Join us for a cross-country trek where we’ll peek into a few neighborhoods where rooflines sweep and preservation prevails. Would you like to see your neighborhood featured? Do you have a story to share about one of the featured neighborhoods? Email Sarah Jane Stone at editor@atomic-ranch.com. Read the other installments of this series here, here and here.
Hollin Hills
According to an article by John A. Burns and Dennis Carmichael in the spring 2010 issue of Modernism Magazine, Hollin Hills got it’s start in the late 1940s via Robert C. Davenport. He was a New Deal-era Department of Agriculture employee-turned-postwar Virginia builder and the quiet Beltway region, just 10 miles from D.C. gave him ample opportunity to explore his modernist vision.
He transformed 326-acres of hills land near Alexandria, Virginia, into a modern subdivision. Partnering with architect Charles Goodman and landscape designer Dan Kiley, the subdivision emerged with with glass-enclosed homes afforded privacy by retained lush woodlands and carefully designed hedges.
According to the Hollin Hills Historic District website, “Houses with inverted “butterfly” roofs were among Charles Goodman’s most distinctive designs, offering expansive interior space with a wide view from the frame upper floor that oversails a brick ground floor.”
Preserving for Tomorrow
A thriving preservation effort exists within the community—manned by volunteers who oversee the neighborhood’s design review process.
According to the website, the neighborhood has won several awards, including, “…the Revere Quality House award from the Southwest Research Institute in 1950 and two 1982 ‘Test of Time’ awards from the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects, for houses on Stafford Road.”
Bonus: Several homes from the neighborhood are currently on the market.
For more on Hollin Hills, visit hollinhills.net.
