Everybody has a specific type of parking lot they stop at on a regular basis. This is no normal slab of concrete and parallel white lines. You do not park your car there to shop. You are not there to pick up food. You are there to simply be there and think. Your car is on or off, depending on the weather. The car is idle, but your mind is moving. I call these locations “Thinking Lots.”
My little slice of heaven (Google Maps)
I have a thinking lot. It’s on the corner of Hayfield and Telegraph Rd. in Alexandria. It’s the perfect distance between my home and my job. Some mornings, if I have extra time before I need to be in, I will stop my car at this lot, roll the windows down, and drink coffee for a few minutes as I watch the cars go by. I often look around and find that I am not the only one that does this at the lot on the corner of Hayfield and Telegraph. Several cars, scattered about and equidistant to each other, have the same idea in those early morning hours. I have companions who also regularly frequent my own thinking lot. I must assume they would think the same of me. On some mornings, I will find a gentleman in a green truck taking phone calls and a man in a blue sedan leafing through what looks like paperwork. Mr. blue sedan will often pop out for a cigarette before hitting the road, likely to Interstate 95 or the Richmond Highway corridor.
I truly cannot overstate how amazing it is to have a place to collect your thoughts. To be outside, but inside. To have a shared experience of quiet contemplation or work catch-up is truly a blessing. If you don’t have a thinking lot, I strongly urge that you find one. I’ve always been interested in the utility of parking lots and their actual use vs. the intended use. For this particular lot, the major businesses in the small shopping area take up a relatively small footprint to the number of spaces provided. It’s perfect.
So you may ask yourself: What makes a good thinking lot?
Primarily off a major road or access point. Nobody needs to go out of their way, right?
A large enough lot that you can have at least 6-8 spaces all around you free from another car. Granted, this will likely only happen early in the morning or late at night.
Is there something to look at while you are thinking? For me, the road in front of me provides endless entertainment.
It is best to find a lot big enough to park in with as little traffic as possible from other cars. I have gotten a few stares from people in my time using the lot, but nothing to dissuade me from continuing to use it.
So find your lot. Park your car. Sip your coffee. Eat your lunch. Scream into your steering wheel. Take a power nap.
Do you have one already? I’d love to know where it is in Northern Virginia. I’m always down to find an auxiliary lot. You know, just in case.
Landmark Mall has remained closed near Interstate 395 in Alexandria, VA, for more than five years.
The mall, anchored by Sears, Lord & Taylor, and Macy’s, was opened in 1965 as the first major mall in the DC metro area to feature three anchored department stores. Over the years, the 675,000-square-foot outdoor center was eventually enclosed in 1990 to its current form.
That is until the wrecking ball came last Thursday.
On May 12, 2022, a small crowd of spectators looked on as a wrecking ball plowed into the Mall’s iconic sign at the top level of the food court. Seeing the news on social media, I traveled down Van Dorn road to snap a few pics of the demolition. By the time I got there, a giant hole was left in the building. If you looked hard enough, you can see into the top level of the food court. The neon sign was gone — and soon the Mall will be. But demolition is slow-moving, and it seems it will be a while before it is all gone. The location will be redeveloped into a mixed-use space, including a new INOVA Alexandria Hospital. I wanted to make sure I at least got all of the signs preserved in digital format, even though they will most likely be the last remnants of the old former location to go.
We will see if it stays that way. Sometimes, plans don’t work out. Remember when the first Top Golf down the road in Alexandria was supposed to be a mix-use facility? Nope. It’s still a golf entertainment complex. Old habits die hard, and real estate in Northern Virginia never seems to die.
My own personal memories of Landmark Mall are limited. Moving to the Northern Virginia area in 2013, I only managed to go to the mall a few times. Like most people did towards the end of the mall’s life, the mall served as a giant retail mausoleum that housed the only Chick-Fil-A in the area (located on the top floor food court). When I last went to the mall in 2015 to get a space heater at Sears, the mall was almost entirely abandoned, earning the no-to-coveted “Dead Mall” status in the years before its closing. The mall received a little life after its closing when it served as a brief set for the movie Wonder Woman 1984.
I was able to go to the mall after production wrapped to take pictures of the abandoned mall after Covid hit. They were some of the first pictures I took after Offbeat NOVA started. Back in 2020, the mall was left completely empty, save for the Sears anchor (closed in July 2020). After waiting two years for a good story on the mall to materialize, it seemed appropriate to share now that the mall is breathing its last breaths.
It will be interesting to see how the demolition progresses. It’s hard to say if the mall was ever “iconic” like Tyson’s Corner or the Galleria, but it did serve as a hub of diversion, shopping, and entertainment for over fifty years. In its absence, malls like the Springfield Town Center are only getting more crowded (even in Covid times).
Do you have memories of Landmark Mall to share? We’d love to hear from you.
If you follow local news, you’ll notice the staggering amount of shop and restaurant closures around Northern Virginia. Business owners, saddled with difficulties stemming from the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic, often decide to close up shop. We recently posted about the closure of the iconic L.L. Bean store location in Tyson’s Corner Mall. By far our most popular post on the subject matter has been the closure of America’s first Top Golf location in Alexandria, VA. After opening in 2005, the multi-use venue and adjacent Ruby Tuesday’s closed their doors in 2021. Well, it seems that the landowner has done the unthinkable during these tough economic times: rebranded the former facility and opened a new establishment.
Yes, that’s right. The former Top Golf location will be another Top Golf…sorta. Rudy’s
The owner of the land clearly looked for new options after several hearings and votes were stalled on what to do with the land for rezoning. After filing plans with the Fairfax County Government for several years to repurpose the space for townhomes and commercial space, it seems they got fed up and decided to shift focus. Given the timeline between previous filings and community hearings, these details happened rather quickly (and all during these COVID years). Speculation as far back as November 2021 had the former sight turning away from the long-term development plans in favor of a corporate “up-cycling” of the golf experience. According to Alexandria Living Magazine, the plans are “on hold, but they aren’t totally off the table.” For now, there is Rudy’s.
Beginning in January, the Leesburg-based Rudy & Roy LLC began hiring for servers, managers, event coordinators, and porters for the venue. Much like Top Golf, the experience is billed as “part driving range, part restaurant and sports bar.”
At some point between the beginning of January and early March, Rudy’s officially opened. Reviews so far are good. There are five reviews on Google for the new establishment. It boasts a perfect 5-star rating. One local, “William B,” had a glowing review for the fun and food:
“Visited Rudy’s Golf today and it was a great experience! Thrilled that this local business has finally opened. The driving range has mostly been fully restored since TopGolf closed and the food/drinks were great. Highly recommend the burger w/ fries! Prices were reasonable and the service was friendly and attentive. We will definitely be back!”
Google Review of Rudy’s (Google)
Other individuals had very good things to say about the restaurant and its burger and fries. Their website is sparse, but officially up. There is no word what will happen to the adjacent restaurant, formerly a Ruby Tuesday, and the mini-golf course.
Rudy’s is open on Monday-Thursday from 11am to 8pm, Friday-Saturday from 11am to 10pm, and Sunday from 10am to 8pm.
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.
On January 2, 2022, a day before it snowed nearly a foot in the DC Metro area, the family decided to stretch our legs a bit and get some exercise. On the coldest days and months of the year, the best place to get exercise is the mall. Although Springfield Town Center is the closest to us, Tyson’s Corner has always been our go-to location. We go to the mall for exercise, diversion, and a little (light) shopping since my daughter was an infant. It’s warm in the winter and frosty cool in the summertime. It’s a great place to get some exercise and window shop. It’s also fun to feel nostalgic for the old days of the early to mid-1990s when going to the mall was a social event you waited all week for.
More on that later.
We parked in our usual spot across from the Macy’s and headed in for a lap on the two floors of the mall. As we rounded the corner of the American Girl store, I noticed that the L.L. Bean store was surprisingly sparse. Upon further inspection, my suspicion was true: the store was closing. A sign out front of the store read that the store would permanently close after the 17th of January.
Sign in front of the store (Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
“We’ll miss seeing you here, but we hope to see you outside.”
It was an odd feeling. Going to L.L. Bean was always a part of our mall experience. Our daughter especially loved playing with the toys on the lower level.
There’s a whole lot of speculation from L.L. Bean fans, local residents, and Tyson’s Corner Mall regulars. The most prevailing rumor was that either the rent was too high, or the mall rejected L.L. Bean’s plan to keep the store at just one level. Either way, it is gone.
In an official statement, L.L. Bean said “the decision was not an easy one:”
“Though we worked with the landlord to explore many options, we were unable to reach favorable terms in a way that would allow us to best serve our customers moving forward.”
Quote from L.L. Bean
They looked into everything from finding an alternative location to supposedly moving all of the merchandise to one floor, which would validate the idea that the rent was too high. One can imagine the staggering amount of monthly dues to a 76,000-square-foot store.
It is rather big news, either way. Many would consider L.L. Bean an anchor store next to two other large storefronts, Macy’s and American Girl (both still open– for now).
L.L. Bean in 2000 (Richmond.com)
L.L. Bean opened the store in Tyson’s in 2000. It was the first of the retail chain’s stores outside of its home state of Maine. Part of what spurred the move was the high proportion of catalog orders. As of 2000, L.L. Bean reported that 85% of their sales were from catalogs. The store had an indoor trout pond and waterfall, evoking an early 2000s mall experience akin to waiting for your “portabella mushroom” group at your local mega-mall Rainforest Cafe. At the time, it was the sixth anchor of the burgeoning mall. In a grand twist of ironic fate, it seems most of the orders for L.L. Bean clothing and merchandise are back into the catalog sphere (at least in the sense of ordering online).
The only other location in the area is the 22,000-square-foot store in Bethesda, Maryland, despite the retailer actively looking for a new location in the DMV area. This news comes just before it was announced that the Bed Bath & Beyond just down the street from the mall is set to close at the end of February 2022. And of course, we can’t forget that the Disney Store inside the mall, by far our main reason for going to Tyson’s, shuttered in September. At this point, you have to ask yourself: What will be next?
In the same vein as seeing your childhood Pizza Hut turn into a 2-star Mexican Restaurant, there are already plans from the developer to change the space.
It’s been real, Bean (Matthew Eng/Offbeat NOVA)
Retailer Macerich, the owner of Tyson’s Corner Center, plans to break the space into smaller pieces of the two-level shop. According to a report from the Washington Business Journal, at least three tenants have been identified to fill in the space for now, one of which will be Ireland-based retailer Primark (looks like a business model similar to the Japanese retailer Uniqlo).
Whatever the space will be, I will keep the memories of walking around the store in the early years of my daughter’s life. My local mall near where I lived growing up (Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach Virginia) also announced that it was closing. Not a store — the entire mall. Of course, there are plans to turn it into something else. Progress is progress, and you see plenty of that in Northern Virginia. Without sounding like an old man yelling at a cloud, I am glad to walk in there one last time and take a few pictures. I only wonder what store (or stores) will go next at the mall. With the announcement of the opening of a LEGO Discovery Center at Springfield Town Center, my money is on the relatively small footprint of the LEGO store on the lower level of Tyson’s.
Malls, retailers, restaurants…they all have memories tied to them. Those from childhood are always the strongest, which is why seeing shops in malls, whether they be from your childhood or adulthood (Like the L.L. Bean) are tough. What else do we talk about with our friends or coworkers? The past. The future is always exciting to think about, but the past holds our collective subliminal feelings. You can call it nostalgia if you want, but it’s always there.
I’ll close with the final paragraph from Stephen King’s IT, which takes place in the fiction town of Derry in L.L. Bean’s home state of Maine. For a book that is an endorphin shock of childhood nostalgia and the fears of growing up, I think it is perfectly apt to end this article.
“But it’s nice to think so for awhile in the morning’s clean silence, to think that childhood has its own sweet secrets and confirms mortality, and that mortality defines all courage and love [. . .] Or so Bill Denbrough sometimes thinks on those early mornings after dreaming, when he almost remembers his childhood, and the friends with whom he shared it.”
When Offbeat NOVA first began in the quarantine summer of 2020 (remember those days?), I came up with a list of almost one hundred individual items, events, and places in Northern Virginia to write about. Many of those items off that initial list have made it to the blog and on our YouTube page. Still, the majority of them are unfinished and waiting in the hopper to become a reality.
To be honest, I have legitimately slid in writing about these topics. It’s not because I don’t want to, I assure you. Work has been very busy, and what little time is left is carved out for some family time, especially with our daughter. Alongside other side jobs, I have to make a little extra money (a necessity as a millennial living in Northern Virginia), I have neglected writing about these topics I enjoy researching and learning about.
For that, I am sorry. But it will get better.
Diving back into that initial list of nearly one hundred items to write about, one stuck out — a small note about something called a “Shoney’s Inn.” I remember writing it down after researching something that came up on the Fairfax Underground message board (there is a specific thread called “Old pictures of Fairfax county, love em!” That is a treasure trove of offbeat info on the Northern Virginia area). In that November 2019 post, a poster bystander by the name of “Andy Ratlips” posted an image of a Shoney’s Inn from the Fairfax County Public Library. The library was looking for help figuring out where the hotel existed. On the back of the picture, there was a notation for “Route 1.” The poster, Mr. Ratlips, posited that it could be from the Tysons area. A few posts down from the message board post, somebody quickly solved the mystery.
A user named “Blanch” posted that the hotel looked like a Comfort Inn off Spring Hill Road near Tyson’s Corner Mall.
(Fairfax Underground)
Before I found out about the retail and commercial history of this specific location in Vienna, I had to figure out what the hell a “Shoney’s Inn” was. I remember spending many weekends eating Sysco-brand chicken fingers or watery eggs and soggy hash browns from the Shoney’s buffet. I can only imagine staying at a Shoney’s Inn to be akin to sleeping in the hotel at South of the Border in South Carolina.
Shoney’s began as an offshoot of Big Boy franchisee Alex Schoenbaum. He renamed his Charleston, West Virginia, restaurants the Parkette Drive-In to resemble his name, Shoney’s, in June 1954. Over time, the family casual restaurant grew in popularity, particularly in the southern United States.
In 1975, drawing off the success of the restaurant, Shoney’s began a chan of motels called “Shoney’s Inn.” They were all sold off in 1991, but continued to collect off the royalties of the name – they were rebranded between 2002 and 2006, or those that remained as GustHouse, headquartered in Hendersonville, Tennessee. At the time of the purchase and remand in 2002, there were seventy-three properties of GuestHouse International Franchise Systems in operation, with twelve currently under development as of 2006. The location in Vienna near Tyson’s Corner was not one of them at the time.
So, what about this specific location? How did it become a Shoney’s Inn and how did it become the hotel it is today?
Unfortunately, I couldn’t find much information about the Shoney’s Inn in Vienna, located at 1587 Spring Hill Road. The internet mocks me with their scant details. One tour book from 1987 lists the Shoney’s Inn address with brief details on location and pricing. At the time, you could get a single bed (one person) for $52. A two-person/two-bedroom option would cost you five bucks more. The original property boasted 251 units, complete with cable television, phone, and a nearby pool sandwiched in between the adjacent Shoney’s restaurant and the rooms.
(Fairfax Underground)
At some point in the early 1990s, the Shoney’s and its hotel closed and became the Comfort Inn. The 1991 Shoney’s Inn location does not include the one in Vienna (there was five total, with the nearest in Manassas off Phoenix Drive — now a Super 8). The building where the Shoney’s was located (in front of the pool and hotel) became several different things in its lifetime. Business records indicate it was a toy and manufacturing business called “Thumbelina’s” in 2000, run by an individual named Richard Kibbey. After that, it was a sub-par Fuddruckers for several years before closing in 2010. My favorite Yelp review comes from “Judith L.” Back in 2009 a year before it closed:
“Now that I think about it… I think the last visit was the only one where I wasn’t disappointed by something. WHY THE HECK DO I KEEP COMING HERE?”
Yelp for Fuddruckers in Vienna (YELP)
The hotel itself was a Comfort Inn from the early 1990s until 2007, if the Internet Archive’s record of the hotel’s website is any indication. The Unofficial Guide to Washington, D.C. gave the hotel a rating of 65 out of 100.
Shoney’s Inn as a Quality Inn Today (Offbeat NOVA)
Today, the entire complex houses the Quality Inn. The reviews are modest, oscillating between 3 and 3.5 stars on various hotel rating sites and Facebook. Looking at it today, you can still see some architectural evidence of the original Shoney’s Inn establishment. You can still see that the staircase from the original photo lines up perfectly just underneath where the “Shoney’s Inn” used to be. A blue awning now takes its place above the staircase to keep guests dry as they walk up to their rooms. The roof and brick structure are also similar, and the parking lot remains unchanged over the years. The original Shoney’s restaurant location has seen the most considerable change over the years, with the paint scheme now yellow and red instead of white. A lawn care crew looked quizzically at me from a short distance as I got out to take pictures of what looked like a mundane two-star hotel in proximity to Tyson’s Corner.
Comparison from 1980s Shoney’s Inn and Today (Fairfax Underground/Offbeat NOVA)
Shoney’s is still around today, albeit in small numbers in the South despite filing for Chapter 11 in 2000. Shoney’s wasn’t the first business to incorporate lodging with a well-known brand of the restaurant. Howard Johnson built the model previously and made it a marketable business model. Although Shoney’s never had the success that Howard Johnson did, there are still more Shoney’s than Howard Johnson eateries around today (only one Howard Johnson remains in New York State).
Although I couldn’t gather much information on this particular establishment, I wanted to document it for posterity. I find repurposed buildings from the commercial and hospitality industry fascinating. The fact that this one location has been three hotels and at least two separate restaurants stands as a testament to the staying power of the area.
Earlier this year in February, I traveled down Seminary Road in Alexandria near the I-395 Interchange to snap some pictures of the abandoned Steak and Ale Restaurant at the intersection of Kenmore Avenue. I wanted to do a story about the building and the restaurant chain itself. I talked about how Steak and Ale was a symbol of the dying existence of Chain Restaurants in the United States. I ended the article with this statement:
“The Steak and Ale in Alexandria will eventually go away entirely. Its property will be swallowed up by gentrification. For businesses, this is the circle of life. COVID has only accelerated the process.”
Well, it seems that the time has come.
The decaying restaurant was torn down today. I got the tip from some pictures that were taken on a community page about Northern Virginia history on Facebook. It was nice to see so many personal stories about that establishment dating back to the 1970s in its heyday. Anyone who has ever eaten at a now-defunct chain restaurant knows exactly what the sentiment is. You don’t miss it, but you miss it. In a post-COVID world slowly approaching reality, how many of the chains still standing will be around to open their doors at the end of the year?
The pictures from the Facebook group showed the building still in the process of being torn down. I had to work until 4pm, so I hoped that some of it would be left standing when I got there. By the time I zipped up the few miles up the road to the intersection of Seminary Road and Kenmore Avenue, it was no more. Several construction vehicles were in the vicinity, now dormant after their day of labor. A few workers could be seen at the end of the roped-off parking lot, chatting amongst each other.
The building, dormant and abandoned for nearly two decades, was finally gone. Walking to the site, I could smell the old wood, dust, and debris in the air. The only thing still standing from the establishment were the two signs that anchored the restaurant at the entrance to the parking lot and behind the back of the building near the bridge that looped over I-395. I snapped as many pictures as I could, thanking my former self that a trip to the site on a cold day in February was a good idea. Today, the weather was over 94 degrees at 4:30 in the afternoon.
Surely, the Landmark area will look entirely different in ten to fifteen years. With news of Landmark Mall finally reaching a new plan as a new hospital, it’s hard to tell what that section of Alexandria will look like. Much of that area, Landmark and Little River Turnpike, has remained untouched by the tidal wave of gentrification felt in other areas of Northern Virginia.
“Not with a bang, but a whimper…”
Driving home down Van Dorn Street in Alexandria, I decided to make a day of it. How did the other abandoned building we wrote about for Offbeat NOVA, the original Topgolf in America, fare today?
Not great. The parking lot, completely empty save one big-wheeler at the edge of the large lot, had accelerated its process of neglect since I last visited it at the beginning of the year. The building and its surrounding area, once known for its lush and well-kept landscaping, is entirely overgrown and unkempt, even if the area just outside of the complex is manicured (no doubt by Fairfax County). The main clubhouse is entirely boarded up, with the surrounding complex showing severe signs of decay in the year and a half since it closed down. In some cases, it was worse off than Steak and Ale ever was.
Topgolf was still standing…for now.
On the way out, I noticed a large board at the entrance to the building. The board was a notice of a hearing from the Fairfax County Planning Commission for Wednesday, July 14, 2021. Part of the hearing will deal with the proposed plan for the Topgolf site, originally brought forth in 2015. The proposal is for a mix of residential and commercial use, with up to approximately 275 residential units and 20,000 square feet of retail. So it seems it is only a matter of time for before Topgolf meets its end in similar fashion to what I saw today. The DMV moves so fluidly, and the rapid acceleration of closed business during COVID has only made the prying eyes of developers hungry.
Drop a comment about your memories of Steak and Ale and Topgolf Alexandria.
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 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.
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