Flashback Monday: The Godless Early Days of Lake Anne

When people started moving to the woods to the east of Herndon in the 1960s, people must have thought these crazy New Towners were some sort of godless heathens. An integrated community? Townhouses that weren't in towns? What was next? Species-neutral "pethouses" where dogs and cats could cohabitate?

Here we see an early picture of Lake Anne Plaza, before the civilizing influence of religion had its way. Another church had already been built nearby, but at this point, the plaza itself was still completely secular. After the new church dominated the plaza, no one would think about any sort of inappropriate behavior within the shadow of its brutalist non-steeple steeple. Oh, wait.

What is today the Washington Plaza Church has developed a reputation for being an open, affirming community church over the decades. In fact, it remains the only baptist church we've seen with a rainbow flag on its sign. But we don't get out much, the end.