NATURE
Make Friends With Our Parks!
Celebrate our amazing system of parks with Friends of Hollin Hills through:
Learn about the wealth of our parks!
Hollin Hills supports seven parks owned by the Civic Association of Hollin Hills (CAHH) covering 30+ acres of woods, open areas and streams. Each park has a unique history and ecosystem and offers a variety of ways to be in touch with nature. An adventure playground, a wilderness sanctuary, extensive wooded walking paths, native plantings, a bocce court--our parks offer all these and more. All are open to the public.
Make time in your lives to Make Friends With Our Parks!
The seven Hollin Hills parks are the Wildlife Sanctuary, Sutton Potter Park, Brickelmaier Park, Charles Goodman Park, Paul Spring Park, Voigt Memorial Park and "Mac" McCalley Park. The Fort Hunt Entrance Garden is our newest, and smallest, park.
Plan to join Friends in building out this initiative and celebrating our 30-plus acres of parkland.
Celebrate our amazing system of parks with Friends of Hollin Hills through:
- social and educational events
- maps featuring each park's unique offerings and value
- plant guides, exploration challenges and fun activities for kids
- an oral & pictorial history of our Hollin Hills parks.
Learn about the wealth of our parks!
Hollin Hills supports seven parks owned by the Civic Association of Hollin Hills (CAHH) covering 30+ acres of woods, open areas and streams. Each park has a unique history and ecosystem and offers a variety of ways to be in touch with nature. An adventure playground, a wilderness sanctuary, extensive wooded walking paths, native plantings, a bocce court--our parks offer all these and more. All are open to the public.
Make time in your lives to Make Friends With Our Parks!
The seven Hollin Hills parks are the Wildlife Sanctuary, Sutton Potter Park, Brickelmaier Park, Charles Goodman Park, Paul Spring Park, Voigt Memorial Park and "Mac" McCalley Park. The Fort Hunt Entrance Garden is our newest, and smallest, park.
Plan to join Friends in building out this initiative and celebrating our 30-plus acres of parkland.
Featured Parks with Native Demonstration Projects
McCalley Park Native Demonstration Park
Rendering of two of four sections of native plantings in McCalley Park by HH Parks Chair Gretchen Spenser.
Volunteer work crew who gathered to create the McCalley Park
Native Demonstration Garden, underwritten by FOHH.
McCalley Park is small but mighty. Located at the corner of Rippon and Paul Spring Roads. It is named for Charles R. “Mac” McCalley, the construction foreman of Hollin Hills from 1949 to 1971. It is the home of Hollin HIll’s Annual 4th of July celebration and winter community sing.
McCalley’s location made it ideal for creating a native plant demonstration garden that will help us all learn the value of native plants for offering wildlife habitats, diminishing stormwater runoff, and increasing visitors’ understanding of the value of native plants.
In 2023, the HH Parks Committee, with a grant from Friends of Hollin Hills and volunteer labor, turned an invasive infested area into a native showcase. Now, where English Ivy, bamboo, Honeysuckle, Japanese Stiltgrass, and more, once thrived, visitors find a wide range of native plantings, including a perenniel Caroling Tree.
Since McCalley’s topography requires plants that like part sun to full shade and moist to wet soil, it offers ideas for the landscaping challenges that many gardeners face in Hollin Hills.
Interesting Facts
The smallest of Hollin Hills Parks, it is maintained, not owned, by the Civic Association. The original house flooded so often that in 1990, Fairfax county purchased the land, razed the house and gave CAHH the responsibility for maintaining it.
The location makes McCalley ideal for annual community events: pony rides and activities during the Annual Fourth of July celebration and the traditional location for the annual winter community sing.
HH Park Wardens: Alice Cisternino and Daniel Fragiadakis
Comments
McCalley’s location made it ideal for creating a native plant demonstration garden that will help us all learn the value of native plants for offering wildlife habitats, diminishing stormwater runoff, and increasing visitors’ understanding of the value of native plants.
In 2023, the HH Parks Committee, with a grant from Friends of Hollin Hills and volunteer labor, turned an invasive infested area into a native showcase. Now, where English Ivy, bamboo, Honeysuckle, Japanese Stiltgrass, and more, once thrived, visitors find a wide range of native plantings, including a perenniel Caroling Tree.
Since McCalley’s topography requires plants that like part sun to full shade and moist to wet soil, it offers ideas for the landscaping challenges that many gardeners face in Hollin Hills.
Interesting Facts
The smallest of Hollin Hills Parks, it is maintained, not owned, by the Civic Association. The original house flooded so often that in 1990, Fairfax county purchased the land, razed the house and gave CAHH the responsibility for maintaining it.
The location makes McCalley ideal for annual community events: pony rides and activities during the Annual Fourth of July celebration and the traditional location for the annual winter community sing.
HH Park Wardens: Alice Cisternino and Daniel Fragiadakis
Comments
- Can you add information to the history and use of this park? Or have memories to share? Send them to [email protected].
Fort Hunt Entrance Garden
The Entrance Garden in Fall bloom. Native gardens can be designed to bloom or provide interest throughout the year.
The Audubon Society of Northern Virginia and Plant NOVA Natives awarded a grant to Hollin Hills in 2021 to create a native plant garden design to provide berries, seeds, nectar, and pollen for insects and birds; food for butterfly and moth larvae; and nesting sites and shelter for birds and other wildlife.
Planners envisioned a long-blooming period from pink-and-white striped creeping phlox in the early spring to deep sky-blue asters in the fall. Colors shift with the seasons, offering a vibrant palette of pink, orange-red, yellow, and blue against a backdrop of evergreen shrubs and three Canadian serviceberry trees. Native plants support birds and wildlife while looking beautiful Volunteers worked with neighborhood landscape architect, Elisabeth Lardner.
Interesting Facts
Native plants are those that occur naturally within a certain area. They co-evolve with insects and other creatures that support our local ecosystem. Natives are perfect in your landscape. They are low maintenance, support local wildlife and conserve water since they are highly adapted to local growing conditions.
It is said that Serviceberry trees get their name from the fact that they bloom shortly after the ground thaws, an indication in the olden days that people could be buried in the cemetery.
Needs
The plants were planted and are cared for by Hollin Hills' Parks Committee volunteers. Watch for opportunities to join them!
Comments
Can you add information to the history and use of this park? Or have memories to share? Send them to [email protected].
HH Park Warden: Marie Spittell
Planners envisioned a long-blooming period from pink-and-white striped creeping phlox in the early spring to deep sky-blue asters in the fall. Colors shift with the seasons, offering a vibrant palette of pink, orange-red, yellow, and blue against a backdrop of evergreen shrubs and three Canadian serviceberry trees. Native plants support birds and wildlife while looking beautiful Volunteers worked with neighborhood landscape architect, Elisabeth Lardner.
Interesting Facts
Native plants are those that occur naturally within a certain area. They co-evolve with insects and other creatures that support our local ecosystem. Natives are perfect in your landscape. They are low maintenance, support local wildlife and conserve water since they are highly adapted to local growing conditions.
It is said that Serviceberry trees get their name from the fact that they bloom shortly after the ground thaws, an indication in the olden days that people could be buried in the cemetery.
Needs
The plants were planted and are cared for by Hollin Hills' Parks Committee volunteers. Watch for opportunities to join them!
Comments
Can you add information to the history and use of this park? Or have memories to share? Send them to [email protected].
HH Park Warden: Marie Spittell
