Glen Forest Elementary School
GPS Coordinates: 38.8561291, -77.1287317
Closest Address: 5829 Glen Forest Drive, Falls Church, VA 22041

Here follows a history of the school as published on the Fairfax County Public Schools website:
Glen Forest Elementary School opened on September 3, 1957, with 18 classrooms and approximately 15 teachers. Our first principal was Floyd W. Worley. Glen Forest Elementary School was built to house 540 students in first through seventh grade. Today, Glen Forest has 1,075 students in pre-K through fifth grade and employs more than 150 staff members, including 56 classroom teachers. Glen Forest Elementary School has undergone three major additions since it opened. In 1969, the school’s size essentially doubled. In 1988, six more classrooms were added, and two years later in 1990, the main office was added.
What's in a Name?
Have you ever wondered how Glen Forest Elementary School got its name? Find out in this video produced for the Fairfax County Public Schools cable television channel Red Apple 21:
Glen Forest Elementary School opened in 1957. The school was named for the surrounding Glen Forest residential neighborhood that was built in the mid-1950s by developer Woodrow Oliver. Oliver’s choice of the name Glen Forest for the neighborhood may have been jointly inspired by the local landscape and by the name of a nearby neighborhood in Arlington County, Glencarlyn, which was founded in the late 1880s. The word “glen” is Scottish in origin and is defined by the Scottish National Dictionary as a valley generally traversed by a stream or river. The “glen” in Glencarlyn refers to the stream valley of Four Mile Run, a tributary of the Potomac River. The Glen Forest neighborhood has a glen of its own — a stream called Upper Long Branch which flows through a shallow valley in the middle of the neighborhood into Four Mile Run. An aerial photograph of Upper Long Branch, taken in 1937, shows that the landscape on both banks of the stream was largely forested prior to development by Woodrow Oliver, hence the name Glen Forest. The bright structure pictured to the south of the stream is a mansion that was known by the name Moray. During the 19th century, Moray was the home of the Bailey family for whom Bailey’s Crossroads is named. Hachaliah Bailey, of Westchester County, New York, owned a traveling menagerie of elephants and was called “the father of the American circus” by P. T. Barnum. In 1837, he purchased 526 acres of land in Fairfax County near the intersection of Leesburg and Columbia Pikes. Hachaliah conveyed this property to Mariah Bailey, the wife of his son Lewis, in 1843. After acquiring the property, Lewis and Mariah Bailey took up farming. By the late 1870s, the Baileys began operating their mansion as a summer boarding house for travelers seeking to escape the sweltering heat in Washington. After the deaths of Lewis and Mariah, the farm was divided among their surviving heirs. The land where Glen Forest Elementary School stands was inherited by a daughter-in-law, Eliza Dent Bailey, wife of Horace Bailey. The Bailey home, Moray, was destroyed by fire in 1942. The home would have been a short walk from Glen Forest Elementary School because it once stood on what is today Durbin Place.
Integration
When Glen Forest Elementary School opened, Fairfax County’s public schools were segregated by race, and our school only educated white children from the surrounding community. Fairfax County’s schools desegregated slowly, from 1960 to 1966, ushering in the culturally diverse school community we know today. Unlike the Glen Forest Elementary School of the 1950s, today we have one of the most culturally diverse student bodies in Fairfax County with a student population representing 55 different countries, and 89 percent of our students come from homes where a language other than English is spoken.
Our Community Roots
Glen Forest Elementary School is located in Bailey’s Crossroads, which was named for Hachaliah (heck-a-LIE-uh) Bailey who, in 1837, purchased 526 acres at the intersection of Leesburg and Columbia Pike including the land where Glen Forest stands today. Bailey moved to Fairfax County from Westchester County, New York, where he had operated a traveling menagerie of elephants. Hachaliah Bailey’s son, Lewis, created the first canvas circus tents for performances venues. His nephew, George Bailey, exhibited animals during the day and added circus performances at night. Another nephew, James A. Bailey, merged the traveling show with P.T. Barnum’s circus in 1880. Contrary to popular rumors, no elephants are buried here according to a Washington Post article. Today, Bailey’s Crossroads signs along Leesburg Pike feature a circus tent.
Presidential Forays
In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower brought Nikita Khrushchev to the newly opened Seven Corners Shopping Center near Glen Forest. In 1998, President Bill Clinton delivered a radio address from one of Glen Forest Elementary School’s modular buildings, advocating for federal funding for school construction.
Academic Excellence
In February 2017, the Virginia General Assembly passed a joint resolution honoring Glen Forest Elementary School for its 60 years of excellence. In recent history, we’ve seen a dramatic rise in student achievement spurred on by our continued focus on providing students with an advanced academic curriculum, our high priority in building technology skills for the future, and our efforts to engage families, build community spirit, and embrace our cultural diversity to create an inclusive learning environment.
A Special Gift
On November 27, 2017, in partnership with the National Cherry Blossom Festival Tree Planting Program and All Nippon Airways (ANA), Glen Forest was presented with a gift of five cherry blossom trees in honor of the friendship between the United States and Japan. The tree planting was attended by ANA’s Senior Vice President of the Americas, Hideki Kunugi, an alumni of Glen Forest who attended our school in the 1960s.
Our Principals:
1957 – 1960: Floyd W. Worley
1960 – 1969: Clarence B. Brooks, Jr.
1969 – 1973: Mark S. Summers
1973 – 1980: Joseph N. Rucker
1980 – 1984: S. Yvonne McCall
1984 – 1987: Ronald E. West
1987 – 1992: Judy Washington Estep
1992 – 1998: Harold I. Price
1998 – 2001: Susan C. Fitz
2001 – 2007: Theresa Doherty West
2007 – 2010: Elizabeth Aldonas
2010 – 2020: Cynthia F. Choate
2020 – 2021 Dwayne Young (Interim)
2021 – Present: Diane Herndon Wilson