At a glance, it is easy to see that Reston, VA is a vibrant, growing community. It’s a bustling business center or a quiet place to reflect, depending if you choose to traverse Reston Parkway or the Buttermilk Trail. Reston enjoys a dynamic commercial success, while preserving the natural outdoor appeal and varied housing options that first made it popular nearly 40 years ago.
For those who chose Reston for their home or moved here with their businesses back in the “early years”, the story of Reston is as familiar as a favorite old song. But many more who have joined our community in recent years, or those who see Reston only during business hours, may not know the story of how this remarkable community came to be.
Without delving too deeply into an antiquity of grants, sales, bequeaths and begets, a brief review of how Reston grew from a fertile, well-forested parcel of land to the city we know today is in order. Listen for the names from the past that now refer to counties, streets, and buildings that still stand today.
In 1649, King Charles II of England granted a large tract of land to seven noblemen that later would be known as the Fairfax Proprietary. Lord Culpeper eventually acquired this tract, consisting of more than five million acres between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. His daughter, Lady Fairfax inherited the land and passed it to her son, Baron of Cameron. Between 1653 and 1742, the land became what we now know as Prince William, Fairfax, and Stafford Counties.
In 1896, a portion of the land was sold to a Dr. Wiehle who saw the potential for a new town. He was the first in a line of visionaries, and began the process of digging lakes, laying out roads and construction of a few buildings. Unfortunately, he died before completing his plans, and a gentleman farmer, Smith Bowman in 1927, acquired the land. Bowman named the parcel "Sunset Hills Farm”, and eventually built a distillery, created a “company” town and converted the Wiehle family home to the Bowman Manor estate. The distillery warehouse and the Bowman Manor estate still stand in Reston today. At the time, trains transported goods and workers on the track of land now known as the W&OD trail.
The end of World War II brought growth to suburban Fairfax and plans to build a Capital Beltway, a major shopping center and Dulles Airport, all within ten miles of the Bowman property. Bowman envisioned a small city of 30,000 to be built on the land, but problems with zoning and sewers slowed things down. The final blow came with the proposed access road for Dulles Airport, which would run right through the middle of his property.
As the farmland and rural way of life gradually disappeared in the 1960’s, Robert E. Simon arrived with a new plan. Simon was a native New Yorker and son of a real estate broker, who owned multiple properties in Manhattan, including Carnegie Hall. He brought with him a vision of merging the energy of the city, the open space and greenery of the suburbs, with the convenience of jobs, shopping and recreation, all close to home.
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