Long before Homer Simpson made the TV town of Springfield famous, before the Springfield Mixing Bowl was created or Slug lines came to town their was a small ‘country” highway stop fifteen miles outside of DC that would come to be known as Springfield Virginia.

In 1946 the developer Edwin Carr realized that their was a huge piece of undeveloped land, close enough to DC to be appealing to government workers who worked in town and that would provide space for larger homes than were currently available in Arlington or Alexandria. My parents were one of those families who decided that Springfield provided a chance for them to buy their first home. In 1955 they bought a brand new split level home in the Yates Village neighborhood of Springfield.

When we moved in to our new home there wasn’t much around us. The only grocery store in the neighborhood was a small store called Bon Foods, there was a drug store with a soda fountain and Fischers Hardware had been open a couple of years. Across the street from our house was an old farm house with huge cherry trees to climb and plenty of space to roam. We could take off on a summer morning and not come back until evening without any worries.

We had milk delivered to the house; bought eggs from the “egg man” who lived in a small house off of Keene Mill Road and vegetables from a farm at the corner of Backlick and Braddock Roads.  Springfield even had an small local airport at one time located where the Springfield Estates neighborhood now exists.  Over the years Springfield grew and spread. The farm house came down to make way for a shopping center, the empty field first became a Babe Ruth baseball field and then gave way to an office building. 

My parents thought about a bigger house in one of the new West Springfield neighborhoods but in the end they stayed in their original home for 45 years.  When I bougt my first house in Kings Park my mother said “who would want to live all they way out there?”  Over the years my own family has  lived in Greentree Village, Springfield Oaks, and Charlestown to name a few.  My kids laugh about the fact that we have lived in every zip code in Springfield and that multiple generations of our family attended Fairfax County Schools.

The days of soda fountains, farms and wide open spaces are long gone. Springfield is a bustling area with a wide variety of neighborhoods, dining choices and commuting options.  It's central location makes it a great choice for military familes with orders to Fort Belvoir, Pentagon, or the Military District of Washington.  Civilians working from the numerous defense contractors and government agencies also like the Springfield area too.

If a move to Northern Virginia is in your future let's meet to talk about your options and whether buying a home is the right choice for you in today's market.   If you are thinking about selling your home in Northern Virginia give me a call.  With my personal knowledge of the neighborhoods and successful marketing strategies together we can get your home sold in 2009.