the original concept:
“super-blocks”

The planning of Hollin Hills was done as part of a larger "super-block" concept. Fort Hunt Road, Beacon Hill Road, Richmond Highway and Sherwood Hall Lane were to be main traffic feeder streets bounding the block, from which branched residential communities with no through traffic. This concept is still generally the primary one in Fairfax County, with perhaps more emphasis on intra-block access.

Originally, the Hollin Hills plan had a stub connection off Martha's loop into the Thorpe estate (now Mason Hill), and another off Rebecca into Popkin's pasture (now Glasgow Road, Section 11). These anticipated future interconnections. The Martha's loop stub was abandoned when Mason Hill was developed.

The other stub became Glasgow Road. It was at first a cul-de-sac. Its continuation — and the completion of Devonshire Road — was held up by a then-planned radial artery which would have run along the entire western boundary of Hollin Hills. When that road idea died, the connection to Popkins Lane opened up Hollin Hills to such foreign places as Groveton High School, St. Louis Church, Route 1 and the now-departed Beacon Hill and Hybla Valley airports.

That un-built artery had a major effect on the layout in New Hoilin Hills. Many of the terminal lots at the end of cul-de-sacs there were encumbered with potential artery rights-of-way and, oddly enough, discouraged lateral connections into Hollin Hills.

reading the landscape

What makes a plan work is how well it follows the roll and drainage patterns of the land. The key is the designer's ability to 'read' the land both on foot and on paper, and a willingness to go along with what nature provides. The property boundary and the main traffic access, combined with the sewer location and zoning category are the man-made restrictions.

All too often, a civil engineer will devise a road plan which reaches all the corners of the property and gets the most lots out of it without reference to the detail of the ground. Then he comes back and forces the streets to drain and climb at a suitable slope. The results are deep cuts, causeways across ravines, lost tree cover, unnecessary piping of surface run-off and natural creeks, and much grading of the individual lots.

The Hollin Hills road plan goes with the land. Rarely were houses sited with major glass opening up across an access street, unless there was such a vertical separation between house and street that one looked over rather than at. Living rooms did not open up into each other. Building views for the most part opened to the rear, or slid by the adjoining house for long vistas cutting across several lots.

The sense of space thus developed belies the 1/3 acre lots which make up much of the community. Enclosure fencing was avoided from the start, and has been discouraged since. If visual privary was required, a spot screen fence of architectural character, or dense hedges were used. It was gospel not to interrupt any potential vista with any physical expression of lot line locations.

It was unusual in 1950 to have had the foresight to design houses tailored to the type of land to be developed. The first part of Hollin Hills was the Rippon-Paul Spring-Drury Lane corner, so the first house designs were a split-level (Unit Type 1 — of which are several versions) and Type 2, a one-story oblong with a massive chimney.

These suited the ground conditions in that area: Rippon is all Type 1’s, of varied roof configuration and finish; Paul Spring Road is flat ground and all Type 2’s. Options for 4' and 8' enlargements were offered so that a basic design could have, added athwart, an extra belt of space in the storage, dining, kitchen, or bedroom sections. In Goodman's parlance, these additions developed descriptive names such as "2B4K4" of "2SBD4B4" or, in the case of a "2" set on a walk-out basement, "2B4K42LB" — for lower bedrooms. Strictly technical; no "Regency" or "Malibu" or "Salem"!

Except for the long straightaway of Elba Road in the new section, forced on Davenport by the County, there is not a dull section in the whole Hollin Hills complex. Nor are there are any examples of extensive cut-and-fiil visible. Note, as you drive about the community, how the roads ride by mature trees at the edges, and compare this with almost any of the surrounding communities.

water runoff

The idea is to handle the surface water runoff and to service with gravity sewers each individual house without having to slice up the ground. I can think of but one place in Hollin Hills where the rules had to be broken. That is the 2300 block of Glasgow which is a "cut" for its entire length. This was necessitated by the need to run sewer service from 2313 all the way back to Rebecca Drive, for this was a street not in the original plan, but added in order to keep Davenport's operation going until New Hollin Hills could be started off Sherwood Hall Lane. Note, however, how gradual the side slopes were made. Without having read this, you would not know it is a man-made valley.

roads and traffic

The site plan of Hollin Hills was also concerned with traffic and the dangers of crossing intersections. Except for Mason Hill and White Oaks, there is no "X" intersection at all in the community, and no street continues through Hollin Hills without being interrupted by some 90-degree offset to force drivers to think their way through the community. The winding roads which look so irrational on the map in the Hollin Hills Directory are, from the vantage of ground level, the best route to avoid chewing up the land.

siting the houses

Excellent though the land planning was in Hollin Hills, the ingredient I personally credit the most for its unique character has been the housing siting. The principles governing it were applied consistently throughout the new and old parts of the community, whether the work was done in Goodman's office or not. Davenport and Goodman severed their relationship about halfway up Elba Road from Sherwood Hall Lane, so to speak, and Davenport (who had learned his lessons well) completed the rest on his own.

Besides the shape of the land, house siting in Hollin Hills took into consideration the orientation, the tree locations, the potential long views, and the relationship between adjoining houses. The houses were seldom sited parallel to the street; more likely, they were set at an angle to the street, for the predominant house in Old Hollin Hills was a one-level house with a walk-out finished basement. This design was planned to ride across the contours corner-to-corner. As the streets, too, were laid out respecting the slope of the ground, the houses naturally fell angled.

different house models

The Type 3 house was a one-level, bigger and wider than the Type 2, and with two bathrooms, but with the same exterior appearance — big chimney, etc. It was built frequently on Martha's Rd. The Type 4 was another split-level, differently arranged to fit a new site condition not previously dealt with. There are several around the Stafford-Martha's intersection.

There are several versions of Type 5; the initial ones were built near the intersection of Pickwick and Beechwood. They were pristine, flat-roofed elegant boxes without overhangs and with an interior core of utilities. There were only 3 built. Type 5B was actually Type 5 enlarged and set on an unfinished basement plinth, more suitable for the slope along the 2100 block of Paul Spring Road.

At the same time, Type 6 was born, the biggest house so far. It was a two-story house with a butterfly roof set on the short way, and it, too, met a site need on Paul Spring. This model has no counterpart anywhere, as far as I know, and it did a great deal to add variety to the streetscapes it was built in. Goodman had done a butterfly version of the Type 2 house before, the crease going the long way, and the results justified repetition. Note the very shallow pitch on the slopes of the houses; anything steeper would have made them look chunky and artificial. As it is, they float.

The Type 7 house, a one-level three-bedroom house, was repeated a dozen times in the 2300 block of Glasgow Road. It is unique in that it is a prefabricated house, in part. A big, flat steel jig table was set up in McCalley's shop which was then in the Kimbro Street woods. All the exterior walls are made of 72' x 8' panels made off site (the only house where one can measure one window opening for insulating glass and expect all openings to be repeats!).

There are exceptions to that last statement: one is a Goodman-designed National Home on Rebecca Road, built by Davenport; a fairly compatible Scholtz house at the bend of Rebecca Road (the one whose roof is about level with the street), and an ALCOA Demonstration house, designed by Goodman and built by Davenport, on Elba Road. These three are houses whose glazing openings were factory-controlled. The rest of the houses' glazing members were site-cut and installed, and vary considerably from the standard 36" opening set by Hopes Casements.

custom houses

Some Goodman-designed custom houses sprouted along the view side of Martha's Road and Recard Lane. They incorporated some ideas spawned in the merchant housing waters of Hollin Hills, as well as acting as locus for more ideas which then were incorporated in later houses. The Lansburgh (2213), Shapiro (2207), Goldberg (2219), and Lindberg 2215) houses come to mind.

The Minnie Odoroff house looms in my memory. Goodman designed a new version of the Type 5B for Minnie and Maurice Odoroff for a site at 7308 Rebecca, downhill from the road and overlooking the great view over Hybla Valley to the west. Minnie was Hollin Hills, Inc. secretary and office force, and though the design was one used many times later in Hollin Hills, it was a labor of love to suit the art collection and personal style of the Odoroffs. It was worthy of the AIA National Honor Award it generated. It's the one with the Yogi Berra roof — a long ‘bill’ of an overhang on the west side to shield the house as much as possible from the west sun, and sitting behind the (also Goodman-designed) National Homes panel fence (and subsequently known as the Radin house and the Hodson house).

non-goodman houses in hollin hills

Davenport sold some lots in Hollin Hills without houses on them. There are seven non-Goodman designed houses, built along Rebecca Drive on the slope down to New Hollin Hills; one on Martha's Road. The Neer house (Tom Wright), Ringwalt house (Scholtz), Dearborn house (Tom Kerns), Barnes house (Rurik Rkstrom), Beckhorn house (Cass Neer), Hoover house (Abrahamson) and the Chase house (Luis Vera). Architect Bob Smith also designed his own house at 1704 Rebecca when he worked for Goodman.

When New Hollin Hills began, the #7 was redesigned to give it a pitched ceiling and 2 full baths, and there's a two-level version of that design. The #8 is a "T"-shaped model with spacious living-dining areas. It was designed for sloping sites and first built at the end of Davenport Street. Beyond that, there are two models designed by Bob Davenport after Goodman stopped working for Hollin Hills, Inc. One, the "Decca", was an effort at economy, and the other a grandiose 2-story "Atrium" house.

In later years, some variations crept in to the original designs, as Bob Davenport took on sole authority and tried to save costs. Only purists will be able to sort out those houses with detail variations. The work done by Davenport alone was an extension of the work of the original design team, and it helped that "Mac" McCalley built them all. The construction and appearance of the Hollin Hills houses broke new ground in 1950, and continued until Goodman stopped Hollin Hills work.

radical innovations

The detail we see around us in Hollin Hills doesn't look strange now, but the idea of using fixed glass panes, mounted in un-trimmed rabetted structural grade wood frames was terribly radical for its day. The 3-foot spacing of the standard window wall stems from (1) a stock steel casement width, made then by Hope's and Ceco; (2) Stock wood exterior door size; (3) the ability of 2-2 x 10's to span from 2 x 6 mullion to 2 x 6 mullion, carrying 1/2 the roof load. It all worked together; 2 x 6's checked out for posts upstairs; the lower level post in 2-floor houses had to be 3x6's; it was figured that closely. The late Milton A. Curewitz, PE, did a very professional job in making sure that the structural design of Hollin Hills houses was neither over nor under-designed. The Type 2, 3, and 7 houses have trussed roof construction. The Type 7's have an odd 2 1/2 in 12 slope which was chosen over 3 in 12 for the Type 2's on a very fine line of aesthetics — Goodman's eye said it was better.

The slopes of the two butterfly designs were chosen after much study and deliberation. Such subtleties really matter if the visual effect intended is to be reached. The trusses produced a clear span into which non-structural partitioning was introduced. Permitted was the use of 2" thick plaster partitions in part, and a clear span living room-dining room not available to builders of center-bearing homes.

hollin hills houses: the good and the bad

The joy of being in these houses is a mix of the daytime openness afforded by the glass, and the indoor spaciousness derived from rooms which flow into each other. The paper plan of the Type 7 house looks weird; it really shook up the FHA people. In 3 dimensions, however, the genius of that weird plan appears. There are six exterior corners in the single floor plan in one space. It includes the living room, dining space, study, hall, entry, kitchen and laundry space. They are all "just around the corner" from each other. You can see a part of the next space, not all of it. There is always some implied larger space extending each room. it makes a small house look enormous. One can sit by the fireplace and see 50 feet to the kitchen wall, the wall without any cabinets on it.

So it goes with nearly all the Unit plans. There are separations between spaces which are less than absolute; high ceilings which continue over lower dividing walls; stairways in open walls at the end of living rooms to expand the space; large used brick fireplaces and massive chimneys, implying more stability and strength than wood frame and plaster can be expected to state; big panes of 7/32 crystal glass opening up the outdoors, in banks 30” long across the living/dining area walls; delicate exterior wood trim work and mullions, escaping from the heavy-handed vocabulary of the usual builder-turned modern house designer.

There are complaints, of course, generally made with feeling only amongst loyal residents. Most people would have liked to have had a separate entry to their houses and many additions have recognized this need. Closet and storage space is neither thought-out from a homemaker's point of view, nor is there enough of it.

These flaws, i would guess, are not unique to Hollin Hills houses, but are an attributable of most merchant housing of the time. Currently, the expanses of glass so delightful to live with are perceived as a costly energy drain if left as is. Eventually, all Hollin Hills houses will have to be double-glazed in some fashion. We architects all knew about insulation and insulated glass in the late forties. I had used Thermopane extensively in houses designed for Burlington, Vermont in 1950, and for comfort and frost-free vision in custom houses here, locally. It wasn't until 1974, however, that it began to pay off in terms of savings in fuel in the Washington area. Now, in Minneapolis, the use of triple-glazed windows has been commonplace for decades.