Greendale Golf Course

Here follows an excerpt from Carl Sell's history of the golf course as written for the Rose Hill Civic Association and published on their website:

Greendale Golf Course:
In the 1960s, plans were being put forth to develop property south of Rose Hill into townhouses or possibly apartments. That didn’t sit well with the adjacent community and the new supervisor, Joseph Alexander, who was in his first term as a member of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. The plan was to cluster the new development away from Dogue Creek, meaning that the folks who had just moved in along Haystack Road would have at least townhouses next to their backyards.

The idea went bankrupt and the property was put up for sale. Supervisor Alexander, working with a young County employee in what was then the Public Works Department named J. Hamilton Lambert (known as Jay), put together a proposal. On November 16, 1970, the Fairfax County Park Authority purchased the 148 acres from the Courtor Corporation via William M. Baskin, receiver, for $672,841.77.

The idea was to build a golf course for the eastern section of the County to complement those at Burke Lake and Twin Lakes in the west. Today, the Park Authority owns and manages eight golf courses, including Jefferson, Laurel Hill, Oak Marr, Pinecrest and Twin Lakes (the Oaks Course and the Lakes Course) in addition to Greendale, and Burke Lake.

Alexander would serve eight terms on the Board and Lambert would become the County Executive. They would combine to support hundreds of projects throughout the County, many in Lee District. In 1971, Alexander appointed Carl Sell to the Park Authority Board with instructions to get the golf course and other Lee District projects moving. Another $1.5 million was needed for the construction of the course and the clubhouse. It, like the funds for acquisition, would come from general obligation bonds sold after approval by the voters.

In March 1975, work began on the 18-hole, par 68 course. Plans for the course were developed by the Park Authority staff, headed by Don Lederer, Director of Planning, based on an initial design prepared by Leon Howard of Austin, Texas. Interestingly, the storm water runoff from Rose Hill and other surrounding communities was captured in ponds and used to irrigate the golf course. The playing course encompassed 5,818 yards with rolling terrain rising to 240 feet above sea level.

Moore Golf, Inc., of Culpeper was awarded the bid for the golf course while Edward L. Gross of Manassas was selected to build the clubhouse, parking lot and maintenance area. Total cost of the project was $1,444,165. The course was dedicated on August 19, 1976 and play began. Greendale was an immediate hit, with golfers lining up at the gate before dawn during the week, and a reservation system was put in place for weekends.

Twelve years later, the clubhouse was renovated. The irrigation system, currently 40 years old, is being replaced (2015) at a cost of almost $1 million. This drainage work was approved to address the water ponding issue on the course. Both projects were funded by funds approved as part of the 2012 Park bond referendum. Yearly operation and maintenance of the course is paid for by user fees.

Greendale remains a popular destination for golfers, and, except for a few errant golf balls, a good neighbor for Rose Hill. The community now ends at the Greendale property line, rather than a continuation of the previously planned (and built) access points for potential new homes at Greendale Road and Split Rock Road.


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Here follows an excerpt from the Fall 2006 edition of the "Franconia Legacies" newsletter published by the Franconia Museum:

Sports In Franconia
written by "Pearl" Watts

Sports and community involvement in sports has a very strong tradition in the Franconia area. As the population greatly increased in the 1960's and 1970's, so did the number of subdivisions and elementary schools, helping to create plenty of friendly rivalries among age group teams from within various areas in baseball and football leagues around Franconia.

With the opening of Edison High School in the early '60's, the Franconia area had an even more sports solidarity as the Eagles quickly moved into the upper echelon in Northern Virginia high school sports, with football and boys basketball being in the forefront. In the early '70's Edison also added boys cross country along with track and field in having highly regarded squads. Leading the surge was Edison's George Watts, who according to former Eagles' athletic director Bob Carson, "was instrumental in putting distance running for Edison and Northern Virginia on the map. He was the first distance runner of national prominence from the area and made other parts of the country take notice of what this area could produce." Watts' first foray into running a long ways and actually enjoying it, may be traced back to afternoons after Rose Hill elementary school and Mark Twain junior high when quite a few of the youngsters would gather near the current Greendale golf course from homes on Haystack Road, Greendale Road, Carriage Drive and Split
Rock Road. In the cold winter late afternoons of December, January and February following youth football season, ages from approximately 6 to 14 years would gather for an expanded version of a combination hide and seek and freeze tag. The Greendale golf course was not under construction until the early to mid '70's and their entire layout was the play area. It appears now much like it did before with the natural tree lines, but without the pond near the clubhouse and plenty of tall grass instead of fairways and putting greens. The game, which simply became known as "chase" usually, pitted a couple of the older kids in the neighborhood against, "as many of you little kids as you can gather". The game started in what was approximately the middle of the course near an old, charred, and toppled over tree. This tree which sat at the top of a small hill beyond sticker bushes and the current tree line bordering the right side of the current 18th fairway. Of course the older kids got to hide first and if they were not caught before the early sunset hours of the winter following school, better luck next time. George Watts and others of his age headed the younger squad's pack and their determination in seeking out and tagging the older boys by running until they were out of breath... and then a little further, surely could not have hurt their endurance development once they got to high school.