Flashback Monday: Reston: The Instruction Manual

When they called Reston a "new town," they weren't kidding. Apparently, it was so new it had to come with an instruction manual. Awesome! Now, 40 some odd years later, we can figure out what they were smoking envisioning for their radical model for new urbanism. We here at Restonian HQ will be reading this sucker cover to cover, because otherwise we'd have to find something productive to do, but in the meantime, here are the gems of wisdom on the page pictured above:

Reston is building 227 town houses.

The town house has a history of many thousands of years in all civilized countries. Examples of town houses in the country can be seen in the French countryside where the farmers, since medieval times, have joined their houses together on village commons for the sociability this afforded; farm land radiated out from the centers. Town houses in cities in the United States have long represented the height of elegance. Examples exist in every city such as Georgetown in Washington, Society Hill in Philadelphia, Washington Muse in New York. Town houses in the country are a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. The movement started in California and has been picked up in Virginia.

Which is why we fertilize the beets next to the parking lot in the cluster's common property before heading off to our elegant social events, or maybe dinner at the Macaroni Grill, depending on which day of the week it is.