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Code Girls and Arlington Hall: A Diverse History

From Girls School to Cryptanalysis Hub

Author Liza Mundy, who did research for her book "Code Girls" in our Center for Local History, spoke at Central Library on Thursday, Oct. 26 at 7 p.m.

Exterior of Arlington Hall girls school, ca. 1940. From the late 1927 to 1942, Arlington Hall was a private educational institution in Arlington, Virginia. It was a Junior College as well as a four-year boarding high school. In 1930, the school was known for its thorough instruction, recreational features and manicured landscaping. The main building housed administrative offices, classrooms, and a dormitory. It quickly became a beloved and well-known accredited institution for upper-class women around the country.
Arlington Hall girls school art class, ca. 1940. Arlington Hall sought to provide its students’ with social graces as well as with physical and intellectual development. By 1935 the college offered courses in music, art, and drama, plus training in home economics, secretarial skills, and physical education. It had both indoor and outdoor riding arenas and a noted equestrian club.
Letter to Arlington Hall Girls School alumnae from Virginia Hamilton on the school being requisitioned by the US Army, 6/15/1942. From Arlington Hall: Monument to Intelligence – Periscope Spring 1987 – and Social Graces and Espionage – April 2011 – Virginia Living Magazine – “The Army discovered the great property that was Arlington Hall and decided they could not let it slip through their fingers. The Army “invoked the War Powers Act and seized the acreage, paying the trustees of Arlington Hall $650,000, a sum that barely covered the mortgage.” Once it was commandeered in June 1942, Arlington Hall became known as Arlington Hall Station. Although this was an Army instillation, civilians outnumbered military personnel. Less than a year after becoming “Arlington Hall Station,” over 2,300 civilians worked on the compound while the Army only had fewer than 800 military employees.

From 1927 to 1942, Arlington Hall was an all-female Junior College with a four-year high school department.  It was a boarding school for high school and junior college students and was a “fully accredited school.”

The college offered courses in music, art, and drama, plus training in home economics, secretarial skills, and physical education.

In June 1942, the US Government took over Arlington Hall as their new location for military intelligence and cryptanalysis work.

Workers arriving to Arlington Hall Station, 1940s. Historic American Buildings Survey – Arlington Hall: Photographs Written Historical and Descriptive Data – “In January 1944, a directive ordered an increase in the size of the Arlington Hall Station staff. An additional 700 enlisted women, 200 officers, and 2, 275 civilian employees were assigned to the facility. In anticipation of this increase, plans were prepared for the construction of thirteen centrally-heated, mobilization-type barracks, a fourteen-bed dispensary, a 620-seat auditorium and theater, a troop administration building, a new motor repair shop, a new mess hall, a new post exchange building, a new Post engineer office and shop, a recreation building, a 9,000 square-foot warehouse, and additional cafeteria facilities. No new office space was required since most of the new personnel were to be assigned to graveyard or swing shifts.”
Women in classroom, Arlington Hall Station, 1940s. Pg. 20 in “The Secrets of Arlington Hall” by Ernest Goldstein –“Anonymous thousands of young women, who were recruited from the hills and small towns of the South, made a major contribution to the success of Arlington Hall, without either the satisfaction of fully understanding what they were doing or of receiving recognition.”
African American Code Breakers. Code Girls – The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy – Pg. 208 – “There was also a special code-breaking unit whose existence was unknown to many of the white workers. The African American unit monitored the enciphered communications of companies and banks to see what was being transmitted in the global private sector and who was doing business with Hitler and Mitsubishi.”

Arlington Hall Station, as it was known during the military’s occupation, became a central hub for the WACs – Women’s Army Corps– and over 1,000 women worked and thrived during wartime America at the complex.  Many of these women became “Code Girls” – cryptanalysts responsible for the decoding and deciphering of the Japanese Imperial/Diplomatic code, known as “Purple.”

Arlington Hall Station barracks, 1940s. Breaking Codes Breaking Barriers – Pg. 16 – “By the end of December 1943, the WAC detachment of the 2d SSB at the Hall stood at about 225. The enlisted women were initially housed in one-story enlisted men’s barracks. Ann Brown was assigned to Arlington Hall in the early years: “We were assigned 20 to a room. We had pot-bellied stoves at either end we had to tend. The new barracks were built of concrete block which held the summer heat. Many women, especially those living on the second floor, pulled their mattresses outdoors to sleep, returning them back inside each morning.”
Arlington Farm Dorm Life, image from the Library of Congress. Code Girls – The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers of World War II by Liza Mundy – Pg. 47 – “At Arlington Farms, women could take meals in the cafeteria and send their clothes to be laundered or dry-cleaned. Maids cleaned their rooms weekly. There were pianos and snack bars, and little cubbyholes meant to resemble the “dating booths” of American drugstores. Each dormitory was named after an American state.”

After WWII had ended, the National Security Agency called Arlington Hall Station home for a few years, and until the late 80s, several intelligence think-tanks and divisions remained at Arlington Hall.  Today, in 2017, Arlington Hall remains a federal instillation and a training center.

Brochure with activities at the Arlington Hall Station Officers Club for June and July, 1989, including farewells to Arlington Hall Station. Social Graces and Espionage – April 2011 – Virginia Living Magazine – “By V-J Day, AH Station had become massive employing 5,700 civilians, more than 1,000 military officers and men, and 1,000 WACs (Women’s Army Corps.) When “peace” was reached the employees and civilians declined, and within months of the war’s end, only 35 WACs remained.”
Invitation to Farewell to Arlington Hall ceremony, 8/5/1988. Historic American Buildings Survey – Arlington Hall: Photographs Written Historical and Descriptive Data – Pg. 1 – “Arlington Hall Station was the headquarters for the United States Army Intelligence activities from 1942-1989. In the early stages of the war, it became the hub for Signal Intelligence Service (SIS) which were responsible for “cryptanalysis of intercepted enemy messages, development of codes and ciphers for the Army, and production of Army cipher machines.” The codebreakers of Arlington Hall Station “provided crucial intelligence information that broke the Japanese military and diplomatic cipher coded systems. Arlington Hall Station remains more than a military post. It is a reminder if the more gentle days of Arlington Hall Junior College for Girls and a memorial to outstanding intelligence successes of WWII. It has become inseparably linked with the history and heritage of Military Intelligence.”

To learn more about Arlington Hall – and all things Arlington, please come visit the Center for Local History at the Arlington Central Library.

For more information regarding the materials and collections available for research, please contact the Center for Local History at 703-228-5966.

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