Fairfax Cabins Motel (Site)

These coordinates mark the exact spot where the motel once stood. Today, no visible remains exist.


<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>
<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>•<•>

Here follows an excerpt from Chris Barbuschak's presentation, "The History of Motels on Route 1 in Fairfax County" on behalf of the Mount Vernon Regional Historical Society:

When the MVRHS first asked me to talk about motels, I thought there's probably 20 tops on Route 1. Boy was I wrong, there are 62! So, a little context about hotels and motels on Richmond Highway. Route 1 is over 2,400 miles long. It's known as America's first main street and it stretches from Maine to Florida and its chock full of mom and pop shacks and businesses, diners, fortune tellers, truck stops and motels. U.S. Route 1 between Washington and Fredericksburg more or less followed the Potomac Path, which was a Native American route along the Potomac River. And when the Europeans came and settled it, they chose the shortest route along the bank of the Potomac as well.

In 1918, the state designated State Route One, which is part of the old Jefferson Davis Highway, and it was called SR1 in 1923. It became State Route 30 in 1926. In less than a year by 1927, the entire stretch of roadway was paved and motels practically popped up overnight. From the 1920s and 1930s, there were tourist ports which were individual cabins that you could stay in. They were arranged in a horseshoe fashion, usually around an office or a picnic area or a restaurant. Then in the 1940s and 1950s, you get into the low slung ranch style motels. And then in the 1960s and 1970s we get a couple of chain motels that come in.

So, Route 1 was the main north and south artery for many years, almost 50 years until Interstate Highway 95 opened up. That connected to Fredericksburg in 1964 and almost overnight all the businesses in the Richmond Highway corridor went downhill and continued to do so. Route 1 kind of had this "no tell" motel vibe to it. Ever since the 1960s, the county tried to get those motels to close and one by one they did. As of today, only nine of those original motels still exist. A couple of them are already on the chopping block.

So buckle up, and lets look at them all:

FAIRFAX CABINS -- 6240 RICHMOND HIGHWAY
Right next to the Ford Motor Court Motel was the Harry Smith Motel. At ages 38, Both Mr. and Mrs. Harry Smith built their namesake motel in 1953. It originally had 37 brick units. Smith died seven years after opening this motel from a rare pathological condition. But his motel lives on. It's currently known as the Moon Inn Motel, which I think is a really great and creative name for a motel. It has had some more recent dark history. The so-called "Shopping Cart Serial Killer" killed two of his victims at this motel in 2021. Plans to redevelop the property actually fell through last year.

Prior to opening that hotel though, Harry Smith's brother, Roger Woodrow Smith, and his partners opened the Fairfax Cabins motel at the intersection of King's Highway and Route 1 in the late 1930's. Harry Smith later took over operating that motel before opening his own motel. It was demolished to make way for the Penn-Daw Shopping Center in the 1950s. And this shopping center has since been demolished to make way for a massive housing complex, which you might remember burned down during construction a couple of years ago.