Abstract:
Photograph of A. Smith Bowman, Jr. (standing) and E. DeLong Bowman (seated in foreground). The Bowman brothers, executives of the A. Smith Bowman Distillery, made two offers of land and money (in 1954 and 1957) to UVa with which to build George Mason College. The land was located in the Sunset Hills area near Herndon, just to the south of Route 7. Though the offers were quite attractive, and the UVa BOV nearly accepted the second offer, the Advisory Council and the Board of Control (both comprised of Northern Virginians) stood firmly against any selection of the Bowman property, citing its inconvenient location much too far west of the center of Northern Virginia’s population. Portrait hanging on the wall behind them is of their father, Abram Smith Bowman, Sr. Planned Community Archives Collection, Nan Netherton Papers
