Tinner Hill Historical District Tinner Hill Road

Tinner Hill Historical District Tinner Hill Road

Circa 1900-1940 for historic district

Historic monument dedicated June 5, 1999

Tinner Hill is a community in Falls Church, Virginia at the intersection of Tinner Hill Road and Washington Street (Lee Highway) that shares land with Fairfax County—it is officially in both jurisdictions. The street itself has nine frame houses painted white, most still owned by relatives in the Tinner family that started the community in 1890. The oldest house may be the two-story wood frame with gable roof and 934 sq. ft. of living area at 107 Tinner Hill St., listed as built in 1870. It has three bedrooms and one bath.
African American life in Falls Church predates the 1700s. Enslaved and free African Americans lived, worked (too often as enslaved labor), struggled, and prospered for generations before the Civil War.
The Tinner Hill community began right after the Civil War when Charles and Elizabeth Tinner purchased land and divided it among their ten children. The Tinners, outstanding craftsmen and highly skilled stonemasons in the 19th century, created a solid and thriving community which, remarkably, continues today. The Tinner Hill neighborhood is a noteworthy array of vernacular homes dating from the late 19th and the early 20th centuries, still owned and occupied primarily by Tinner descendants.
Charles H. and Mary E. Tinner in 1890 paid $375 for 2.5 acres here (part of 1724 1,291-acre Pearson Grant), built a home on the crest and later provided lots from that property for their children. They farmed the land, quarried granite from the valley, and served as regional craftsmen. Also in 1890, the council moved the boundary of the town so that most families of African American descent would reside in Fairfax County. The Tinner family together with the Hendersons were principal civil rights leaders in the region and formed in 1915 the first rural chapter chartered by the NAACP.
An early rural branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was founded on Tinner Hill. In 1915, the Town of Falls Church proposed an ordinance to segregate Black and White residential sections. Local African Americans formed the Colored Citizens Protective League and fought this ordinance. In 1918, the league became the Falls Church and Vicinity Branch of the NAACP. Meeting in members’ homes around Tinner Hill, the branch focused on public education, voter registration, travel regulations, and equal access to public services. Strategies developed by the branch were effectively used in other localities throughout the Civil Rights era.
The Tinner Hill Heritage Site is located on the west side of the street. There is a park with several interpretive markers. The park marker reads: 1875-1928-
Joseph Tinner was the first president of the Falls Church branch of the NAACP (National Association for Colored People) and was a stonemason who quarried from the base of Tinner Hill, the billion year- old granite used in the Tinner Hill monument.
The Tinner Hill site itself is the former home of Joseph and Elizabeth Tinner who fought segregation laws after the borders of neighboring areas cut directly through their property. This is noted on the marker. Their actions helped lead to the first rural branch of the NAACP. The ZigZag monument sculpture follows the original location of the segregation line.
Markers note that Edward Bancroft Henderson was the principal organizer of the first NAACP rural branch. Dr. Henderson was the most vocal civil rights advocate in this region for over 50 years.
Henderson (see template for Henderson House) stands a block away.
There are several markers in the Tinner Hill area. In addition to markers, a block-long sidewalk in front of a Target store on Washington Street (across the street and west of Tinner Hill) traces the history of civil rights.
A 14-foot arch of pink granite monument, sometimes called the Tinner Hill arch, was erected at the cor- ner where Target now stands. The inscription (left side) reads: This monument commemorates the in- habitants of the Tinner Hill area who risked their livelihoods and their lives to defend the principles of the U.S. Bill of Rights.
Funded by a Commonwealth of Virginia Grant, the Wollenbert Foundation, and individual donations, the donation of the land was from International Motors and the City of Falls Church.
The Tinner Hill Historic District is listed on the Fairfax County Inventory of Historic Sites.

Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Landscapes Survey HALS VA-54 https://www.loc.gov/item/va2212/

Providence

Historic District is 106-120 Tinner Hill Road, Falls Church

Parcel numbers: 050-2 ((7)) 1 050-2 ((7)) 2 050-2 ((7)) 3 050-2 ((7)) 4 050-2 ((7)) 4A 050-2 ((7)) 4B
050-2 ((7)) 6 050-2 ((7)) 7 050-2 ((7)) 8 050-2 ((7)) 8A 050-2 ((7)) 9

The park is at 38° 52.785′ N, 77° 10.603′ W. Marker is in Falls Church, Virginia. Marker is at the intersection of Tinner Hill Road and South Washington Steet (U.S. 29), on the left when traveling north on Tinner Hill Road. Marker is at 508 S. Washington St., Falls Church 22046

Monument: 38° 52.782′ N, 77° 10.604′ W. Marker is in Falls Church, Virginia. Marker is at the intersection of Washington Street / Lee Highway (U.S. 29) and Tinner Hill Street, on the right when traveling west on Washington Street / Lee Highway. Falls Church

Virginia Department of Human Resources Marker: 38° 52.763′ N, 77° 10.59′ W. Marker is Falls Church, Virginia. Marker is on Tinner Hill Road south of Lee Highway (U.S. 29), on the right when traveling south

A marker erected by city of Falls Church is at 38° 52.75′ N, 77° 10.586′ W. Marker is in Falls Church, Virginia. Marker is on Tinner Hill Road just south of South Washington Street (U.S. 29), on the right when traveling south.

Significance: Tinner Hill is the site of the first rural branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in the United States. It was led by two of its residents, Dr. E.B. Henderson and Joseph Tinner. Three significant events happened here. The first was the 1890 gerrymandering of the Town boundaries to exclude the existing African American communities, the second event was the successful attempt to repeal the proposed 1916 segregation ordinance that would have prohibited Blacks from purchasing land and property in Falls Church and the third was the construction of Lee Highway and Hillwood Avenue which further segregated the Black and White communities. These events transformed an ordinary community into a historically significant site, and in doing so, Tinner Hill has become a quiet symbol of an African American community that fought to maintain its identity and its place within the city, despite institutional efforts at separation and segregation. Sur- vey number: HALS VA-54 (Building/structure dates: ca. 1890 Subsequent Work; Building/structure dates: ca. 1900 Subsequent Work; Building/structure dates: ca. 1914- ca. 1918 Subsequent Work)

Erected 2005 by Virginia Department of Historic Resources. (Marker Number C-91.)

Photos provided courtesy of Sue Kovach Shuman