In some Northern Virginia suburbs, original houses — particularly modest postwar styles — are becoming rarer as owners and developers raze and build bigger on valuable real estate near D.C. That’s not the case in Fairfax County’s Signal Hill, where residents rhapsodize about the neighborhood’s well-appointed Colonials and moderns.
By Hope Hodge Seck
Jackie Morra, a resident since 1994, has a copy of a 1977 Washington Post advertising the nascent neighborhood, with house prices starting in the upper $80,000s. She recalled a flurry of interest in the real estate then; the neighborhood was quickly occupied. But Burke, she said, never became as densely settled as places like Arlington and Alexandria closer in to the District, which she appreciates.
And even 30 years after she and her late husband purchased their house, a split-level modern on Fort Craig Drive, she can’t stop raving about it.
The house has an open floor plan and ceilings that range from 17 to 21 feet high. “And so it’s really just beautiful. I mean, it’s really nice,” she said.
The neighborhood is supported by the Signal Hill Homes Association, administered by a management company, but with a board of elected residents. At monthly board meetings, members maintain the neighborhood aesthetic, enforcing standards on the painting of garage doors and the placement of trash cans. But they also try to troubleshoot neighbors’ concerns, including uneven sidewalks that pose a tripping hazard and squeaky basketball hoops.
Kurt Duty, the board president and a resident since 2005, said the board tries to keep its approach to neighborhood maintenance collaborative, not onerous. That also applies to the HOA fee, a reasonable $153 per year.
Duty has also worked to make Signal Hill welcoming. About three years ago, before he became president, he said, he kick-started a welcome gift program for new residents.
“Face-to-face only; there’s no dropping the gift off,” Duty said. “We give them information about how to connect with the website, some of the important information they might want to know about the community.”
The 17K Metrobus, with direct service to the Pentagon, makes Signal Hill particularly popular for members of the military. Michael Couchman, a career Air Force officer, depends on the route for his 25-minute commute.
Couchman and his family moved to the Signal Hill area in 2015, attracted to the area’s highly rated schools. They bought a house in the neighborhood two years later. In addition to Signal Hill’s wooded common areas and walking paths, Couchman said his family has enjoyed the neighborhood social connections that have come easily through house parties and common activities, such as Boy Scouts.
“We still have folks over, and we still have that close-knit connection of friends,” Couchman said. “We kind of bounce around from different houses. One time we’ll host, and then somebody else will host, that kind of thing.”
While some original homeowners, now in their 80s, are choosing to depart the neighborhood, annual turnover in Signal Hill is moderate. Duty, a real estate agent with the Duty Group of Compass, said 15 houses were sold in the last year, ranging from $1.1 million for a six-bedroom, 4,000-square-foot Modern with a large back deck and two-car garage, to $650,000 for an “extreme fixer-upper” with three bedrooms on 1,300 square feet. The average time on the market for Signal Hill houses last year was six days, Duty said.
There are no houses in the neighborhood currently on the market or under contract.
One original owner, Linda Wirth, is still marveling at the good fortune that led her and her husband to Signal Hill as a military family arriving from a posting in Germany. It was 1979, and construction was just concluding on their corner-lot house. A librarian, Wirth loved that the Kings Park Library was a short walk away, and she still treasures the leafy trees that lined the street and the nearby trails and parks. Lake Accotink, a popular walking and recreation destination, is just two miles from Signal Hill.
“I used to bike down there and bike around,” she said, “I have so many pictures of deer and great blue heron.”
Notably for Burke, which is largely residential, the neighborhood has easy access to two shopping centers that together include a Giant grocery store, an H-Mart Asian food market, a Peet’s Coffee and local restaurants including Giardino’s, a popular Italian spot.
These local dining options also provide opportunities for social connection, she said. Amid the covid-19 pandemic, the Kings Park Shopping Center added more outdoor seating, and Wirth and a friend make a point of meeting there every Thursday to get a warm drink from Peet’s, chat and greet neighbors as they stroll by.
“We just sit there and talk,” she said. “It’s turned into a community gathering spot, which has just really been nice.”
Schools: Ravensworth Elementary, Lake Braddock Middle and Lake Braddock High.
Transit: The Virginia Railway Express, providing commuter service into D.C., has a station stop on Rolling Road inside the neighborhood. The 17K Metrobus and 306 Fairfax Connector stop along Burke Lake Road, within walking distance.
