GAINSWave Therapy in West Springfield, VA

Moving to Springfield VA

Springfield, Virginia is a gem of a place in the DC Area and the lifestyle provides awesome opportunities for food, fun and families. We’re going to cover the Springfield lifestyle in this video. If you want to know more about real estate, check out our other video on Springfield as well!

Springfield comprises three different parts. West Springfield is west of I-95, and south of the beltway. The north end extends a bit north of Braddock Road and the south end goes just past the Fairfax County Parkway. Springfield straddles 95 and is both inside and outside the beltway. And then North Springfield fits right in between the two. There is no East or South Springfield.

The closest metro stop is Franconia-Springfield Metro.

Food

Springfield does not lack in the food department and has some of the best restaurants and bakeries. Swiss Bakery & Pastry shop off of Braddock Rd has great deli sandwiches and fresh homemade bread. The bakery sweets are sinful, and the grocery area offers so many hard to get Swiss and German treats. Also we highly recommend Yindee Thai off of Old Keene Mill Rd. They have been open for a long time and their food is some of the best in the area.

Bob & Edith’s Diner is an institution – the best diner in the area. It is always busy but it’s worth the wait. It is a true diner down to the Mid-Century decor and you know the food is going to be great when they bring out a white coffee mug with the blue ring. They know how to cook eggs perfectly.

Springfield Town Center has a lot of great chain restaurants. Yardhouse has great beers and the food is great.

The grocery store options are fantastic as well. You are close to an H Mart, Whole Foods, and Trader Joe’s but you also have the option of going to the more traditional stores like Giant, Safeway, etc. Springfield has a lot of international grocery stores that include Afghani stores, African stores, mercados, and Indian, just to name a few. These markets are awesome for locating ingredients for recipes.

Orkney Springs Distillery is awesome and worth a visit. If you are wine drinker, you are not a far drive from Paradise Springs Winery in Clifton. It’s a really beautiful drive down Burke Lake Rd or the Parkway.

Fun

Summer is coming, let’s talk summer fun first. Some communities have their own pools in Springfield which are part of their Homeowner’s Association. Daventry, Danbury Forest, Shannon Station Pool at Keene Mill Village, and the Timbers are some of those communities.

If your community doesn’t have a pool, then there are membership based pools and they are all over Springfield. I mean, all over – there are about a dozen pools in such a relatively small geographic area.

Places like Springboard Pool is not only a pool, but they have movie nights, volleyball, ping pong, shuffleboard and social events. Family membership is $595 and there is currently a waitlist, but no indication of timing.

Springfield Swim and Raquet Club is $535 for a family membership.

North Springfield Swim Club is for those living in, North Springfield. They do check your address. It’s $550 for a family membership.

Village West Pool has a variety of membership options but for families the cost is $545 for up to 4 family members or $610 if you have 5 or more.

Canterbury Woods Swim Club is just north of Braddock Road. Their membership fee is $625, but requires you to buy a pool bond for $300. You can try the pool for one year without purchasing the bond, but then you must purchase if you plan to remain a member.

Rolling Forest Recreation Association is a non-profit serving residents of West Springfield. Residents of the Winter Forest HOA and Rolling Forest subdivisions are called Charter Members and automatically allowed to join. Winter Forest is required to join, Rolling Forest is optional but you would lose your right to membership. You can regain the right but you wouldn’t ever be able to vote. The cost for those communities is $520. Other residents in the area may join but the cost is $600 and there are no voting rights.

Parliament Pool Association doesn’t have restrictions on where you live. Memberships are $300 initiation and run from $250 for an individual membership to $500 for a family.

Walden Glen Swim & Racquet also requires membership. The cost is $495 for an individual membership, $730 for a family membership and $200 for tennis only.

There are several others including Orange Hunt Swim & Tennis Club, Rolling Valley Swim and Tennis, Fox Hunt Swim and Tennis, and Saratoga Recreation Group.

For more year round type of fun, there’s Lake Accotink Park. There’s a 3.8 mile trail that goes around the lake, and the park hosts a variety of outdoor, nature-themed programs in the form of classes and camps. Birdwatching, Kayaking, Mountain Biking, mini-golf, hiking, and there’s a carousel here making this a place of fun for kids and adults too.

We’ll talk about the St James here and in the next section for kiddos, because it’s so great we need to cover it twice. Walking into the St James is like walking onto a college campus in heaven. There are tons of sports fields inside for everything you can think of, there are pools and a water park, football, lacrosse and soccer are in the field house. Baseball and softball are in the Hitting House. There’s a Court house for basketball and Volleyball, an ice house for skating and hockey, and then there’s cheer, dance, gymnastics, climbing, and golf.

Another place for family fun is the Go Ape Zipline and Adventure Park. It’s located at the South Run Recreation Center. There are several different options for various levels and abilities. And speaking of South Run Recreation Center, there’s a lot there as well. Group fitness classes, swimming, plus a field house with synthetic turf for most sports. Then outside there are trails, basketball courts, baseball/softball diamonds, soccer fields, tennis and trails.

The Sydenstricker Schoolhouse was built in 1928 and what’s amazing about this schoolhouse is that it is still a bustling community center. It stands as a piece of history that remains nearly unchanged over the past 90 years. It was among the last operating one-room schoolhouses in Fairfax County.

Kids

People move here because it’s an affordable suburb in DC with really great schools. Some areas have better rankings than others, but in general the scores are 7 & 8’s on Great Schools, and a few with mid level scores peppered throughout.

West Springfield, Saratoga, Cardinal Forest, Ravensworth, Crestwood, Forestdale, Garfield, Springfield Estates and Lynbrook Elementary Schools serve preschool through 6th grade.

Rolling Valley, Keene Mill, Hunt Valley, Orange Hunt, Sangster Elementary serve Kindergarten through 6th grade.

Then there’s Kings Park which is Kindergarten through 3rd grade, and Kings Glen which is 4th to 6th.

North Springfield Elementary School is Pre-K through 5th and actually in a different region and feeds to Annandale schools.

The middle schools are either Irving Middle or Key Middle which serve only grades 7 & 8. and for high school it’s either Lewis, West Springfield or Annandale High School. That’s because of the five regions in which Fairfax County divides the areas, three of them meet in a juncture in Springfield. There used to be eight regions, but they reorganized it into five to spread out the socioeconomic disparities.

You will find lots of excellent school scores here. The Great Schools Scores are in the 7-10 range, and the other reviews you find online on places like Google are all really good. Families like these schools, with one exception. On the east side of Springfield, the high school there, Lewis, doesn’t score as well.

There are other great things for kids in Springfield. So many of the parks have playgrounds. Kings Park Community has 4 playgrounds alone to serve the 1100 homes in the community and the Timbers has Brookfield Park, which has a great playground.

Sky Zone Trampoline Park is here. The St. James is unbelievable. They have a kids playground inside called Super Awesome and Amazing. The kids can test their skills at indoor rock climbing, traversing the overhead obstacle course, visit the Virtual Reality Games or go to the indoor waterpark. They offer camps and leagues where you can learn to play sports. This is literally worth moving to Springfield for, no joke.

Hidden Pond Nature Center has a playground, trails and the Nature Center is the Visitor Center where you can check out any programs, see live animals or peruse books and items about nature.

There’s the Studio for Piano if your little one is interested in learning to play, as well as the Perfect Pitch Music Studio where you can learn piano or take voice lessons.

Conclusion

We hope this gave you a great idea of what it would be like to live in Springfield! There’s a lot to know about the lifestyle, if you have any questions please reach out to us!

Fairfax County honored West Springfield High School's "trailblazing" girls wresting team as the sport keeps gaining popularity among girls.

|Updated Wed, May 10, 2023 at 12:08 pm ET

WEST SPRINGFIELD, VA — Three wrestlers from the West Springfield High School girls wrestling team made it to the first-ever Girls’ State Wresting Meet in Manassas in February, with one of the girls winning the state title in her weight class.

With West Springfield High School leading the movement in girls wrestling in Fairfax County, the Board of Supervisors passed a resolution on Tuesday honoring the school’s “trailblazing” girls wrestling team.

Elaina Primozic, a freshman at West Springfield High School, became the first-ever Virginia High School League girls state wrestling champion in the 156-pound class.

Along with winning the first state championship, Primozic is a starting goalkeeper on West Springfield's field hockey team and is a starting pitcher on its softball team.

“It's a shame it took this long for Virginia to get to the point of having a girls state wrestling championship,” Supervisor Pat Herrity, who represents the Springfield District on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, said Tuesday at the board’s meeting.

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Herrity congratulated Primozic for being the first-ever state champion in her weight class and the other wrestlers from West Springfield High School who made it to the state wrestling meet.

“This is something you can all look back on fondly over the years as being part of this first state girls state wrestling championship, and congratulations on your victory,” Herrity said.

Supervisor James Walkinshaw, who represents the Braddock District, said the three wrestlers “helped pave a path that I know a lot of girls are going to are going to follow.”

Walkinshaw highlighted the years-long effort to establish girls wrestling as a sport in Virginia. The supervisor also noted how a coach from Culpeper said wrestling has been on the decline in the state and nationally.

“We know that it's the girls that are going to save wrestling as a sport,” he said. “It's a lesson that you're not going to succeed moving forward and 2023 If you're not fully including 51 percent of the population, and thank you all for being part of making that happen.”

In 2022, the executive committee of the Virginia High School League voted to designate girls wrestling as an “emerging sport” at the urging of schools across the state.

At the time, nearly half of the 271 high schools in Virginia had at least one female wrestler on what was considered a boy’s wrestling team, and the numbers were growing.

Within three years, there will have to be at least 136 schools in Virginia with females on their rosters for the VHSL to move forward with the sanctioning of girls wrestling. If those requirements are not met, the three-year process will start over.

After the VHSL decision to designate girls wrestling as an emerging sport, Virginia held its first official Girls’ State Wrestling Meet in February, where 284 athletes, including the West Springfield Spartans wrestlers, competed.

Supervisor Penny Gross, who represents the Mason District, congratulated the team's girls for being the first to compete at the state finals. In the years to come, the girls who follow the leadership of the West Springfield wrestlers will demonstrate "your real stamp on the sport," she told the wrestlers, who appeared at the board meeting to be honored.

In response to Primozic winning the state title in her weight class, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff McKay said that "the thing that should scare all the competition is that she's a freshman, so she's got a ways to go in terms of success."

"Standing up and defending the rights of all kids to play in sports is an important thing to do to build self-confidence, to build mental wellness among our students and to recognize these remarkable achievements because if boys can do it, girls can do it, and vice versa," McKay said. "And this is certainly evidence of that."

Pat Smith, wrestling coach at West Springfield High School, said it is remarkable what Primozic and her freshman teammate Avana Harford, who made it to the state semifinals this year, have accomplished in a short period of time.

"We just look forward to seeing where they're going to be in four years ... and how they're going to help increase the participation in the sport," Smith said.

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It’s an old-fashioned game of musical chairs in central Springfield, and the rumors are flying around that no one seems to be able to officially confirm. There is one fact though, the old Giant Food store in Springfield Plaza recently moved into the old K-mart space and is now an upgraded addition to this aging shopping center.

“This is nice,” said one shopper going down the Giant aisle.

The other two parts of the equation involve the Whole Foods which is in the Keene Mill Center about two miles west of Springfield Plaza, and the Trader Joe’s which is now in a spot between Giant and the construction site. It may be going to the Whole Foods location in Keene Mill Center. The construction workers at the renovation site are tight lipped, and one employee in Trader Joe’s isn’t convinced. “No, we’re not moving, to the best of my knowledge,” he said.

The Springfield Plaza shopping center is right in the middle of the Springfield Commercial Revitalization District on the Fairfax County Department of Planning and Development website. It is one of 11 revitalization regions in the county. All this revitalization work aligns with the community’s vision and improves the economic vitality, function, and appearance of those areas, the county revitalization office said.

Rumors have a way of getting a life of their own though. Next door in the Verizon store, they’ve heard it too. “Rumored to be a Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s is going to Whole Foods,” a clerk said. A manager named “Brian,” in one of the stores wants it to be over. “All that construction is getting in the way of walking and driving,” he said.

When’s this all going to happen? A staffer at the Treasure Trove store said they will be moving to another location in the same shopping center this winter. A pedestrian bridge is under construction to link the plaza with the new transportation center lot on the other side of Old Keene Mill Road and is expected to be completed in spring 2023.

East of I-95 near Kingstowne, a wooded lot is labeled as a “health care hub,” by the revitalization officials. This is next to the existing Inova Healthplex, and it will include a hospital, an outpatient center and parking garage, the revitalization documents stated.

Trader Joe's is on the hunt for a bigger box in Fairfax County, according to two sources familiar with the situation, as part of a larger round of supermarket reshuffling kicked off by Giant Food’s relocation to the former Kmart space at Springfield Plaza from another part of the Fairfax County retail center.

The specialty grocer is in talks to take over the roughly 24,000-square-foot Whole Foods Market at Federal Realty Investment Trust's (NYSE: FRT) Old Keene Mill Shopping Center in West Springfield, according to the sources, who were not authorized to comment on the record about the situation. The space would be an upgrade for Trader Joe's, which now has a 10,673-square-foot store next to the new Giant at Springfield Plaza, about three miles east of Old Keene.

Why would Whole Foods close? That's what's fueling some of the speculation among retail brokers across Greater Washington that have been keeping close watch of the situation. The Amazon.com Inc.-owned market chain plans to take over Giant’s former space at 6426 Springfield Plaza, according to Fairfax County land records and the two sources. It's unclear whether Whole Foods will shutter its store at Old Keene once it opens the new one, or, for that matter, whether Trader Joe's would close its Springfield Plaza store if it opens in West Springfield. The specialty grocer has been known to maintain two stores close to each other, as it does in Bethesda.

That's a lot of ifs, to be sure, and real estate experts say other grocers including Aldi, Amazon Fresh and Lidl have also been sniffing around the area given its demographics and the street visibility of the two centers. The larger Springfield Plaza sits just off Interstate 95 while more than 41,000 households, with a median household income topping $134,000, are within a 3-mile radius of the Old Keene Mill center, according to demographics information in Federal Realty leasing material.

Rappaport leasing materials show a “new grocer coming fall 2023” to the space Giant shed, though it does not identify the tenant. Fairfax County permit data, including a fire alarm review dated June 2, make repeated references to the planned Whole Foods. The former Giant space has been demolished to its frame as that construction work, led by contractor L.F. Jennings, continues.

Representatives for Whole Foods could not be reached for comment, on Old Keene or on its planned Springfield Plaza location, which was first reported by FFXnow.com. Federal Realty and Rappaport, which manages Springfield Plaza, declined to comment on any pending leases at Old Keene. Deidre Johnson, senior vice president of asset management for the company, said in a statement that they are adding other new tenants including Duck Donuts and Pacific Dental.

A spokeswoman for Trader Joe’s said only that the specialty grocer considers many locations. She noted that all of the locations opening soon are listed on its website, including one in College Park.

USPS said it's waiting on guidance from local health officials on how to proceed.

WEST SPRINGFIELD, Va. — Three employees of a U.S. Postal Service office in West Springfield, Virginia have tested positive for COVID-19 coronavirus, according to USPS.

USPS said it's waiting on guidance from local health officials on how to proceed, but has already started to follow guidance from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for how to handle COVID-19 exposures within its post office.

"We are in the process of reaching out to the local public health office and will follow the guidance they provide. We believe the risk is low for employees who work at the West Springfield Post Office but we will keep our employees apprised as new information and guidance becomes available," said the West Springfield Post Office in its statement to WUSA9.

At this time, WUSA9 has not confirmed how this will impact mail delivery in the area.

USPS said it believes that the risk for other employees is low.

USPS said it will not release the condition or identities of those that contracted COVID-19. because of the Rehabilitation Act and the Privacy Act, said the statement to WUSA9.

WUSA9 is working to get more information and will provide updates as they come into our newsroom and station.

Below is the full-statement from USPS about the contraction at its West Springfield office:

“The U.S. Postal Service has learned that three employees at the West Springfield Post Office tested positive for the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).

We are in the process of reaching out to the local public health office and will follow the guidance they provide. We believe the risk is low for employees who work at the West Springfield Post Office but we will keep our employees apprised as new information and guidance becomes available.

As you may know, under the Rehabilitation Act and the Privacy Act, specific employee medical information must be kept confidential and may only be shared in very limited circumstances. Therefore, the Postal Service cannot share the name of an employee who tested positive for COVID-19 or further specifics of his or her medical condition.

The safety and well-being of our employees is our highest priority. To ensure the health of our employees, we are continuing to follow recommended guidance and strategies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).”