Three generations of the Winters' family live, work and play in Reston, but the family's roots go back 200 years to George Washington's Mount Vernon Plantation. In 1801, Martha Washington freed Suckey Bay, a field laborer.  Bay's daughter, Nancy, married Charles Quander, who returned to the estate in the 1830s with several of the freed men from the plantation to work on Washington's tomb.  Future Quander family members served as gardeners and domestics. Nearly 200 years after she was freed, Bay's direct descendant, Janice Winters, the matriarch of the Reston family, received her doctorate …

In 1969, Bob Hilbish was  newly discharged from the US Army and had job offers in  Orange County, CA, and in Leesburg, VA.  Two factors clinched the decision for his wife, Jo Ann.   "I grew up watching Arthur Godfrey on television talking about his beautiful Leesburg," said Jo Ann Hilbish. " Plus, I wanted four seasons." The Realtor sent three Polaroid photos of a house in Reston.   "We could get the cheapest house in Reston or one of the most expensive houses in Sterling," said Bob.  Forty-one years later, Bob and Jo Ann are still on Myrtle Lane. Their daughter, Jeanette, lives right next …

In the late 1960s, Joe and Janet Hyman were intrigued by the mission and vision of this new place called Reston. The couple visited a model home.  Their budget was for a single-family house was $40,000. Starters—1,500 square feet in South Reston backing to the parkland—cost $45,000.   But Janet was determined - eliminate the cathedral ceilings, forget the carport and leave the basement unfinished, she said. "$39,500 and we signed," said Janet of that day in August 1968. Forty-two years later, the Hymans sit in a house unrecognizable from the one the originally purchased.  Why?  There have …

It began when Carol Thomas read an intriguing article about this new planned community somewhere way out in Fairfax County. "One Saturday [in1964] I saw an article in the newspaper about Reston, " recalls  Thomas.  "I said to my wife:  'let's take a drive out to this place. ' "  After visiting the model home, they tried to get home via back roads through Vienna, which dead-ended into a creek. Carol Thomas' wife, Laura, said she could not imagine leaving their home in Washington, D.C. "There is nothing here," she told her husband. " Nothing." "There are trees here," replied Carol.    "But …

Reston is now approaching middle age.  Young Reston parents in 1964 may now have grandchildren.  Did their children—the second generation Restonians—grow up and leave Reston?  Reston Patch asked around, and it turns out that many of the second generation either stayed or returned to raise the third generation.   This is an ongoing series called Generations: Reston from  1964 to 2010. When Karen Rose Loehr left  Reston  in 1985, little did she know that 25 years later her kids, Maya and Jacob, would be roaming the same Reston paths, visiting the Lake Anne Pharmacy for candy and jumping in the …