stephenh --
Hello again. There is a lot of online information about the
Washington & Old Dominion Trail. Under the circumstances, I expect
that I can best help you by first giving you the specific information
you are seeking (about the barns) and then guiding you to other links
and a search strategy that will make it easier for you to do some more
fruitful exploring on your own about what else the trail has to offer.
First, the barns. Here is a link to a Web page that is devoted to
those six historic barns and contains pictures of them, brief
descriptions and a map to help you locate them. This seems to be
exactly what you are looking for:
Barns From Northern Virginia's Rural Past: The W&OD Trail
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/9401/barns.html
The page above includes a link to larger photos of one of those
agricultural properties. Here is a direct link to that page:
Cherry Hill Farmhouse
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA01/Davis/fallschurch/cherryhill.html
Note also that the "Barns" page (along its left side) includes many
other links to different items of interest along the trail, including
this link to information on "100 Old Houses On The W&OD Trail," which
may be of particular interest to you:
Old Houses On the W&OD Trail
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/9401/houses.html
Just click on any of the links near the top of that page for detailed
information on houses in particular locations (e.g., Arlington) or in
particular categories (e.g., Sears Houses).
There are guidebooks about the trail that are available at reasonable
prices, which should be good sources for convenient maps and detailed
information on various portions of the trail. Here is information
about two of them:
Potomac Appalachian Trail Club Store
http://www.patc.net/store/XX280.htm
"W&OD Railroad Trail Guide (1996 ) 62pp. This full-color guide on
coated paper provides maps to the 45-mile-long Washington and Old
Dominion Trail, a "rails to trails" project. "
Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority
http://www.nvrpa.org/wod.html
"A 54-page, color W&OD Trail Guide is for sale at all regional parks
and NVRPA Headquarters." The office for the W&OD Railroad Regional
Park is located at 21293 Smiths Switch Road, Ashburn, VA, and its
telephone number is 703-729-0596.
And here is contact information for the headquarters of the Northern
Virginia Regional Park Authority:
Northern Virginia Regional
Park Authority Headquarters
5400 Ox Road
Fairfax Station, Virginia 22039
Phone: 703-352-5900
Fax: 703-273-0905
Email: Info@NVRPA.org
Office Hours:
Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
Finally, here are the home pages of Web sites that provide the most
comprehensive information and further links related to the W&OD Trail.
I expect that you will enjoy exploring these sites on your own for
further information.
Unofficial Page of the Washington & Old Dominion Trail
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/9401/
Friends of the W&OD Trail
http://wodfriends.org/
Additional Sites:
Here is link to a Washington Post feature story about the trail:
Washington Post: Trail Winds Through a Changing Northern Virginia, by
Carol Morrello (8/21/2000)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A52649-2000Aug18¬Found=true
And here is a discussion of the trail at the site of a local bicycling group:
Washington Area Bicyclist Association: W&OP Trail
http://www.waba.org/new/paths/wod.php
Search Strategy:
I used the following Google searches (among others) to get this
information for you:
"old dominion trail" barn OR barns
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22old+dominion+trail%22+historic+buildings+barn+OR+barns
"old dominion trail" guide
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&q=%22old+dominion+trail%22+guide
I am confident that this is exactly the information you are looking
for, and I was happy to be able to provide it to you promptly. If
anything is unclear, please ask for clarification before rating this
answer.
markj-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
stephenh-ga
on
17 May 2004 05:24 PDT
I do have one follow-up question to ask you.
Let's say (I don't know if I will do it) I plan to on this coming up
Saturday to go and look for theses barns in Falls Chuch, VA. Are you
local ? I won't have a car. From the maps that you provided me it
looks like I would get off the Metro at East Falls Church Metro
station and walk over to the W&OD trail. Once I'm on the trail, do you
have any idea of how far I would need to walk, and which way, to get
to theses barns. It looks like barns 1-4 are close together, but from
my past knowledge (of the W&OD trail) I don't think that theses barns
are right on the trail. I assume I might have to walk a couple of
blocks into the neighborhoods to find them, correct ? Can you help me
idenifty exactly where there located, for me. If you do happen to
tell me, can you also provide me a map. to get along with your
directions, that would be very helpful.
On the other hand, I know you gave me a link for a on-line store www.nvrpa.org
do you think that it would be better if I contacted them and buy the
guide book and hope that it would locate there exact location instead
of you trying to tell me.
|
Clarification of Answer by
markj-ga
on
17 May 2004 11:15 PDT
stephenh --
Thanks for the kind words, the five stars and the nice tip.
I do live in the Washington metro area, but in the Maryland suburbs,
so I am not expert in Northern Virginia geography, which many of us
Marylanders find to be very confusing. But I will help as best I can.
First, the East Falls Church stop on the Orange Line of the Metro
system is the one you want for Barns number 1 through 4 on the Web
page that I provided to you. Here is a link to a map of the Metro
system:
Washington Metro: System Map.
http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.cfm
You can click on the East Falls Church stop's icon for more
information, including a link to a street map of the immediate
vicinity. The stop is located at I-66 at North Sycamore Street and is
right next to the W&OD trail at mile 5.0, according to this Web site:
Bikewashington.org: W&OD Trail
http://bikewashington.org/trails/wad/wad1.htm
I suggest that you walk west on the W&OD trail to mile 5.9, which is
the starting point of the walking tour of old Fairfax City, which is
outlined at this page:
Walking Tour, Falls Church, off the W&OD
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/9401/fallstour.html
One of the places on that tour is the Cherry Hill Farmhouse, at 312
Park Ave., which is Barn #3 on the "Barns page" I provided in my
answer. This is the only barn site of the four in Fairfax City that
is not privately owned, and guided tours are provided from 10 am to 2
pm on Saturdays. As far as I can tell the other, this is also the
only one of the four for which a street address is available online.
However, I would bet that whoever is conducting the guided tour could
direct you to the other three barns in the neighborhood, especially if
you are armed with a copy of the "Barns page" I provided.
(It is, of course, also possible that the location of the other barns
is indicated on signs on the trail or that personnel at the office of
the W&OD Railroad Regional Park could pinpoint their location (and
answer any other questions you may have) if you call them at
703-729-0596.)
As for Barns 5 and 6, which are located down the trail a little at
Dunn Loring, here is a link to a page that appears to include them on
a walking tour of that town:
Guided Tour of Dunn Loring on the W&OD
http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/Trails/9401/dunntour.html
Note that destinations 1 and 2 on this tour include barns. By their
proximity to Idylwood Road, it seems certain that they are Barns 5 and
6 on the "Barns page." This walking tour is conveniently located
within a couple of blocks of the Dunn Loring stop on the Metro's
Orange Line, which is two stops west of the East Falls Church stop
(see the Metro map linked above).
Here is a map of the immediate vicinity of the Dunn Loring Metro stop:
Washington Metro System: Dunn Loring map
http://www.stationmasters.com/System_Map/DUNNLORI/dunnlori.html
Note that Sandburg Street is adjacent to the Metro stop to the
northeast. Just one block off the top of the map is the intersection
of Sandburg Street and Idylwood Road as shown on the Dunn Loring
Walking Tour Map linked above.
I know that the above is somewhat complicated, but I hope and expect
that the information will help you to orient yourself and find the
barns that particularly interest you.
Good luck!
markj-ga
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
stephenh-ga
on
17 May 2004 11:59 PDT
Again, I just can't say enough to you.... Thank you.... Thank you....
and I wish I knew who you really were, but I know that isn't aloud.
You have saved me hours of work at a library or a historical society
in Arlington, Virginia where I would have to look for this information
myself. You are fantastic and you really seem to be in the know.
Markj- Hate to say this, but, I've got one more and I don't know if
you would be up to it. The question about the "Old Covered Spring
House" is mind too. Would you be willing to take a shot at this
question too. ? Thank you again, can't say it enough....
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Clarification of Answer by
markj-ga
on
17 May 2004 12:50 PDT
Thanks again, stephenh --
I will indeed take a look at your other question, but I probably won't
be able to get to it today (unless it turns out to be very easy to
find that picture you want). If you really want me to have first
crack at it, you can post a clarification in that thread to that
effect. However, if time is of the essence, I suggest that you leave
that one open to any researcher for now (I won't be offended). And in
the future, anytime that you want a particular researcher to have the
first crack at a question, you can say so in the subject line in the
question (e.g., for ["researcher X"] only), and other researchers will
respect that.
markj-ga
|
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