1950s Suburb Evolves With Time

Old Trees Shade the Ever-Changing Houses at Pimmit Hills in Fairfax

At the time it was built just east of Tysons Corner on Route 7, Pimmit Hills was Fairfax County's largest subdivision. Photos from the 1950s show bare land, cleared of bushes and even grass. The new homes, light-colored with dark trim along rooflines and windows, stood starkly in the middle of treeless yards. The neighborhood was built with no sidewalks or curbs, constructed quickly for aspiring middle-class homeowners proud to own a little piece of suburbia.

Fifty-five years later, though, large, old trees shade the still mostly modest single-family detached houses on Pimmit Hills' quarter-acre lots. Some sidewalks have been added. And additions -- in some cases, dramatic new constructions -- are changing the look and feel of the neighborhood.

Of the 1,642 homes in the neighborhood, 1,280 were originally constructed on identical floor plans: three bedrooms, one bath, 883 square feet. These boxy, efficient homes had pitched roofs, three front windows and a front door set slightly off-center.

About 70 homes along Olney Road, the northern border of Pimmit Hills, were built in the early to mid-1960s. These homes were known as the Model A design, said Darren Ewing, the newly elected Pimmit Hills Citizens Association president. Model A homes were 1,750-square-foot, two-story structures on 1/4- to 1/3- acre lots. There are also a few old farmhouses sprinkled throughout the community, blending into the suburban streets that used to be rolling farmland.

By the 1980s, Pimmit Hills was showing its age and looking a little run down. But as nearby Tysons Corner grew, Pimmit Hills became an attractive location for home buyers. Now, new residents who have paid a premium to live within the Capital Beltway are creating momentum for getting the neighborhood in better aesthetic shape.

Few of the homes retain their original design. Most residents have made at least one addition. In the 1970s, it was popular to construct attached sheds, resident Cindy Kwitchoff said.

For six years ending last summer, Kwitchoff edited the Pimmit Hills Dispatch, the bi-monthly newsletter of the Pimmit Hills Citizens Association. One of her most popular series was the chronicle of adding a wide front porch and a great room to her own house, nearly doubling its square footage.

But all these home improvements have not come without occasional disagreements, particularly when new owners tear down the original modest homes and build what some neighbors call McMansions. Nearly every street in the community has at least one extremely large, recently constructed home that testifies to the fact that there are few formal restrictions on size or style.

While these homes do not violate Fairfax County zoning regulations, they run counter to the original Pimmit Hills covenants -- a set of traditional but unenforceable guidelines -- and some have engendered a certain amount of ill will. A recent meeting of the citizens association board included discussions about possible solutions to these structures, including the possibility of filing lawsuits. But that option seems unlikely.

"We don't want to litigate against something like that," Ewing said. Instead, the association asked a county zoning department employee to make a presentation to residents. At that meeting, residents learned about the proper permits to obtain when renovating or building additions.

The association prides itself on its hands-off leadership, relying mostly on peer pressure and positive reinforcement for maintaining and improving property, such as featuring photos and a story about Deanne Eversmeyer-Ellis's attractive garden on the association Web site ( http://www.pimmithills.org/ ).

"We shoot off letters if we have to, but we try to resolve things in an amiable way," Ewing said.