Sign Erected To Honor African-American Community Demolished In 1960s

FAIRFAX, VA — An interpretive sign now honors The Pines, a Black community displaced through eminent domain to make way for a school that was never built, Annandale Today reports.

The community stood until 1965 on land now occupied by Pine Ridge Park on Woodburn Road in Annandale. It was founded by Cpl. William H. Collins Jr., a buffalo soldier with the 10th U.S. Cavalry who fought in the Battle of San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War in 1898.

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In 1905, Collins purchased 20 acres and sold portions to other Black Americans, establishing The Pines.

For more than five decades, the community flourished through farming and a sawmill. It also had its own school for Black children. Residents built most of the homes in the community themselves.

In 1965, residents faced a choice: sell their homes or have their properties condemned through eminent domain. Residents were given only six days to vacate before demolition. The school was never built, and the land eventually became Pine Ridge Park.

Finding new homes was difficult because many nearby communities remained white-only.

Ironically, the planned school was part of Fairfax County's desegregation program. Some historians describe residents of The Pines as "victims of desegregation."

Collins' family cemetery remains in the woods adjacent to the park. A cemetery for the Sons and Daughters of Liberty, an African American fraternal and philanthropic organization, was established in 1907. It fell into disrepair after the destruction of The Pines. A 1990 survey found 45 gravesites, but only one surviving gravestone.

On Sunday, former residents and their descendants gathered to unveil the sign.

"The new interpretive sign is not just a marker. It is more than just a reminder," said Nigel Fields, the Park Authority's deputy director. "It is a mirror reflecting a story that was once overlooked, that is now being elevated."