Tinner Hill Considered For Falls Church Cultural And Historic District
FALLS CHURCH, VA — Falls Church could get a new cultural and historic district to highlight Tinner Hill and its historic ties to the civil rights movement.
On Tuesday, Falls Church City Council first received a proposal to establish a Tinner Hill Historic and Cultural District. The Falls Church Historical Commission requested consideration of the cultural and historic district, and the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation has expressed support for the proposal.
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“This is really about establishing the district, getting it in our comprehensive plan, and then from there moving forward with tangible strategies for activating the district,” said city senior planner Emily Bazemore.
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According to a city staff report, Tinner Hill’s history started with African American stone mason Charles Tinner, who bought property after the Civil War atop a hill in southern Falls Church and subdivided it into 10 lots for his children. That became known as the Tinner Hill community.
In the early 1900s, African American Edwin Bancroft Henderson bought a portion of property near Tinner Hill and built a home with his wife, Mary Ellen Henderson. When the Falls Church Town Council introduced legislation in 1915 to bar African Americans from buying any new property in the town’s boundaries, a group called the Colored Citizens Protective League formed. Members included Charles Tinner’s son, Joseph Tinner, and E.B. Henderson.
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Henderson, who was a member of the NAACP Washington Branch, and inquired if the CCPL could become an affiliate of the group. With the Supreme Court’s Buchanan v. Worley ruling that states or municipalities could not create and segregation districts, the Colored Citizens Protective League helped the Falls Church segregation ordinance not get enforced. That led the NAACP to approve the Colored Citizens Protective League’s application for membership, making the group the first rural branch of the NAACP in the U.S.
Today, E.B. Henderson’s home is still occupied by his grandson, Edwin Henderson. Joseph Tinner’s descendants still live in the Tinner Hill community. The civil rights movement in Falls Church continues to be recognized through the efforts of the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, which was established in 1997 and holds numerous events each year.
Councilmember Dave Snyder asked for the district’s history to acknowledge that City Council has since disavowed the 1915 segregation ordinance. Snyder also asked for the history to include the city’s work with the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation and the collaboration with the county on the Tinner Hill arch.
The proposed comprehensive plan amendment to create the district acknowledges Falls Church’s history of excluding African Americans through boundary adjustments. When Falls Church became a township in Fairfax County in 1875, the boundary included all of the Tinner Hill community, and African Americans represented 37 percent of registered voters. The boundary moved northward in 1887, excluding much of the Tinner Hill community from Falls Church and reducing the African Americans population to 15 percent of registered voters. Other majority African American districts were ceded from Falls Church to Fairfax County in 1890.
“I did think overall, the [comprehensive] plan amendment language was probably one of the most truthful and great acknowledgments of our history,” said Mayor Letty Hardi. “Between that and I think, the history panels, we’ve been really nice job retelling that history, which I don’t think we’ve done in the past.”
The proposed boundary within the city is between S. Maple Avenue, W. Annandale Road and the boundary ceded to Fairfax County. Councilmember Erin Flynn suggested the city have discussions with Fairfax County about the district, as the county has areas that were ceded from Falls Church.
“I view this as a real testament to Black excellence and Black contributions and real perseverance in terms of city history and social justice issues and what the black community here was both striving for and really accomplishing at a time when post-Reconstruction but pre-civil rights movement in terms of people really advocating for their communities with within larger jurisdictions,” said Flynn.
Key sites in the district could include the Charles and Mary Elizabeth Tinner House, Joseph and Mary Tinner Home Outline, the Henderson House, Tinner Hill Civil Rights Monument, the Zig Zag (Adinkra) Sculpture, Tinner Hill Historic Site Marker, Galloway Methodist Church (Fairfax County), the Tripp Quarry – Trondhjemite (Fairfax County) and Written in Stone Walking Trail. Notable figures to be recognized in the district are Charles and Mary Elizabeth Tinner, Edwin Bancroft (E.B.) Henderson, Eliza Henderson, George and Harriet Brice, Harriet Foote Turner, Joseph Tinner and Mary Ellen Henderson.
While the city is in early discussions on how to activate the district, some suggestions in the city staff report are partnering with the Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation to promote the district, promoting heritage tourism, implementing historic and cultural placemaking projects, expanding public art, exploring branding, elevating the district through site plan reviews and entitlement projects, and exploring possible archaeological significance.
Final consideration of the Tinner Hill district could go to the Planning Commission and City Council in May.
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