The Gordin-Mensh Shopping Center

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

1956 brought forth two small strip shopping centers on either side of Backlick Rd that, as of this writing, are about the only remaining, virtually intact original retail centers that have not either been torn down or so heavily remodeled as to be unrecognizable. Both could easily be restored to serve as working, functional anchors of the early days of Springfield’s commercial development but sadly I have been informed that both are slated for, yet another, destroy and replacement plan, thus eliminating some of the last vestiges of her early style. Neither center is of any outstanding architectural significance other than they represent the prevailing simplicity and clean lines of the mid-century contemporary commercial architecture….. which ironically is coming back in style in many new buildings today. The larger of the two was originally called The Gordin-Mensh Shopping Center and it has three claims to fame in local history. One is that it housed the original location of the Richard Byrd Library when it began in 1958. Second it houses the single oldest remaining business in Springfield and that is Presto Cleaners that has been operating continuously in that center since it opened in 1956. Lastly, and the one that is likely most important to current residents, is the center is the long time location for Moe’s Peyton Place which has been a local institution for many decades now.

Directly across Backlick from The Gordin-Mensh Shopping Center stands a smaller but equally original center that, up to this point, doesn’t seem to have been named but still could be sensitively restored to remain as a proud example of Springfield’s early retail architecture, if only redevelopment would allow it. A 1969 photo (courtesy of The Roxanne Edwards Collection) shows the center as it was and as it could be if it were to be cleaned, repaired and restored to continue serving modern residents, even if it is incorporated into a newer, taller, larger and cohesively designed structure, standing out in relief so that the new doesn’t swallow the original. Such blending of historic and new structures has been done successfully in other areas so that progress and history can work hand in hand to the benefit of all both now and going forward.