Texas Ted Britt's Hootenanny

Arlington's Critical Role in American Music




Alan Lomax

 
Rosslyn was a seedy place going back to the Civil War with gritty industrial tracks interspersed with brothels, gambling houses, and bars. As the thirties brought an influx of government workers, Rosslyn began a slow transformation with the construction of garden apartments at the top of the hill overlooking the older grime. In 1940, Hot Shoppes opened a location right off the Key Bridge (roughly where Gateway Park currently sits) taking over from an infamous tavern at the edge of the Key Bridge.

Changes in Arlington brought New Dealers in the thirties and forties looking for cheap housing as demand drove up prices in DC. Two young activists and their wives named Nick Ray, his wife Jean Evans, Alan Lomax, his daughter Anna, and his wife Elizabeth rented a house at 1811 N. Oak St. at the corner of N. Oak and N. 18th St., just up the hill from the seediest part of Rosslyn. Nick Ray was a political activist, theater director, and radio producer who was working for the Works Project Administration. Ray was running the WPA’s theatre arts program that involved regular people and taught them how to tell their own story. Later, Ray would become famous for directing movies like Rebel Without A Cause. Lomax was the son of the famous folklorist, John Lomax, and had come to DC to work for Library of Congress collecting folk music. He had travelled the country discovering and recording now standard blues and country songs.

Through his work at the Library of Congress, Lomax came in contact with fellow folk singer Pete Seeger. During the winter of 1940, Seeger lived off and on at the house bouncing between Arlington, his folks’ place in Chevy Chase, and New York City. Lomax and Seeger collaborated on music and traded songs as they unwittingly began the folk music scene on the hills of Rosslyn.

On March 3, he appeared at a benefit concert for migrant workers put on by the actor Will Geer in New York. The concert was historically significant because it was the first large folk concert bringing together Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger, and other legendary singers. Seeger met Woody for the first time and the two began a collaboration that would prove influential for American music. A week later Guthrie arrived at the Oak Street house to crash for a while and record for the Library of Congress on March 21, 22, and 27, 1940.

During April and May, the Oak St. house became a crash pad for a variety of folk singers like Josh White, Leadbelly, and Aunt Molly Jackson. Lomax, Seeger and Guthrie worked on the manuscript for a collection of political folks songs call Hard Hitting Songs for Alan, Woody, and Pete began a project to compile a book of political songs called Hard Hitting Songs for Hard Hit People. They also collaborated with Nick Ray to develop a folk song program for CBS radio. Guthrie slept on the couch never removing his boots and eating his meals over the sink.

In mid-May, Seeger and Guthrie set out across the country heading for Richmond first and onto history. In July, Nick Ray and Jean Evans separated and Ray lost his job under political pressure for his alleged communist sympathies. Lomax continued his work collecting folk music from around the world and became a critical figure in American music.

The house is gone today and has been replaced by an uninteresting office building that belies the significance the location had in the development of our music.

Former Site of WARL Radio Station

For more on the radio station's significance, see this post.

The former site of Tuthill's Pool Hall in East Falls Church

Located at 6876 Lee Hwy in East Falls Church, the site is now the hard to pronounce La Cote Dor Cafe.   It's formal name was Falls Church Billiards and the place was known as a hangout for the Avengers gang.

Hunter's Lodge: Images from history

Settin’ the Woods on Fire: Hunter’s Lodge and the Lee Hwy Dance Halls

Back in the thirties, forgotten dance halls dotted Lee Highway, from Merrifield out to Centreville and beyond. Many of them exist only in legend now including Chimney Villa in Merrifield, Bull Run Dance Hall in Centreville, Happy Hour, Green Dolphin, and Pine Lawn at Fairfax Circle. Many of these dance halls were rough places that were centers of illegal drinking, fighting, and other disreputable activities. At Chimney Villa a patron stuck a pistol against the head of Fairfax County police officer and pulled the trigger, but luckily for the cop, the gun didn’t fire. During prohibition, dance hall parking lots were hotspots for buying illegal liquor to get revelers' blood warm before heading in to dance. All these activities caused the local elected officials much consternation and led to a crackdown on dance halls. Throughout the thirties, local governments passed onerous regulations on dance halls that effectively retarded the growth of live music venues in Northern Virginia in the coming decades. The center of live music in the DC area would begin a shift towards more favorable places like PG County and downtown DC and the few remaining live venues in NOVA would struggle along.

One dance hall that managed to survive this conservative crackdown was Hunter’s Lodge on Lee Highway at West Ox Rd. Hunter’s Lodge first appeared in late 1939 in the Fairfax Herald advertising “modern construction throughout”; square dances; and appearances by the Bull Run Ramblers and the Vienna Syncopators. In 1941 the Wash Post was touting its log construction and big fireplace with “Ernie Sparks’ up-and-coming band”. By 1943, it was so popular that the owners remodeled with an addition to the club. By the late forties, Hunter’s Lodge was a venue for pop and dance music such as Ernie Clay’s Orchestra sponsored by the Fairfax VFW.

In 1948, Hunter’s Lodge hosted the Arlington Optimists for a night of “horse racing.” The Optimists were having a benefit for their community work by watching films of horse racing and placing bets. Now what is gambling without something to wet the whistle? The Optimists broke out the liquor and beer while they watched the horse racing films. Naturally, the nothing-better-to-do Fairfax police arrived and raided the event. The owner of Hunter’s Lodge, CK Vance (of 506 N. Highland in Arlington), was arrested for serving liquor on the premises and serving beer after hours. The leaders of the Optimists were arrested for gambling. Ultimately, the ABC Board didn’t shut the dance hall down and it soldiered on. However, shortly after this incident, the ads began to say BYOL and BYOB, which means the club wasn’t allowed to serve, but could host alcohol. Only in Fairfax County would this happen.

By the late fifties, Hunter’s Lodge was still hosting big band music, but it may have been facing some financial hard times because the Fairfax zoning board shut down a daycare operating during the day in the club. By the time it was shut down, the daycare had operated for two months with 16 children. Not long after that, Hunter’s Lodge shifted to straight country music.

In 1960 many legendary country musicians played the Lodge including “Mister Country” Carl Smith with Sammy Pruitt (Hank Williams’ Guitarist), Jimmy Dickens, and Kitty Wells with Johnny & Jack and the Tennessee Mountain Boys. During this time, the ads touted the beauty and air-conditioning of the Lodge. In 1962 Ernest Tubbs played and saw Elmer Buddy Charleton playing and Elmer soon joined the Texas Troubadors on steel guitar.  In around 1961, a western theme park opened next door called Old Virginia City featuring a replica old west town and an American Indian village.  Old Virginia City seems to have disappeared in the late sixties. 

By the 1970s Hunter’s Lodge was no longer advertising in local as it evolved into an outpost in the changing landscape of Fairfax County. The Lodge became known for great country music, a fun-loving and sometimes rough crowd, and a sense of days gone by. It was a mecca for country fans coming from all over the region searching for something other than disco.

In 1978, the Lodge reappeared in the Wash Post as an unwitting site of an infamous crime. Deborah Fitzjohn was a 25-year old secretary living in Centreville who headed out for a night of fun in Fairfax on a Friday night. She was never seen again, but her car was found in the parking lot of Hunter’s Lodge. In 1986, John Crutchley, AKA the Vampire Rapist, was implicated, but police never had enough to charge him. Crutchley was known as the Vampire Rapist because he would withdraw blood from his victims and drink it. When Fitzjohn disappeared, Crutchley was living in Waples Mobile Home Estates near Fairfax City.

In 1982, Tommy Sanders took over and the Lodge became host to local favorites like Rick Cooper & Third Shift, Stringdusters, Heavy Country, and others. Legend has it that many famous country musicians, like Merle Haggard, would show up after their shows in larger venues. In 1985, the club suffered a fire that left extensive smoke damage and some have claimed it was an attempt to burn the place and collect insurance.  The club closed sometime around 1986 to make way for a Costco since the new crowd in Fairfax would rather shop than listen to rowdy country.

JJ's

This was a famous nightclub called JJ's during the seventies located at 501 N. Randolph.  Early on the place was known for a rough clientele including Ft. Myer soldiers and bikers coming to watch strippers.  The Arlington Pagans were regulars.  In the mid-seventies they tried to clean it up and feature local rock bands.  JJ's closed sometime in the later seventies.  Later it relocated as JJ's American Cafe at the intersection of Lee Highway and Harrison St. in the building that is now a mattress store. 

JJ's had some unwanted notierity in the Johnny Battle incident at Godfather's in Georgetown.  A crew of Pagans were celebrating mother club member Cheyenne Richter's birthday and they started out a JJ's and were kicked out after a fight broke out.  They moved on to Godfather's where they enountred Johnny Battle's group and got into a street fight on Wisconsin Ave.  Battle ended up stabbed to death and some Pagans went to jail for a long time.  The case has come up lately because some of the Pagans were released based on some falsified testimony.

UPDATE:  Prior to becoming JJ's this place was a topless bar called Ziggy's and was known as a rough place.  Ziggy's neighbor, American Service Center, complained about vulgar customers and beer cans, which led to the it's closing.