Hollin Hills is a historic district and neighborhood in southeast Fairfax County, Virginia. It is located primarily in the Fort Hunt area of the county with some portions remaining in the Hybla Valley and Groveton areas since a shift for census purposes prior to 2010. The community contains more than of parkland across seven distinct parks, a pool and swim club, a bocce court, and a pickleball and tennis club, operated and maintained by the Civic Association of Hollin Hills (CAHH).
Principally designed by Charles M. Goodman and developed by Robert C. Davenport in the 1940s, it was one of the Washington, D.C. area's first post-war modernist architecture developments, combined with natural landscape designs between 1949–1971. Davenport purchased the original of hilly, undeveloped land for $550/acre (present value:$/acre). As home sales and national acclaim grew, he then acquired another in 1956, and constructed more homes until the "New Hollin Hills" was completed in 1971. In all, roughly 450 houses with contemporary construction techniques and landscape plans were established in northern Virginia, offsetting the area’s more common Colonial Revival homes. Today, the neighborhood is known primarily for its mid-century modern architecture homes, each is uniquely oriented on its lot to maximize its privacy and landscape view, with sight lines intentionally chosen to enhance the common space shared by each structure. These design tenets have remained very cohesive because of a long-standing design review committee that advises on building or modification of existing houses, and starting in 2022, its designation as the Hollin Hills Historic Overlay District (HOD), which requires modifications and additions to be reviewed by Fairfax County Architectural Review Board.
The Hollin Hills Historic District is a residential neighborhood encompassing 468 contributing buildings, five contributing sites, and three contributing structures for its 2013 designation in the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places. The boundaries of Hollin Hills reflect the initial purchase of the 225 acres in 1946 as the site for a residential suburb and the neighborhood’s 1956 expansion by Robert Davenport that added 101 acres to the southwest of the original section. The historic district encompasses all of the present of Hollin Hills, composed of single-family dwellings, parks, and recreational areas.
Residents have Alexandria mailing addresses with ZIP codes 22306 or 22307.
History
Early history
Thomas Fairfax, 6th Lord Fairfax of Cameron appointed land agents who lived on the Northern Neck to sell parcels from what became known as the Fairfax Grant. The land agents for the proprietor included Philip Ludwell, George Brent, and William Fitzhugh. They processed the paperwork for Northern Neck grants (i.e., land sales) rather than the Secretary and Governor in Jamestown/Williamsburg. Based on pre-1742 maps of the Patents and Northern Neck Grants of Fairfax County, the land of present-day Hollin Hills sat on land once owned by land agent, George Brent.
Based on an 1862 Union engineer map (VREF 975.52 U 1862 DC.), known as the “McDowell map”, Hollin Hills sat near Sparrow Hill, which later formed Popkins Farm.
1949 to present
When Davenport acquired the original tract, he intended the name "Hollin Hills" as a variation of the 18th-century Hollin Hall Plantation, originally owned by George Mason, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, known as the "Father of the Bill of Rights." General Mason named his lands after an English estate of his mother's family. Some of the Hollin Hall plantation buildings still stand on Sherwood Hall Lane.