Lee Highway Median Art Project: Background Information
Lee Hwy North Monroe median, site of Cherrydale-Maywood Art Project
(to be installed fall 2012)
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Lee Hwy North Monroe median, site of Cherrydale-Maywood Art Project
(to be installed fall 2012)
|
Information about this section of Lee Hwy, dividing Cherrydale and Maywood neighborhoods:
We recommend you read a bit about Cherrydale, Maywood and Maywood Mews (the small townhome project on N Monroe St north of Lee Hwy) by checking our respective websites. Citizens of these 3 neighborhoods will be judges of the art contest.
This art project came into being as part of a site plan that allowed the developer, Christopher Companies, to build a denser, larger than “by-right” condo building in exchange for some community benefits, including a beautification project, $20,000 of which is the art for the Lee Hwy median.
The larger of the 2 median islands is where the art project will be displayed (see photos, above). The smaller median is were the Cherrydale Citizens Association sign is, and where a trolley station used to be.
On the north side of Lee Hwy (Maywood side) on the corner of N Monroe St is a 5-story condo building under construction by Christopher Companies.(4 stories, brick, in front, and a 5th story set back). Awnings will be forest green. We will try to provide a copy of the color brick in case that is useful. On the south side (Cherrydale) is a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts and south of that are historic old homes. This used to be farm area. The oldest and largest home on the block is 3 houses up on left as you go up the hill and that entire block was farmed. Some cottages were built as vacation homes for the folks living in Foggy Bottom.
According to Kathy Holt, Cherrydale historian, as related by Tom Korns, a trolley line existed along Lee Hwy, connecting Arlington to Georgetown. See links provided to read more. The stations were: Thrifton at Lyon Village, Dominion Heights in the Monroe St Island (where the Cherrydale sign is) and Cherrydale station at Quincy St. This line connected us also to Great Falls.
Lee Hwy came into use when the first national highway since the Cumberland road was built in the late 1700s. It may have been surveyed by Dwight Eisenhower who was charged with investigating coast to coast routes in 1918. He stitched together existing local roadways. The national defense interstate highway system was created during his 1950s administration.
The trolley line eventually went away and now Lee serves as a low speed highway, and a walkable road for our small intimate neighborhoods. Speed limit is 25mph. West up the southside of the hill is a senior citizen apartment building, then a nursing home, high end condos, then our historic Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Dept. On the north side is Safeway, a major pedestrian destination point and the next block up Cherrydale Station, which has lovely shops.
The art cannot be taller than 36 inches as decreed by engineers. Art proposals must comply with the restrictions mentioned in the RFP. Enjoy, we look forward to your submissions!
Maureen Ross, President Cherrydale Citizens Association
Wikipedia search:
Taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Falls_and_Old_Dominion_Railroad “Chartered in 1900 by a group of local landowners and acquired in 1902 by John Roll McLean (owner of The Washington Post) and Senator Stephen Benton Elkins,[1] the 15-mile electrified railroad began operating in 1906. The first scheduled car reached Great Falls Park in Fairfax County on July 3 of that year.[2]
From Georgetown, the railroad crossed the Potomac River on a superstructure built on the upstream side of the old Aqueduct Bridge to Rosslyn in Arlington, where it made connections with an older electric trolley line, the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church Railroad. From Rosslyn, the railroad travelled northwest along the north side of Lee Highway (now part of U.S. Route 29) to Cherrydale and then on its own right-of-way (now Old Dominion Drive, State Route 309) in Arlington and Fairfax Counties through forests, farmland and fruit orchards, bypassing the existing villages of Lewinsville and Langley.”
We recommend you read a bit about Cherrydale, Maywood and Maywood Mews (the small townhome project on N Monroe St north of Lee Hwy) by checking our respective websites. Citizens of these 3 neighborhoods will be judges of the art contest.
This art project came into being as part of a site plan that allowed the developer, Christopher Companies, to build a denser, larger than “by-right” condo building in exchange for some community benefits, including a beautification project, $20,000 of which is the art for the Lee Hwy median.
The larger of the 2 median islands is where the art project will be displayed (see photos, above). The smaller median is were the Cherrydale Citizens Association sign is, and where a trolley station used to be.
On the north side of Lee Hwy (Maywood side) on the corner of N Monroe St is a 5-story condo building under construction by Christopher Companies.(4 stories, brick, in front, and a 5th story set back). Awnings will be forest green. We will try to provide a copy of the color brick in case that is useful. On the south side (Cherrydale) is a Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts and south of that are historic old homes. This used to be farm area. The oldest and largest home on the block is 3 houses up on left as you go up the hill and that entire block was farmed. Some cottages were built as vacation homes for the folks living in Foggy Bottom.
According to Kathy Holt, Cherrydale historian, as related by Tom Korns, a trolley line existed along Lee Hwy, connecting Arlington to Georgetown. See links provided to read more. The stations were: Thrifton at Lyon Village, Dominion Heights in the Monroe St Island (where the Cherrydale sign is) and Cherrydale station at Quincy St. This line connected us also to Great Falls.
Lee Hwy came into use when the first national highway since the Cumberland road was built in the late 1700s. It may have been surveyed by Dwight Eisenhower who was charged with investigating coast to coast routes in 1918. He stitched together existing local roadways. The national defense interstate highway system was created during his 1950s administration.
The trolley line eventually went away and now Lee serves as a low speed highway, and a walkable road for our small intimate neighborhoods. Speed limit is 25mph. West up the southside of the hill is a senior citizen apartment building, then a nursing home, high end condos, then our historic Cherrydale Volunteer Fire Dept. On the north side is Safeway, a major pedestrian destination point and the next block up Cherrydale Station, which has lovely shops.
The art cannot be taller than 36 inches as decreed by engineers. Art proposals must comply with the restrictions mentioned in the RFP. Enjoy, we look forward to your submissions!
Maureen Ross, President Cherrydale Citizens Association
Wikipedia search:
Taken from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Falls_and_Old_Dominion_Railroad “Chartered in 1900 by a group of local landowners and acquired in 1902 by John Roll McLean (owner of The Washington Post) and Senator Stephen Benton Elkins,[1] the 15-mile electrified railroad began operating in 1906. The first scheduled car reached Great Falls Park in Fairfax County on July 3 of that year.[2]
From Georgetown, the railroad crossed the Potomac River on a superstructure built on the upstream side of the old Aqueduct Bridge to Rosslyn in Arlington, where it made connections with an older electric trolley line, the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church Railroad. From Rosslyn, the railroad travelled northwest along the north side of Lee Highway (now part of U.S. Route 29) to Cherrydale and then on its own right-of-way (now Old Dominion Drive, State Route 309) in Arlington and Fairfax Counties through forests, farmland and fruit orchards, bypassing the existing villages of Lewinsville and Langley.”