Tinner Hill
Metro Stop: East Falls Church
- Orange Line
- Silver Line
Tinner Hill marker in Falls Church. (Credit: Jacob Kaplan)
You’ve heard of West Falls Church, you’ve heard of East Falls Church, but you’ve probably never heard of South Falls Church. That is because it no longer exists today. In the late 1800s, a black couple named Mary and Charles Tinner bought land and established an African-American community in the southern part of Falls Church. Sadly, white Falls Church residents objected and, in 1887, gerrymandered around the Tinners' neighborhood, shrinking the size of Falls Church by 1/3. The black Tinner Hill community continued to exist outside the city limits and, in 1918, became the first rural chapter of the NAACP.