Post WW2 History of Springfield, Virginia and The Crestwood Construction Corp.

Few might know, or even suspect when driving through the huge interchange of 495/395/95 that as late as just 65 years ago, the now well established fixture in the Fairfax County suburban landscape known as Springfield was not much more than a whistle stop along the railroad line.  Fewer might know how important Springfield was in it’s standing as one of our pre-planned suburban communities. It’s phenomenal mid-century birth and growth greatly affected the Washington DC area and even got national attention due to its unique beginnings as a suburban community. 

Why was Springfield turned from a rural community into a thriving suburban area in the first place?  What events made it necessary to take on the monumental task of transforming this quiet little part of Fairfax County into what it has eventually become today?  The answer may seem over simplified but the reason was a tremendous need for housing after the end of World War Two. As I began digging deeper into the beginnings of Post War Springfield, I learned that our country was suffering from a serious shortage of housing and the natural questions arose as to why there was a shortage in the first place.

The combination of both The Great Depression of the 1930’s and the effects of World War Two had a profound effect on the availability of housing nationwide in the period both during the war and up through the late 1940’s.  Particularly hard hit was the post war Washington DC area, thanks to the increase in Federal Government opportunities, and returning Veterans who were taking up careers at The Pentagon as well as posts at the various military bases.  It was this crushing need for housing that was the catalyst for the creation of the Springfield, VA that we know today.

Prior to World War Two, there were many circumstances, which contributed to the grossly inadequate supply of available homes at the end of the war. For one the process of

building a home was hampered by outdated and non-standardized building codes, as well as an industry that had been building houses using technology going back many decades without much advancement in the years since. 

Also hampering widespread home building/homeownership was a harsh and complex mortgage lending process, which required a potential homeowner to put down as much as two thirds of the total cost of the home up front. Also most mortgages had only a five year life, at which time it was at the total discretion of the lender to extend the mortgage for another term…. or not.  If not, then the loan was terminated and it forced a large balloon payment to clear the title of the house to the buyer.  The process of reviewing the loan for extension was time consuming, costly and left both borrowers and lenders very uneasy. Such arrangements not only drove away potential buyers of new homes out of fear of the financial risk and/or the lack of the needed cash, but the high risk/events of foreclosure left many lenders hanging out on a limb for homes they had a hard time re-selling due to the exact same mortgage snafus. 

The biggest help with this problem was the enactment of The National Housing Act of 1934 and the resulting creation of The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) which gave government backed insurance to protect home loans, and created a more standardized lending system.  Also helping was the creation of longer-term mortgage loans and smaller down payments, which resulted in anywhere from a 5-20% initial investment rather than the staggering and prohibitive two-thirds requirement of old. This made loans safer for the lender and more affordable to a greater number of people.

Additionally as the country began to climb out of the hole caused by The Great Depression, World War Two came and siphoned off a good deal of the men who worked in the construction trades as well as a great amount of material during that time of rationing on the home front.

With the lessening of the building of homes during those

periods, and the increase of new families as The Baby Boom began to gear up, the problem of where all those people were going to live became acute.  The DC area had already suffered the strain from the hoards of workers who came to help during the war effort with apartments, boarding houses and converted basements full to overflowing with occupants.  It was reported in articles in The Washington Post during the winter of 1945-46 that the situation was reaching a crisis with people having to make homes for themselves in attics, garages, basements, cramped multi-family situations, etc, and as more Vets returned, the problem just kept growing like a virus.  Many times those conditions led to unsanitary and dangerous problems.

At the close of the war, the home building industry was eager to get back to work and fill the ever-growing need for affordable housing.  As materials began to become available again, along with tradesmen and laborers returning home, the construction trades were ready and willing to take advantage of the coming boom. 

As the old saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention”, and the necessity of faster, less costly and higher volume forms of manufacturing and building were born from the urgency of providing military field housing during the war.  It was through the meeting and overcoming of that challenge that led to incredible improvements in technology, which were a key ingredient in providing post war builders with ways to increase the speed and consistency of quality in the construction of post war homes.

As wonderful as all the above improvements were, there was still a human side that had to play in the creation of Springfield.  Who envisioned the area as being a self-supporting suburban area? That person was none other than a local realtor/developer/civic leader by the name of Edward R. Carr (1897-1974) and he was one of the true movers and shakers in our area and should rightfully be recognized as The Father of Modern Day Springfield.  Without the foresight and vision of this multi-talented individual, Northern Virginia

and the DC area in general might have been a different place indeed. I don’t think it’s an overstatement that, Mr. Carr was an amazing human being and had well earned the nickname “Mr. Washington”.

Having been in the home building business since 1925, Carr had already created quite a nationally known name for himself within the industry.  At one time or another he served as head on the boards of nearly every local builder and realty group, including his service as president of The National Association of Home Builders during 1947. It was during his tenure as president of that association that he almost single handedly saved the home building industry from a potential government imposed “public housing”. At the time the government was desperate to get a handle on the housing shortage but then, as we can see clearly in retrospect today, such a plan to crank out large scale “projects” would have been disastrous. Mr. Carr is still honored today in the N.A.H.B Hall of Fame for his success and efforts during his tenure as president.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention some of his many other accomplishments both civic, political and business related.  

1) President, The Washington Board of Trade.2) President, Christmas Pageant of Peace. Not only did he head up the celebration, planning and execution but also personally underwrote much of the cost in those early years.3) Parade Chairman for both of Dwight D. Eisenhower’s Inaugural Parades. 4) Chairmen of The President’s Cup Regatta.

It was Mr. Carr who realized that DC itself had long been “built out” and that the closer-in areas of Arlington and Alexandria were filling up fast. It was evident to him that the average suburban home development size (at that time) of up to a couple of hundred homes would never be able to handle the projected population increase.  Most builders

were thinking in terms of hundreds while Carr was thinking in terms of thousands. Because of this he turned his sights to the (then) countryside of Fairfax County for available property in sufficient quantity to create a modern, pre-planned suburban “City”.  It was his idea that such a community would be self-sufficient and provide housing for anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 people upon it’s completion. Of course in terms of huge post war housing developments, most give credit to William J. Levitt and Levitt and Sons for the creation of “suburbia” in general, but in our local area Edward R. Carr was responsible for literally thousands of affordable homes. Unlike Mr. Levitt, Mr. Carr preferred homes of brick rather than the quick-built, pre-fabricated all-frame houses of the Levittown’s.

Once the idea formulated, then came the issue of where in the area could he create such a huge undertaking.  Rural Springfield had the available land mass but at the time no easy access to or from the rest of the DC area… but that was soon to change in a big way.

Just around the time of the start of The United States involvement in WW2, the new “Shirley Highway” (now 395/I-95) had been approved to run southward from DC through Virginia to initially terminate at Woodbridge. According to a later article published in The Washington Star (dated January 20, 1952), at the time that Carr was eyeing Springfield for development in 1946, Shirley Highway only went as far as Rt. 7 at Fairlington, but plans were already well under way for it’s extension past Springfield and on further south. Thanks to the war any major extension of the new highway had been delayed until the mid-1940’s, but Mr. Carr was aware of it’s estimated opening and set his plans accordingly.

Up to the early 1950s, the area today known as Springfield was little more than fields of brush, lots of trees with a few scattered old homes and a railroad station.  Some of the property was historic thanks to ties with Robert E. Lee and the mansion at Ravensworth Farm, but it was considered by

most DC area residents to be quite primitive and remote.  Indeed the Springfield area has a long and interesting “pre-development” story, which is well documented by Fairfax County Historian, Mr. Jack L. Hiller.   His research and knowledge on the events of it’s pre-suburban period can be found online at The Edsall Park neighborhood website at: 

http://www.edsallpark.org/area-history/springfield-history

It was on December 30th, 1946 that Mr. Carr made the

purchase of 2,300 acres of Springfield land from The H&H

Development Corp. for an unknown total price but one that

included an unpaid balance of $87,062.80 (as per the deed

of purchase).

Prior land records show that H&H had purchased the same

land for $138,262.80 from Senator Joseph L. Bristow in

August of 1943. From 1918 Senator Bristow had lived in the

Ossian Hall mansion on the land (now occupied by the 1950s

Annandale subdivision, which bears his surname) and during

the years between then and 1943 he accumulated a huge

amount of Springfield area land.

The December 30, 1946 land purchase was handled through

Carr, Inc., who’s ownership was broken down as follows (per

my interview with long time Edward R. Carr employee &

friend Mr. Frederick Mears.):

Edward R. Carr – 45%

Edward K. Jones – 45%

Col. Lawrence “McC” Jones – 10%

Per, Mr. Mears….

“Edward K. Jones was president of Weaver Bros., Inc., a full service real

estate firm in Washington, D.C. offering mortgage banking, residential

and commercial sales, property management and insurance. As far as,

Carr, Inc. was concerned, Edward K. Jones “brought to the table” not

only his vast knowledge of real estate but represented a source of

much needed development capitol.”

“In addition to the personal benefits to Edward K. Jones from the

development of the 2,300 acres (plus), he would acquire for Weaver

Bros., Inc. almost all of the mortgage loan business from the individual

loans of the purchasers of the homes to be built and, in addition, would

get most of the home owner’s insurance business from the same

purchasers. Weaver Bros., Inc., at the time, was mortgage loan

correspondent in Washington for Metropolitan Life Insurance

Company”.

(***Note*** Weaver Bros., Inc. worked closely and backed Mr. Carr’s rebound from the loss of his business during The Great Depression of the 1930’s and continued to play a vital role in the Carr corporations and subsidiaries for many years going forward.)

“Col. Lawrence McC. Jones was a retired army colonel and the brother of Edward K. Jones. Col. Jones may be better known to some as “Biff” Jones, former football coach at Louisiana State University and Army at West Point, etc. Obviously his career was not in real estate but he added a valuable stabilizing force to the corporation.”

“The three individuals traded their interests in some apartments in Southeast Washington, D.C. as a down payment with the rest of the price being in a deferred purchase money trust back to the sellers.”

After Mr. Carr’s purchase began a long, grueling five-year fight to bring utilities to the area. Usually a new development was located nearby an established one so that hookups to

utilities was an easy process but Springfield’s remote location at the time left quite a bit of distance between it and any established utilities.  The idea of such a large development in this area was nearly unheard of and many utility companies did not want to risk the investment to run trunks and lines out into the virtual wilderness with no solid guarantee that Carr’s plan wouldn’t turn out to be a major flop.  They preferred to see the homes already under construction before they stuck their financial necks out.  Carr had a huge investment in the land itself, so building a group of homes with no guarantee of utilities to support them wasn’t viable either. 

Prior to Mr. Carr’s proposed community, Fairfax County had not dealt with such a massive development project that included not just residential areas but also plans for commercial, retail and light industrial areas all coming in together. It can be assumed that getting the permits and approval was a daunting task for all concerned.  

The earliest public announcement of Carr’s planned ‘City’ appears to have come in a June 22, 1947 article in The Washington Post (regarding various new suburban developments) which states “The most stupendous is a new community planned by veteran Washington Builder Edward Carr which would transform the sleepy farming village of Springfield, 5 miles west of Alexandria, into a modern community of approximately 20,000 people. The new Shirley Memorial Highway, now under construction and expected to be fully completed in early 1949, would allow commuters to reach the Pentagon Building in less than 20 minutes.”

It is also accurate to note that during this same period, a huge amount of Springfield land was owned by a former farming family turned real estate moguls by the name of Lynch. While Carr was working on planning his massive project, the Lynch firm was selling what was considered rural building lots in what is now known as Springvale. The difference was that rather than purchasing a completed

home with all the conveniences (as became the custom in the Carr controlled areas), buyers in the early stages of Springvale were simply buying lots on which they could build their own homes, and would have to depend on wells and septic systems.  The roads in Springvale were not paved until 1955, and caused some jangled nerves and muddy travel in and out of its boundaries.  Later on, working in conjunction with Edward Carr Inc, the Lynch firm became instrumental in the commercial development of the Springfield area by building the first shopping center as well as various other business related projects.

Coinciding with the time of Mr. Carr’s project, there were other builders creating comparatively small groups of homes over nearer to the Franconia area but none of them substantially compared with what he had in the works.

The main trouble for Carr in the late 1940s seemed to be getting water in enough supply to support a community of so many thousands with attempts at tapping many of the underground springs failing to meet the requirements.  In a Washington Post article entitled “New ‘City’ Drilling For Water Supply (dated 3-7-48), it was reported that Carr was currently drilling for water in the hopes that he could begin erecting homes that summer, but if that didn’t work, then water would have to be “piped in” sometime during 1949 or 1950.  During the struggle to get city water mains, sewer lines, power, gas and rudimentary phone service brought in from the surrounding developed areas, Carr began working with Architect-Engineer Edward S. Holland to completely pre-plan what Springfield was being called at the time, a “Satellite City”.  Together and with the staff at Edward R. Carr, Inc. it was decided where the neighborhoods, apartments, shopping centers, churches, parks, schools and public buildings were to be, all based on topography and with a sense of where it would all provide the most convenience for future home/community hungry residents. Articles published in both major local newspapers of the time touted the expansive pre-planning process and how it promised to hasten the settlement of this part of

Fairfax County into one of the area’s largest and most complete communities.

Through intense pre-planning, Carr intended to avoid the problems created by the more common piecemeal creation of a community/city.  It was reasoned that by laying out the entire area ahead of time, there was less room for costly error and rearrangement as well as a more pleasant environment for it’s citizens.  Unlike as it was in older cities such as Alexandria, Carr had a desire to congregate the commercial/retail/business district in one area, while keeping the residential, worship and recreational areas grouped together.  He also included an area that was to be dedicated for industrial purposes, which included the key space needed beside The Southern Railroad tracks to take delivery of the enormous amount of building supplies needed to create all the homes and structures as Springfield grew. Today of course, such suburban and urban planning is a fairly common practice but at the time, such extensive pre-planning was not standard by any means. His thoroughness not withstanding, the plan still met with many obstacles from both county and state objections with regard to roadways, a proposed bridge and the building of what was hoped (at that time) to be Springfield’s own water and sewage treatment plants.  

Water mains were finally approved and construction on them began in the spring of 1949.  With this improvement, along with the opening of Shirley Highway to passenger vehicle traffic during Labor Day weekend of the same year, Carr’s plan for Springfield was finally showing more form and substance.  With the utilities and basic infrastructure underway, Mr. Carr realized that his firm would not be in a position to physically build the entire area alone. The construction of the first, huge subdivision was to be left to a different entity, and one, which also had a huge impact on our area. In 1950, his firm did subdivide and plat (with the county) the first residential section also named “Springfield”, (which undoubtedly caused some confusion to be living in “the Springfield Subdivision in Springfield, Virginia) but did

not actually begin the actual building of it.  That job would be left to another key organization in the Springfield story.

Concurrent with that immediate post war period when Mr. Carr was about to purchase his Springfield acreage, two other visionary men in the local construction field formed what would become one of the largest key players in the development of Northern Virginia (as well as historically significant pioneers in the development of modern Springfield), The Crestwood Construction Corp. 

Crestwood’s initial principles from 1946 to 1951 were Bernard Steinberg, and E. Carl Hengen, who had met and worked together as Seabees during the war (along with an invaluable, later partner named Mr. Roger Hildeen, from 1951 to 1982).

The following is an excerpt from a November 17, 1962 article, entitled “Samar’s Gift To Springfield” from The Evening Star.

“More than 5,000 homes in the Northern Virginia area are a direct result of a casual talk on the island of Samar, one of the Philippines during World War II. There in the cool nights that followed hot, rainy days of hard construction work, three officers of the 64th Naval Battalion (Seabees) talked over the possibility of going into the building business in the Washington area when the war, then in it’s final stages, ended.

Of the three, only E. Carl Hengen had any building experience here. He had been a bricklaying contractor and built a few houses before the war.

The others were Bernard Steinberg, a civil engineering graduate of Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute who had worked briefly for the Federal Government before entering the service, and Roger Hildeen, who left the University of Minnesota for a bomber plant in Kansas City.

Today the three are the principles of The Crestwood Construction Corp., builder of the first homes in Springfield and one of the major developers of the area.

What may have started as idle talk became a reality within a year of the men’s discharge in December 1945. After a brief stay in Brooklyn, Mr. Steinberg came here in November 1946; to join Mr. Hengen and the two broke ground for their first house at 1505 Crestwood Drive, Alexandria, that Christmas Eve.

Mr. Hildeen held out a little longer. He worked as an engineer for a cereal manufacturer before joining Crestwood in 1949. (**In an interview I did with Mr. Hildeen before he passed, he told me it was the Quaker Oats Company and that he joined Crestwood in 1951).

In the late 1940’s the firm built some 1,500 houses in Arlington and Alexandria before moving into Springfield at the time that Edward R. Carr first developed the planned community. Among their other developments were Sycamore Gardens, Somerset, Carlyn Park, Parkhaven, Pinehurst and Oakwood.

…Among the three former Seabee officers there is, as is the case in most firms, a division of labor.

Mr. Hengen, a short stocky man who estimates that over the years he has had to diet away a total of some 1,000 pounds, is in charge of construction for the firm. Mr. Steinberg handles the administrative and financial matters and Mr. Hildeen takes care of sales, the finishing touches to the houses, and a separate organization that sees to any complaints buyers may have…..”

As stated in the above article, Messrs. Hengen and Steinburg got into the post war housing market by forming the corporation (along with Hengen’s wife Verna) and began working in conjunction with Arlington Realty Co. to build

brick homes in and around Arlington, Alexandria and Falls Church.  The building of modest, affordable and solid quality homes would become their stock in trade, and the corporation was enhanced by Mr. Hengen’s ability to hire some of the most talented people in the building trades.  He was also a master brick layer who’s work with other builders gained him a strong reputation in the home building business community.  As of the early 1950’s, the headquarters were located at 4415 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington, VA.  Later, in 1955, they built a modest two-story office building in the industrial area along Hanover Ave. between Highland St. and Reservoir Rd.

The corporation’s ability to construct these quality homes at a rate, which had blown away any pre-war building speeds, was benefitted greatly by the advances in pre-fabricated building technology mentioned earlier.  Hengen and Steinberg brought home many of the engineering advancements they had witnessed and utilized while building military bases overseas.  This new technology was vital to what lay ahead for them.

After the first house on Crestwood Dr. (from whence the corporation name came), the next documented project appears to be a small subdivision near The Masonic Temple, along King St. called Ivy Hills (1948). Afterwards, in late 1949 to early 1950, they began building a small group of homes in what is now generally known as Berkshire-Oakwood. To this point in writing, it was in a tiny sub-section of Berkshire-Oakwood on N. 28th St. called “Westmoreland Woods” that they began building their first rambler known as “The Mid-Century Rambler”. Later, in Carlyn Park it was known as “The Virginian” (not to be confused with the later Springfield home that used that name). It started as a basement-less rambler but was a home design that was later (in modified form mostly with a basement) to become the largest seller in early Springfield, by then called “The Chesterfield”.

During 1950-52, Crestwood built Oakwood (in the area surrounding what is now The Bishop O’Connell High School in

North Arlington), Sycamore Park, and Westmore Gardens. In 1951 they began both Carlyn Park (at the intersection of Arlington and Manchester Boulevards) and Pinehurst (located where Glen Carlyn Dr. & Leesburg Pike intersect, diagonally across from The Culmore Shopping Center) and in 1952, Parkhaven (located behind The Culmore Shopping Center on Leesburg Pike near Bailey’s Crossroads).

1951 was a significant year for Crestwood Construction.  On April 9th, Crestwood purchased 593 acres of Springfield land from Edward R. Carr Inc. for the staggering sum of $865,454.00. Mr. Carr initially financed the purchase in the following manner:

Note 1., for $25,000.00 due and payable on or before May 31, 1951.Note 2., for $50,000.00 due and payable on or before July 1, 1951.Note 3., for $50,000.00 due and payable on or before October 31, 1951.Note 4., for $740,454.00 due and payable on or before April 9, 1956.

It appears that the first three notes were required to be paid prior to any release of the deed for Section One, afterwards allowing the model homes and first production homes to be built, roads to be improved, etc.  The large remaining balance was refinanced through Weaver Brothers shortly after.  As Crestwood built and sold homes in a section, they were able to pay off the amounts required for the bank to release the next section(s) of land and the process went on accordingly until the development was completed.

Having paid the first three notes as described above and in accordance with Carr’s master plan, Crestwood broke ground during December of 1951 for the first of thirteen model homes, which are located in the block surrounded by Backlick Rd., Amherst Ave, and Essex Ave. Outside of the (historically unfortunate) loss of a unique one-of-a-kind home known as The Rockbridge, the original model houses still

stand much as they did when literally thousands of area residents swarmed in to see and purchase homes.  There were a few lots and homes ordered/built as investment properties such as for The Washington Institute of Technology who then re-sold them as new homes to individual buyers. The first house sold to an individual was a “Chesterfield” model ($17,950) at 6010 Backlick Rd., to a Mr. William P. Horton on June 30, 1952.

The other significant event came a month prior to Crestwood’s purchase of Mr. Carr’s “Springfield Subdivision”. On March 15th, 1951, Mr. Hengen was successful in bringing on board one of the most charismatic and energetic members of the corporate team, Mr. Roger Hildeen.  As previously mentioned, the two gentlemen were friends who had met during their service with The Seabees during WW2 on Tubabao & Samar Islands in the Philippines.  Mr. Hildeen, a native of Minnesota, was a 30-year-old engineer who had been living in Chicago during the previous five years since his release from the service and had been working for The Quaker Oats Company.  With the promise of a raise in income and the challenge of being in on one of the largest home building projects in the DC area, Mr. Hengen once again proved that he was adept at brining in top talent and making the most of their skills. 

Mr. Hildeen served in many capacities as a 30+-year partner in the corporation. Among them, in 1952 he was made president of Southern Properties, Inc., which was a Crestwood owned affiliate and charged with doing all the warranty work on the homes that were growing like grass across the Springfield acreage. 

With his initial staff of only twelve laborers, the tremendous volume of calls from hundreds of homeowners made for a challenging situation as they were calling separately for every single issue (major or minor) they found…often times not even waiting until the crew could get back to the office from the first call. Fortunately Mr. Hildeen resolved this problem by requiring the new homeowners to live in their

home a period of at least three weeks, and fill out a special card with any issues they found prior to calling Mr. Hildeen’s office, thus allowing all issues to be addressed in fewer visits.  As he matured within the company, Mr. Hildeen took over home sales, once Crestwood no longer used Arlington Realty or Edward R. Carr, Inc., as it’s sales agents, as they had done initially.  Eventually Mr. Hildeen’s sales successes resulted in the creation of Crestwood Realty, Inc. which, for a time handled exclusively all of the corporation’s sales.  For a more in depth article on Mr. Hildeen and his remembrances of his work with Crestwood and Springfield, please see the “Interview with Mr. Hildeen” document posted on this same site.

So great was the Crestwood’s Springfield development that the company joined in what amounted to a cross marketing campaign and worked with both the (now-defunct) Woodward & Lothrop department store chain, and local furniture retailer Barnes & Kimel Co. to cross advertise the homes along with the furnishings provided for the model homes and vice versa.

Adding to this growing interest, a nationally published magazine known as “Living For Young Homemakers” sent a representative out during the summer of 1952 to do a six-page photo story on the growing community as well as the suburban growth of the DC area in general.  

Featured in the August ‘52 issue were views of the interior of one of the model homes as well as scenes showing the construction in the back yards of one of the first sections, which encompassed the area bounded by Backlick Rd to the east, Amherst Ave to the west, Essex Ave to the south and Floyd Ave. to the north.   

Even The Washington Post joined in the support of the development by naming Crestwood’s “Chesterfield” as one of it’s “Homes of 52” prestigious exhibit houses in September. 

Starting in 1947, The Post used to run a “Homes of…” event each Fall wherein a selection of new home offerings in the area were chosen by various industry experts and featured with photos, architect renderings and advertising tie-ins with most of the major furniture and department store retailers.  Those retailers completely furnished the model houses. These were huge events in those growing years of the DC Metro area, and Crestwood homes were selected in nearly every year of those events from 1952 on into the late 1960’s.  

Crestwood homes were modest in style but still hold up well today for their solid construction, sensible size, ease of maintenance, and lack of faux elegance.  They started out in Springfield with seven basic floor plans and 28 different exterior elevations but later made changes based on feedback from buyers and potential buyers. Early on, offerings went from basement-less two bedroom ramblers (The Prince William) starting at $13,950 up to the more popular three bedroom ramblers with a full basement known as “The Chesterfield” which sold between $17,750 and $17,950 depending on exterior variation.  Also included were a two story “Fairfax” which was also available for $17,950.

During the earliest part of 1952, the builders quickly found that the three non-basement models didn’t sell at all, with basement models being the only ones ordered. Later, in a reversal starting in September 1953, the wildly popular, slab-built “Virginian” rambler took off in a sales frenzy, as did the “Crestwood Split Level” in November ‘53. Both went on to find buyers in other Crestwood-built neighborhoods for the next sixteen years.  In the modern-styled Virginian, the lack of a basement was (in part) compensated for through good storage both inside the house as well as at the back of the carport.  The earlier non-basement ramblers were woefully short on storage space of any kind, so the improvements were a hit with the more budget minded buyers.

The design for the Virginian was a clear and outright copy of the famous “Levittowner” home offered by Levitt & Sons in

their Levittown, NY subdivision.  With the exception of the all brick construction of The Virginian, and a few minor alterations, the homes were the same both inside and out.

The Crestwood’s Springfield homes were enormously favored by buyers and it was reported that the houses were selling at an average of one per day during the peak years of the mid-1950s.  Mr. Hildeen stated that at any one time, the company had 200 homes in various stages of production, with the total of over 1,500 houses being completed at the end of the initial run of the Crestwood’s Springfield development in 1955.

During the first several years “The Home You Elect On The Lot You Select”, and “See A Community In The Making” slogans brought eager homebuyers in by the droves with down payments in hand and financing to most provided by G.I. as well as conventional FHA terms.  On a weekly average, over 1,000 people came to see the model homes and to watch the astonishing growth, with many plunking down their life savings in order to buy their own piece of the suburban paradise unfolding before them.

Even while still building in their initial Springfield subdivision, Crestwood expanded into construction of another local neighborhood formerly known as Crestwood Park (1955-59). Now more commonly known as simply part of the huge “North Springfield” neighborhood along Braddock Rd than by it’s real name, Crestwood Park was indeed a key piece in the creation of that enormous part of Springfield. 

Later came Edsall Park (1957-58), Highland Park (1958-1959, which expanded westward onto the original “Crestwood’s Springfield”), Crestwood Manor (along Backlick Rd in Annandale, 1959-60), and Ravensworth Farm (1960-64), as well as a slightly more upscale subdivision called “Collingwood On The Potomac” (1958) which is located off The George Washington Memorial Parkway in Alexandria. 

Crestwood Construction Corporation was the main

corporation but there exists evidence in Arlington County records that they were also buying land under E. Carl & Verna Hengen’s as well Bernard Steinberg’s individual names and began using a sub-corporation name of Decar Construction Corp. for some of the homes in North Arlington and a few in South Arlington. Another major indication of growth and prosperity within the corporate structure came at some point during 1954 when Crestwood, which was a Virginia corporation, began setting up sub-corporations under Delaware’s more lenient and business friendly structure. At this point, I have found fifteen separately named sub-corporations all headed by Bernard Steinberg and E. Carl Hengen.  The list is as follows:

Avondale Park, Inc.Braddock Park, Inc.Crescent Park, Inc.Devon Park, Inc.Edsall Park, Inc.Fairfax Park, Inc.Greenwood Park, Inc.Halifax Park, Inc.Ivy Park, Inc.Juneau Park, Inc.Kentwood Park, Inc.Lawrence Park, Inc.Mayfair Park, Inc.Newton Park, Inc.

As found in the land records detailing the purchase of the land on which the Crestwood Park subdivision was built in North Springfield...rather than buying all the acreage under the Crestwood name, each previously subdivided section was purchased by one of the above sub-corporations.  Additionally, even though Crestwood was doing the construction…the development and deeding was done between the sub-corporation and the buyer.  A sample deed from a home purchased on Inzer Street in May of 1955 shows no indication that Crestwood was involved (outside of the

signatures of Steinberg & Hengen as company officers) but rather the Grantor shows as being “Avondale Park, Inc. The same thing occurred in the Edsall Park subdivision.  A previous owner before the company purchase had subdivided all the land, and the different sub-corporations bought each section individually.  The original August 16, 1957 deed for the house that my family eventually bought in the 1970’s, showed “Greenwood Park, Inc.” as the Grantor with no mention of Crestwood at all but yet there is no question that the house was a Crestwood built house in a Crestwood built subdivision.

Shortly after it’s transformation from rural vista to a growing suburban community, Springfield was able to boast many things we take for granted today, such as house to house mail delivery (beginning December 1,1953), an expanded local post office, it’s first shopping center (built by The Lynch Brothers firm at the Southwest corner of Brandon Ave and Bland St.), bus service to DC, as well as it’s own local newspaper, The Springfield Independent which began publication on February 1, 1953.  

Also in February 1953, early residents quickly organized the first homeowners association, and with that followed every type of club or organization from women’s clubs, garden clubs, Brownie and Scout Troops to several Little League Baseball teams.  

In order to handle the education of Springfield’s youngsters, the Garfield School on Old Keene Mill Rd was opened in September 1954 and plans for two more schools in the area were soon in the works.  First came The Crestwood Elementary School opening on February 29, 1956 & then Lynbrook Elementary on February 11, 1957.  The addition of a high school was delayed until the opening of Robert E. Lee High School in 1958, so the early high school kids had to attend several other established schools in the area such as the new (1954) Annandale High School, Mt. Vernon High School, and for a short time all the way to Fairfax High.

Those early “Springfield Pioneers” had some inconveniences in the beginning, as the closest major retailers were still located in Washington, Arlington and Alexandria with some smaller stores available in Annandale prior to The Springfield Shopping Center opening in May 1953.  That center (mentioned above) began as a 5 unit building consisting of a very small market, drug store, cleaners, post office extension, and hardware store. Additions on either side of the original units greatly expanded the center during the years through 1957-58, allowing for a much larger drug store and the additions of many various small retailers, thus reducing the need to go outside of Springfield for basic essentials. 

In the spring of 1955, Edward R. Carr Inc. built what was originally known as The Springfield City Shopping Center in the area surrounded, by Backlick Rd, Amherst Ave and later an extension of Bland St.  The largest tenant of that center was also the largest super market in town at that time, known as Bon Foods on the Backlick Rd. side of the building, with various smaller retailers on the Amherst Ave. side.

Phone service in Springfield up until the later part of 1955 was primitive at best. What initial service there was, was on the old party line system and it was reported that in some cases as many as nine households had to share one phone line until more trunk lines could be brought in and private lines became more affordable to the average family.  All calls were initially handled by the Falls Church exchange office until a new call center was built on Little River Turnpike, just east of the intersection with Braddock Rd. Imagine today, with our cell phones only a hand reach away, how it was to have to listen to nine different ring tones or combinations of rings to know which calls were yours versus those of your other eight neighbors homes.  It was not uncommon to pick up your receiver and hear the line abuzz with the usage of those other people, and you had to wait until the line was free before making a call. It is an unthinkable situation to most of us today.  To ease the problem, The Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company placed phone booths on some

corners in the Crestwood’s Springfield area so that residents could have access to service even if they could not get it into their individual homes.

As with anyone who buys in a new development, the “growing pains” of having to deal with the rumble of construction equipment, the dust, and other inconveniences is something you just have to tolerate for a while.  As the eventual 1,500 homes of Crestwood’s section of Springfield were built, it was an endurance that lasted from the first home being sold in 1952 up until the last sections at the west end of Essex Ave were completed in the last part of 1955.  In addition there were the many surrounding new neighborhoods going up for a total of about 12 years when it began to trickle down some. 

To their credit those early homeowners were a resilient bunch who were just happy to at last have a home, and a nice place for them to raise their families. As all of the Carr promised conveniences began to arrive, such as shopping centers, places of worship, parks, schools etc. the Springfield of his vision became a bustling reality. It was all fresh and new, with all the benefits of suburban life but all the convenience of living in the city.  Springfield was a veritable suburban paradise and a just reward for those who endured the poverty and harsh economics of the 1930’s, the rationing and human sacrifice during World War Two and then the strain of living through one of the worst shortages of housing in our nation’s history. 

Not long after Crestwood Construction got things rolling, other area builders such as Carr, Inc’s affiliate B&B Construction began building in Yates Village (1953-56, along Backlick Rd), with Michnick & DiMaio starting the adjacent Lynbrook (debuting on August 29, 1954) and Springfield Park (off Reservoir Rd. in 1957).  Edward R. Carr, Inc. also began building Monticello Forest in the summer of 1954 but they stopped building there in early 1955 and didn’t resume until 1959, thanks to the tremendous amount of work and focus needed for something much bigger that was in the works.

Mr. Carr greatly expanded the area with his multi-builder/multi-sectioned “North Springfield” development, which took well into the 60’s to complete. That too was also a highly recognized achievement both nationally and internationally when representatives from the Soviet Union came to tour the huge project in October of 1955.  

As with the “Springfield” subdivision within the area of Springfield, Mr. Carr created a similar situation in that, within the overall developed area called “North Springfield”, he built a subdivision of homes called “North Springfield” beginning with the rezoning of 260 acres of land in February 1955. The highly respected local architect, Harry E. Ormston, designed the houses in the Carr-built section.

In late 1952 and hot on the heels of the initial success of the Crestwood homes, builders Joseph S. Gordin, Harry Mensh and Thomas C. Roumel began building Beverly Forest further south along Backlick Rd.  They offered custom-built ramblers in beautiful modern and more traditional designs with a man made lake adding glamour to it’s beautifully wooded acreage.

It should be noted that far ahead of people being “green minded” today, one of Ed Carr’s desires for development in the area was to retain as many trees as possible while building the homes. If cutting down the previous trees had been necessary, he was always mindful to have some new trees planted on the lots after the homes were finished.  Love them or hate them, the multitude of Crab Apple trees (that many of us remember having to clean up after), were planted by the direction of Mr. Carr. This practice apparently was not followed by Crestwood Construction during the building of it’s “Crestwood’s Springfield” subdivision.  As reported in a July 20, 1955 edition of The Springfield Independent, new area residents were referring to the original Crestwood section as “That Barren Section” thanks

to the nearly complete lack of trees after construction. In the same article, it was pointed out that in fact, that statement was no longer accurate considering in the fall of 1954, a total of 450 Norway Maple trees were planted through efforts of a Crestwood resident named Col. John W. Gorn and a civic committee under his direction.

In conclusion, now, more than sixty-eight years after Edward R. Carr stood assessing the rugged, gently rolling landscape of Springfield that he was about to purchase, I would hope that he would be rightfully proud of how it has grown to meet and maybe even surpass his dream.  Also, sixty-three years from when ground was broken by Bernard Steinberg and E. Carl Hengen for those first Crestwood model homes, they (along with Roger Hildeen) should not be forgotten in their efforts to help establish the roots from which modern day Springfield still thrives on today. 

For the thousands of us who grew up or spent time in those early Springfield neighborhoods, they will always be a special place because they were more than just houses to us. They were our homes.

Robyn CarterCrestwood’s Springfield HistorianDecember 2011 (Updated 9-21-15)