Gum Springs: A Slave’s Legacy, Part III
Michael K. Bohn
This is the third in a four-part series on the history and future of Gum Springs, a historically African-American community in the Mount Vernonarea. It was published in the Mount Vernon Gazette during February 2010 in recognition of African-American History Month.
Growing Pains
The successes that the residents of Gum Springs achieved in improving their community have been substantial, even heroic in some cases. Their efforts, however, have not been a seamless flow of good news. Beginning in the late 1970s, there were instances of reported mismanagement or “accounting irregularities” involving the neighborhood’s community improvement organizations.
Buoyed by the increasing national success of the civil rights movement, Gum Springs residents formed the Saunders B. Moon Community Action Association in 1965. Named for the deceased principal of Gum Springs’Drew-Smith School, the association acquired federal, state, and local funding to sponsor social programs on the former Drew-Smith campus (the school closed after desegregation). The association created its housing arm in 1977, the Housing Development Corporation, headed initially by Kay Holland.
In 1978, a Fairfax County audit discovered that the Moon Association had not paid tens of thousands of dollars in federal and state withholding taxes for county-funded employees. In response, the county board of supervisors installed themselves as trustees of the association, and in 1980, agreed to pay association debts of $110,000.
The U.S. department of energy accused the Moon Association in 1980 of misusing federal funds awarded to winterize poorly insulated Gum Springs houses belonging to low-income residents. Twenty of the fifty-seven upgraded houses reportedly belonged to ineligible residents—their income exceeded the maximum specified by the grant.
The Saunders B. Moon Community Action Association changed its name to the Gum Springs Community Development Corporation (GSCDC) in the mid-1980s.
In 1990, Fairfax County, citing mismanagement and other problems, took control of the county-funded day care center operated by GSCDC. The corporation accused the county of interference. “Fairfax County doesn’t want us to have our freedom,” said Sally Pullen, the GSCDC president. She also suggested that the county’s actions were no different that the oppressive control of the Jim Crow days. Verdia L. Haywood, then deputy county executive for human services, denied the actions were racially motivated, “It has nothing to do with the past.” he told the news media.
Fairfax County cancelled its $580,000 social services contract with GSCDC in 1996. An audit had discovered $155,400 in unpaid bills at the corporation. Since 1996, the county has directly funded and operated all activities at theGum Springs Community Center. The GSCDC has disappeared and no organization has taken its place.
Turning Point
In 1979, Fairfax County adopted a Neighborhood Improvement Program and Conservation Plan for Gum Springs, the goal of which was to preserve the area as a viable residential community. Both the county government and residents then seemed focused on the same objectives—maintain Gum Springs’ historic place in the county and improve life for its residents.
Yet as both the housing and general conditions improved in Gum Springs, alert residents started noticing that outside builders were buying parcels in the community. Homeowners began to worry that the very fabric of their neighborhood was slipping away. “We as a black community are being swallowed everywhere,” said Gladys Quander Tancil in 1987. “We are being displaced,” continued Tancil, a descendent of a Mount Vernon slave. “Our land is being sold to developers. And pretty soon, we just won’t exist.”
Fairfax County carved out a segment of the Conservation Plan area in 1990 to pave the way for the construction of the Village at Gum Springs. Officials set aside twenty of the 158 units for low-income buyers, but distributed the rights to purchase those units by lottery. While the development was a step up from a seedy motel and trailer park that occupied part of the land, this was the first major housing project not aimed directly at Gum Springs residents. Anyone could buy a house there, and the advertisements for the project never mentioned the history of Gum Springs, touting only the convenient location.
The Gums Springs Conservation Plan has expired, and Gum Springs activists are working with county staff to revitalize it.
For the last fifteen years, people have been moving into Gum Springs not because it has been a sanctuary for freedmen or a refuge from discrimination. They seemed to have bought or built houses because the community offered a nice place to live. An informal poll of a few residents of Mount Woodley Manor and the Village at Gum Springs supports the theory that many are unaware of their neighborhood’s history. Both areas are racially diverse and are closer to the greater Mount Vernon district demographics.
Today, there are multiple pockets of new “infill” houses throughout Gum Springs. During the housing bubble of the 2000s, builders would raze a bungalow and erect three new homes in its place, and target vacant lots for McMansions. A listing for one in 2007 asked $900,000, an extraordinary shift in Gum Springs real estate values.
According to Queenie Cox, president of the Gum Springs Civic Association, regular participation in neighborhood activities now seems to be limited to a group of what she calls “seasoned” African-American residents, those with long family ties to the community. She noted that representatives of the Village and Mount Woodley Manor had initially attended the civic association meetings, but none do now.
“New residents aren't interested in the history of Gum Springs,” Cox said. “They appear to be interested in living in a community that fits their lifestyle. Nothing more.”
Both Cox and Chase believe that Gum Springs can keep its cultural identity only through a continuing struggle to educate new residents about the community’s unique past. “If we don’t keep trying,” Chase said, “Gum Springs is headed for oblivion.”
“The success in Gum Springs must be a mixed blessing,” concluded John Vlatch in 2007. He is a professor of American Studies and Anthropology atGeorge Washington University, and a long-time observer of Gum Springs. “They got what they wished for, but at a cost. Gum Springs is just blending into the larger population.”
Gum Springs folks fought hard for a better life and they generally succeeded. Sadly though, the prosperity that they finally achieved may be the undoing of their identity.
Michael K. Bohn
This is the third in a four-part series on the history and future of Gum Springs, a historically African-American community in the Mount Vernonarea. It was published in the Mount Vernon Gazette during February 2010 in recognition of African-American History Month.
Growing Pains
The successes that the residents of Gum Springs achieved in improving their community have been substantial, even heroic in some cases. Their efforts, however, have not been a seamless flow of good news. Beginning in the late 1970s, there were instances of reported mismanagement or “accounting irregularities” involving the neighborhood’s community improvement organizations.
Buoyed by the increasing national success of the civil rights movement, Gum Springs residents formed the Saunders B. Moon Community Action Association in 1965. Named for the deceased principal of Gum Springs’Drew-Smith School, the association acquired federal, state, and local funding to sponsor social programs on the former Drew-Smith campus (the school closed after desegregation). The association created its housing arm in 1977, the Housing Development Corporation, headed initially by Kay Holland.
In 1978, a Fairfax County audit discovered that the Moon Association had not paid tens of thousands of dollars in federal and state withholding taxes for county-funded employees. In response, the county board of supervisors installed themselves as trustees of the association, and in 1980, agreed to pay association debts of $110,000.
The U.S. department of energy accused the Moon Association in 1980 of misusing federal funds awarded to winterize poorly insulated Gum Springs houses belonging to low-income residents. Twenty of the fifty-seven upgraded houses reportedly belonged to ineligible residents—their income exceeded the maximum specified by the grant.
The Saunders B. Moon Community Action Association changed its name to the Gum Springs Community Development Corporation (GSCDC) in the mid-1980s.
In 1990, Fairfax County, citing mismanagement and other problems, took control of the county-funded day care center operated by GSCDC. The corporation accused the county of interference. “Fairfax County doesn’t want us to have our freedom,” said Sally Pullen, the GSCDC president. She also suggested that the county’s actions were no different that the oppressive control of the Jim Crow days. Verdia L. Haywood, then deputy county executive for human services, denied the actions were racially motivated, “It has nothing to do with the past.” he told the news media.
Fairfax County cancelled its $580,000 social services contract with GSCDC in 1996. An audit had discovered $155,400 in unpaid bills at the corporation. Since 1996, the county has directly funded and operated all activities at theGum Springs Community Center. The GSCDC has disappeared and no organization has taken its place.
Turning Point
In 1979, Fairfax County adopted a Neighborhood Improvement Program and Conservation Plan for Gum Springs, the goal of which was to preserve the area as a viable residential community. Both the county government and residents then seemed focused on the same objectives—maintain Gum Springs’ historic place in the county and improve life for its residents.
Yet as both the housing and general conditions improved in Gum Springs, alert residents started noticing that outside builders were buying parcels in the community. Homeowners began to worry that the very fabric of their neighborhood was slipping away. “We as a black community are being swallowed everywhere,” said Gladys Quander Tancil in 1987. “We are being displaced,” continued Tancil, a descendent of a Mount Vernon slave. “Our land is being sold to developers. And pretty soon, we just won’t exist.”
Fairfax County carved out a segment of the Conservation Plan area in 1990 to pave the way for the construction of the Village at Gum Springs. Officials set aside twenty of the 158 units for low-income buyers, but distributed the rights to purchase those units by lottery. While the development was a step up from a seedy motel and trailer park that occupied part of the land, this was the first major housing project not aimed directly at Gum Springs residents. Anyone could buy a house there, and the advertisements for the project never mentioned the history of Gum Springs, touting only the convenient location.
The Gums Springs Conservation Plan has expired, and Gum Springs activists are working with county staff to revitalize it.
For the last fifteen years, people have been moving into Gum Springs not because it has been a sanctuary for freedmen or a refuge from discrimination. They seemed to have bought or built houses because the community offered a nice place to live. An informal poll of a few residents of Mount Woodley Manor and the Village at Gum Springs supports the theory that many are unaware of their neighborhood’s history. Both areas are racially diverse and are closer to the greater Mount Vernon district demographics.
Today, there are multiple pockets of new “infill” houses throughout Gum Springs. During the housing bubble of the 2000s, builders would raze a bungalow and erect three new homes in its place, and target vacant lots for McMansions. A listing for one in 2007 asked $900,000, an extraordinary shift in Gum Springs real estate values.
According to Queenie Cox, president of the Gum Springs Civic Association, regular participation in neighborhood activities now seems to be limited to a group of what she calls “seasoned” African-American residents, those with long family ties to the community. She noted that representatives of the Village and Mount Woodley Manor had initially attended the civic association meetings, but none do now.
“New residents aren't interested in the history of Gum Springs,” Cox said. “They appear to be interested in living in a community that fits their lifestyle. Nothing more.”
Both Cox and Chase believe that Gum Springs can keep its cultural identity only through a continuing struggle to educate new residents about the community’s unique past. “If we don’t keep trying,” Chase said, “Gum Springs is headed for oblivion.”
“The success in Gum Springs must be a mixed blessing,” concluded John Vlatch in 2007. He is a professor of American Studies and Anthropology atGeorge Washington University, and a long-time observer of Gum Springs. “They got what they wished for, but at a cost. Gum Springs is just blending into the larger population.”
Gum Springs folks fought hard for a better life and they generally succeeded. Sadly though, the prosperity that they finally achieved may be the undoing of their identity.
