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attributed
Fairfax's higher number of road deaths to the county's
inadequate number of patrol officers and to the poor driving
skills of motorists.
 Meanwhile,
war
loomed. The Chamber's 1938 president, Francis Pickens Miller,
assumed leadership of a national New York-based organization
that promoted America's entry into World War II. Besides later
serving as a Delegate and running for Governor, Miller held
a key position in the Office of Strategic Services, the CIA's
predecessor, during the Francis Pickens
Miller war.
(Photo copyright Washington Post; reprinted by permission
of the D.C. Public Library.)
In Fairfax County, however, workers assigned to the newly
built Pentagon and other nearby defense facilities sought
housing. A lack of gasoline, tires and other parts also caused
some residents to forego the use of their cars or trucks because
of shortages. And because of a scarcity of farm hands, German
prisoners of war, held in a camp near today's Government Center,
were dispatched to local farms to ensure agricultural production.
The labor shortages also affected local emergency services.
Fairfax County Fire Company President Allen Williams reported
that since most of the county's firemen were of draft age,
and six members of the Fairfax Company had already entered
military service, volunteer fire companies were facing a serious
staffing problem. The Fire Company President asked county
residents to take extra care in the tending of kindling fires.
The absence of important leaders, the labor shortage, and
other hardships resulting from the nation's massive industrial
and manpower mobilization, combined to cause the Chamber of
Commerce's activities to lapse, then cease for several years.
The war, however, forged some of the most influential leaders
to later serve in the revitalized Chamber.
When
the war was over, Fairfax County's business and political
leaders turned their attention to local issues again.
 During
the war, the Federal government built the Shirley Highway
(named for Henry G. Shirley, State Highway Commissioner
from 1922 to 1941) to allow better traffic access to the Pentagon
and Washington. By Labor Day 1949, the Shirley Highway was
open to passenger cars and state highway officials were bragging
the new expressway would save 617,000 gallons of gasoline
annually, along with 1,500 tires and sparing 7 million miles
of travel. Above, workers lay the concrete that formed the
extension of the Shirley Highway through Fairfax County, the
corridor that helped fuel economic grouth in the county after
World War II. (Photo courtesy of the Fairfax County Public
Library Photographic Archive).
When the war was over, Fairfax County's business and political
leaders turned their attentions to local issues again, and
chief among these were attempts by the City of Alexandria
to annex Fairfax's adjacent land and its tax-producing business.
The County Taxpayers League staged a public meeting to plot
opposition strategy, with former Chamber President George
B. Robey presiding.
Meanwhile, new domestic programs and the Cold
War expanded the size of the federal government. This continued
to spur homebuilding in Fairfax. By 1953, the County's population
had grown to 136,000 froom 41,000 in 1940. The housing market
and related businesses were the underpinnings of the economic
activity in the county, although in 1952, the electronics
firm Melpar constructed a pastoral office campus on Arlington
Boulevard. It probably thus became the first technology firm
in Fairfax.
In 1948, Martin T. Webb of Annandale, an active Chamber member
during the 1930's and the first Chair of its Legislative Committee,
attempted to reorganize the Chamber. He placed a notice in
the Fairfax Herald announcing his cause and soliciting support
from the business community. Two years later, Mr. Webb passed
away and it was another four years before the Chamber of Commerce
was officially restarted.
The Herndon Junction Esso gas station, on Route 7.
(Quenton Porter photo, courtesy of the Fairfax County
Public Library Photographic Archive.
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