Editing Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia

{{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Infobox settlement
| official_name            = Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia
| settlement_type          = [[Census-designated place]] (CDP)
| nickname                 = 
| motto                    = <!-- Images -->
| image_skyline            = 
| imagesize                = 
| image_caption            = One Skyline Tower and surrounding buildings in Bailey's Crossroads
| image_flag               = 
| image_seal               = <!-- Maps -->
| pushpin_map              = USA Virginia Northern#USA Virginia#USA
| pushpin_map_caption      = 
| pushpin_mapsize          = 
| image_map                = Fairfax County Virginia Incorporated and Unincorporated Areas Bailey's Crossroads highlighted.svg
| mapsize                  = 200px
| map_caption              = Location of Bailey's Crossroads in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]]

<!-- Location -->| subdivision_type         = Country
| subdivision_name         = United States
| subdivision_type1        = [[U.S. state|State]]
| subdivision_name1        = [[Virginia]]
| subdivision_type2        = [[List of counties in Virginia|County]]
| subdivision_name2        = [[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax]]

<!-- Government -->| government_footnotes     = 
| government_type          = 
| leader_title             = 
| leader_name              = 
| leader_title1            = 
| leader_name1             = 
| established_title        = 
| established_date         = <!-- Area -->
| unit_pref                = Imperial
| area_footnotes           = 
| area_total_km2           = 5.31
| area_land_km2            = 5.31
| area_water_km2           = 0.0
| area_total_sq_mi         = 2.05
| area_land_sq_mi          = 2.05
| area_water_sq_mi         = 0.0

<!-- Population -->| population_as_of         = [[2020 United States Census|2020]]
| population_footnotes     = 
| population_total         = 24749
| population_density_km2   = 4660
| population_density_sq_mi = 12072

<!-- General information -->| timezone                 = [[Eastern Time Zone|Eastern (EST)]]
| utc_offset               = &minus;5
| timezone_DST             = EDT
| utc_offset_DST           = &minus;4
| elevation_footnotes      = 
| elevation_m              = 78
| elevation_ft             = 256
| coordinates              = {{coord|38|50|58|N|77|7|45|W|region:US-VA_type:city|display=inline,title}}
| postal_code_type         = [[ZIP code]]
| postal_code              = 22041
| area_code                = [[Area code 703|703]]
| blank_name               = [[Federal Information Processing Standard|FIPS code]]
| blank_info               = 51-04088<ref name="GR2">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov |publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]] |access-date=January 31, 2008 |title=U.S. Census website }}</ref>
| blank1_name              = [[Geographic Names Information System|GNIS]] feature ID
| blank1_info              = 1492501<ref name="GR3">{{cite web|url=http://geonames.usgs.gov|access-date=January 31, 2008|title=US Board on Geographic Names|publisher=[[United States Geological Survey]]|date=October 25, 2007}}</ref>
| website                  = 
| footnotes                = 
}}
'''Bailey's Crossroads''' is a [[census-designated place]] (CDP) in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]], United States. The population was 24,749 at the 2020 census.<ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Bailey's Crossroads CDP, Virginia |url=https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/baileyscrossroadscdpvirginia |access-date=2022-11-20 |website=www.census.gov |language=en}}</ref> Bailey's Crossroads lies at the crossroads of [[State Route 7 (Virginia)|State Route 7]] ([[Leesburg Pike]]) and [[State Route 244 (Virginia)|State Route 244]] ([[Columbia Pike (Virginia)|Columbia Pike]]).

==Etymology==
Bailey's Crossroads draws its name from the Bailey family of circus fame, which has long been connected with the community. [[Hachaliah Bailey]], one of America's first circus showmen, resided here. 

In 1808, while still in [[New York (state)|New York]] state, he purchased an Indian elephant which was one of the first such animals to reach the United States. Seeking a place to winter his circus animals, he moved to Virginia, and on December 19, 1837, he bought a tract of land on the outskirts of [[Falls Church, Virginia|Falls Church]] including what is now the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Columbia Pike. On this tract he built a large house known as "Bailey's Mansion" or "Moray". It was reputed to have contained 100 rooms. The mansion sat at a location now known as Durbin Place. It abutted Glenforest Drive, the oldest outlet road to Leesburg Pike.

[[Circus (performing art)|Circus]]es were part of the Bailey family business. Hachaliah's son Lewis Bailey (1795&ndash;1870) operated a travelling circus and pioneered the use of [[canvas]] circus [[tent]]s before eventually settling in 1840 to farm land in Bailey's Crossroads. Hachaliah's nephew George F. Bailey managed several shows, too, designing a tank in which a [[hippopotamus]] could be moved from place to place. Another nephew, Fred Harrison Bailey, recognized a potential circus talent in James Anthony McGuiness, later [[James Anthony Bailey]], who united the Cooper and Bailey operations with [[Phineas Taylor Barnum]]'s circus to form the Barnum and Bailey Circus, which later joined with the [[Ringling Brothers Circus]] to form the [[Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus]].

Perhaps the first of the Northerners to settle permanently in Fairfax County to farm was Lewis Bailey, an upstate New Yorker and the son of Hachaliah Bailey, who followed his father south.  

In 1837, the elder Bailey bought hundreds of acres of Fairfax land, much of it on the outskirts of present-day [[Arlington County]] in the area now known as Bailey's Cross Roads.  Shortly afterward, Lewis Bailey bought {{convert|150|acre|km2}} of land from his father for ten dollars an acre.  Included in the purchase was "a good dwelling-house," but there were "no other buildings of value, and little or no fence."  The farm itself, he wrote later, consisted of "cultivated worn-out lands, too poor to produce a crop of grass, or pay for cultivation without manure."  Some of Bailey's neighbors considered the farm the poorest in the vicinity.  When he built his first small barn, twenty-four by thirty-six feet, they asked him if he "ever expected to fill it."  The question was scarcely a jest, for Bailey did not make enough hay the first year "to winter two horses." Nevertheless, the purchase was a wise one.  Within a decade Bailey had a fine herd of dairy cattle and had become one of the more prosperous farmers in the area.<ref>Fairfax County, Virginia A History</ref> The Baileys were prominent members of the Dulin Methodist Church, and intermarried with many Falls Church people.

==History==
===19th century===
[[Image:Baileys xroads marker.jpg|thumb|A historical marker in Bailey's Crossroads]]
Hachaliah Bailey, the founder of one of America's earliest circuses, which in time evolved into the Bailey component of what became the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, moved to [[Northern Virginia]] in 1837, bought the land surrounding the intersection of Leesburg Pike and Columbia Pike in [[Fairfax County, Virginia]], near Falls Church, Virginia, and gave Bailey's Crossroads his name. The Crossroads then became the winter quarters for his circus.<ref>"Skyline House — The History of Bailey's Crossroads (Adapted from a History by Susan Flinner)". Falls Church, Virginia: SHUOA: Skyline House Unit Owners Association. June 2, 2014. https://web.archive.org/web/20160323093719/http://www.shuoa.org/community/historybaileys.html</ref>

====Civil War====
[[File:Frank Leslie's scenes and portraits of the Civil War (1894) (14782912693).jpg|thumb|[[Munson's Hill]] and Bailey's Crossroads during the [[American Civil War]]]]
The opening months of the [[American Civil War]] proved to be a disruptive and unforgettable episode in the history of Bailey's Crossroads.  From the summer of 1861, when the area fell into an uncomfortable and poorly defined "no man's land" between the borders of two warring countries, until late November of that year, when the area hosted a massive troop review, anything akin to normalcy was in short supply.

Virginia voted to secede from the Union on May 23, 1861.  Fairfax County's northern-born residents—many of whom were its most prominent and prosperous citizens—now felt very uncomfortable.  Their southern neighbors looked upon them with suspicion.  In July 1861 the Union Army met with catastrophic defeat during the [[First Battle of Bull Run|First Battle of Manassas.]]  The army retreated all the way to [[Washington, D.C.|Washington]], with the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]] advancing quickly behind it. The Confederates occupied Falls Church and [[Munson's Hill]], overlooking Bailey's Crossroads, and the crossroads' northern-born residents fled for the safety of Washington.<ref>Gernand, ''A Virginia Village Goes to War'', pp. 16-17, 23, 68-69.</ref>

Once Confederates established themselves atop Munson's Hill they built a crude fort there, and from these commanding heights turned Bailey's Crossroads into a "killing field".  Southern sharpshooters killed numerous Union soldiers.  Violence arose whenever Confederate and Union pickets, or scouts, engaged one another in firefights.  It was now impossible to walk the Leesburg Pike without being shot and killed.<ref>Gernand, ''A Virginia Village Goes to War'', p. 83.</ref>

There was a minor engagement between the sides on September 3, 1861, with the Union suffering eight casualties and the Confederates none.

Official reports on the 'War of the Rebellion' indicate that during August 28–30, 1861 a series of skirmishes took place at a location scrawled as "Balley's Cross Roads".

The local balance of power changed completely—and to everyone's surprise—on September 28, 1861, as the Confederate Army silently withdrew its forces from Munson's Hill, [[Upton's Hill]] and Falls Church to Manassas, which they fortified.  Munson's Hill and Falls Church were located too far afield of reliable supply lines, and a concerted Union pincer movement could possibly choke off supplies, the Southern command believed.  At Manassas they were adjacent to Virginia's interior, and had good railroad and road connections to it.<ref>Gernand, ''A Virginia Village Goes to War'', pp. 98-101.</ref>

After Confederate withdrawal the area quickly was reoccupied by Union troops.  A significant troop review took place at Bailey's Crossroads on November 20, 1861.  Thousands of Union troops marched in formation and paraded before President Abraham Lincoln, the northern press, and many onlookers from Washington.  Army commanders selected Bailey's Crossroads as the site because of its nature as a large, unbroken plain.  In order to prepare it for the day's activities the army merely needed to remove the split-rail fencing separating farms and fields.<ref>Gernand, ''A Virginia Village Goes to War'', pp. 169-171.</ref>

Contemporary local historians have confused this review with another, smaller review held on nearby [[Upton's Hill]], where events spurred the composition and publication of the "[[Battle Hymn of the Republic]]".

===20th century===
[[File:Bailey's crossroads windmill.jpg|thumb|Bailey's Crossroads windmill]]
After the Civil War Bailey's Crossroads returned to its pastoral pre-war pursuits.  The area remained a rural farming community until the post-[[World War II]] years, when a massive wave of development occurred.  Leesburg Pike is now a commercial corridor, with apartments and homes to its north and south.  A strip shopping center called [[Culmore, Virginia|Culmore]], in particular, has lent its name to the apartment development behind it, which is now home to several thousand Latino immigrants.  "Culmore" is now an established place name within Bailey's Crossroads.<ref>"Preserving the Public Square--Hispanics Oppose Drug Store Proposal", ''Washington Times'', December 7, 1999; "Falls Church's Image Problem", ''Falls Church News-Press'', July 14, 2005.</ref> Close behind Culmore is Lake Barcroft, whose shore is lined with upscale middle-class homes.

During the 1960s, as Washington's [[wmata|Metro]] system was being conceived, original plans called for a subway line to extend under Columbia Pike to and through Bailey's Crossroads.  As a result of the plan a massive highrise complex was built on the former [[Washington-Virginia Airport]] in the heart of Bailey's Crossroads called Skyline City.  Its location coincided with the planned locations of Metro stations.  Plans for the Metro, however, changed.  The western line was placed along the I-66 corridor instead.<ref name=autogenerated1 />

==Geography==
{{Location map many | USA Virginia Bailey's Crossroads
| caption = Places in Bailey's Crossroads
| width=400
| label1 =[[Arlington County, Virginia|Arlington]]| label1_size=100 | mark1size=0 | position1 =right | |coordinates1={{coord|38.858544|-77.118335}}     
| label2 =[[Alexandria, Virginia|Alexandria]]| label2_size=100 | mark2size=0 | position2 =right | |coordinates2={{coord|38.835|-77.12}}     
| label3 ={{nowrap|[[Fairfax County, Virginia|Fairfax County]]}}| label3_size=100 | mark3size=0 | position3 =left| |coordinates3={{coord|38.845|-77.158}}     
| label4 ={{nowrap|[[Justice High School]]}}| label4_size=100 | mark4size=5 | position4 =right| |coordinates4={{coord|38.8567115|-77.1516451}}     
| label5 ={{nowrap|[[Fairfax County Public Library|Woodrow Wilson Library]]}}| label5_size=100 | mark5size=5| position5 =left| |coordinates5={{coord|38.852|-77.1451698}}     
| label6 ={{nowrap|[[Skyline Towers collapse|Skyline Center]]}}| label6_size=100 | mark6size=5 | position6 =left| |coordinates6={{coord|38.8437798|-77.1198393}}     
}}

Bailey's Crossroads is located at {{coord|38|50|58|N|77|7|45|W|type:city}} (38.849474, -77.129093).<ref name="GR1">{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/geo/gazetteer-files.html|publisher=[[United States Census Bureau]]|access-date=April 23, 2011|date=February 12, 2011|title=US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990}}</ref>

According to the [[United States Census Bureau]], the CDP has a total area of 2.0&nbsp;square miles (5.3&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup>), all of it land.  The area occupies a broad, flat plain, bounded on the west by [[Munson's Hill]].  This unbroken expanse of level ground caused the Union Army to select it as the site of a massive review of troops during the Civil War.  The review, which took place on November 20, 1861, involved thousands of troops marching in formation and parading before President [[Abraham Lincoln]].<ref>Bradley E. Gernand, ''[[A Virginia Village Goes to War--Falls Church During the Civil War]]''.  Virginia Beach:  The Donning Company, 2002.  Pages 139-141.</ref>

Bailey's Crossroads is formed by the junction of [[State Route 7 (Virginia)|State Route 7]] connecting [[Alexandria, Virginia]] with the [[Shenandoah Valley]] and [[State Route 244 (Virginia)|State Route 244]] ([[Columbia Pike (Virginia)|Columbia Pike]]) connecting [[the Pentagon]] and [[Washington, D.C.]], with [[Annandale, Virginia]]. The most noticeable landmark at Bailey's Crossroads is [[Skyline Towers collapse|Skyline Center]], a towering group of 26-story apartment buildings and offices built in the 1970s. A branch of [[Northern Virginia Community College]], and offices of the [[U.S. Department of Defense]] are nearby. The neighborhood has a large Hispanic population. The largest single store of the entire [[Giant-Landover|Giant Food]] supermarket chain is also there. While the closest [[Washington Metro|Metrorail]] station is a few miles away, Metrobus service on the Columbia Pike corridor has recently been improved.

The precise extent of Bailey's Crossroads has never been defined.  As an unincorporated community without local government, it has never had the purview to do so.  The United States Census Bureau observes one definition; and various parts of the Fairfax County government observe others.  Economic development plans tend to include just the commercial corridors and associated areas.  Current discussions among the Fairfax County government for revitalizing Bailey's Crossroads economically concern themselves with the Fairfax County border on the north and east—which generally includes all commercial and residential properties generally considered as belonging to the neighborhood—as well as Seminary Road and Carlin Spring Road.  The plans include a narrow strip along Leesburg Pike to Glen Carlyn Road.<ref name=autogenerated1>"Blueprint for Baileys Crossroads is Revived", ''Washington Post'', July 8, 2010, p. B4.</ref>

As a general neighborhood, however, with all facets of life included, the geographic extent of Bailey's Crossroads must be considered to be larger.  It abuts the clearly established [[Lake Barcroft]] neighborhood on the southwest, with Blair Road, Beachway Drive, Nevius Street and Mansfield Road marking its western proximity.  North of Leesburg Pike its extent is generally defined by Glen Carlyn and Carlin Springs roads.

== Governance ==
[[Fairfax County Public Schools]] operates public schools.  Glen Forest Elementary School is the primary school attended by most children living in the area, and the local schools feed [[Justice High School]].
[[File:Culmore_Community_Library.jpg|thumb|Culmore Community Library]]

[[Fairfax County Public Library]] operates the Culmore Community Library in the Culmore area.  It has Spanish-language materials in addition to English-language ones.<ref>"[http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/library/branches/ Library Branches]." [[Fairfax County Public Library]]. Retrieved on October 21, 2009.</ref><ref>"[http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/MapItDrawServlet?geo_id=16000US5104088&_bucket_id=50&tree_id=420&context=saff&_lang=en&_sse=on Bailey's Crossroads CDP, Virginia]{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}." [[U.S. Census Bureau]]. Retrieved on October 21, 2009.</ref>

A [[United States Postal Service|United States Post Office]], located in Culmore, serves the Bailey's Crossroads ZIP code of 22041.  Although, the [[United States Post Office|United States Postal Service]] uses "[[Falls Church, Virginia|Falls Church]]" as the primary name of the ZIP code, mail can also be addressed using "Bailey's Crossroads", as many businesses and residents do to prevent confusion with services, deliveries, customers and guests. The [[Virginia|State of Virginia]]  and [[Fairfax County, Virginia]] recognize "Bailey's Crossroads" as a valid address for official documents such as property deed, vehicle registration, drivers license and other business.

In 2010, the Bailey's Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department turned the land, the firehouse, and most of the equipment of Fire Station 10 over to the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department in exchange for a new facility. Since then, Fire Station 10 has been maintained and operated by the Fairfax County Fire & Rescue Department and is staffed 24/7 by full-time career firefighters and paramedics. The Bailey's Crossroads Volunteer firefighters still own the three medic units housed at the station - the two front line units are maintained and operated by Fairfax County Fire & Rescue, while the third unit is maintained and operated by the volunteers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About Us|url=http://bxrvfd.org/about-us.html|access-date=October 28, 2021|website=Bailey's Crossroads Volunteer Fire Department|language=en}}</ref>

==Demographics==
{{US Census population
| 1970 = 7295
| 1980 = 12564
| 1990 = 19507
| 2000 = 23166
| 2010 = 23643
| estimate = 
| 2020 = 24749
| estyear = 
| estref = 
| footnote = 
}}

=== 2020 Census ===
At the [[2020 United States census|2020 census]] (some information from the [[American Community Survey|2022 American Community Survey]]) there were 24,749 people, 9,796 housing units and 9,545 households residing in the CDP. The [[population density]] was 12,072.7 inhabitants per square mile (4,660.8/km<sup>2</sup>). The average housing unit density was 4,778.5 per square mile (1,844.8/km<sup>2</sup>). The racial makeup of the CDP was 31.56% [[White (U.S. Census)|White]], 16.11% [[African American (U.S. Census)|African American]], 2.65% [[Native American (U.S. Census)|Native American]], 13.01% [[Asian (U.S. Census)|Asian]], 0.02% [[Pacific Islander (U.S. Census)|Pacific Islander]], 24.42% from [[Race (United States Census)|other races]], and 12.23% from two or more races. [[Hispanic (U.S. Census)|Hispanic]] or [[Latino (U.S. Census)|Latino]] of any race was 38.18% of the population.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Bailey's Crossroads CDP, Virginia |url=https://data.census.gov/profile/Bailey's_Crossroads_CDP,_Virginia?g=160XX00US5104088 |access-date=2024-01-26 |website=data.census.gov}}</ref>

Of the family households, 36.4% were married couples, 22.7% were a male householder with no spouse, and 32.1% were a female householder with no spouse. The average family household had 3.5 people.<ref name=":0" />

The median age was 33.9, 24.6% of people were under the age of 18, and 13.5% were 65 years of age or older. The largest ancestry is the 12.1% who had [[African Americans|Subsaharan African ancestry]], 61.9% spoke a language other than [[English language|English]] at home, and 49.0% were born outside the United States, 40.5% of whom were [[Naturalized citizen of the United States|naturalized citizens]].<ref name=":0" />

The median income for a household in the CDP was $78,286, and the median income for a family was $75,948. 5.2% of the population were [[Veteran#United States|military veterans]], and 43.5% had a [[Bachelor's degree]] or [[Higher degree|higher]]. In the CDP, 21.3% of the population was below the [[poverty line]], including 35.2% of those under age 18 and 12.8% of those age 65 or over, with 22.4% of the population without [[Health insurance in the United States|health insurance]].<ref name=":0" />

== In popular culture ==

* Bailey's Crossroads is featured in [[The Man in the High Castle (TV series)|''The Man in the High Castle.'']]

==Notable people==
*[[Charlie Garner]], former American football player<ref>{{cite news|last1=Ingram|first1=Michael-Louis|title=One Hero, Two Goats|url=http://blackathlete.net/artman2/publish-/The_Sporting_Life_44/One_Hero_Two_Goats_printer.shtml|access-date=April 23, 2017|publisher=BlackAthlete Sports Network|date=July 20, 2008|archive-date=April 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170424091513/http://blackathlete.net/artman2/publish-/The_Sporting_Life_44/One_Hero_Two_Goats_printer.shtml|url-status=usurped}}</ref>
*[[Penny Moore]], former WNBA player, [[Charlotte Sting]] and [[Washington Mystics]]
*[[Franz Stahl]] and [[Pete Stahl]], punk rock  musicians

==See also==
* [[Skyline Towers collapse]]
* [[Washington-Virginia Airport]]

==References==
<references />
{{commonscat}}
{{Fairfax County, Virginia}}
{{virginia}}
{{Fairfax County in the American Civil War}}

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[[Category:Census-designated places in Fairfax County, Virginia]]
[[Category:Washington metropolitan area]]
[[Category:Census-designated places in Virginia]]
[[Category:1837 establishments in Virginia]]
[[Category:Populated places established in 1837]]