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By Al Donley · Published · Updated
Dale City, Virginia is home to about 72,000 people, but it is not a real city. It is a census-designated place with no mayor, administered directly by Prince William County. Its motto still calls it "The Friendliest Little City Around."[1]
Dale City was the idea of real estate developer Cecil Don Hylton. He began his career as a "huckster," a young man hauling farm goods into Washington, DC, then built a sod business running dozens of trucks before moving into homebuilding after the post-war housing boom. Before Dale City, he had already worked out his affordable-homes formula at Marumsco Village in Woodbridge, his first large-scale development. Across his career, he constructed more than 22,000 homes, plus apartments and shopping centers, started his own sewer company, and launched the first cable television companies in Prince William County.
Hylton broke ground on Dale City in 1968, building affordable homes for federal workers on 5,400 acres of farmland west of I-95. He named it for the hills and dales of the rolling Virginia Piedmont, not for himself: a common local myth says his middle name was Dale, but it was Don. The county approved rezoning for about 3,204 acres on August 8, 1968, and a second rezoning for about 2,208 acres on May 22, 1969.[1], [5], [2]
Hylton hid a code in the streets. Each neighborhood along Dale Boulevard ends in "-dale" and runs alphabetically east to west: Ashdale, Birchdale, Cloverdale, Darbydale, Evansdale, Forestdale, Glendale, Hillendale, Kerrydale, Lindendale, Mapledale, Nottingdale, Oakdale, Princedale, Ridgedale, Silverdale, and Trentdale, with I and J omitted. Most streets within each neighborhood start with that neighborhood's first letter. Dale Boulevard's streets were mostly complete by the mid-1970s, and by 1980 residents no longer needed to drive to Woodbridge or Manassas for shopping. Potomac Mills opened in 1985.
Today Dale City has about 72,088 residents and 21,451 housing units across roughly 15 square miles. It has its own north/southbound I-95 interchange, no homeowner's association, active commuter "slug lines," and Waterworks Waterpark at Andrew Leitch Park.[1], [3], [2]
Hylton's name stuck around. C.D. Hylton High School and the Hylton Memorial Chapel carry it, and the Hylton Performing Arts Center in Manassas is named for his family foundation. The place he built is still not a city at all, just Prince William County running it, but its motto still calls it "The Friendliest Little City Around."[1], [4]
