The Intrigue of Historical Markers

It's been quite some time since I've posted.  I made a couple of cross-country trips over the past few weeks and had to finish my Christmas shopping, which, in my defense, takes a lot longer when you have a toddler in tow.  But, alas, I don't have any terribly concrete excuses for not keeping my goal of visiting one museum a week for a whole year.  I guess my biggest excuse is that I've already visited way more than 52!  I counted a few months ago, and I was already at 54.  So there.  I've dropped the ball a few times since then, going a week or more between postings.  But for goodness sake, I've been busy.  It's not that I don't think about visiting a museum or historic site, I just don't actually muster up the motivation to do it.  Today we did something different though.  And in my defense, all the other places I thought to visit today were closed.  So there.  

Instead of visiting a museum, Diggory and I went shopping.  I had a coupon, and I wanted to use it.  We found ourselves in Bailey's Crossroads, a neighborhood in Fairfax County, Virginia full of big box stores, car dealerships, and our trusty Trader Joe's.  I've stopped to read this particular historical marker before (see photo below), but today I thought I'd post a picture so all of you can see it too.  It's a total cheater's blog post, I know, but there's a special place in my heart for historical markers, and here's why.

On every family vacation taken in my youth, inevitably, my father would ask, "What did that sign say?"  He was usually referring to some historical marker.  And the tricky bit was that we were usually traveling at 65 mph.  No one can read that fast!  But, after some trial and error, I believe I became really good at surmising the gist of said marker with only a split second to actually read it.  And what I didn't actually read, I usually just made up.  But, ever since then, I've made it a point to read most markers I see.  I even pull over the car, back up, walk across the parking lot, etc.  It's amazing what you learn when you "stop and smell the...er...read the marker."  

For example, did you know that Bailey's Crossroads has a connection with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus?!  I had a forehead-slapping, eye-rolling "duh" moment when I read the marker the first time and also realized that that's why the "Now Entering Bailey's Crossroads" signs have circus tents on them.  Turns out that Hachaliah Bailey purchased the northeast quadrant of land formed by Leesburg Pike and Columbia Pike in 1837, and his son, Lewis Bailey, who pioneered the canvas circus tent and owned a traveling menagerie, settled on the land in the 1840s.  Some sources say he needed a place to keep his exotic animals during the winter.  The land also included a large mansion house called "Moray," which burned down in 1942.  All that exists now is Moray Lane, which would have led directly to the house, but now cuts directly through the Crossroads Shopping Center parking lot.  It's entirely possible that the house once stood exactly where I had to stand to take this picture.  

I love imagining what the landscape of our neighborhoods once looked like "back in the day."  And I only hope that those who once lived here wouldn't be too disappointed that there's now an Old Navy in what would have been their backyard.  Maybe they'd be delighted that I could hear the laughter of children wafting up from the Glen Forest Elementary School playground too.  And I hope it might bring them comfort that there are still those of us willing to read the historical markers.