Friday, April 27, 2012
Site wil open to public May 19.
Historic Huntley has at last been reconnected with its long-lost sibling down the road. A Federal period villa built in 1825 for Thomson Francis Mason, a grandson of George Mason, Historic Huntley overlooks over the broad valley farmed by generations of Masons and was once part of Hunting Creek Farm, now the site of Huntley Meadows Park. The park has completed its restoration of Historic Huntley, which will open to the public beginning May 19. “It’s very exciting, and I think it sort of completes the Huntley Park picture,” said Kevin Munroe, Huntley Meadows Park manager, during a media tour Thursday. “Down there, in that park, the people living here in the 1800s, that was their land. So now that this is open, it completes it and connects …
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
New facility should be open by late summer.
Visitors to Huntley Meadows Park will be able to enjoy programs in the great outdoors when a new teaching pavilion opens at the park this summer. The outdoor classroom teaching pavilion will be located about 30 feet off of the main path between the parking lot and the visitor’s center. It will measure 20 feet by 28 feet and feature a concrete floor and open sides, with the roof supported by pillars, said Park Manager Kevin Munroe. The pavilion will be painted to match the visitor’s center. Crews have already begun preparing the site, said Munroe, who hopes to have the pavilion complete by July or August. “We will pretty much start using it as soon as it’s in,” Munroe said. “We’ll use it for all sorts of programs—school programs, camp …
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Carolyn Gamble is retiring after 30 years at the park.
She may be in charge at the Huntley Meadows Park visitor’s center, but to Jack and Wyatt Downey, Carolyn Gamble is simply “Miss Carolyn.” Gamble, site manager at the park, welcomed the 3-year-old twins into open arms Wednesday at a party in her honor. Gamble retired Wednesday after serving at the park for 30 years. Along the way, she made fans young and old and met the twins while playing piano for one of their classes at the park. “There was one class where, after class, there’s craft time, and being little boys, sometimes they’re not always so focused,” said the boys’ mother, Amy Downey of Kingstowne. “And she sat and read books with them for 15 minutes. It was so sweet. You could tell all three of them enjoyed it equally.” Gamble, 58, …
Monday, December 12, 2011
The Friends of Huntley Meadows hosted their annual photography show and reception this weekend.
The Friends of Huntley Meadows Park hosted its annual photography show and artists' reception Sunday afternoon.
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3701 Lockheed Blvd, Alexandria, VA
Huntley Meadows Park
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Friday, December 9, 2011
Down Route 1 a spell
Today, Patch visited Huntley Meadows Park in Alexandria. The park is a stone's throw from Route 1, and the peaceful quiet breeze that sifts through the corndog grass makes it seem like an oasis in a concrete jungle. Here's a good description from the Friends of Huntley Meadows Park website: "Huntley Meadows lies in a wet lowland that was carved out by an ancient meander of the Potomac River. The resulting freshwater wetland is one of the rarest habitats left in Fairfax County. In colonial times, this land was part of the extensive plantation holdings of George Mason IV. Mason family ownership lasted into the early 1900s, with sections of the land sold for family farms. In the late 1920s, entrepreneur and aeronautic enthusiast Henry …
Thursday, October 13, 2011
90 percent of the new boardwalk is made from recycled milk jugs.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Will Sommer
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Thursday, October 13, 2011
After two months of work, a new boardwalk is opening at Huntley Meadows Park, making it easier for visitors to experience the park's wetlands. The new boardwalk is being marked with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday, October 22, at 10 a.m. in the park's visitor center. The old surface of the half-mile boardwalk, laid in 1993, had started to fall apart, according to Kevin Munroe, the park's manager. "We had squeezed every last bit of life out of it that we could," he said. While the boardwalk's beam foundation remains the same, its surface has been replaced with a plastic lumber called high-density polyethylene, or HDPE. HDPE is non-toxic. 90% of the boardwalk's new surface is made from recycled milk jugs. To allow for the …
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Huntley Meadows Park
3701 Lockheed Blvd, Alexandria, VA
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Thursday, August 4, 2011
No rain today, but lots of clouds; today in history, Anne Frank is captured; wagon rides in the park
Today we’ll have lots of clouds keeping the temperature hovering around 90 degrees and the UV index low. Some clouds will dissipate by the later afternoon. We don’t expect any rain. On this day in the year 1944 Anne Frank and her family were captured by the Nazi Gestapo when a Dutch informer gave up their hiding place where they had lived for two years. Anne would die in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp less than a year later. Read The Secret Annex to hear Anne’s story in her own words. Enjoy a 90-minute wagon ride through the wetlands of Huntley Meadows Park. A naturalist will help you and kids four years old and up look for butterflies or hunt for bats. Stop for a snack at the observation platform. Rides leave from the South King’s …
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Huntley Meadows Park
3701 Lockheed Blvd, Alexandria, VA
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Saturday, July 16, 2011
New boardwalk will be made out of recycled milk jugs.
- THE NEIGHBORHOOD FILES
- Clare Palo
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Saturday, July 16, 2011
Bad news, birdwatchers: your weekly dose of boardwalking, chirps, and sweet songs will have to be postponed until the fall Huntley Meadows Park's boardwalk will be closing for renovation and reconstruction in August, leaving many people without a place to connect to nature and peaceful daily strolls. Huntley Meadows Park is the well-renowned prime spot for learning more about the environment and taking a close look at nature. Many visitors walk along the half mile wetland boardwalk trail and observation tower to see the Meadows' many guests including muskrats, beavers, frogs, and many species of birds. The park will be closing the “loop section” of the boardwalk on August 1, and the second section of the boardwalk, the “tower section," …
38.76037
-77.09557
Huntley Meadows Park
3701 Lockheed Blvd, Alexandria, VA
/articles/huntley-meadows-park-boardwalk-to-close-for-repairs-2
1481963
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K Lee
9:53 am on Thursday, May 10, 2012
I have been coming to the Open Houses at Historic Huntley for many years, and have been a Friend of Historic Huntley for several years as well. I have been wondering when the house would ever be restored. How exciting to see that day finally realized! The old house looks wonderful! I certainly will attend the Grand Opening on May 19th, wouldn't miss it! I hope the public realizes what a gem they … more ›