The Bailey's Crossroads and Seven Corners area has a rich history that dates back hundreds of years. What is now Leesburg Pike (Route Seven) began as a buffalo trail and was later adapted as an Indian trail. It ran across a ridge that spanned from the Potomac River, at present-day Old Town Alexandria, to the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Leesburg. It was called the Great Eastern Ridge Road by the local Necostin Indians until they abandoned it in the late 1670s to traders, colonists and early postal carriers. The Seven Corners shopping center was preceded by an Indian trading post that was positioned at a point where several small trails converged.

The entire area was part of Lord Fairfax's original royal grant. Gradually, the land was sold off, and homes and farms were carved out of the wilderness. George Washington owned land now occupied by the Skyline complex and Bailey’s Crossroads. It wasn’t until 1809 that the area became a true crossroads with the construction of the Washington Graveled Turnpike (Columbia Pike) that followed a path originally worn down by cattle and their drovers on the way to the Potomac River docks.

A New York entrepreneur named Hachaliah Bailey bought the land that would later be named Bailey’s Crossroads. On the site, he established the winter headquarters for his small circus that featured America's first elephant. The circus lasted until 1861 when the Civil War put an end to circus days. Bailey eventually merged his circus with that of P.T. Barnum, which went on to become “The Greatest Show on Earth.”

During the Civil War, the houses along the turnpike became rotating quarters for Confederate or Yankee forces. A notable event occurred when President Abraham Lincoln ordered an enormous review of the troops to lift the flagging spirits of the Yankee soldiers, who had recently lost the Battle of First Manassas. On Nov. 20, 1861, 60,000 men marched from the Skyline area to just past what is now the Culmore area, where the president and his entire cabinet reviewed them. It was the largest troop gathering in history up until that time.

A young poet named Julia Ward Howe watched the thrilling display of military might. Too excited to sleep that night, she arose from bed and penned what is now known as the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” to the tune she heard the soldiers sing all day as they marched, “John Brown's Body.”

The twentieth century and World War II converted the area into a Washington bedroom community. The upscale Lake Barcroft area was built in the 1950s situated around a lake formed in 1913 for an Alexandria Water Company reservoir. Seven Corners Shopping Center was new in 1953 when President Dwight Eisenhower took U.S.S.R. Premier Nikita Khrushchev to visit it as an example of the new prototype of American retailing emporiums. Some years later, the two-level complex was enclosed to become the area's first shopping mall. The Skyline complex appeared in the early 1970s.

During the last quarter of the twentieth century, many tall buildings, homes, apartments, stores and shopping centers changed the landscape and were accompanied by an influx of people from all over the globe. Waves of immigrants settled in the area, filled the schools and opened small businesses, creating a new cultural mélange of colors, customs, sights and sounds.

Little evidence of its past shows in Bailey’s Crossroads and Seven Corners other than its continued bent on evolution. Revitalization will continue to improve the community for those who live, work and play here.

Written by Susan Flinner
Sources included: Jane Chapman Whitt’s "Elephants" and "Quaker Guns: Northern Virginia: Cossroads of History"