In 1649 King Charles II of England granted a large tract of land known as the Northern Neck Proprietary to seven noblemen. The grant, later to be known as the Fairfax Proprietary, consisted of more than five million acres situated between the Potomac and Rappahannock rivers. One of the noblemen, Thomas, Lord Culpeper, eventually acquired the entire tract. Upon his death the land passed to his widow Margaret, who bequeathed it to her widowed daughter Catherine, Lady Fairfax. Upon the death of Lady Fairfax the tract was inherited by her son Thomas, Sixth Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron. He sailed to colonial America to view the property and was so impressed that he returned to England, disposed of his holdings there and in Scotland and returned in 1747 to make his home in America, where he remained until his death.
During the years between 1653 and 1730, Prince William, Westmoreland and Stafford counties were established within the Northern Neck Proprietary. Truro Parish became Fairfax County in 1742 after the election of William Fairfax, cousin of Thomas Fairfax, to the General Assembly as a burgess. The county's first courthouse was located at Freedom Hill near the present location of Tyson's Corner. It was subsequently moved to Alexandria because of the presence of a band of un-friendly Indians who had crossed the Potomac River into Virginia from Maryland.
As early as 1716 British explorer John Fontaine described the area of land that would become Fairfax County as having "the largest timber, deepest mold, and the best grass I ever did see." English settlers later established large tobacco plantations throughout the area. Bryan, Eighth Lord Fairfax, owned the tract in 1790 and built the town of Ash Grove about two miles west of the present location of Tyson's Corner. In 1852 the Fairfax family sold a portion of the land to Benjamin Thornton for $5 an acre, including the parcel which would become Reston. In 1896 Thornton sold about 7,000 acres (for half what he had paid) to William McKee Dunn and Dr. Carl Adolph Max Wiehle and later that year Wiehle adquired Dunn's share. Dr. Wiehle wanted to establish a town on the land and moved ahead with the plan, digging lakes, laying out roads and constructing several buildings.
But Wiehle's plans were not to be fulfilled. Following his death the land was sold to a Herndon dentist named Hugh Barbour Hutchison. He cleared over 500 acres and sold the lumber, which was hauled away by the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad which ran through the property. He founded the Cuthbert Land and Development Company which built facilities for 200 cows and about 2000 chickens and other poultry and became a successful dairy farming operation.
Much of the property was acquired by gentleman farmer A. Smith Bowman in 1927. In 1934, as Prohibition neared repeal, Bowman built a distillery north of the railroad. Bowman also made use of some of Wiehle's buildings, including a hotel which in 1929 was converted to a club-house and dance hall for the Fairfax Hunt and also housed three employees and their families. Mill buildings were converted to warehouses for the distillery and the Wiehle family home became the Bowman manor estate.
The area remained rural until the end of World War II when the exodus from city to suburb began in earnest, causing a boom in babies and land sales. Bowman's "Sunset Hills," at 7,200 acres the largest farm in Northern Virginia, soon seemed out of place in the fast-growing region. The Bowmans retained ownership of the farm for several more years, hoping to capitalize on plans to build the Capital Beltway, a major shopping center and Dulles Airport, all to be built within ten miles of the property. They decided to participate in the area's growth and envisioned a new community to be built on 6,750 of their land -- just as Dr. Wiehle had planned so many years before.
In 1956 a master plan for a small city of 30,000 was prepared by the Washington firm of Mott and Hayden. The plan called for most residents to live in single family homes on lots of from one-quarter acre to ten acres. Also included in the plan were 1,500 acres of parks, a network of bridle paths, swimming pools, fishing ponds, an industrial center, churches and shopping centers.
Like Wiehle before them, the Bowmans ran into problems. Installation of sewers was seen as a pollution risk to the Potomac River above the intakes for Washingtons water supply. Fairfax County zoning ordinances made no provision for the requirements of such a community. Finally, the plan was mortally wounded when the Federal Government announced that the access road for Dulles Airport would run through the middle of the Bowman property.
Once they realized their development plans could not be carried out the Bowmans sold the land to Lefcourt Realty. Lefcourt was also unsuccessful in developing a plan for the property and was also having financial problems stemming from its Florida real estate holdings. In late 1960, less than a year after acquiring the property, Lefcourt put it up for sale.
Robert E. Simon, a native New Yorker, was the buyer this time. He was the son of a real estate broker whose company, Hercer Corporation, owned a number of properties in Manhattan including Carnegie Hall. Simon, recently graduated from Harvard University, entered the business at the age of 21 when his father died. Within two years he had assumed control of the company.
Many of the Hercer Company's properties were on 57th street in Manhattan, which defined for Simon the best that city living had to offer. Businesses, art galleries and restaurants all prospered side by side and catered to all tastes and economic levels. The many apartments located above shops and offices housed the artists who performed in Carnegie Hall. The two elements Simon found missing, however, were open space and greenery. Although the suburbs provided both of these, he found that long commutes and inconveniently located amenities left much to be desired. He felt that jobs, shopping, recreation and entertainment should all be located close to home. The only way to create the ideal mix of these elements, along with open spaces and green areas, would be to start from scratch.
Once in possession of Sunset Hills Farm, Simon hired the New York firm of Whittlesey and Conklin to plan the new community according to his ideals. He persuaded Fairfax County to change its zoning regulations to accommodate his plan in return for an agreement with the County to include such things as a low-density buffer on the town's eastern edge and ten acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. The plan was adopted in 1962.
Simon set these seven goals for the new town of Reston: a wide choice of leisure activities; a variety of housing; concern for the dignity of the individual; the opportunity to live and work in the same community; commercial, cultural and recreational facilities available from the beginning of development; and a high standard for structural and natural beauty. Finally, Reston was to be a fi-nancial success.
Simon himself, however, became beset with financial difficulties due to the large scale of the project. In 1967 he was forced to relinquish management of Reston to Gulf Oil Corporation, which had loaned him more than $15 million. Nevertheless, Simon remains the acknowledged mastermind behind Reston. It's subsequent owners, Gulf and later Mobil Oil Corporation, have essentially remained true to his original concepts.