Parr-Franconia Warehouse Complex

Here follows an excerpt from Nathaniel Lee's book, "The Iron Road of Franconia" that discusses the railroad spur here:

In 1952, Frank Parr built the massive Parr-Franconia Warehouse Complex located on Loisdale Road. Its flagship warehouse had the largest wooden roof truss system east of the Mississippi River at the time. When completed, the complex offered a staggering total of 1.5 million square feet of storage space. Upon reaching an agreement with the RF&P Railroad, they extended the old Ravensworth railroad spur. The spur formed the shape of a letter “C.” The warehouses are located on the western side of the main RF&P Railroad line. For access, the spur branched off from the main line south of the warehouses where a slow curve brought trains parallel to the north side of Metropolitan Center Drive. Upon reaching the western side of the property a sharp 180-degree turn brought trains across Metropolitan Center Drive and facing eastward so they could pull in alongside each of the warehouse storage units for easy loading and unloading.

The tale of the property’s ownership is an interesting one. Frank D. Parr, a devout Methodist from San Francisco, had built up a fortune in commercial real estate over his lifetime. In 1954, Parr was looking to sell his properties to the Methodist Church. The legal advisor for the church at the time was Paul R. Russell who practiced law at Shearman, Sterling and Wright in New York City. Mr. Russell was a member of the struggling Park Avenue Methodist Church in New York, and arranged the sale of the warehouse here in Franconia to that church. The rental revenues over the years allowed the church to become solvent and embark on new community programs. When the federal government bought the property outright in 1966, Mr. Russell created a trust fund for the church.

The General Services Administration has been the major tenant at the Parr-Franconia Warehouse Complex since its inception. The RF&P Railroad gave the stop at the warehouse complex the name of Ravensworth, spelled with an “S” this time, unlike the original 1872 stop nearby. The name Ravensworth pays homage to the original Fitzhugh family land grant that covered most of Springfield, including the land upon which the warehouse complex stands. After 48 years of service, the federal government removed the tracks in the year 2000 to make way for the Springfield Crossing apartment complex built on the north side of the property.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fractured Fairfax website:

The Parr Franconia Warehouse, also known as the GSA Warehouse, is a large warehouse complex owned and used by the General Services Administration in Springfield.

The warehouse was constructed by the Parr Warehouse Company of San Francisco, owned by Fred A. Parr. Parr was the winning bidder on the GSA's solicitation of September 19, 1951, for 1.25 million square feet of warehouse space within 15 miles of Washington, D.C.

Beginning in the fall of 1952, the Barrett and Hilp company of San Francisco constructed two buildings, designed by architects Ward and Bolles, also of San Francisco, at a cost of nearly $7 million.

The facility was novel not only in its scale; the larger of the two warehouses constructed was 500 feet wide and 2000 feet long, but in its method of erection, being one of the first commercial examples of tilt-up construction. The concrete walls were poured flat, then raised by crane to their final position before being topped with prefabricated arched wood trusses to support the roof.

By August 1953, the GSA had moved in to the still-incomplete facility.

On June 24, 1954, the Park Avenue Methodist Church of New York City purchased the building for $6,634,000.

Incidents:

A section of the wooden roof measuring 75 by 100 feet collapsed late on February 4, 1961.

40-year-old supervisor David Beaddy was shot in the left side with a .22 caliber rifle while operating a forklift at the complex on February 13, 1973. Four local youths, aged 13 through 16, who had been using a Marlin rifle to shoot birds, were arrested and charged with maiming.

A 20,000 square foot section of the roof, which was being repaired by the A.A. Beiro Construction company of Alexandria, collapsed on July 27, 1978.