Fire Station 8 - Amazon Web Services · 9/27/2019 · Subject: Key Bridge Marriott Site History This memorandum details preliminary research on the history of the Key Bridge Marriott

DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY PLANNING, HOUSING & DEVELOPMENT

Neighborhood Services Division – Historic Preservation Program

2100 Clarendon Boulevard, Suite 700, Arlington, VA 22201 TEL 703.228.3830 www.arlingtonva.us

Memorandum

To: Brett H. Wallace, Planner, CPHD Date: September 27, 2019

From: Angelina R. Jones, Historic Preservation Planner, CPHD

Subject: Key Bridge Marriott Site History

This memorandum details preliminary research on the history of the Key Bridge Marriott to

inform the work being done on Site Plan #53. The subject property consists of six separate

parcels totaling approximately 5.5 acres in Rosslyn near Key Bridge at the intersection of Fort

Myer Drive and Lee Highway south of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. There were

multiple historical uses at the subject property including a brewery, lithographic print shop, and

Cherry Smash bottling plant.1 Although home to the Key Bridge Marriott since 1959, the

Marriott company established an interest in this area in1940, when it built a Hot Shoppe

restaurant on the subject property.

Lord Fairfax awarded the first colonial-era land patent that included the subject property to

William Struttfield on September 2, 1709.2 Joseph Lambden purchased a portion of this land in

1860.3 His daughter Caroline Ross (née Lambden) inherited much of this property and she and

her husband, William Henry Ross, subsequently named it Rosslyn Farm.4

In 1896, the Consumer Brewing Company built a red brick brewery building on the subject

property designed by local architect Albert Goenner, who also designed the demolished County

court house building dedicated in 1898. The brewery was distinguished by a large rounded arch

at the entrance, paired arched windows on the top stories, a roofline crowned by turrets, a tall

smoke stack, and a central clock tower (Figure 1).5 The new brewery was in proximity to the

Aqueduct Bridge (replaced by Key Bridge in 1923) that connected Rosslyn to Georgetown,

originally constructed between 1833 and 1843. Consumer Brewing Company produced beer at

this location until financial troubles caused the company to disband.6 Barnett Katz bought the

brewery building in Rosslyn at auction in 1902 and formed the Arlington Brewing Company,

1 Eleanor Lee Templeman, Arlington Heritage: Vignettes of a Virginia County (New York: Avenel Books, 1959),

78. 2 Templeman, 78; Donald A. Wise, “Some Eighteenth-Century Family Profiles Part II,” Arlington Historical

Magazine (October 1978): 21. 3 Templeman, 78. 4 Ibid. 5 Mike Cianciosi, “The Arlington Brewery Company,” The Potomac Pontil (March 2007): 7; Templeman, 78. 6 Cianciosi, 7.

http://www.arlingtonva.us/

Memorandum Page 2 of 26

continuing to produce beer at the site.7 By 1905 the production complex included a bottling

facility called the Arlington Bottling Company adjacent to the brewery with stables in between

the two plants.8 In 1923, the Washington and Old Dominion (W&OD) Railroad constructed a

passenger station on land leased from the Federal Government immediately east of the subject

property (Figures 2 and 6).9 This station was demolished in 1939 when the land was reclaimed

by the Federal Government for inclusion in the George Washington Parkway.10

John E. Fowler, founder of the Cherry Smash soda company, purchased the brewery building in

1920 for $125,000.11 As there was a nationwide prohibition on alcoholic beverages at this time,

Fowler purchased the brewery with the intention of moving operations of Cherry Smash soda

from Richmond to Arlington.12 Cherry Smash was the second largest soda company on the east

coast at the time, second only to Coca-Cola.13 The company produced and sold a cherry-flavored

syrup that consumers either added to carbonated water or poured over ice cream.14 Fowler

became a prominent member of the business community after relocating to Arlington County. He

spearheaded efforts to attract business to Rosslyn in 1929 and attended public meetings to speak

on behalf of business interests in the Rosslyn area.15 Fowler also served as the Chairman of the

Arlington Trust Company bank from 1925 until his death in 1960.16

The subject property includes parcels adjacent to the Cherry Smash soda plant that were the sites

of a variety of industrial uses in the early 20th century. The Parker-Brawner Lithographing

Company moved into one of the former Arlington Brewing Company buildings around 1920

when Fowler purchased the property.17 There was a laundry facility owned by Arthur Zinnamon

east of the Cherry Smash plant at 1421 Lee Highway as early as 1926 called the Standard

Laundry Service, Inc. (Figure 3).18 W.T. Weaver & Sons Hardware Warehouse was located

between Cherry Smash at 1413 Lee Highway and a mill work facility was located at 1407 Lee

Highway, both as early as 1935 (Figures 4-5).19 Charles H. Greathouse owned the parcel at 1427

Lee Highway and rented the property to J.W. Jameson’s tree surgery company by 1936 (Figure

7 Ibid. 8 “Richmond Men Buy Brewery,” The Washington Post, February 29, 1920, Proquest; Templeman, 78. 9 Ames W. Williams, Washington & Old Dominion Railroad: 1847-1968 (Arlington: Arlington Historical Society,

1989), 74. 10 Ibid. 11 “Richmond Men Buy Brewery,” The Washington Post, February 29, 1920, Proquest. 12 Ibid. 13 Cianciosi, 8. 14 Ibid. 15 “Business Men Plan to Aid School Need,” The Washington Post, December 11, 1929, Proquest; “Wharf Permit

Plea Backed by Fowler,” The Washington Post, December 7, 1929, Proquest; “Rosslyn Fights for Postoffice,” The

Washington Post, August 23, 1929, Proquest. 16 “J.E. Fowler Named Arlington Trust Company President,” The Washington Post, December 19, 1925, Proquest;

“Industrialist John Fowler Dead; Made Fortune with Cherry Smash,” The Washington Post, April 8, 1960, Proquest. 17 “Richmond Men.” 18 “Arlington County Citizens Protest Junk Plant Permit,” The Washington Post, April 25, 1926, Proquest; Arlington

County Building Permit 23999, “1421 Lee Highway,” Center for Local History, Arlington County Public Library. 19 Franklin Survey Company, Atlas of Arlington County Virginia, 1935, Plate 1; Sanborn Fire Insurance Company,

Insurance Maps of Arlington County, VA, 1936, Plates 9 and 11.


6).20 The 1936 Sanborn map shows a Peoples Chemical Company in a building complex owned

by Fowler immediately west of the Cherry Smash plant that also held the American Ice

Company at 1321-25 Lee Highway.21 In 1943, Antoine Louise Alaj, owner of Old Dominion

Vineyard, rented part of the Cherry Smash plant to manufacture and bottle wine.22

Although the Key Bridge Marriott did not open until 1959, company founder J. Willard Marriott

opened his first business on part of the subject property in May 1940 (Figure 7). Marriott

founded the Hot Shoppe chain of restaurants and he purchased the parcel at 1325 Lee Highway

west of the Cherry Smash plant to build a new Hot Shoppe location (Figures 8-10).23 Alice

Marriott, J. Willard Marriott’s wife, later recalled that they had chosen the location near the Key

Bridge because they anticipated the heavy automobile traffic on the bridge would help them

attract customers.24

In 1958, Marriott demolished the Cherry Smash plant to build a “Hot Shoppe’s Motel” (called

the Marriott Motor Hotel by 1959 and currently called the Key Bridge Marriott) next to his

restaurant.25 Stella May Buettner, the daughter of one of the brick layers who built the brewery,

salvaged four horseshoes that adorned the brewery’s smoke stack prior to its demolition and

three of them were donated to the Arlington Historical Society (Figure 11).26 Despite Marriott

closing and demolishing the Cherry Smash plant, the area around the site of the new hotel

remained industrial with a machine repair shop at 1429 Lee Highway, Jason McBride Wood

Floors at 1407 Lee Highway, and the industrial laundry and hardware warehouse both still in

business (Figures 12-13).27

The Key Bridge Marriott first opened in June 1959 and Marriott designed it to be part of a

complex with the existing Hot Shoppe restaurant (Figures 14-16). The new hotel designed by

architect Robert K. Frese and constructed by V.R. Beauchamp, Inc., cost $3 million to build and

consisted of four buildings, which included the remodeled Hot Shoppe restaurant.28 Marriott

20 Arlington County Building Permit Index, “1427 Lee Highway,” Arlington County Public Archives,

https://arlisys.arlingtonva.us (accessed September 4, 2019). 21 Sanborn Fire Insurance Company, Insurance Maps of Arlington County, VA, 1936, Plate 9; Arlington County

Building Permit Index, “1321 Lee Highway,” Arlington County Public Archives, https://arlisys.arlingtonva.us

(accessed September 4, 2019). 22 “Public Notice,” Northern Virginia Sun, April 2, 1943, Center for Local History, Arlington County Public

Library; Templeman, 78. 23 Arlington County Building Permit Index, “1325 Lee Highway,” Arlington County Public Archives,

https://arlisys.arlingtonva.us (accessed September 4, 2019); Arlington County Building Permit 9433, “1325 Lee

Highway,” Center for Local History, Arlington County Public Library. 24 Jacqueline Trescott, “Marriott’s First Lady,” The Washington Post, May 21, 1987, Proquest. 25 Jean White, “Doomed Stack Loses Its ‘Luck,’” The Washington Post, May 23, 1958, Proquest. 26 Ibid. 27 Arlington County Building Permit 27161, “1429 Lee Highway,” Center for Local History, Arlington County

Public Library; Arlington County Building Permit Index, “1429 Lee Highway,” Arlington County Public Archives,

https://arlisys.arlingtonva.us (accessed September 4, 2019); Franklin Survey Company, Atlas of Arlington County

Virginia, 1952, Plate 7; Sanborn Fire Insurance Company, Insurance Maps of Arlington County, VA, 1959, Plates 9

and 11. 28 Arlington County Building Permit 33382, “1401 Lee Highway,” Center for Local History, Arlington County

Public Library; Jerry Landauer, “New Hotel Smaller than ‘Big Brother,’” The Washington Post, June 14, 1959,

Proquest.


remodeled the Hot Shoppe restaurant for the grand opening of the new hotel and renamed it the

Fairfield Inn to reflect that the restaurant’s menu offered higher end fare than a typical Hot

Shoppe.29 The Key Bridge Marriott Hotel consisted of brick and stone with prominent glass

windows and was the second in the company’s chain (the first Marriott Hotel was in Arlington

near the 14th Street Bridge). The Key Bridge Marriott consisted of four buildings on five acres

with a total of 210 guest rooms.30 The 4-story main building had 110 rooms with two additional

buildings south and southwest of the primary building, each 2-stories, one with 54 rooms and

one with 46 rooms.31 Marriott’s son and business partner, J. Willard Marriott, Jr., described the

new hotel as a natural extension of the adjacent Hot Shoppe drive-in restaurant.32 Guests could

check-in to the hotel without leaving their cars and follow a bell boy who was on a bicycle that

would lead them to the parking spot nearest their rooms.33 Once guests were checked in, they

found rooms decorated in a color palette of orange, yellow, and brown with white and black

chairs and lamp shades. Guests could visit a variety of retail locations on site including a barber

shop, beauty shop, cigar counter, and newsstand.34

In 1968, Marriott added a 12-story addition east of the three existing hotel buildings that was

designed by architect J. Arthur Ferrante at an estimated cost of $3.2 million (Figures 17-20).35

The Marriott company expanded the acreage of the complex at this time, purchasing the parcels

associated with 1407-1429 Lee Highway and demolishing the existing buildings including the

industrial laundry at 1421 Lee Highway to erect a 2-story parking garage.36

Marriott demolished the Fairfield Inn/Hot Shoppe restaurant in July 1970 and added a restaurant

at the top of the 12-story tower that same year.37 The restaurant originally opened as the

Chaparral Restaurant and became known for the excellent views it afforded of Washington,

D.C., over the Potomac River.38 In 1980 Marriott renovated the restaurant and renamed it “The

View” to reflect this feature and renamed it again in the mid-1990s as JW’s View Steakhouse.39

Marriott closed the restaurant in 2006 and replaced it with a 4,000-square foot ballroom.40

In September 1977, Marriott announced plans for another renovation at the Key Bridge site to

provide additional rooms and amenities and enlarge the parking garage to four stories (Figure

29 “New Hotel.” 30 Ibid. 31 Ibid. 32 Ibid. 33 Ibid. 34 Ibid. 35 Arlington County Building Permit 28265, “1401 Lee Highway,” Center for Local History, Arlington County

Public Library. 36 Arlington County Building Permit Index, “1421 Lee Highway,” Arlington County Public Archives,

https://arlisys.arlingtonva.us (accessed September 4, 2019); Arlington County Maps, 1969 Sheet C6, Historic Aerial

Photographs, https://maps.arlingtonva.us/ (accessed September 4, 2019). 37 Arlington County Building Permit Index, “1325 Lee Highway,” Arlington County Public Archives,

https://arlisys.arlingtonva.us (accessed September 4, 2019); Daniel Poole, “Restaurant Crowns Marriott Express,”

The Evening Star, July 17, 1970, Proquest. 38 Jamie Stockwell, “Bidding Goodbye to a Room with a View,” The Washington Post, June 29, 2006, Proquest. 39 Ibid. 40 Ibid.

https://maps.arlingtonva.us/


21).41 In 1979 the finished work included: a 236-room tower; a 4,600-square foot ballroom; and

a new fitness club.42

41 Sandra G. Boodman, “Arlington Okays Marriott Plans,” The Washington Post, September 29, 1977, Proquest. 42 Merrill Brown, “Marriott Celebrates Hotel Expansion,” The Washington Post, September 29, 1979, Proquest;

Howie Kurtz, “Contracts to Expire at 2 Post Unions,” The Evening Star, September 29, 1979, Proquest.


Figure 1: View of the Consumer Brewing Company building, later used by the Arlington

Brewery Company and Cherry Smash soda, ca. 1955.

Source: Mike Cianciosi, “The Arlington Brewery Company,” The Potomac Pontil (March 2007).


Figure 2: The red arrow points to the Cherry Smash plant and the blue arrow points to the

W&OD Railroad Passenger Station, 1932.

Source: National Archives and Records Administration.


Figure 3: Elevation drawings of the Standard Laundry Service at 1421 Lee Highway, 1950.

Source: Arlington County Building Permit 23999, “1421 Lee Highway,” Center for Local

History, Arlington County Public Library.


Figure 4: Aerial of the subject property, 1934. The red arrow points to the Cherry Smash plant

and the blue arrow points to the Standard Laundry Service.

Source: Arlington County Maps, Historic Aerial Photographs, https://maps.arlingtonva.us/

(accessed September 4, 2019).



Figure 5: The red arrow points to the Cherry Smash plant and the blue arrow points to the

Standard Laundry Service, 1935.

Source: Franklin Survey Company, Atlas of Arlington County Virginia, 1935, Plate 1.


Figure 6: The red arrow points to the Cherry Smash plant, the blue arrow points to the Standard

Laundry Service, and the green arrow points to the W&OD Railroad Passenger Station, 1936.

Source: Sanborn Fire Insurance Company, Insurance Maps of Arlington County, VA, 1936,

Plates 9 and 11.


Figure 7: J. Willard Marriott at the 14th Street Bridge Marriott, 1957.

Source: “Root Beer to Riches,” Time Magazine, January 28, 1957, Center for Local History,

Arlington County Public Library, 90.


Figure 8: Elevation drawings of the Rosslyn Hot Shoppe, 1939.

Source: Arlington County Building Permit 9433, “1325 Lee Highway,” Center for Local History,

Arlington County Public Library.


Figure 9: Elevation drawings of the Rosslyn Hot Shoppe, 1939.

Source: Arlington County Building Permit 9433, “1325 Lee Highway,” Center for Local History,

Arlington County Public Library.


Figure 10: Aerial of the subject property, 1949. The red arrow points to the Cherry Smash plant

and the blue arrow points to the Hot Shoppe.





Figure 11: Consumer Brewing Company smokestack shortly before and during demolition; May

22,1958.

Source: Eleanor Lee Templeman, Arlington Heritage: Vignettes of a Virginia County (New

York: Avenel Books, 1959), 79.


Figure 12: The red arrow points to the Key Bridge Marriott, the blue arrow points to the Standard

Laundry Service, and the green arrow points to the Hot Shoppe, 1952.

Source: Franklin Survey Company, Atlas of Arlington County Virginia, 1952, Plate 7.


Figure 13: Plat of 1429 Lee Highway submitted by Lucien Greathouse as part of an application

to construct a machine repair shop, 1951.




Figure 14: Rendering of the Key Bridge Marriott and Hot Shoppe in Rosslyn, 1958.

Source: “Luxury Hotel for Rosslyn,” Northern Virginia Sun, August 21, 1958, Center for Local



Figure 15: The red arrow points to the Key Bridge Marriott and the blue arrow points to the Hot

Shoppe, 1959.

Source: Sanborn Fire Insurance Company, Insurance Maps of Arlington County, VA, 1959,

Plates 9 and 11.


Figure 16: Aerial of the subject property, 1962. The red arrow points to the Key Bridge Marriott

and the blue arrow points to the Hot Shoppe.





Figure 17: Rendering of the 12-story Key Bridge Marriott, 1968.




Figure 18: Elevation drawings of the 12-story Key Bridge Marriott, 1968.




Figure 19: Plan showing the Key Bridge Marriott complex, 1968. The red arrow points to the 12-

story building and the blue arrow points to the parking garage, both added in 1968.




Figure 20: Aerial of the subject property1969.





Figure 21: Aerial of the subject property, 1977.




Documents

Fire Station 8 - Amazon Web Services · 9/27/2019 · Subject: Key Bridge Marriott Site History This memorandum details preliminary research on the history of the Key Bridge Marriott