News & Politics

Foamhenge Is Moving to Northern Virginia

Foamhenge in its soon-to-be-former setting. Photograph by Flickr user susan_3115.

Foamhenge is coming to Fairfax.

The foam replica of the enigmatic English monument has lived in Rockbridge County, Virginia, for more than a decade, but it’s on land that will become part of Natural Bridge State Park, which Virginia plans to open by the end of 2016. Virginia officials “have said Foamhenge does not ‘fit’ with the mission of a state park,” the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

Foamhenge will move to Cox Farms in Fairfax. Mark Cline, the artist who created Foamhenge, tells Washingtonian he knows the farm and its management will be “good stewards” of the monument. He’d hoped originally to give it to a small community that could benefit from a tourism surge, but had trouble finding a suitable spot. “It wasn’t as easy to give it away as one might think,” he says. Cox, which hosts a popular fall festival and a Fields of Fear exhibition that opens September 23, had the space and the infrastructure to accommodate the sculpture. 

We’ll have to wait to see the monument up here–Cline, who has also built a foam Stonehenge called Bamahenge, was busy dismantling Foamhenge when Washingtonian called, and he says he’ll store it on his property until December, when it will travel via a couple of tractor-trailers to Centreville. “I’ll be helping to put it back up,” he says.

Cox Farms co-farmer-in-chief Lucas Cox says Foamhenge will go on display next fall, after they clean and restore the “stones” next summer. Cox has never actually seen Foamhenge in person–he read about Cline’s search for a new home and got in touch. It will become part of the fall festival and will be viewable during its run only.

Senior editor

Andrew Beaujon joined Washingtonian in late 2014. He was previously with the Poynter Institute, TBD.com, and Washington City Paper. He lives in Del Ray.