The 1950's brought America's post-war boom to Fairfax County, and with it the return of the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce from its 14-year hiatus. As the decade began, county resident David Lawrence, the publisher of U.S. News and World Report and a nationally prominent columnist, led a successful citizen campaign to restructure county government. Rapid development required a more formalized reporting relationship between the Board of Supervisors and employees and a more professional county administration. Voters approved the establishment of the County Executive form of government, and on January 1, 1952 the new government went into effect. Three days later, former Henrico County manager Carlton C. Massey (pictured at left, Copyright Washington Post; reprinted by permission of the D.C. Public Library) was appointed Fairfax County's first county executive. Massey served until his retirement in 1971 and is inextricably linked to Fairfax's early growth.

Just before Christmas 1953, organizers announced plans to revive the County Chamber of Commerce and to pursue an activist agenda on behalf of the business community. "A chamber of commerce for the whole county, serving the interests of every one of the county's communities forcefully and with common interests for every type of professional activity, has been long needed," said acting President Bennett W. King (pictured at left). Other organizers included Verlin W. Smith, still an active Chamber member in 2002.

In spite of severe weather that closed many area roads, organizers came to the County Courthouse on the evening of January 5, 1953, and reestablished the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce, naming Bennett King the new president and selecting a 25-member Board of Directors.

That same year, the Board of Supervisors approved a rezoning in the eastern end of the county to permit the construction of the two-story Seven Corners shopping center. With Woodward & Lothrop and Garfinkel's as anchor stores, it was the first modern enclosed shopping mall in the Washington area. Once the center opened, county residents no longer needed to travel the distance into Washington for purchases.

Woodward & Lothrop's Department
Store was the anchor of the Seven
Corners shopping center, the first
modern enclosed shopping mall
in the Washington, DC area.
(Copyright Washington Post: Reprinted by permission of the D.C. Public Library)

Indeed, so many apparently visited the mall that in 1954 the Board of Supervisors asked the Virginia Department of Highways to address the traffic situation there. Adjacent roadways "should have first priority in any major  primary highway improvements to be made in the Northern Virginia area," the Board declared. Besides providing tax revenue to the county and traffic headaches to patrons, Seven Corners marked the beginning of Fairfax's substantial retail community. By the 1990's, Fairfax County would have more retail space than almost any jurisdiction in the United States and attract shoppers from around the world.

Richmond Highway in the Groveton section of Fairfax County, 1955. (Copyright Washington Post; reprinted by permission of the D.C. Public Library)

The Chamber's 1955 Annual Dinner, its first since the organization was revitalized, featured Governor Thomas Stanley. Held in the dining hall at Fairfax High School, the Chamber dinner was attended by most of the organization's 400 members.

Months later, the Chamber convened a meeting to support the federal government's construction in Burke of a new international jet airport serving the Washington area. Three years later, after massive protests from nearby communities, the Eisenhower Administration decided to build the new airport in Chantilly, and the Chamber approved of that alternative.

"What Fairfax County Offers...on the Virginia Side of Washington"

A street view of the Little River Turnpike in
Annandale, looking towards Columbia Pike, in
1955. (Copyright Washington Post; reprinted by
permission of the D.C. Public Library)

heart of Washington, the publication assured prospects.

Perhaps the newly revived Chamber was doing something right, because the local office of the Dun & Bradstreet Reference Book for November 1956 showed a full 39% increase since 1951 in the number of businesses operating in Fairfax County.

Tysons Corner, circa 1957, has been a busy commercial crossroads since Fairfax County's earliest days. This view is looking south on Chain Bridge Road, at the intersection with Leesburg Pike. (Photo courtesy of the Fairfax County Public Library Photographic Archive.

Construction crews take a break on Christmas Eve 1957, leaving travellers to traverse a gaping hole in Maple Avenue in Vienna. (Copyright Washington Post; Reprinted by permission of the D.C. Public Library)

Despite the Chamber's objections, in 1957, the Board of Supervisors adopted a modified version of the McHugh Master Plan - named for planning consultant Francis Dodd McHugh - that included a six-month moratorium on zoning changes. Much of the organization's other activity that year was directed towards encouraging the federal government to choose a route and start construction on the "circumferential highway," later dubbed "the Beltway." Chamber dues ranged from $25 to $700.

       
The Springfield Interchange under construction (left), known as the Mixing Bowl, in late 1959, when the Washington Star said: "Progress on the $5 million interchange which will carry the circumferential highway across the Shirley Highway in Springfield." Backlick Road is shown in the foreground. The finished interchange is shown (right) in 1974. (Copyright Washington Post; Reprinted by permission of the D.C. Public Library.)

CIA Director Allen Dulles spoke at the Annual Dinner in connection with Fairfax County being selected as the location for the agency's new headquarters in 1957. His speech text says he thanked the Chamber "for the chance to get to know my prospective friends and neighbors in Fairfax County." He argued that the creation of the intelligence organization (and its consolidation in new offices) was necessitated by "the possibility that either a Soviet decision to communize the world by force, or any one of a number of possible missteps anywhere in the world could mean sudden and overwhelming disaster."

Although not directly related, later in 1957, Chamber President Richard E. Shands traveled to New Mexico with the County Executive and School Superintendent W. T. Woodson to observe a demonstration firing of an Army antiaircraft missile. The army manned three such missile batteries in Fairfax County at the time, to protect against feared Soviet bomber attack.

In order to bring better management to the Chamber and retire a considerable debt, retired Army Major General Robert W. Grow (left, Photo copyright Washington Post, reprinted by permission of the D.C. Public Library) was recruited as executive director in 1958. Grow had led an armored division in Europe in World War II. He left the service after a widely covered court martial in which he was accused of allowing confidential musings about the possibility of nuclear war with the Soviet Union to be copied and disseminated by Communist spies. Grow subsequently became involved in civic endeavors in Fairfax and was credited with building the Chamber during his six and one-half year tenure. He also established the Chamber's relationship with the Federation of Civic Associations and the League of Women Voters despite "some spirited disagreements" between the parties.

In 1958, the Chamber also actively participated in fund-raising to equip the new non-profit Fairfax Hospital, then under construction.

Throughout the decade, much of the Chamber's efforts focused on land use issues in the rapidly growing county as the population grew from 98,500 to nearly 249,000 residents.

Two important events that helped fuel the county's prosperity in the years to follow occurred near the decade's end. In June 1959, plans were first announced for an ultramodern "double-dual" highway to allow a speedy connection between Washington, D.C. and the new airport in Chantilly.

Then, in September 1959, University of Virginia President Edgar F. Shannon requested a $1.6 million appropriation from the General Assembly to build the Northern Virginia branch of the University, originally planned for Fairfax Station. At the time, the UVA branch was housed in an old school building in Bailey's Crossroads, with just 100 students.

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