On the Road to Chivalry, Just North of Guinevere

Residents of Fairfax's Camelot Take Its Name to Heart

Kathryn Keating, holding her 1-year-old daughter, Maureen, visits her mother, Dolly LaViolette. Both families live in the Camelot neighborhood. (Ann Cameron Siegal)

Thirty-one years after Dolly LaViolette moved to Camelot, her front yard is still filled with children.

When she and her husband, Marcel, were house-hunting three decades ago, said LaViolette, "we looked for children." With five kids of their own, they bought a six-bedroom house on a corner lot in Fairfax County's Camelot and were thrilled to find that the family cater-cornered to them had 10 children.

The LaViolettes now have 12 grandchildren, some living just up the block. Grandsons Patrick and John Keating often stop by for some of Grandma's cookies on the way home from nearby Camelot Elementary and are usually joined by a batch of buddies -- some walking home, some dropped off as parents drive by.

"This hasn't changed much since we moved here," said LaViolette, a retired high school home economics teacher. The school and neighborhood pool are still community magnets. One of LaViolette's grandchildren has the same gym teacher her daughter had.

"A lot of the neighbors are the same," said her daughter Kathryn Keating, who moved with her own family to Camelot four years ago. "Mom can't go anywhere without running into one of her former students."

These days the neighborhood is showing signs of spring beyond its abundant flowering trees. This week, Leslie and Chuck Dickemann set out their plastic pink flamingo to herald the resumption of Flamingo Fridays: Rotating host families post the flamingo curbside to let residents with school-age children know where the block party will be on the upcoming Friday. Neighbors bring lawn chairs and share munchies. Children bring their bikes and scooters.

"It's like a family happy hour -- a block party without all the folderol," said Leslie Dickemann.

The 400 houses of Camelot were built between 1962 and 1965. Situated on lots of one-third to one-half acre, the large brick homes with hardwood floors sold for around $35,000 then. Curving streets, gently rolling hills and angled houses with well-maintained lawns and mature trees add to the appeal of the neighborhood. The last section built has underground utilities.

Northern Virginia Community College's Annandale campus is across Route 236 to the south. Inova Fairfax Hospital is just minutes away to the north. There is quick access to two exits on the Beltway. Nature lovers enjoy the wooded, asphalt and gravel, 21/2-mile Accotink trail that follows Accotink Creek from Camelot to Route 50/Arlington Boulevard.

You can't go anywhere in Camelot without being reminded of the medieval legend of King Arthur. Streets with names such as Merlin Way, Saxony Drive and Galahad Court branch off of King Arthur Road. "What's next?" asked a visitor getting directions, "Queen Guinevere Drive?"

Actually, yes. Guinevere crosses Launcelot just south of Chivalry.

The civic association, known as "The Court of Camelot," is governed by a magister, a vice magister and an exchequer (president, vice president and treasurer). The community newsletter is called Around the Court and its classified section is labeled "Used armor and stuff."

Three years ago, this year's magister-elect, Donn Meindertsma, started the Knights in Shining Armor, a community volunteer organization. Residents who are handy with hammers or paintbrushes and don't mind climbing ladders volunteer for odd jobs within the neighborhood. "We do everything from painting fences to changing high light bulbs," said Meindertsma, a partner with the law firm of Winston & Strawn. Twenty knights of various ages have signed up to help, he said, although "people here are pretty self-sufficient. We don't get too many calls."

Today, the term "Camelot" has come to signify an idealistic place full of excitement and purpose. In Annandale's Camelot, residents rave about the community's spirit and traditions. There are annual Fourth of July and Halloween parades, an upcoming cleanup day and a community-wide yard sale. On Christmas Eve, luminarias line the curbs. If someone is out of town, neighbors will see that all are aglow.

Camelot's Neighborhood Watch, among the nation's oldest, according to county officials, is celebrating its 25th year. The Citizens' Advisory Council of the Mason District Police Station this week honored Camelot's longtime patrollers, who have 200 years of service among them.

Among the original patrollers honored, with 25 years of service, was Dave Stonerd, a retired Navy officer, great-grandfather and one of Camelot's original homeowners. "One of the good things here is that there has been very little change," he said.

Like the LaViolettes, Aurel and Betty Goodwin are the eldest of three generations living in Camelot. Betty Goodwin, a Kennedy Center docent for more than 20 years and veteran of the community's garden club, said, "It's nice to see so many young families moving in."

Their grandsons have lots of friends in the community and can easily walk to their homes, enjoying much the same experience as their mother, Jan Zamani, did when she was a teenager in Camelot.

Meindertsma, 42, said, "I've been impressed with the ability of the community to get along and discuss issues." Reflecting on his family's seven years in Camelot, he added, "We're staying here until we go to the nursing home."

Said Dolly LaViolette: "We didn't know it when we moved in here over 30 years ago, but we may be doing the same."