Dear Friends,

The Falls Church Village Preservation and Improvement Society (VPIS) is pleased to be able to reprint A Virginia Village by Charles A. Stewart as part of its Centennial observance in 1985. We are especially grateful to the Mary Riley Styles Public Library of Falls Church for permission to use their copy of A Virginia Village for the reproduction.

A Virginia Village provides a snapshot of Falls Church at the turn of the century, at a time when the predecessor of VPIS, the Village Improvement Society (VIS) (pp. 16-18), was in full swing. Thus it is a fitting backdrop to our year of special activities.

As you will note, many of the buildings and settings in the 1904 edition have been lost or altered in the past 80 years. To make the book more useful and enjoyable to current readers, we have added a Foreword, Comments on the Structures Pictured, a Name and Street Index, and a biographical sketch and photograph of the author. The new information is not all inclusive and we invite you to cross-reference your reading with the other sources listed in the Foreword.

The Society is indebted to several of its members who worked long and hard to made this edition possible. In particular, we would like to thank the chairman of the project, Colonel Merl M. Moore (a former VPIS President); Mr. Edmund F. Becker, who wrote the Foreword; Mr. Henry H. Douglas, who as usual is an indispensable resource on the history of Falls Church; and Mr. Richard T. Allan, whose editing skills were invaluable.

We hope this 1985 edition will become a cherished reminder of The Society's 100th anniversary and a valuable edition to your personal library. Sincerely,

Susan Bachtel
President

Rowland Bowers
Vice President

Harold Silverstein
Chairman, Centennial Committee

Falls Church
Village Preservation
& Improvement Society