Green Spring’s Golden Year
Fall 2019
by Debbie Waugh, Historic House Coordinator
2020 is Green Spring’s 50th anniversary year! As reported in the Washington Post on October 27, 1970:
Green Spring Farm, a “miniature colonial” estate near Annandale, was given to Fairfax County yesterday for use as a museum and arboretum. The property was the gift of Michael W. Straight, deputy chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, and his former wife, Dr. Belinda Crompton Straight, a Washington psychiatrist.
The Straights’ gift marked the end of almost 200 years of private ownership of the estate, and the beginning of its transformation into Green Spring Gardens.
In his 2004 memoir, “On Green Spring Farm,” Michael Straight reflected on the disappearance of the home’s bucolic setting: “Twenty-four years had passed since Bin and I settled on Green Spring Farm. We had raised our five children there. We had been happy. By 1964, we were no longer living in the countryside… Bulldozers were clawing at the open fields that had surrounded us.”
It was important to the couple that their 18-acre donation be preserved as a natural and historical resource for the community. “There aren’t many places in Northern Virginia left intact,” Belinda Straight told the Washington Post at the time. “Michael and I wanted to see it kept that way.” Michael added: “We’d much rather see this land go for a park, rather than cutting down trees for houses.”
And “go for a park” it did! Throughout 2020 we’ll be celebrating Green Spring’s fifty years of evolution, a half century that has seen this place become, in Michael’s words, “a thriving center for all who love gardening and revere our past.”
Photo from Alexandria Gazette dated October 27, 1970, showing Michael and Belinda Straight, and daughter Dorothy— presenting the property deed to Fairfax County and State officials.
Programmatic tie-ins will also feature the past fifty years of world history and explore some fascinating events and changes close to home that have shaped our region and the neighborhoods surrounding Green Spring. And, since change is constant, we’ll be sharing some of the new initiatives that will take the park into its next half century.
We hope you’ll join us in celebrating Green Spring’s golden year, all year!
