Washington City Paper: Contents for Jan. 20

Fractured Fairy Tales
Once upon a time, Storybook Land was Northern Virginia's favorite '50s-era fairy-tale world. Then the park closed and its nursery-rhyme characters died. Puppeteer Allan Stevens wants to bring them back to life.

Cover Story

Mother Goose is dead.

She lies peacefully in the bare woods of winter. Her head, still crowned by a flowery bonnet, has been crushed and now rests face-down on the cold, leaf-strewn ground. Her arms and legs have been ripped from her body, which rots in its faded petticoat. Her severed limbs—as well as her faithful pet gander—are nowhere to be seen.

There is no sign of struggle, but it is obvious that she has been brutally murdered. Near her smashed head, a fallen fun-house mirror screams “FUCK OFF!” in black spray-painted graffiti.

For a quarter-century, Mother Goose greeted visitors here at Woodbridge, Va.'s Storybook Land, once a popular and beloved tourist attraction. In this self-proclaimed “magic forest of make-believe,” fairy tales came to life for thousands of children, including myself at age 4. When the park closed more than a decade ago, the bucolic site—which boasted more than 100 life-size figures and two dozen storybook buildings—was left virtually intact, as if the owners meant to open it again someday.

I have traveled 25 miles south of Washington to explore the legendary ruins on U.S. Route 1 in Prince William County. But I have not come alone.... Continued

Issue of Jan. 20 - 26, 1995

News and Features

Fractured Fairy Tales
Once upon a time, Storybook Land was Northern Virginia's favorite '50s-era fairy-tale world. Then the park closed and its nursery-rhyme characters died. Puppeteer Allan Stevens wants to bring them back to life.
Cover Story By Eddie Dean
The Tax-Exempt Roundup
Kathy Patterson Hunts for Tax Dollars Among Exempt Property Owners
The City By Jonetta Rose Barras
Sex, Lines, and Videotapes
Blame It on Vanessa Del Rio
The City By Dave McKenna
Slim Pickins
The City By Clara Jeffery
New Year's RAColutions
The Mail By Jim McGrath
Monkey Shines
The Mail By Name Witheld by Request
Hatchet Job?
The Mail By Ann Carrie Simon
Headbanger's Ball
The Mail By David A. Clarke
We Read You, Over
The Mail By Chester A. Higgins Sr.
Exempt Contempt
The Mail By Nancy R. Axelrod
Nirvana: No Big Deal
The Mail By Sohrab Habibion
Averse Reaction
The Mail By Jonathan Blum
Can We Pay for It in Food Stamps?
The Mail By Raymond Aurutis