Blenheim House -- Lessons Learned
Posted by Chap at 6/3/2007 6:51 AM and is filed under uncategorized 
This weekend, I attended the ground-breaking of the Blenheim Interpretive Center in Fairfax City. For those not acquainted with our town's history, the "Blenheim House" is a last surviving link with the antebellum agricultural era in Fairfax.
Originally built around 1840 by the Willcoxon family, the house had a commanding view of the surrounding fields (site of today's "Old Lee Hills" and "Country Club Hills" subdivisions).
During the Civil War, it served as a hospital for Union soldiers wounded at the Second Manassas and later a way station for Union cavalry chasing John Mosby. To this day, the house interior carries fascinating graffiti from the Union soldiers, including scatalogical references to Mosby and his Rangers.
In 1997, the last of Willcoxon descendants living on the property decided to sell. By this point, the remaining house and land were an undeveloped 12-acre parcel sitting squarely within suburbia.
I was a young (29 year old) lawyer running for Fairfax City Council and knocking on doors when I learned the ins and outs of Blenheim. Neighbors of the House, concerned about preserving the history and the natural open space, were looking for a way to save the land from becoming a townhouse site. They collected historic data, publicized the issue and reached out for help.
As a candidate, I was looking to make friends. But I didn't want to make a commitment I couldn't keep. We all said that we'd save Blenheim, but what could we really do?
To make a very long story short, after I was elected to Council, the City made a bid to buy the property. After some short but intense negotiating, we bought the land and house for $2.2M in cash. Having done that, we made a commitment to keep the land as public space and re-open the House as a museum to Fairfax's role in the Civil War.
The decision to buy the property outright was one of the smartest decisions ever made by the City. (The land alone is now worth over $10M). We gained a valuable asset and showed our citizens that we were serious about preserving our history and remaining natural spaces.
Oft times when Supervisors or legislators are struggling over issues, they get too caught up in the next 90 days or last $50,000. They forget that the asset they are buying (or structure they are building) will be around for generations. It can end up defining your community and your personal community service.
To summarize, you have to have a vision -- and the vision has to be beyond the short term. We learned that with the Blenheim purchase.
Originally built around 1840 by the Willcoxon family, the house had a commanding view of the surrounding fields (site of today's "Old Lee Hills" and "Country Club Hills" subdivisions).
During the Civil War, it served as a hospital for Union soldiers wounded at the Second Manassas and later a way station for Union cavalry chasing John Mosby. To this day, the house interior carries fascinating graffiti from the Union soldiers, including scatalogical references to Mosby and his Rangers.
In 1997, the last of Willcoxon descendants living on the property decided to sell. By this point, the remaining house and land were an undeveloped 12-acre parcel sitting squarely within suburbia.
I was a young (29 year old) lawyer running for Fairfax City Council and knocking on doors when I learned the ins and outs of Blenheim. Neighbors of the House, concerned about preserving the history and the natural open space, were looking for a way to save the land from becoming a townhouse site. They collected historic data, publicized the issue and reached out for help.
As a candidate, I was looking to make friends. But I didn't want to make a commitment I couldn't keep. We all said that we'd save Blenheim, but what could we really do?
To make a very long story short, after I was elected to Council, the City made a bid to buy the property. After some short but intense negotiating, we bought the land and house for $2.2M in cash. Having done that, we made a commitment to keep the land as public space and re-open the House as a museum to Fairfax's role in the Civil War.
The decision to buy the property outright was one of the smartest decisions ever made by the City. (The land alone is now worth over $10M). We gained a valuable asset and showed our citizens that we were serious about preserving our history and remaining natural spaces.
Oft times when Supervisors or legislators are struggling over issues, they get too caught up in the next 90 days or last $50,000. They forget that the asset they are buying (or structure they are building) will be around for generations. It can end up defining your community and your personal community service.
To summarize, you have to have a vision -- and the vision has to be beyond the short term. We learned that with the Blenheim purchase.
Thanks for this post. We lived in the Old Lee Hills neighborhood for years. When my kids were little, we took them on a bike ride around a long loop past Blenheim House almost every day. There were cows there then, and the kids always insisted that we stop and sit on the grass and watch the "moo moos." Years later, they still have special memories of this wonderful place.
"[V]ision has to be beyond the short-term." What a perfect segue to discuss the tunnel issue! I confess to being a latecomer to the issue myself, but Alice has a great post up at gotv.blogspot.com today quoting from and linking to a very favorable Washington Post article from February demonstrating quite well your advantages over your opponent on what's becoming one of the biggest local issues. Keep up the good fight!
Thanks, Joel. Yes, you are 100% correct. Ffx City was (is) a small town and the Dulles Rail project is an enormous project effecting millions. However, the point is the same: Let's look at the long term. There is no need to rush a decision based on a bureaucratic timetable, especially if the decision is irreversible.
As far as the Tunnel itself, I made my position known on that issue in early February and I feel the same way today.
I'm curious, Chap, is there some sort of connection with Blenheim castle in England?
Yes, there is. Apparently, the former owners had been to England and borrowed the title from the castle (which itself borrows its name from the 18th century battle won by the Duke of Marlborough, the ancestral owner).