Gallahan's Grocery Store (Site)

Here follows an excerpt from "Post WW2 History of Springfield, Virginia and The Crestwood Construction Corp." written by Robyn Carter:

Since Springfield was a brand spanking new community, there wasn't an abundance of conveniences in that first year and the "Springfield Pioneers" had some inconveniences in the beginning. For instance, up through April of 1953, as the community grew by an average of three families per week, the only local store in Springfield was a little country store called Gallahan's Grocery (on the south side of Old Keene Mill Road at its intersection with Hanover Avenue). Gallahan's store operated from the early 1940's through the late 1950's. Outside of that, the next closest grocery was one was in Franconia called Fitzgerald’s. Neither was large nor carried a huge variety since they were based on a very small rural population. In September of 1951, a Safeway supermarket store opened in the present day Bank of America location in Annandale at Columbia Pike and Backlick Rd. This gave early Springfielder’s their access to a grocery store more in line with the times. Today, it’s nothing to go from Springfield to Annandale, but due to the road situation, that trip for groceries wasn’t so easy along Backlick Rd with the terrible road conditions, the very dangerous railroad crossing, many ruts and narrow passage along much of the way.