Step exterior your private home on Virginia Avenue or James Courtroom for a stroll in Falls Church’s Winter Hill neighborhood, and also you’ll end up spoiled for alternative. A block to the northeast, you’ll hit Broaddale Village Purchasing Heart, the place you may seize a Starbucks espresso or a chew on the top-rated Liberty Barbecue; one other block or so will take you to the charming Mary Riley Kinds Public Library and Cherry Hill Park, adjoining to one of many area’s finest farmers markets on the Saturdays. Head southeast as an alternative, and simply past neighborhood boundaries you’ll attain a Harris Teeter grocery retailer and the freshly renovated Massive Chimneys Park, with playground gear, inexperienced areas and strolling paths.
Washington
Charming Winter Hill offers access to the best of Falls Church
Nearly seven miles west of the D.C. line, Falls Church Metropolis is Virginia’s smallest included municipality at simply over two sq. miles, and it’s the smallest county-equivalent entity within the nation. Winter Hill’s cozy condominiums and townhouses signify an inexpensive gateway to homeownership on this quaint and commuter-friendly “Little Metropolis,” they usually provide simple strolling entry to just about the whole lot Falls Church has to supply. And residents say the neighborhood’s group is rising nearer and richer, because of new occasions and gathering alternatives.
The neighborhood dates to the Forties, when the buildings that now make up the Winter Hill Condominium have been constructed as warfare housing, in keeping with a historical past compiled by the Winter Hill Council of Co-Homeowners. Constructed on land bought from educator and suffragist Mattie Gundry, the event initially opened in 1947 as Tyler Gardens; the condominium portion opened underneath the Winter Hill identify in 1973. Right this moment, Winter Hill consists of 200 condominiums, 194 townhouses and 80 sponsored residences for eligible seniors and other people with disabilities.
Although the townhouses and condominiums are represented by completely different householders’ associations, they share entry to the neighborhood pool, situated within the condominium behind James Courtroom. Though neighbors say the pool has been underutilized up to now, it’s turning into a hub of social exercise.
Katie Martin, a condominium resident, stated it was by means of pool visits with one other neighbor throughout her being pregnant together with her 1-year-old son that the thought to restart the social committee that had gone dormant earlier within the pandemic happened.
“We’ve had plenty of enjoyable relaunching occasions that folks used to take pleasure in yearly, like our pool occasion and Halloween parade,” stated Martin, who moved to the neighborhood in 2019. “And we’re additionally having enjoyable dreaming up new occasions.”
Martin now edits the neighborhood publication, the Broadside, and she or he organized a caroling occasion in December, with sizzling chocolate on the end. It occurred to coincide with a favourite Falls Church custom: Santa Claus’s trip by means of city on a decked-out and clanging metropolis firetruck.
“That was fairly cool,” stated Jarryd Stewart, who moved into his Winter Hill rental in 2017 and now serves on the householders’ affiliation board. Martin and Stewart, who share a day-care supplier, are a part of what appears to be a current wave of younger households discovering the neighborhood, becoming a member of a still-substantial inhabitants of authentic homeowners who’ve lived there because the Nineteen Seventies.
Stewart stated he loves the neighborhood’s comfort to outlets and eating places, but in addition its inefficiencies: its sprawl and inexperienced areas.
“You don’t actually see that these days,” he stated. “Individuals construct vertically, they usually attempt to cram as a lot as they’ll into one small space. However once they designed this, they weren’t excited about that. It makes it pleasing, nearly like its personal little city.”
Tori McKinney, CEO of Rock Star Realty Group, lives in Falls Church exterior Winter Hill, however she bought a rental within the neighborhood for a member of the family in 2017. She generally sees younger households transferring into the neighborhood and departing seeking extra space as they develop, however she has additionally seen a development of rental residents searching for to improve to a townhouse to stay in Winter Hill.
“It’s truthfully probably the most fascinating areas of the town for the placement and the moment sense of group,” she stated.
Though indifferent houses in Falls Church Metropolis promote for north of $700,000, Winter Hill’s choices are usually extra inexpensive. Of the ten condos and 7 townhouses offered in 2022, the best sale worth was $806,500 for a three-bedroom, three-bath townhouse, and the bottom was $438,000 for a two-bedroom, 1½-bath rental. Two houses are available on the market, each underneath contract: a three-bedroom, three-bath townhouse listed for $690,900, and a three-bedroom, 1½-bath rental for $515,000, McKinney stated. One single-bedroom Winter Hill unit was rented final 12 months, for $1,725 per thirty days.
McKinney, who additionally produces the annual Tinner Hill Music Pageant in Falls Church, shares her love of music with Walt and Stephanie Lamore, who reside in one of many handful of basement models within the townhouses.
Stephanie Lamore stated favourite walkable haunts Clare and Don’s Seashore Shack and the State Theatre, which each often function reside out of doors music, grew to become invaluable when indoor eating and actions have been on hiatus.
“We had issues that you might go and do and nonetheless really feel secure,” she stated.
Even throughout the worst of pandemic isolation, neighbors at Winter Hill discovered methods to make reminiscences, stated James Thompson, a townhouse resident since 2013 and president of the board of the Winter Hill Group Affiliation.
“You’d drive by a few of our cul-de-sacs, and also you’d see a bunch simply sitting on the market on their garden chairs with the youngsters operating round on a Friday night time, simply having fun with the time collectively,” he stated.
As the daddy of 4 younger youngsters with a job in Washington, Thompson stated he additionally loves the neighborhood’s peace and calm.
“I can stroll out on a Sunday morning onto our deck, and, for being in a busy space, it’s fairly silent on the market,” he stated. “So it’s good to have the ability to be near the hustle and bustle, however have the ability to get away on the identical time.”
Boundaries: Winter Hill is generally diamond-shaped, bounded by West Broad Avenue to the northeast; Harris Teeter and Massive Chimneys Park to the southeast; Rollins Avenue to the southwest; and Chanel Terrace to the northwest.
Transportation: Metrobus’s 28A Leesburg Pike line has a number of stops alongside Broad Avenue; the 2A Washington Boulevard-Dunn Loring bus stops about 4 blocks south of Winter Hill, at South Washington Avenue and East Annandale Street. The closest Metro station, East Falls Church, is 1.5 miles east.
Colleges: Jessie Thackrey Preschool (ages 2-5); Mount Daniel Elementary (Grades Okay-2); Oak Avenue Elementary (Grades 3-5); Mary Ellen Henderson Center; and Meridian Excessive.