Tinner Hill Historic Site

Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation is working with the City of Falls Church, Fairfax County and the Board of Supervisors the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, Virginia Tech Landscape Design Program to develop a landscape design for the Tinner Hill 1/2 acre site that will commemorate and celebrate the civil rights pioneers who lived in Falls Church. The park may feature an outdoor performance space, honoring John Jackson, for musical, performing arts and educational events.

The Tinner Hill Foundation is developing plans to create a interpretive site that will commemorate the location of the first rural branch of the NAACP and provide information about the early civil rights movement in Virginia. The primary purpose of the historic site is to powerfully and effectively convey an educational message about the history of the property and the individuals who sacrificed so much in the fight against racial discrimination.

This initiative includes the development, implementation and management of a site on a ½-acre property located on Tinner Hill Street in Falls Church, Virginia. An area map of Tinner Hill outlines the location of the future historic site. In 1918, at a home on this ½-acre site, Joseph Tinner and E.B. Henderson organized a meeting of the first rural branch of the NAACP in the United States.

Currently discussions are underway between various stakeholders including, Fairfax Country, the City of Falls Church, the School of Architecture Design at Virginia Tech and Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority (NVRPA). The first planning steps have included a series of meeting between THHF, the residents of Tinner Hill, elected officials, school board members, and educators as well as a number other stakeholders. In December, 2008 Tinner Hill staff attended a national park planning conference where the Tinner Hill project was been invited to be presented as a case study. On Dec. 16, 2008 Tinner Hill staff organized a panel of advisors from across the country to begin conceptualizing a vision for Tinner Hill, this group included current and potential partners and the City of Falls Church.