City View Barns (Site)

Here follows information about the City View house as provided by the "Jaybird's Jotting's" blog written by Jay Roberts in 2014:

City View I and II
Location: Beacon Center, 6600 Richmond Highway
Currently There: Beacon Center

Precise Location: Historic Aerials indicate City View’s modern day equivalent was in front of the Panera and steps south of Famous Dave’s Restaurant.

We start at the top of Beacon Hill in Groveton, the tallest point around these parts at about 250 feet, and about halfway between Alexandria and Mount Vernon. Some Alexandrians who made their money in the seaport retreated to the quiet and solitude of the hills south of the city. One such man was Benjamin Barton (1820-1897), who built his county home on land we now know as the Beacon Center in Groveton.

From his shop on King Street, just a few blocks from the waterfront, Barton earned a sterling reputation as a master clock and watchmaker. He learned the trade from his father, as did his brother Thomas. Barton, Eliza and their three children lived at 31 South Royal Street. He maintained the City Clock at City Hall and became President of the Hydraulicon Steam Fire Company, a position he held for 42 years.

After he retired, Barton purchased a 74-acre farm. In his book, “Dixie Clockmakers,” author James W. Gibbs notes the location was three miles south of Alexandria on the Mount Vernon Road. A cottage was located there during the Civil War. In 1868, Barton built a country house and named it “City View.” He died there in 1887. The Alexandria Gazette wrote that an overflow crowd of mourners poured into 2nd Presbyterian Church. Barton was laid to rest at Ivy Hill Cemetery on upper King Street, a high spot itself overlooking the city where Barton was revered.

After City View burned down in 1918, W.F.P Reid Sr. (married to Sallie K. Pickett) built City View II on the same high ground. The history of this beautiful home is covered like a blanket at Friends of Beacon Field Airport. Harry and Anna Marie Lehman tell us the four-story Greek dwelling with 25 rooms and four front columns was, “visually massive and a prominent landmark on Route 1.” In 1954, the Alexandria Gazette called it “one of the area’s finest homes.”

(Note: Photo of City View courtesy Harry Lehman, Anna Marie Hicks. Be sure and check out their wonderful website).

In the early 1930s, the City View tract became home to Beacon Field Airport, named after the country’s navigational beacon program. During different periods of time, entertainment events were held there, including horse shows, carnivals and air shows. After World War II, commercial airline pilots received their aviation training at Beacon Field.

Beacon Field had two runways. The south-north footprint survives on the straight line of landscape running behind the Beacon Center from the Giant to the Target store. The east-west runway ended at about where Chipotle now stands and at the intersection of Southgate and King’s Highway.

An observation room on top of City View provided a “magnificent panoramic view” of Alexandria, Washington, Fort Washington in Maryland and the Potomac River. Reid no doubt showed off this view to guests such as Ulysses S. Grant II and Arthur Godfrey.

City View II, once surrounded by dairy farms, gained many neighbors in the middle of the 20th-century as the population in Fairfax County grew from 40,000 in 1940 to 275,000 in 1960. Down the hill towards Alexandria, Penn-Daw had become a motor inn mecca for travelers along Route 1. Some of the visitors and many of the locals ate at the Dixie Pig Restaurant, a culinary landmark that stood for many years across the street from City View II.

City View’s long run ended in 1959 when it was torn down. The Giant grocery store rose up on the historic footprint (Lehman recalled the front door was located on the south side facing Memorial Street and the Groveton High School). Other stores at the Beacon Mall followed, which rebranded its name to the “Beacon Center” several years ago.

Thanks to the efforts of the Lehman’s, a Fairfax County historical marker for Beacon Field was erected in 2010 and stands near the corner of Route 1 and Memorial Avenue. A new restaurant at 6900 Richmond Highway (about 1/3 mile to the south), on tap to open in 2015, will pay homage to this lost landmark with its name – City View Restaurant.