Falls Church section of Wilson Blvd. to be designated Saigon Blvd.
The Falls Church City Council is expected to approve a resolution on Nov. 12 to designate the section of Wilson Boulevard in front of the Eden Center as “Saigon Boulevard.”
The name will apply to 6600 to 6700 Wilson Boulevard within the City of Falls Church.
It will be an honorary name, not recognized by the U.S. Postal Service.
Falls Church had already designated the road in front of the Eden Center as Saigon Boulevard in 2005, but the signs are small and mostly obscured by foliage. New larger signs will be posted in more visible locations.
“Many folks today, including some City Council members, didn’t know that Wilson Boulevard was already ceremonially named Saigon Boulevard,” said Quynh Nguyen of the Viet Place Collective.
Throughout the collective’s advocacy for retaining the Vietnamese businesses at the Eden Place during Falls Church’s discussion of the East End Small Area Plan, “we heard the community-wide popularity of honorarily renaming Wilson Boulevard as Saigon Boulevard,” Nguyen says.
“We believe that official cultural designations like ‘Saigon Boulevard’ honor our community’s histories and legacies and recognize the social, economic, and cultural impact of the Vietnamese community on Falls Church and the greater region,” she says. “Saigon Boulevard is a great example of community-led placemaking and is a step towards our greater goal of designating this part of Falls Church as a Vietnamese cultural district called ‘Little Saigon.’”
Related story: City of Falls Church commits to preserving Vietnamese culture at the Eden Center
The new Saigon Boulevard designation would extend from the Eden Center to BJ’s Wholesale Club.
The signs will have Vietnamese words and will be installed in high-visibility areas, Nguyen says, possibly in front of the Eden Center gate and at the intersection of Wilson Boulevard and Roosevelt Boulevard above the existing street sign.
She hopes they will be installed in early 2025 and will be unveiled during the Vietnamese New Year celebration.
Nguyen says the new signs will “ensure that everyone who passes through knows about our community’s legacy in this area, and that we’re here to stay.”
Related story: The dislocation of Little Saigon offers lessons for preserving the Eden Center