Explore a Park: Green Spring Gardens

This article is part of our series on parks in the Annandale/Mason District area. The last piece explored Eakin Park in Annandale. See other stories in the series on the Parks page.

Green Spring Gardens is wonderful all year but is especially nice in spring when the flowers and trees come alive with colorful blossoms.

Features: The 31-acre park has a Horticulture Center, demonstration gardens, a children’s garden, a wooded stream valley, two ponds with turtles and geese, and a great lawn surrounded by a paved path.

The Horticulture Center has a greenhouse, auditorium for programming, library with gardening, a shop, and art exhibits. A separate Historic House is used for educational programs.

Green Spring’s extensive witch hazel collection is part of the official Plant Collections Network.

In 2001, Green Spring Gardens became the base for the Park Authority’s community horticulture program, which includes the rental garden plots, farmers markets, and Master Gardeners program.

Education: Green Spring Gardens offers an extensive list of educational programs on various horticultural and nature topics for adults and children. The Historic House hosts lectures on historic and cultural topics with a traditional English tea.

Access: Green Spring Gardens is located at 4603 Green Spring Road, in the Lincolnia area of Mason District. The parking lot is accessible from Braddock Road.

The park grounds are open dawn to dusk. The parking lot gate is locked at 5 p.m. The Horticulture Center is open 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday and noon-4:30 p.m. on Sunday.

FROGS: Friends of Green Spring (FROGS) has contributed thousands of hours of volunteer labor and significant financial resources to Green Spring Gardens since it was founded in 1993.

FROGS covers more than 10 percent of the park’s annual operating expenses, and over the years, funded numerous projects and activities, including:

• The winter lecture series and other educational programs.
• Art shows in the Horticulture Center and Historic House.
• The Garden Gate Plant Shop
• Spring Garden Day and the Family Fall Festival.
• Construction of a stone retaining wall along the walkway to the ponds
• A “smart water” irrigation system that can be controlled remotely by a phone app.

Related story: Explore a Park – Eakin Community Park was the first park in Fairfax County

History: Green Spring Gardens celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2020.

Fairfax County acquired the land and house in 1970 from Michael and Belinda Straight. The house was built in 1784. The Straights bought the house, outbuildings, and 32 acres of land in 1942 for $32,500.

The house needed significant work, so they brought in Walter Macomber, who had been the chief restoration architect at Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon, to renovate and expand it.

To create the gardens, the Straights hired Beatrix Farrand, a pre-eminent landscape designer who had designed Dumbarton Oaks in Georgetown. She created the boxwood hedge and stone wall in the garden behind the house.

Michael Straight had been a speechwriter for President Franklin Roosevelt, a pilot trainer during World War II, and a senior government official.

During the time they lived at Green Spring, he was the publisher of New Republic, the magazine founded by his parents, and served as chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. The Straights entertained politicians, authors, and many prominent people and raised five children at Green Spring.

Related story: Green Spring Gardens was created 50 years ago, thanks to a generous gift from a fascinating family

When Michael was offered a high-level government job and faced a background check, he revealed a long-held secret from his past: During his time at Trinity College in Cambridge, England, he was recruited as a spy and passed along information to the Soviets. He was granted immunity when his revelations led to the exposure of Anthony Blunt as the leader of the Cambridge Five spy ring.

Belinda also had a fascinating life. In 1945, she was one of few women to enroll in medical school. She worked as a psychiatrist at Children’s Hospital and had her own private practice, where she specialized in helping victims of sexual abuse.

She was also active in the civil rights movement. During Bloody Sunday, when police beat up protesters marching from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965, Belinda treated John Lewis, the future congressman, for a fractured skull.

That same year, the Straights moved to a house in Georgetown they bought from Jackie Kennedy.

They divorced not long after. They sold a portion of the Green Spring property, now occupied by car dealers on Little River Turnpike, and donated the remaining 18 acres to Fairfax County on the condition it would be preserved as a park.

Michael wrote several books, including On Green Spring Farm in 2002. He died in 2004. Belinda retired at age 87 and died in 2015.

The Park Authority removed an old barn, a log cabin, and a bridge over Turkeycock Run built by the Straights. Over the years, the county purchased surrounding land, and the park is now 31 acres. The circular pathway was built in 1990.

The house where the Straights lived was renovated for public use and is now known as the Historic House. It was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2003.