotonous, but meditative.” In all, over 14,000 pennies are covering the sculpture. The original location of the sculpture was in Crystal City at the BB&T offices on 23rd Street. Many of the other sculptures were later sold off after the campaign ended. When the office moved to its current location in Falls Church, so did the statue. It resides there today for office workers to enjoy in the sunshine.
There is a statue in the heart of Old Town Alexandria that looks like something out of the television show Hannibal. A large bronze statue of an Elk stands atop the former headquarters of the Alexandria Elks Club on 318 Prince Street. The Elk is the unofficial basket of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, or “B.P.O.E.,” as its inscription reads directly above the elk’s head. The statue rests within the alcove of the building to this day.
The Alexandria Elks Club Lodge #758 was founded in 1902 when the organization purchased property on Prince Street. A new, larger lodge was opened the following year on 318 Prince Street inside the red brick building. According to the Alexandria Times, the elk was constructed in Salem, Ohio, and weighed half a ton. The elks planned to sell the building in 1983, and hoped they would take their mascot with them. Then-Mayor Charles E. Beatley, Jr., refused, saying it was part of the “architectural fabric of the city.” The building is now made up of high-priced condominiums. Elks Lodge #758 ended up settling on 7120 Richmond Highway, in the former building of the Jolly Ox (better known as the Steak and Ale).
Just down the street from Tyson’s Center Mall is a small single-family home that serves as the dental offices of Dr. Thomas A. McCrary, Jr. The charming building of the family business at 1954 Old Gallows Road is known as the “The Tooth House,” named after the “landmark six-foot statue” in the front garden. Dr. McCrary went so far as to market his business on a website of the same name. The molar sits the edge of the property partially hidden by several bushes. The tooth appears to be made of stucco, but definitely not concrete. A small wooden well is located in the background closer to the house. As far as emblematic statues that typify a business, this is our personal favorite in the area.
This was of course not an exhaustive list and could not cover the entire breadth of Northern Virginia. What strange statues and monuments make your list?
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.
Offbeat NOVA 