Hollin Hills History

The Beginning | History of the Land | Design Awards | Community

“What a Lovely Dream”

Hollin Hills is one of the truly happy experiments in modernity, a place that – because of the unique conjunction of style and time – remains the kind of community so many modernists dreamed of, a beautiful place of social activism, love of nature, and potluck picnics.

Michael Sorkin
Hollin Hills, Community of Vision: A Semicentennial History 1949-1999

In the beginning…
In the 1950's Hollin Hills was the first community of contemporary homes built in the Washington, D.C. area. Robert Davenport purchased the land in a courthouse auction for $550. Along with the the Rodman brothers, he developed Hollin Hills, using the designs of architect Charles Goodman, and landscape plans by Lou Bernard Voight and Eric Paepcke. Many homes had garden plans prepared by Dan Kiley, who also prepared landscape designs for Dulles Airport, the Gateway Arch in Saint Louis and the United States Air Force Academy.

The first houses were occupied in 1949 and the last of the 458 homes in the development was completed in 1971. It is still one of the few contemporary developments in the D.C. area.

^ Top

History of the Land
Hollin Hills itself was part of the Hollin Hall Plantation, owned by General Thomas Mason. General Mason was the son of George Mason of Gunston Hall, who was the author of the Virginia Bill of Rights and one of the United States’ Founding Fathers. General Mason named his lands after an English estate of his mother’s family. Some of the Hollin Hall plantation buildings are still in existence on Sherwood Hall Lane.

In fact, the first streets in Hollin Hills were named to compliment the community name – Stafford, Glasgow, Beechwood, Bedford, Drury, Pickwick and Rippon.

^ Top

Design and Awards
Designed to preserve trees and blend with the contour of the land, Hollin Hills was -- and remains today -- avant-garde, given the boom at the time for look-alike tract houses and the pressures from the post-World War II housing shortage. The homes were placed at angles on their lots to provide privacy. The architecture, emphasized with glass and brick with floor-to ceiling windows, obscure the lines between the structures and their surroundings.

Hollin Hills houses have won many awards, beginning with the Revere Quality House award from the Southwest Research Institute in 1950, naming it the nation’s outstanding development. Other awards included the 1982 Test of Time Award from the Virginia Society of the American Institute of Architects. Hollin Hills also has been placed on the Fairfax County, Virginia, Inventory of Historic Sites.

Read more about mid-century modern homes design and events in Washington, D.C. and the surrounding suburbs in the Modern Capital blog.

^ Top

A Community By Design
While Hollin Hills drew national attention for it’s housing and land planning, its uniqueness fostered a community of spirit among its residents that still exists today.

^ Top