Post WW2 History of Springfield, Virginia and The Crestwood

Construction Corp.
Few might know, or even suspect when driving through the
huge interchange of 495/395/95 that as late as just 65 years
ago, the now well established fixture in the Fairfax County
suburban landscape known as Springfield was not much
more than a whistle stop along the railroad line. Fewer
might know how important Springfield was in its standing as
one of our pre-planned suburban communities. Its
phenomenal mid-century birth and growth greatly affected
the Washington DC area and even got national attention due
to its unique beginnings as a suburban community.
Why was Springfield turned from a rural community into a
thriving suburban area in the first place? What events made
it necessary to take on the monumental task of transforming
this quiet little part of Fairfax County into what it has
eventually become today? The answer may seem over
simplified but the reason was a tremendous need for housing
after the end of World War Two. As I began digging deeper
into the beginnings of Post War Springfield, I learned that our
country was suffering from a serious shortage of housing and
the natural questions arose as to why there was a shortage
in the first place.
The combination of both The Great Depression of the 1930s
and the effects of World War Two had a profound effect on
the availability of housing nationwide in the period both
during the war and up through the late 1940s. Particularly
hard hit was the post war Washington DC area, thanks to the
increase in Federal Government opportunities, and returning
Veterans who were taking up careers at The Pentagon as
well as posts at the various military bases. It was this
crushing need for housing that was the catalyst for the
creation of the Springfield, VA that we know today.
Prior to World War Two, there were many circumstances,
which contributed to the grossly inadequate supply of
available homes at the end of the war. For one the process of

building a home was hampered by outdated and nonstandardized building codes, as well as an industry that had
been building houses using technology going back many
decades without much advancement in the years since.
Also hampering widespread home building/homeownership
was a harsh and complex mortgage lending process, which
required a potential homeowner to put down as much as two
thirds of the total cost of the home up front. Also most
mortgages had only a five year life, at which time it was at
the total discretion of the lender to extend the mortgage for
another term. or not. If not, then the loan was terminated
and it forced a large balloon payment to clear the title of the
house to the buyer. The process of reviewing the loan for
extension was time consuming, costly and left both
borrowers and lenders very uneasy. Such arrangements not
only drove away potential buyers of new homes out of fear
of the financial risk and/or the lack of the needed cash, but
the high risk/events of foreclosure left many lenders hanging
out on a limb for homes they had a hard time re-selling due
to the exact same mortgage snafus.
The biggest help with this problem was the enactment of The
National Housing Act of 1934 and the resulting creation of
The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) which gave
government backed insurance to protect home loans, and
created a more standardized lending system. Also helping
was the creation of longer-term mortgage loans and smaller
down payments, which resulted in anywhere from a 5-20%
initial investment rather than the staggering and prohibitive
two-thirds requirement of old. This made loans safer for the
lender and more affordable to a greater number of people.
Additionally as the country began to climb out of the hole
caused by The Great Depression, World War Two came and
siphoned off a good deal of the men who worked in the
construction trades as well as a great amount of material
during that time of rationing on the home front.
With the lessening of the building of homes during those

periods, and the increase of new families as The Baby Boom

began to gear up, the problem of where all those people
were going to live became acute. The DC area had already
suffered the strain from the hoards of workers who came to
help during the war effort with apartments, boarding houses
and converted basements full to overflowing with
occupants. It was reported in articles in The Washington
Post during the winter of 1945-46 that the situation was
reaching a crisis with people having to make homes for
themselves in attics, garages, basements, cramped multifamily situations, etc, and as more Vets returned, the
problem just kept growing like a virus. Many times those
conditions led to unsanitary and dangerous problems.
At the close of the war, the home building industry was
eager to get back to work and fill the ever-growing need for
affordable housing. As materials began to become available
again, along with tradesmen and laborers returning home,
the construction trades were ready and willing to take
advantage of the coming boom.
As the old saying goes, necessity is the mother of
invention, and the necessity of faster, less costly and higher
volume forms of manufacturing and building were born from
the urgency of providing military field housing during the
war. It was through the meeting and overcoming of that
challenge that led to incredible improvements in technology,
which were a key ingredient in providing post war builders
with ways to increase the speed and consistency of quality in
the construction of post war homes.
As wonderful as all the above improvements were, there was
still a human side that had to play in the creation of
Springfield. Who envisioned the area as being a selfsupporting suburban area? That person was none other than
a local realtor/developer/civic leader by the name of Edward
R. Carr (1897-1974) and he was one of the true movers and
shakers in our area and should rightfully be recognized as
The Father of Modern Day Springfield. Without the foresight
and vision of this multi-talented individual, Northern Virginia

and the DC area in general might have been a different place

indeed. I dont think its an overstatement that, Mr. Carr was
an amazing human being and had well earned the nickname
Mr. Washington.
Having been in the home building business since 1925, Carr
had already created quite a nationally known name for
himself within the industry. At one time or another he served
as head on the boards of nearly every local builder and
realty group, including his service as president of The
National Association of Home Builders during 1947. It was
during his tenure as president of that association that he
almost single handedly saved the home building industry
from a potential government imposed public housing. At
the time the government was desperate to get a handle on
the housing shortage but then, as we can see clearly in
retrospect today, such a plan to crank out large scale
projects would have been disastrous. Mr. Carr is still
honored today in the N.A.H.B Hall of Fame for his success
and efforts during his tenure as president.
I would be remiss if I didnt mention some of his many other
accomplishments both civic, political and business related.
1) President, The Washington Board of Trade.
2) President, Christmas Pageant of Peace. Not only did he
head up the celebration, planning and execution but also
personally underwrote much of the cost in those early years.
3) Parade Chairman for both of Dwight D. Eisenhowers
Inaugural Parades.
4) Chairmen of The Presidents Cup Regatta.
It was Mr. Carr who realized that DC itself had long been
built out and that the closer-in areas of Arlington and
Alexandria were filling up fast. It was evident to him that the
average suburban home development size (at that time) of
up to a couple of hundred homes would never be able to
handle the projected population increase. Most builders

were thinking in terms of hundreds while Carr was thinking in

terms of thousands. Because of this he turned his sights to
the (then) countryside of Fairfax County for available
property in sufficient quantity to create a modern, preplanned suburban City. It was his idea that such a
community would be self-sufficient and provide housing for
anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 people upon its
completion. Of course in terms of huge post war housing
developments, most give credit to William J. Levitt and Levitt
and Sons for the creation of suburbia in general, but in our
local area Edward R. Carr was responsible for literally
thousands of affordable homes. Unlike Mr. Levitt, Mr. Carr
preferred homes of brick rather than the quick-built, prefabricated all-frame houses of the Levittowns.
Once the idea formulated, then came the issue of where in
the area could he create such a huge undertaking. Rural
Springfield had the available land mass but at the time no
easy access to or from the rest of the DC area but that was
soon to change in a big way.
Just around the time of the start of The United States
involvement in WW2, the new Shirley Highway (now 395/I95) had been approved to run southward from DC through
Virginia to initially terminate at Woodbridge. According to a
later article published in The Washington Star (dated January
20, 1952), at the time that Carr was eyeing Springfield for
development in 1946, Shirley Highway only went as far as
Rt. 7 at Fairlington, but plans were already well under way
for its extension past Springfield and on further south.
Thanks to the war any major extension of the new highway
had been delayed until the mid-1940s, but Mr. Carr was
aware of its estimated opening and set his plans
accordingly.
Up to the early 1950s, the area today known as Springfield
was little more than fields of brush, lots of trees with a few
scattered old homes and a railroad station. Some of the
property was historic thanks to ties with Robert E. Lee and
the mansion at Ravensworth Farm, but it was considered by

most DC area residents to be quite primitive and remote.

Indeed the Springfield area has a long and interesting predevelopment story, which is well documented by Fairfax
County Historian, Mr. Jack L. Hiller. His research and
knowledge on the events of its pre-suburban period can be
found online at The Edsall Park neighborhood website at:
http://www.edsallpark.org/area-history/springfield-history
It was on December 30th, 1946 that Mr. Carr made the
purchase of 2,300 acres of Springfield land from The H&H
Development Corp. for an unknown total price but one that
included an unpaid balance of $87,062.80 (as per the deed
of purchase).

Prior land records show that H&H had purchased the same
land for $138,262.80 from Senator Joseph L. Bristow in
August of 1943. From 1918 Senator Bristow had lived in the
Ossian Hall mansion on the land (now occupied by the 1950s
Annandale subdivision, which bears his surname) and during
the years between then and 1943 he accumulated a huge
amount of Springfield area land.
The December 30, 1946 land purchase was handled through
Carr, Inc., whos ownership was broken down as follows (per
my interview with long time Edward R. Carr employee &
friend Mr. Frederick Mears.):
Edward R. Carr 45%
Edward K. Jones 45%
Col. Lawrence McC Jones 10%

Per, Mr. Mears.

Edward K. Jones was president of Weaver Bros., Inc., a full
service real estate firm in Washington, D.C. offering mortgage
banking, residential and commercial sales, property
management and insurance. As far as, Carr, Inc. was concerned,
Edward K. Jones brought to the table not only his vast
knowledge of real estate but represented a source of much
needed development capitol.
In addition to the personal benefits to Edward K. Jones from the
development of the 2,300 acres (plus), he would acquire for
Weaver Bros., Inc. almost all of the mortgage loan business from
the individual loans of the purchasers of the homes to be built
and, in addition, would get most of the home owners insurance
business from the same purchasers. Weaver Bros., Inc., at the
time, was mortgage loan correspondent in Washington for
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
(***Note*** Weaver Bros., Inc. worked closely and backed Mr. Carrs rebound
from the loss of his business during The Great Depression of the 1930s and
continued to play a vital role in the Carr corporations and subsidiaries for many
years going forward.)

Col. Lawrence McC. Jones was a retired army colonel and the
brother of Edward K. Jones. Col. Jones may be better known to
some as Biff Jones, former football coach at Louisiana State
University and Army at West Point, etc. Obviously his career was
not in real estate but he added a valuable stabilizing force to the
corporation.
The three individuals traded their interests in some apartments
in Southeast Washington, D.C. as a down payment with the rest
of the price being in a deferred purchase money trust back to the

sellers.

After Mr. Carrs purchase began a long, grueling five-year

fight to bring utilities to the area. Usually a new development
was located nearby an established one so that hookups to
utilities was an easy process but Springfields remote
location at the time left quite a bit of distance between it
and any established utilities. The idea of such a large
development in this area was nearly unheard of and many
utility companies did not want to risk the investment to run
trunks and lines out into the virtual wilderness with no solid
guarantee that Carrs plan wouldnt turn out to be a major
flop. They preferred to see the homes already under
construction before they stuck their financial necks out. Carr
had a huge investment in the land itself, so building a group
of homes with no guarantee of utilities to support them
wasnt viable either.
Prior to Mr. Carrs proposed community, Fairfax County had
not dealt with such a massive development project that
included not just residential areas but also plans for
commercial, retail and light industrial areas all coming in
together. It can be assumed that getting the permits and
approval was a daunting task for all concerned.
The earliest public announcement of Carrs planned City
appears to have come in a June 22, 1947 article in The
Washington Post (regarding various new suburban
developments) which states The most stupendous is a new
community planned by veteran Washington Builder Edward
Carr which would transform the sleepy farming village of
Springfield, 5 miles west of Alexandria, into a modern
community of approximately 20,000 people. The new Shirley
Memorial Highway, now under construction and expected to
be fully completed in early 1949, would allow commuters to
reach the Pentagon Building in less than 20 minutes.
It is also accurate to note that during this same period, a
huge amount of Springfield land was owned by a former

farming family turned real estate moguls by the name of

Lynch. While Carr was working on planning his massive
project, the Lynch firm was selling what was considered rural
building lots in what is now known as Springvale. The
difference was that rather than purchasing a completed
home with all the conveniences (as became the custom in
the Carr controlled areas), buyers in the early stages of
Springvale were simply buying lots on which they could build
their own homes, and would have to depend on wells and
septic systems. The roads in Springvale were not paved
until 1955, and caused some jangled nerves and muddy
travel in and out of its boundaries. Later on, working in
conjunction with Edward Carr Inc, the Lynch firm became
instrumental in the commercial development of the
Springfield area by building the first shopping center as well
as various other business related projects.
Coinciding with the time of Mr. Carrs project, there were
other builders creating comparatively small groups of homes
over nearer to the Franconia area but none of them
substantially compared with what he had in the works.
The main trouble for Carr in the late 1940s seemed to be
getting water in enough supply to support a community of so
many thousands with attempts at tapping many of the
underground springs failing to meet the requirements. In a
Washington Post article entitled New City Drilling For
Water Supply (dated 3-7-48), it was reported that Carr was
currently drilling for water in the hopes that he could begin
erecting homes that summer, but if that didnt work, then
water would have to be piped in sometime during 1949 or
1950. During the struggle to get city water mains, sewer
lines, power, gas and rudimentary phone service brought in
from the surrounding developed areas, Carr began working
with Architect-Engineer Edward S. Holland to completely preplan what Springfield was being called at the time, a
Satellite City. Together and with the staff at Edward R.
Carr, Inc. it was decided where the neighborhoods,
apartments, shopping centers, churches, parks, schools and
public buildings were to be, all based on topography and

with a sense of where it would all provide the most

convenience for future home/community hungry
residents. Articles published in both major local newspapers
of the time touted the expansive pre-planning process and
how it promised to hasten the settlement of this part of
Fairfax County into one of the areas largest and most
complete communities.
Through intense pre-planning, Carr intended to avoid the
problems created by the more common piecemeal creation
of a community/city. It was reasoned that by laying out the
entire area ahead of time, there was less room for costly
error and rearrangement as well as a more pleasant
environment for its citizens. Unlike as it was in older cities
such as Alexandria, Carr had a desire to congregate the
commercial/retail/business district in one area, while keeping
the residential, worship and recreational areas grouped
together. He also included an area that was to be dedicated
for industrial purposes, which included the key space needed
beside The Southern Railroad tracks to take delivery of the
enormous amount of building supplies needed to create all
the homes and structures as Springfield grew. Today of
course, such suburban and urban planning is a fairly
common practice but at the time, such extensive preplanning was not standard by any means. His thoroughness
not withstanding, the plan still met with many obstacles from
both county and state objections with regard to roadways, a
proposed bridge and the building of what was hoped (at that
time) to be Springfields own water and sewage treatment
plants.
Water mains were finally approved and construction on them
began in the spring of 1949. With this improvement, along
with the opening of Shirley Highway to passenger vehicle
traffic during Labor Day weekend of the same year, Carrs
plan for Springfield was finally showing more form and
substance. With the utilities and basic infrastructure
underway, Mr. Carr realized that his firm would not be in a
position to physically build the entire area alone. The
construction of the first, huge subdivision was to be left to a

different entity, and one, which also had a huge impact on

our area. In 1950, his firm did subdivide and plat (with the
county) the first residential section also named Springfield,
(which undoubtedly caused some confusion to be living in
the Springfield Subdivision in Springfield, Virginia) but did
not actually begin the actual building of it. That job would
be left to another key organization in the Springfield story.
Concurrent with that immediate post war period when Mr.
Carr was about to purchase his Springfield acreage, two
other visionary men in the local construction field formed
what would become one of the largest key players in the
development of Northern Virginia (as well as historically
significant pioneers in the development of modern
Springfield), The Crestwood Construction Corp.
Crestwoods initial principles from 1946 to 1951 were
Bernard Steinberg, and E. Carl Hengen, who had met and
worked together as Seabees during the war (along with an
invaluable, later partner named Mr. Roger Hildeen, from
1951 to 1982).
The following is an excerpt from a November 17, 1962
article, entitled Samars Gift To Springfield from The
Evening Star.
More than 5,000 homes in the Northern Virginia area are a
direct result of a casual talk on the island of Samar, one of
the Philippines during World War II. There in the cool nights
that followed hot, rainy days of hard construction work, three
officers of the 64th Naval Battalion (Seabees) talked over the
possibility of going into the building business in the
Washington area when the war, then in its final stages,
ended.
Of the three, only E. Carl Hengen had any building
experience here. He had been a bricklaying contractor and
built a few houses before the war.
The others were Bernard Steinberg, a civil engineering

graduate of Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute who had worked

briefly for the Federal Government before entering the
service, and Roger Hildeen, who left the University of
Minnesota for a bomber plant in Kansas City.
Today the three are the principles of The Crestwood
Construction Corp., builder of the first homes in Springfield
and one of the major developers of the area.
What may have started as idle talk became a reality within a
year of the mens discharge in December 1945. After a brief
stay in Brooklyn, Mr. Steinberg came here in November
1946; to join Mr. Hengen and the two broke ground for their
first house at 1505 Crestwood Drive, Alexandria, that
Christmas Eve.
Mr. Hildeen held out a little longer. He worked as an
engineer for a cereal manufacturer before joining Crestwood
in 1949. (**In an interview I did with Mr. Hildeen before he passed,
he told me it was the Quaker Oats Company and that he joined
Crestwood in 1951).
In the late 1940s the firm built some 1,500 houses in
Arlington and Alexandria before moving into Springfield at
the time that Edward R. Carr first developed the planned
community. Among their other developments were
Sycamore Gardens, Somerset, Carlyn Park, Parkhaven,
Pinehurst and Oakwood.
Among the three former Seabee officers there is, as is the
case in most firms, a division of labor.
Mr. Hengen, a short stocky man who estimates that over the
years he has had to diet away a total of some 1,000 pounds,
is in charge of construction for the firm. Mr. Steinberg
handles the administrative and financial matters and Mr.
Hildeen takes care of sales, the finishing touches to the
houses, and a separate organization that sees to any
complaints buyers may have..

As stated in the above article, Messrs. Hengen and Steinburg

got into the post war housing market by forming the
corporation (along with Hengens wife Verna) and began
working in conjunction with Arlington Realty Co. to build
brick homes in and around Arlington, Alexandria and Falls
Church. The building of modest, affordable and solid quality
homes would become their stock in trade, and the
corporation was enhanced by Mr. Hengens ability to hire
some of the most talented people in the building trades. He
was also a master brick layer whos work with other builders
gained him a strong reputation in the home building
business community. As of the early 1950s, the
headquarters were located at 4415 Wilson Blvd. in Arlington,
VA. Later, in 1955, they built a modest two-story office
building in the industrial area along Hanover Ave. between
Highland St. and Reservoir Rd.
The corporations ability to construct these quality homes at
a rate, which had blown away any pre-war building speeds,
was benefitted greatly by the advances in pre-fabricated
building technology mentioned earlier. Hengen and
Steinberg brought home many of the engineering
advancements they had witnessed and utilized while
building military bases overseas. This new technology was
vital to what lay ahead for them.
After the first house on Crestwood Dr. (from whence the
corporation name came), the next documented project
appears to be a small subdivision near The Masonic Temple,
along King St. called Ivy Hills (1948). Afterwards, in late 1949
to early 1950, they began building a small group of homes in
what is now generally known as Berkshire-Oakwood. To this
point in writing, it was in a tiny sub-section of BerkshireOakwood on N. 28th St. called Westmoreland Woods that
they began building their first rambler known as The MidCentury Rambler. Later, in Carlyn Park it was known as The
Virginian (not to be confused with the later Springfield
home that used that name). It started as a basement-less
rambler but was a home design that was later (in modified

form mostly with a basement) to become the largest seller in

early Springfield, by then called The Chesterfield.
During 1950-52, Crestwood built Oakwood (in the area
surrounding what is now The Bishop OConnell High School in
North Arlington), Sycamore Park, and Westmore Gardens. In
1951 they began both Carlyn Park (at the intersection of
Arlington and Manchester Boulevards) and Pinehurst (located
where Glen Carlyn Dr. & Leesburg Pike intersect, diagonally
across from The Culmore Shopping Center) and in 1952,
Parkhaven (located behind The Culmore Shopping Center on
Leesburg Pike near Baileys Crossroads).
1951 was a significant year for Crestwood Construction. On
April 9th, Crestwood purchased 593 acres of Springfield land
from Edward R. Carr Inc. for the staggering sum of
$865,454.00. Mr. Carr initially financed the purchase in the
following manner:
Note 1., for $25,000.00 due and payable on or before May
31, 1951.
Note 2., for $50,000.00 due and payable on or before July 1,
1951.
Note 3., for $50,000.00 due and payable on or before
October 31, 1951.
Note 4., for $740,454.00 due and payable on or before April
9, 1956.
It appears that the first three notes were required to be paid
prior to any release of the deed for Section One, afterwards
allowing the model homes and first production homes to be
built, roads to be improved, etc. The large remaining
balance was refinanced through Weaver Brothers shortly
after. As Crestwood built and sold homes in a section, they
were able to pay off the amounts required for the bank to
release the next section(s) of land and the process went on
accordingly until the development was completed.
Having paid the first three notes as described above and in
accordance with Carrs master plan, Crestwood broke ground

during December of 1951 for the first of thirteen model

homes, which are located in the block surrounded by
Backlick Rd., Amherst Ave, and Essex Ave. Outside of the
(historically unfortunate) loss of a unique one-of-a-kind home
known as The Rockbridge, the original model houses still
stand much as they did when literally thousands of area
residents swarmed in to see and purchase homes. There
were a few lots and homes ordered/built as investment
properties such as for The Washington Institute of
Technology who then re-sold them as new homes to
individual buyers. The first house sold to an individual was a
Chesterfield model ($17,950) at 6010 Backlick Rd., to a Mr.
William P. Horton on June 30, 1952.
The other significant event came a month prior to
Crestwoods purchase of Mr. Carrs Springfield Subdivision.
On March 15th, 1951, Mr. Hengen was successful in bringing
on board one of the most charismatic and energetic
members of the corporate team, Mr. Roger Hildeen. As
previously mentioned, the two gentlemen were friends who
had met during their service with The Seabees during WW2
on Tubabao & Samar Islands in the Philippines. Mr. Hildeen,
a native of Minnesota, was a 30-year-old engineer who had
been living in Chicago during the previous five years since
his release from the service and had been working for The
Quaker Oats Company. With the promise of a raise in
income and the challenge of being in on one of the largest
home building projects in the DC area, Mr. Hengen once
again proved that he was adept at brining in top talent and
making the most of their skills.
Mr. Hildeen served in many capacities as a 30+-year partner
in the corporation. Among them, in 1952 he was made
president of Southern Properties, Inc., which was a
Crestwood owned affiliate and charged with doing all the
warranty work on the homes that were growing like grass
across the Springfield acreage.
With his initial staff of only twelve laborers, the tremendous
volume of calls from hundreds of homeowners made for a

challenging situation as they were calling separately for

every single issue (major or minor) they foundoften times
not even waiting until the crew could get back to the office
from the first call. Fortunately Mr. Hildeen resolved this
problem by requiring the new homeowners to live in their
home a period of at least three weeks, and fill out a special
card with any issues they found prior to calling Mr. Hildeens
office, thus allowing all issues to be addressed in fewer
visits. As he matured within the company, Mr. Hildeen took
over home sales, once Crestwood no longer used Arlington
Realty or Edward R. Carr, Inc., as its sales agents, as they
had done initially. Eventually Mr. Hildeens sales successes
resulted in the creation of Crestwood Realty, Inc. which, for a
time handled exclusively all of the corporations sales. For a
more in depth article on Mr. Hildeen and his remembrances
of his work with Crestwood and Springfield, please see the
Interview with Mr. Hildeen document posted on this same
site.
So great was the Crestwoods Springfield development that
the company joined in what amounted to a cross marketing
campaign and worked with both the (now-defunct)
Woodward & Lothrop department store chain, and local
furniture retailer Barnes & Kimel Co. to cross advertise the
homes along with the furnishings provided for the model
homes and vice versa.
Adding to this growing interest, a nationally published
magazine known as Living For Young Homemakers sent a
representative out during the summer of 1952 to do a sixpage photo story on the growing community as well as the
suburban growth of the DC area in general.
Featured in the August 52 issue were views of the interior of
one of the model homes as well as scenes showing the
construction in the back yards of one of the first sections,
which encompassed the area bounded by Backlick Rd to the
east, Amherst Ave to the west, Essex Ave to the south and
Floyd Ave. to the north.

Even The Washington Post joined in the support of the

development by naming Crestwoods Chesterfield as one
of its Homes of 52 prestigious exhibit houses in
September.
Starting in 1947, The Post used to run a Homes of event
each Fall wherein a selection of new home offerings in the
area were chosen by various industry experts and featured
with photos, architect renderings and advertising tie-ins with
most of the major furniture and department store retailers.
Those retailers completely furnished the model
houses. These were huge events in those growing years of
the DC Metro area, and Crestwood homes were selected in
nearly every year of those events from 1952 on into the late
1960s.
Crestwood homes were modest in style but still hold up well
today for their solid construction, sensible size, ease of
maintenance, and lack of faux elegance. They started out in
Springfield with seven basic floor plans and 28 different
exterior elevations but later made changes based on
feedback from buyers and potential buyers. Early on,
offerings went from basement-less two bedroom ramblers
(The Prince William) starting at $13,950 up to the more
popular three bedroom ramblers with a full basement known
as The Chesterfield which sold between $17,750 and
$17,950 depending on exterior variation. Also included were
a two story Fairfax which was also available for $17,950.
During the earliest part of 1952, the builders quickly found
that the three non-basement models didnt sell at all, with
basement models being the only ones ordered. Later, in a
reversal starting in September 1953, the wildly popular, slabbuilt Virginian rambler took off in a sales frenzy, as did the
Crestwood Split Level in November 53. Both went on to
find buyers in other Crestwood-built neighborhoods for the
next sixteen years. In the modern-styled Virginian, the lack
of a basement was (in part) compensated for through good
storage both inside the house as well as at the back of the
carport. The earlier non-basement ramblers were woefully

short on storage space of any kind, so the improvements

were a hit with the more budget minded buyers.
The design for the Virginian was a clear and outright copy of
the famous Levittowner home offered by Levitt & Sons in
their Levittown, NY subdivision. With the exception of the all
brick construction of The Virginian, and a few minor
alterations, the homes were the same both inside and out.
The Crestwoods Springfield homes were enormously favored
by buyers and it was reported that the houses were selling at
an average of one per day during the peak years of the mid1950s. Mr. Hildeen stated that at any one time, the
company had 200 homes in various stages of production,
with the total of over 1,500 houses being completed at the
end of the initial run of the Crestwoods Springfield
development in 1955.
During the first several years The Home You Elect On The
Lot You Select, and See A Community In The Making
slogans brought eager homebuyers in by the droves with
down payments in hand and financing to most provided by
G.I. as well as conventional FHA terms. On a weekly
average, over 1,000 people came to see the model homes
and to watch the astonishing growth, with many plunking
down their life savings in order to buy their own piece of the
suburban paradise unfolding before them.
Even while still building in their initial Springfield subdivision,
Crestwood expanded into construction of another local
neighborhood formerly known as Crestwood Park (1955-59).
Now more commonly known as simply part of the huge
North Springfield neighborhood along Braddock Rd than by
its real name, Crestwood Park was indeed a key piece in the
creation of that enormous part of Springfield.
Later came Edsall Park (1957-58), Highland Park (1958-1959,
which expanded westward onto the original Crestwoods
Springfield), Crestwood Manor (along Backlick Rd in
Annandale, 1959-60), and Ravensworth Farm (1960-64), as

well as a slightly more upscale subdivision called

Collingwood On The Potomac (1958) which is located off
The George Washington Memorial Parkway in Alexandria.
Crestwood Construction Corporation was the main
corporation but there exists evidence in Arlington County
records that they were also buying land under E. Carl &
Verna Hengens as well Bernard Steinbergs individual names
and began using a sub-corporation name of Decar
Construction Corp. for some of the homes in North Arlington
and a few in South Arlington. Another major indication of
growth and prosperity within the corporate structure came at
some point during 1954 when Crestwood, which was a
Virginia corporation, began setting up sub-corporations
under Delawares more lenient and business friendly
structure. At this point, I have found fifteen separately
named sub-corporations all headed by Bernard Steinberg
and E. Carl Hengen. The list is as follows:
Avondale Park, Inc.
Braddock Park, Inc.
Crescent Park, Inc.
Devon Park, Inc.
Edsall Park, Inc.
Fairfax Park, Inc.
Greenwood Park, Inc.
Halifax Park, Inc.
Ivy Park, Inc.
Juneau Park, Inc.
Kentwood Park, Inc.
Lawrence Park, Inc.
Mayfair Park, Inc.
Newton Park, Inc.
As found in the land records detailing the purchase of the
land on which the Crestwood Park subdivision was built in
North Springfield...rather than buying all the acreage under
the Crestwood name, each previously subdivided section
was purchased by one of the above sub-corporations.

Additionally, even though Crestwood was doing the

constructionthe development and deeding was done
between the sub-corporation and the buyer. A sample deed
from a home purchased on Inzer Street in May of 1955
shows no indication that Crestwood was involved (outside of
the signatures of Steinberg & Hengen as company officers)
but rather the Grantor shows as being Avondale Park, Inc.
The same thing occurred in the Edsall Park subdivision. A
previous owner before the company purchase had
subdivided all the land, and the different sub-corporations
bought each section individually. The original August 16,
1957 deed for the house that my family eventually bought in
the 1970s, showed Greenwood Park, Inc. as the Grantor
with no mention of Crestwood at all but yet there is no
question that the house was a Crestwood built house in a
Crestwood built subdivision.
Shortly after its transformation from rural vista to a growing
suburban community, Springfield was able to boast many
things we take for granted today, such as house to house
mail delivery (beginning December 1,1953), an expanded
local post office, its first shopping center (built by The Lynch
Brothers firm at the Southwest corner of Brandon Ave and
Bland St.), bus service to DC, as well as its own local
newspaper, The Springfield Independent which began
publication on February 1, 1953.
Also in February 1953, early residents quickly organized the
first homeowners association, and with that followed every
type of club or organization from womens clubs, garden
clubs, Brownie and Scout Troops to several Little League
Baseball teams.
In order to handle the education of Springfields youngsters,
the Garfield School on Old Keene Mill Rd was opened in
September 1954 and plans for two more schools in the area
were soon in the works. First came The Crestwood
Elementary School opening on February 29, 1956 & then
Lynbrook Elementary on February 11, 1957. The addition of

a high school was delayed until the opening of Robert E. Lee

High School in 1958, so the early high school kids had to
attend several other established schools in the area such as
the new (1954) Annandale High School, Mt. Vernon High
School, and for a short time all the way to Fairfax High.
Those early Springfield Pioneers had some inconveniences
in the beginning, as the closest major retailers were still
located in Washington, Arlington and Alexandria with some
smaller stores available in Annandale prior to The Springfield
Shopping Center opening in May 1953. That center
(mentioned above) began as a 5 unit building consisting of a
very small market, drug store, cleaners, post office
extension, and hardware store. Additions on either side of
the original units greatly expanded the center during the
years through 1957-58, allowing for a much larger drug store
and the additions of many various small retailers, thus
reducing the need to go outside of Springfield for basic
essentials.
In the spring of 1955, Edward R. Carr Inc. built what was
originally known as The Springfield City Shopping Center in
the area surrounded, by Backlick Rd, Amherst Ave and later
an extension of Bland St. The largest tenant of that center
was also the largest super market in town at that time,
known as Bon Foods on the Backlick Rd. side of the building,
with various smaller retailers on the Amherst Ave. side.
Phone service in Springfield up until the later part of 1955
was primitive at best. What initial service there was, was on
the old party line system and it was reported that in some
cases as many as nine households had to share one phone
line until more trunk lines could be brought in and private
lines became more affordable to the average family. All calls
were initially handled by the Falls Church exchange office
until a new call center was built on Little River Turnpike, just
east of the intersection with Braddock Rd. Imagine today,
with our cell phones only a hand reach away, how it was to
have to listen to nine different ring tones or combinations of
rings to know which calls were yours versus those of your

other eight neighbors homes. It was not uncommon to pick

up your receiver and hear the line abuzz with the usage of
those other people, and you had to wait until the line was
free before making a call. It is an unthinkable situation to
most of us today. To ease the problem, The Chesapeake and
Potomac Telephone Company placed phone booths on some
corners in the Crestwoods Springfield area so that residents
could have access to service even if they could not get it into
their individual homes.
As with anyone who buys in a new development, the
growing pains of having to deal with the rumble of
construction equipment, the dust, and other inconveniences
is something you just have to tolerate for a while. As the
eventual 1,500 homes of Crestwoods section of Springfield
were built, it was an endurance that lasted from the first
home being sold in 1952 up until the last sections at the
west end of Essex Ave were completed in the last part of
1955. In addition there were the many surrounding new
neighborhoods going up for a total of about 12 years when it
began to trickle down some.
To their credit those early homeowners were a resilient
bunch who were just happy to at last have a home, and a
nice place for them to raise their families. As all of the Carr
promised conveniences began to arrive, such as shopping
centers, places of worship, parks, schools etc. the Springfield
of his vision became a bustling reality. It was all fresh and
new, with all the benefits of suburban life but all the
convenience of living in the city. Springfield was a veritable
suburban paradise and a just reward for those who endured
the poverty and harsh economics of the 1930s, the rationing
and human sacrifice during World War Two and then the
strain of living through one of the worst shortages of housing
in our nations history.
Not long after Crestwood Construction got things rolling,
other area builders such as Carr, Incs affiliate B&B
Construction began building in Yates Village (1953-56, along
Backlick Rd), with Michnick & DiMaio starting the adjacent

Lynbrook (debuting on August 29, 1954) and Springfield Park

(off Reservoir Rd. in 1957). Edward R. Carr, Inc. also began
building Monticello Forest in the summer of 1954 but they
stopped building there in early 1955 and didnt resume until
1959, thanks to the tremendous amount of work and focus
needed for something much bigger that was in the works.
Mr. Carr greatly expanded the area with his multibuilder/multi-sectioned North Springfield development,
which took well into the 60s to complete. That too was also
a highly recognized achievement both nationally and
internationally when representatives from the Soviet Union
came to tour the huge project in October of 1955.
As with the Springfield subdivision within the area of
Springfield, Mr. Carr created a similar situation in that, within
the overall developed area called North Springfield, he
built a subdivision of homes called North Springfield
beginning with the rezoning of 260 acres of land in February
1955. The highly respected local architect, Harry E.
Ormston, designed the houses in the Carr-built section.
In late 1952 and hot on the heels of the initial success of the
Crestwood homes, builders Joseph S. Gordin, Harry Mensh
and Thomas C. Roumel began building Beverly Forest further
south along Backlick Rd. They offered custom-built ramblers
in beautiful modern and more traditional designs with a man
made lake adding glamour to its beautifully wooded
acreage.
It should be noted that far ahead of people being green
minded today, one of Ed Carrs desires for development in
the area was to retain as many trees as possible while
building the homes. If cutting down the previous trees had
been necessary, he was always mindful to have some new
trees planted on the lots after the homes were finished.
Love them or hate them, the multitude of Crab Apple trees
(that many of us remember having to clean up after), were
planted by the direction of Mr. Carr. This practice apparently

was not followed by Crestwood Construction during the

building of its Crestwoods Springfield subdivision. As
reported in a July 20, 1955 edition of The Springfield
Independent, new area residents were referring to the
original Crestwood section as That Barren Section thanks
to the nearly complete lack of trees after construction. In the
same article, it was pointed out that in fact, that statement
was no longer accurate considering in the fall of 1954, a
total of 450 Norway Maple trees were planted through efforts
of a Crestwood resident named Col. John W. Gorn and a civic
committee under his direction.
In conclusion, now, more than sixty-eight years after Edward
R. Carr stood assessing the rugged, gently rolling landscape
of Springfield that he was about to purchase, I would hope
that he would be rightfully proud of how it has grown to
meet and maybe even surpass his dream. Also, sixty-three
years from when ground was broken by Bernard Steinberg
and E. Carl Hengen for those first Crestwood model homes,
they (along with Roger Hildeen) should not be forgotten in
their efforts to help establish the roots from which modern
day Springfield still thrives on today.
For the thousands of us who grew up or spent time in those
early Springfield neighborhoods, they will always be a
special place because they were more than just houses to
us. They were our homes.
Robyn Carter
Crestwoods Springfield Historian
December 2011 (Updated 9-21-15)