Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia
Encyclopedia
Bailey's Crossroads is an unincorporated community and census-designated place
in Fairfax County
, Virginia
, United States
. The population was 23,643 at the 2010 census. Bailey's Crossroads lies at the "crossroads" of State Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) and State Route 244 (Columbia Pike).
According to the United States Census Bureau
, the community has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.3 km²), all of it land. The area occupies a broad, flat plain, bounded on the west by Munson's Hill
. This unbroken expanse of level ground caused the Union Army to select it as the site of a massive review of troops during the Civil War. The review, which took place on November 20, 1861 involved thousands of troops marching in formation and parading before President Abraham Lincoln
.
Bailey's Crossroads is formed by the junction of State Route 7 connecting Alexandria, Virginia
with the Shenandoah Valley
and State Route 244 (Columbia Pike) connecting the Pentagon
and Washington, D.C.
, with Annandale, Virginia
. The most noticeable landmark at Bailey's Crossroads is Skyline Center
, a towering group of 26-story apartment buildings and offices built in the 1970s. A branch of Northern Virginia Community College
, and offices of the U.S. Department of Defense are nearby. The neighborhood has a large Hispanic population. The largest single store of the entire Giant Food supermarket chain is also there. While the closest Metrorail
station is a few miles away, Metrobus service on the Columbia Pike corridor has recently been improved.
The precise extent of Bailey's Crossroads has never been defined. As an incorporated community without local government, it has never had a role in defining boundaries. The United States Census Bureau observes one definition; and various parts of the Fairfax County government observe others. Economic development plans tend to include just the commercial corridors and associated areas. Current discussions among the Fairfax County government for revitalizing Bailey's Crossroads economically concern themselves with the Fairfax County border on the north and east—which generally includes all commercial and residential properties generally considered as belonging to the neighborhood—as well as Seminary Road and Carlin Spring Road. The plans include a narrow strip along Leesburg Pike to Glen Carlyn Road.
As a general neighborhood, however, with all facets of life included, the geographic extent of Bailey's Crossroads must be considered to be larger. It abuts the clearly established Lake Barcroft neighborhood on the southwest, with Blair Road, Beachway Drive, Nevius Street and Mansfield Road marking its western proximity. North of Leesburg Pike its extent is generally defined by Glen Carlyn and Carlin Springs roads.
of 2000, there were 23,166 people, 8,547 households, and 4,965 families residing in the community. The population density
was 11,276.0 people per square mile (4,363.1/km²). There were 8,813 housing units at an average density of 4,289.7/sq mi (1,659.9/km²). The racial makeup of the community was 47.90% White, 10.85% African American, 0.54% Native American, 12.37% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 18.73% from other races
, and 9.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 37.11% of the population.
There were 8,547 households out of which 29.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% were married couples
living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.9% were non-families. 33.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.40.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 23.0% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 37.1% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 106.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.3 males.
The median income for a household in the community was $51,650, and the median income for a family was $51,490. Males had a median income of $35,130 versus $34,265 for females. The per capita income
for the community was $24,091. About 10.7% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.4% of those under age 18 and 5.2% of those age 65 or over.
Bailey's Crossroads has never been part of the corporate limits of Falls Church, Virginia
, but the Bailey family was long connected with the community. They were prominent members of the Dulin Methodist Church, and intermarried with many Falls Church people. Hachaliah Bailey
moved here from New York
state and on December 19, 1837, he purchased a tract of land on the outskirts of Falls Church including what is now the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Columbia Pike. On this tract he built a large house known as "Bailey's Mansion" or "Moray;" it was reputed to have contained 100 rooms. The mansion sat at a location now known as Durbin Place. It abutted Glenforest Drive, the oldest outlet road to Leesburg Pike.
Circuses were part of the Bailey family business. Hachaliah's son Lewis Bailey (1795–1870) operated a travelling circus and pioneered the use of canvas
circus tent
s before eventually settling in 1840 to farm land in Bailey's Crossroads. Hachaliah's nephew George F. Bailey managed several shows, too, designing a tank in which a hippopotamus
could be moved from place to place. Another nephew, Fred Harrison Bailey, recognized a potential circus talent in James Anthony McGuiness, later James Anthony Bailey
, who united the Cooper and Bailey with Phineas Taylor Barnum's circus to form the Barnum and Bailey Circus, which later joined with the Ringling Brothers Circus
to form the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Perhaps the first of the Northerners to settle permanently in Fairfax County to farm was Lewis Bailey, an upstate New Yorker and the son of Hachaliah Bailey. In 1837, the elder Bailey, who needed a place on which to winter his circus animals, bought hundreds of acres of Fairfax land, much of it on the outskirts of present-day Arlington County in the area now known as Baileys Cross Roads. Shortly afterward, Lewis Bailey bought 150 acre (0.607029 km²) of land from his father for ten dollars an acre. Included in the purchase was "a good dwelling-house," but there were "no other buildings of value, and little or no fence." The farm itself, he wrote later, consisted of "cultivated worn-out lands, too poor to produce a crop of grass, or pay for cultivation without manure." Some of Bailey's neighbors considered the farm the poorest in the vicinity. When he built his first small barn, twenty-four by thirty-six feet, they asked him if he "ever expected to fill it." The question was scarcely a jest, for Bailey did not make enough hay the first year "to winter two horses." Nevertheless the purchase was a wise one. Within a decade Bailey had a fine herd of dairy cattle and had become one of the more prosperous farmers in the area.
The Civil War
The opening months of the American Civil War
proved to be a disruptive and unforgettable episode in the history of Bailey's Crossroads. From the summer of 1861, when the area fell into an uncomfortable and poorly-defined "no man's land" between the borders of two warring countries, until late November of that year, when the area hosted a massive troop review, anything akin to normalcy was in short supply.
Virginia voted to secede from the Union on May 23, 1861. Fairfax County's northern-born residents—many of whom were its most prominent and prosperous citizens—now felt very uncomfortable. Their southern neighbors looked upon them with suspicion. In July 1861 the Union Army met with catastrophic defeat during the First Battle of Manassas.
The army retreated all the way to Washington
, with the Confederate Army
advancing quickly behind it. The Confederates occupied Falls Church and Munson's Hill
, overlooking Bailey's Crossroads, and the crossroads' northern-born residents fled for the safety of Washington.
Once Confederates established themselves atop Munson's Hill they built a crude fort there, and from these commanding heights turned Bailey's Crossroads into a "killing field". Southern sharpshooters killed numerous Union soldiers. Violence arose whenever Confederate and Union pickets, or scouts, engaged one another in firefights. It was now impossible to walk the Leesburg Pike without being shot and killed.
The local balance of power changed completely—and to everyone's surprise—on September 28, 1861 as the Confederate Army silently withdrew its forces from Munson's Hill, Upton's Hill
and Falls Church to Manassas, which they fortified. Munson's Hill and Falls Church were located too far afield of reliable supply lines, and a concerted Union pincer movement could possibly choke off supplies, the Southern command believed. At Manassas they were adjacent to Virginia's interior, and had good railroad and road connections to it.
After Confederate withdrawal the area quickly was reoccupied by Union troops. A significant troop review took place at Bailey's Crossroads on November 20, 1861. Thousands of Union troops marched in formation and paraded before President Abraham Lincoln, the northern press, and many onlookers from Washington. Army commanders selected Bailey's Crossroads as the site because of its nature as a large, unbroken plain. In order to prepare it for the day's activities the army merely needed to remove the split-rail fencing separating farms and fields.
During recent years local historians have confused this review with another, smaller review held on nearby Upton's Hill
, where events spurred the composition and publication of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The Modern Era
After the Civil War Bailey's Crossroads returned to its pastoral pre-war pursuits. The area remained a rural farming community until the post-World War II years, when a massive wave of development occurred. Leesburg Pike is now a commercial corridor, with apartments and homes to its north and south. A strip shopping center called Culmore
, in particular, has lent its name to the apartment development behind it, which is now home to several thousand Latino immigrants. "Culmore" is now an established place name within Bailey's Crossroads. Close behind Culmore is Lake Barcroft, whose shore is lined with upscale middle-class homes.
During the 1960s, as Washington's Metro
system was being conceived, original plans called for a subway line to extend under Columbia Pike to and through Bailey's Crossroads. As a result of the plan a massive highrise complex was built in the heart of Bailey's Crossroads called Skyline City. Its location coincided with the planned locations of Metro stations. Plans for the Metro, however, changed. The western line was placed along the I-66 corridor instead. Current plans by the Arlington and Fairfax County governments, however, call for a streetcar line to be placed along Columbia Pike, terminating in Bailey's Crossroads.
operates public schools. Glen Forest Elementary School is the primary school attended by most children living in the area, and the local schools feed J.E.B. Stuart High School.
Fairfax County Public Library
operates the Woodrow Wilson Library in the Culmore area. It has Spanish-language materials in addition to English-language ones.
A United States Post Office, located in Culmore, serves the Bailey's Crossroads ZIP Code. All mail bound for Bailey's Crossroads is addressed Falls Church.
Census-designated place
A census-designated place is a concentration of population identified by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes. CDPs are delineated for each decennial census as the statistical counterparts of incorporated places such as cities, towns and villages...
in Fairfax County
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...
, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The population was 23,643 at the 2010 census. Bailey's Crossroads lies at the "crossroads" of State Route 7 (Leesburg Pike) and State Route 244 (Columbia Pike).
Geography
Bailey's Crossroads is located at 38°50′58"N 77°7′45"W (38.849474, -77.129093).According to the United States Census Bureau
United States Census Bureau
The United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data...
, the community has a total area of 2.0 square miles (5.3 km²), all of it land. The area occupies a broad, flat plain, bounded on the west by Munson's Hill
Munson's Hill
Munson’s Hill is a geographic eminence located in eastern Fairfax County, Virginia. Its summit rises to above sea level. - Location and Name :Munson’s Hill is located at latitude N 38.85983 and longitude W -77.14554....
. This unbroken expanse of level ground caused the Union Army to select it as the site of a massive review of troops during the Civil War. The review, which took place on November 20, 1861 involved thousands of troops marching in formation and parading before President Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
.
Bailey's Crossroads is formed by the junction of State Route 7 connecting Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of 2009, the city had a total population of 139,966. Located along the Western bank of the Potomac River, Alexandria is approximately six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.Like the rest of northern Virginia, as well as...
with the Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
and State Route 244 (Columbia Pike) connecting the Pentagon
The Pentagon
The Pentagon is the headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, located in Arlington County, Virginia. As a symbol of the U.S. military, "the Pentagon" is often used metonymically to refer to the Department of Defense rather than the building itself.Designed by the American architect...
and Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, with Annandale, Virginia
Annandale, Virginia
Annandale is a census-designated place in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. The population was 41,008 at the 2010 census, down from 54,994 in 2000 due to the splitting off of the western part of it to form Wakefield and Woodburn CDP's.-Geography:...
. The most noticeable landmark at Bailey's Crossroads is Skyline Center
Skyline Towers collapse
On March 2, 1973, the center section of the 26-story Skyline Plaza in Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, in Fairfax County which borders Arlington and Alexandria, gave way. The cascading concrete and steel killed 14 people and injured 34 others.- History :...
, a towering group of 26-story apartment buildings and offices built in the 1970s. A branch of Northern Virginia Community College
Northern Virginia Community College
Northern Virginia Community College, often abbreviated NVCC and colloquially as NOVA, comprises several locations in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and is both the second largest multi-campus community college in the United States and the largest educational institution in the...
, and offices of the U.S. Department of Defense are nearby. The neighborhood has a large Hispanic population. The largest single store of the entire Giant Food supermarket chain is also there. While the closest Metrorail
Washington Metro
The Washington Metro, commonly called Metro, and unofficially Metrorail, is the rapid transit system in Washington, D.C., United States, and its surrounding suburbs. It is administered by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority , which also operates Metrobus service under the Metro name...
station is a few miles away, Metrobus service on the Columbia Pike corridor has recently been improved.
The precise extent of Bailey's Crossroads has never been defined. As an incorporated community without local government, it has never had a role in defining boundaries. The United States Census Bureau observes one definition; and various parts of the Fairfax County government observe others. Economic development plans tend to include just the commercial corridors and associated areas. Current discussions among the Fairfax County government for revitalizing Bailey's Crossroads economically concern themselves with the Fairfax County border on the north and east—which generally includes all commercial and residential properties generally considered as belonging to the neighborhood—as well as Seminary Road and Carlin Spring Road. The plans include a narrow strip along Leesburg Pike to Glen Carlyn Road.
As a general neighborhood, however, with all facets of life included, the geographic extent of Bailey's Crossroads must be considered to be larger. It abuts the clearly established Lake Barcroft neighborhood on the southwest, with Blair Road, Beachway Drive, Nevius Street and Mansfield Road marking its western proximity. North of Leesburg Pike its extent is generally defined by Glen Carlyn and Carlin Springs roads.
Demographics
As of the censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
of 2000, there were 23,166 people, 8,547 households, and 4,965 families residing in the community. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...
was 11,276.0 people per square mile (4,363.1/km²). There were 8,813 housing units at an average density of 4,289.7/sq mi (1,659.9/km²). The racial makeup of the community was 47.90% White, 10.85% African American, 0.54% Native American, 12.37% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 18.73% from other races
Race (United States Census)
Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the Federal Office of Management and Budget and the United States Census Bureau, are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 9.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 37.11% of the population.
There were 8,547 households out of which 29.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 40.4% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
living together, 11.2% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.9% were non-families. 33.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.70 and the average family size was 3.40.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 23.0% under the age of 18, 10.6% from 18 to 24, 37.1% from 25 to 44, 19.0% from 45 to 64, and 10.3% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 33 years. For every 100 females there were 106.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 106.3 males.
The median income for a household in the community was $51,650, and the median income for a family was $51,490. Males had a median income of $35,130 versus $34,265 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...
for the community was $24,091. About 10.7% of families and 13.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 18.4% of those under age 18 and 5.2% of those age 65 or over.
History
Origin of NameBailey's Crossroads has never been part of the corporate limits of Falls Church, Virginia
Falls Church, Virginia
The City of Falls Church is an independent city in Virginia, United States, in the Washington Metropolitan Area. The city population was 12,332 in 2010, up from 10,377 in 2000. Taking its name from The Falls Church, an 18th-century Anglican parish, Falls Church gained township status within...
, but the Bailey family was long connected with the community. They were prominent members of the Dulin Methodist Church, and intermarried with many Falls Church people. Hachaliah Bailey
Hachaliah Bailey
Hachaliah Bailey is the eponym of Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia and a relative to several famous individuals involved in early American circuses...
moved here from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
state and on December 19, 1837, he purchased a tract of land on the outskirts of Falls Church including what is now the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Columbia Pike. On this tract he built a large house known as "Bailey's Mansion" or "Moray;" it was reputed to have contained 100 rooms. The mansion sat at a location now known as Durbin Place. It abutted Glenforest Drive, the oldest outlet road to Leesburg Pike.
Circuses were part of the Bailey family business. Hachaliah's son Lewis Bailey (1795–1870) operated a travelling circus and pioneered the use of canvas
Canvas
Canvas is an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required. It is also popularly used by artists as a painting surface, typically stretched across a wooden frame...
circus tent
Tent
A tent is a shelter consisting of sheets of fabric or other material draped over or attached to a frame of poles or attached to a supporting rope. While smaller tents may be free-standing or attached to the ground, large tents are usually anchored using guy ropes tied to stakes or tent pegs...
s before eventually settling in 1840 to farm land in Bailey's Crossroads. Hachaliah's nephew George F. Bailey managed several shows, too, designing a tank in which a hippopotamus
Hippopotamus
The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
could be moved from place to place. Another nephew, Fred Harrison Bailey, recognized a potential circus talent in James Anthony McGuiness, later James Anthony Bailey
James Anthony Bailey
James Anthony Bailey was the creator of the modern circus.-Biography:He was born James Anthony McGuiness in Detroit, Michigan. Orphaned at the age of eight, McGuinness was working as a bellhop in Pontiac, Michigan when he was discovered by Fred Harrison Bailey as a teenager...
, who united the Cooper and Bailey with Phineas Taylor Barnum's circus to form the Barnum and Bailey Circus, which later joined with the Ringling Brothers Circus
Ringling Brothers Circus
The Ringling Brothers Circus was a circus founded in the United States in 1884 by five of the seven Ringling Brothers: Albert , August , Otto , Alfred T. , Charles , John , and Henry...
to form the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus.
Perhaps the first of the Northerners to settle permanently in Fairfax County to farm was Lewis Bailey, an upstate New Yorker and the son of Hachaliah Bailey. In 1837, the elder Bailey, who needed a place on which to winter his circus animals, bought hundreds of acres of Fairfax land, much of it on the outskirts of present-day Arlington County in the area now known as Baileys Cross Roads. Shortly afterward, Lewis Bailey bought 150 acre (0.607029 km²) of land from his father for ten dollars an acre. Included in the purchase was "a good dwelling-house," but there were "no other buildings of value, and little or no fence." The farm itself, he wrote later, consisted of "cultivated worn-out lands, too poor to produce a crop of grass, or pay for cultivation without manure." Some of Bailey's neighbors considered the farm the poorest in the vicinity. When he built his first small barn, twenty-four by thirty-six feet, they asked him if he "ever expected to fill it." The question was scarcely a jest, for Bailey did not make enough hay the first year "to winter two horses." Nevertheless the purchase was a wise one. Within a decade Bailey had a fine herd of dairy cattle and had become one of the more prosperous farmers in the area.
The Civil War
The opening months of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
proved to be a disruptive and unforgettable episode in the history of Bailey's Crossroads. From the summer of 1861, when the area fell into an uncomfortable and poorly-defined "no man's land" between the borders of two warring countries, until late November of that year, when the area hosted a massive troop review, anything akin to normalcy was in short supply.
Virginia voted to secede from the Union on May 23, 1861. Fairfax County's northern-born residents—many of whom were its most prominent and prosperous citizens—now felt very uncomfortable. Their southern neighbors looked upon them with suspicion. In July 1861 the Union Army met with catastrophic defeat during the First Battle of Manassas.
First Battle of Bull Run
First Battle of Bull Run, also known as First Manassas , was fought on July 21, 1861, in Prince William County, Virginia, near the City of Manassas...
The army retreated all the way to Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
, with the Confederate Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
advancing quickly behind it. The Confederates occupied Falls Church and Munson's Hill
Munson's Hill
Munson’s Hill is a geographic eminence located in eastern Fairfax County, Virginia. Its summit rises to above sea level. - Location and Name :Munson’s Hill is located at latitude N 38.85983 and longitude W -77.14554....
, overlooking Bailey's Crossroads, and the crossroads' northern-born residents fled for the safety of Washington.
Once Confederates established themselves atop Munson's Hill they built a crude fort there, and from these commanding heights turned Bailey's Crossroads into a "killing field". Southern sharpshooters killed numerous Union soldiers. Violence arose whenever Confederate and Union pickets, or scouts, engaged one another in firefights. It was now impossible to walk the Leesburg Pike without being shot and killed.
The local balance of power changed completely—and to everyone's surprise—on September 28, 1861 as the Confederate Army silently withdrew its forces from Munson's Hill, Upton's Hill
Upton's Hill
Upton’s Hill is a geographic eminence located in western Arlington County, Virginia. Its summit rises to above sea level. - Location :Upton’s Hill straddles the border of Arlington County and Fairfax County, Virginia. The hill is generally conical in shape with its summit lying astride Wilson...
and Falls Church to Manassas, which they fortified. Munson's Hill and Falls Church were located too far afield of reliable supply lines, and a concerted Union pincer movement could possibly choke off supplies, the Southern command believed. At Manassas they were adjacent to Virginia's interior, and had good railroad and road connections to it.
After Confederate withdrawal the area quickly was reoccupied by Union troops. A significant troop review took place at Bailey's Crossroads on November 20, 1861. Thousands of Union troops marched in formation and paraded before President Abraham Lincoln, the northern press, and many onlookers from Washington. Army commanders selected Bailey's Crossroads as the site because of its nature as a large, unbroken plain. In order to prepare it for the day's activities the army merely needed to remove the split-rail fencing separating farms and fields.
During recent years local historians have confused this review with another, smaller review held on nearby Upton's Hill
Upton's Hill
Upton’s Hill is a geographic eminence located in western Arlington County, Virginia. Its summit rises to above sea level. - Location :Upton’s Hill straddles the border of Arlington County and Fairfax County, Virginia. The hill is generally conical in shape with its summit lying astride Wilson...
, where events spurred the composition and publication of the Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The Modern Era
After the Civil War Bailey's Crossroads returned to its pastoral pre-war pursuits. The area remained a rural farming community until the post-World War II years, when a massive wave of development occurred. Leesburg Pike is now a commercial corridor, with apartments and homes to its north and south. A strip shopping center called Culmore
Culmore, Virginia
Culmore, Virginia is a small commercial center in Fairfax County, Virginia. It sits between Seven Corners and the Skyline area on Virginia State Route 7....
, in particular, has lent its name to the apartment development behind it, which is now home to several thousand Latino immigrants. "Culmore" is now an established place name within Bailey's Crossroads. Close behind Culmore is Lake Barcroft, whose shore is lined with upscale middle-class homes.
During the 1960s, as Washington's Metro
Rapid transit
A rapid transit, underground, subway, elevated railway, metro or metropolitan railway system is an electric passenger railway in an urban area with a high capacity and frequency, and grade separation from other traffic. Rapid transit systems are typically located either in underground tunnels or on...
system was being conceived, original plans called for a subway line to extend under Columbia Pike to and through Bailey's Crossroads. As a result of the plan a massive highrise complex was built in the heart of Bailey's Crossroads called Skyline City. Its location coincided with the planned locations of Metro stations. Plans for the Metro, however, changed. The western line was placed along the I-66 corridor instead. Current plans by the Arlington and Fairfax County governments, however, call for a streetcar line to be placed along Columbia Pike, terminating in Bailey's Crossroads.
Government Institutions
Fairfax County Public SchoolsFairfax County Public Schools
The Fairfax County Public Schools system is a branch of the Fairfax County government which administers public schools in Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax...
operates public schools. Glen Forest Elementary School is the primary school attended by most children living in the area, and the local schools feed J.E.B. Stuart High School.
Fairfax County Public Library
Fairfax County Public Library
The Fairfax County Public Library is a public library system headquartered in Suite 324 in the Fairfax County Government Center at 12000 Government Center Parkway in unincorporated Fairfax County, Virginia, United States....
operates the Woodrow Wilson Library in the Culmore area. It has Spanish-language materials in addition to English-language ones.
A United States Post Office, located in Culmore, serves the Bailey's Crossroads ZIP Code. All mail bound for Bailey's Crossroads is addressed Falls Church.