Alternative names proposed for Lee Highway
The Confederate Names Task Force has recommended renaming Lee Highway and Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway and presented several possible alternatives to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Feb. 8.
For Lee Highway (Route 29), the task force recommended these new names:
• Cardinal Highway
• Route/Highway 29
• Langston Boulevard/Highway
• Lincoln-Douglass Highway
• Fairfax Boulevard/Highway
For Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway (Route 50), the task force recommended:
• Little River Turnpike
• Unity Highway
• Fairfax Boulevard
• Blue & Gray Highway
The BoS will make the final decision after reviewing the task force report and other community input.
The board created the task force in July and directed it to determine whether those roads should be renamed and to come up with ideas for new names that don’t honor Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.
Related story: Board of Supervisors appoints task force to consider renaming roads that honor Confederates
BoS Chair Jeffrey McKay said he understands changing the names of those roads “may create undue financial costs for the thousands of businesses and people who work and live along those major thoroughfares.”
McKay asked the Fairfax County Department of Transportation to create an email inbox survey to collect feedback from people and businesses along those corridors. Comments can be submitted to [email protected]. The feedback and survey results will be shared at a meeting of the board’s Transportation Committee in June.
According to a previous survey carried out by the Confederate Names Task Force, a majority of respondents did not want to change the names of the two roads.
However, it was not a scientific survey, said Task Force Chair Evelyn Spain. People could have filled out the survey multiple times, and there was nothing to prevent people who live outside the county from responding.
I thought they were going to rename Lee Highway Penny Gross Way?
Well, 29 is already called Langston in parts of Arlington, so I’d stick with that, and if we could extend names already used for Route 50 that would help. Having 12 names for the same road gets confusing. For example, 236 is Duke St., Little River Tpk., Main St, etc. and roads have different names on either side including in downtown Annandale (Evergreen/Hilltop, Ravensworth/Annandale Rd, Hummer/Heritage, etc.).
I can’t imagine naming it Unity Highway. The only thing a road unifies are geographically adjacent places.
Please do NOT reassign the name “Little River Tpke” Rt 50 already has Arlington Blvd and others. Roads were originally named to show origin (one end or another). InGeorge Mason Public Library, in Annandale, there is a rare book: “Annandale, A History.” In it you will find origins of the name “Little River Tpke.” If I remember correctly, the road was based on a creek up near Aldie. A rich man who lived here sponsored/PAID for 236 to complete being built. He chose “Little River Tpke.” Please find a copy of that book. It’s fascinating and about more than Annandale, Fairfax County. I grew up in Annandale, a native and a local. Please learn the history or Annandale (named of the dale on the Annan River in Scotland… I’ve been there!) Thanks for digging deeper.
The portion of 50 which would be Little River Turnpike would be the section from Fairfax City west to Loudoun. This section was historically known by that name, and Loudoun County recently approved changing the name of their section of 50 back to Little River Turnpike, so using that name would restore the historical name from Alexandria westward to the west end of Loudoun County, except for the portion in Fairfax City where it is Main Street.
Little River Tpke would be perfect for Lee-Jackson. Probably not many people know why parts of that road have that name now- because back in the day when it was a toll road, its terminus was Aldie where the Little River passes over Rt. 50. Many roads were named for one of their termini.
Please don’t rename route 50 Little River Turnpike! Isn’t that already 236? Roads in Virginia are confusing enough with every route having 27 different names, without 2 different routes having the same one.
Remember, we are talking about the stretch of highway from Jermantown west to the Fairfax County line. Little River Turnpike WAS the name of that part of Rt 50 called Lee-Jackson Mem Hwy. Rt 50 starts as Arlington Blvd at the Potomac, becomes (recently) Fairfax Boulevard in the city of Fairfax and then, at the intersection nr Jermantown, switches over to LJMH when it takes a right turn. This change would not add yet another moniker to the road; it would replace one name for one stretch with another.
*** PIKES
The word “pike” refers to a weapon: a spear or staff. Actually, I think “pike” originally meant the business end of the weapon. The pointy end, which might also have a nasty hook on it. But it came to mean to the whole weapon, and then to the stick part. Now stick that pike out into the road to let people know it is a gate! You shall not pass! Until you pay the toll. At which point we will turn the pike, and let you go past it. In other words, a “turn-pike”. Very much like a modern day “turnstyle” that you go through to get on the subway.
*** LITTLE RIVER TURNPIKE
Once upon a time, back in 1801, there was a toll road called “Little River Turnpike”. It ran from Alexandria all the way to Aldie, a little town in Loudon County which is where the Little River is.
Today that road is now called “Duke Street” in the city of Alexandria, and “Main Street” in Fairfax City. It’s still “Little River Turnpike” through Annandale.
Kamp Washington is the “X” intersection in Fairfax City where Route 50 and Route 236 come together.
That part of Little River Turnpike going west out of Kamp Washiinton was renamed “Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway” a little before 1920.
So, if we’re going to rename Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway, we ought as well just put back the original name “Little River Turnpike”.
Little River Turnpike will then once again go straight, onto it’s original destiation, the Little River. (Although Fairfax County doesn’t have any control over the name of the road all the way out to Loudon, so who knows what it will be called there.)
• Unity Highway
No, that’s stupid.
• Fairfax Boulevard
No! This would make the route/name intersection mess even MORE confusing!
• Blue & Gray Highway
This name is already taken. It’s down in Fredricksburg. How the hell am I supposed to get you to Carl’s frozen custard if you’re re-using major highway names!
• Little River Turnpike
Yes!
*** Lee Highway (Route 29):
The option of just not having a name is fine with me. Otherwise, “Fairfax Boulevard/Highway” would be the best. That would make the road straight (doesn’t change names when entering Fairfax City), and it tells people from the west where they are headed.
• Cardinal Highway
???
• Route/Highway 29
Good enough.
• Langston Boulevard/Highway
Isn’t that in Arlington?
• Lincoln-Douglass Highway
Nothing wrong with it, I guess,
but why make up a new name?
• Fairfax Boulevard/Highway
Yes!
*** ROUTES
HOWEVER, none of this road renaming will fix the weird Route number confusion that happens at Kamp Washington.
A “Route” is not a road, but it’s a little confusing that Route 50 takes a sudden right-hand turn off of “Fairfax Boulevard” (aka “Arlington Boulevard”) and proceeds onto the road originally called “Little River Turnpike” (now “Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway”).
We’re not changing the route numbers. There’s no way we can do that, at this point.
Route 50 will still take that right-hand turn, and Route 236 will still end.
You may wonder what that’s all about. That came about 87 years ago. Because originally, Route 50 was Little River Turnpike — “Route 50” went from Alexandria to Aldie. The route did not change roads; it went stright!
There was also a “Route 236”, which ran along Arlington Boulevard.
In the early 1930s a lot of route numbers got changed. In 1935, the numbers 236 and 50 were swapped!
So in modern times, Route 50 is the one from Arlington that takes that right-hand turn at Kamp Washington and proceeds along Lee-Jackson Memorial Highway. And present-day 236, which was originally “Route 50” is Little River Turnpike.
*** LRT History
I think the Little River Turnpike was the first toll road in the United States. Hence the historical plaque (on the wall of the CVS) in Annandale where the toll house was. Near the CVS and Walgreens (Three Chefs). This part of Annndale at Backlick Road and LRT has been an important area since Colinial times (1600s), then through the Garges era, and our modern times.
While we’re on the subject of “turnpikes” in Annandale you might wonder about Columbia Pike. That’s another story from around
*** NEW DIRECTIONS:
From the hinterlands…
“Just get on Fairfax Highway, which becomes Fairfax Boulevard, when you get to Fairfax Circle turn right, and meet me at Fritzbees at 7:00.”
“From Aldie, just get on Litle River Turnpike and take it all the way to Fairfax. The road will be called “Main Street” for a little while, but just keep going. When you get into Annandale, turn left at the Speedway onto John Marr Drive. That will take you to the TOPPS drive-thru. Get on Columbia Pike for like 2 seconds and turn left into the shopping strip. It’s where Casa Maria used to be!”
All roads lead to Fritzbees!
(Except those that lead to Chesapeake Bay Seafood House. That’s another story but it’s off Route 50, if you were to just stay on Fairfax Highway…”)
For those of you complaining that 236 is already named Little River Turnpike, you do realize that 236 turns into 50, right?
All this renaming is such a waste of time, resources and money. How about tackling real problems like our schools failing to educate, the inability of FCPS to support dyslexic students, and FCPS being stuck in COVID panic while other countries (such as Denmark) are leading the way out of fear by removing all restrictions.
Real leadership tackles real problems. It’s like ignoring your bad diet and early stage cancer while putting on makeup to look good.
“Being stuck in COVID panic”. AKA understanding the reality of living through a pandemic.
FCPS does a great job educating and dealing with dyslexic children. I know because I have a dyslexic kid in FCPS.
It’s all bread and circus. Only without the bread.
Keeps the masses occupied.
How about Equitable Intersectional Reparation Thoroughfare?