Center for Local History Blog

Dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the community.

Oral History: The Arlington Food Assistance Center

Interviews with Ann Rudd and Andy Lee

Oral histories are used to understand historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of real people’s personal experiences.

The Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) was founded in 1988 under the goal of “obtaining and distributing groceries, directly and free of charge, to people living in Arlington, VA, who cannot afford to purchase enough food to meet their basic needs.” Its formal mission statement as of 2020 is “to feed our neighbors in need by providing dignified access to nutritious supplemental groceries.”

Established by a small public-private committee, the organization began distributing food in a Red Cross van, which was purchased at the Capital Area Community Food Bank in Northeast D.C. The group initially delivered to a small, rotating list of families provided by local churches. Its early founders were Anne Rudd, William Knull, and Anna Barber, who had attended Rock Spring Congregational Church together.

AFAC's Certificate of Incorporation, June 30, 1988.

After over a year of operating out of the van, the First Baptist Church of Clarendon offered AFAC its first fixed operating site, increasing the number of clients the organization could serve. In 1992, AFAC acquired its own full-time operating site at 2900 North Washington Boulevard. The organization moved to its current headquarters at 2708 S. Nelson Street in June 1997 to accommodate its growing operation. More than 30 years after its founding, AFAC now serves more than 3,000 families per month.

In these oral history interviews, founder Anne Rudd and longtime AFAC volunteer Andy Lee describe the early days of AFAC and how the organization grew to become a cornerstone of the Arlington community.

Example of a fundraising effort held by AFAC, advertised in the Washington Post, October 12, 2000. Image courtesy of the Washington Post.

Narrator: Ann Rudd
Interviewer: Michelle Jones
Date: November 20, 2013

Michelle Jones: And how do you really get started? That’s a large—that’s a large job to accomplish.

Ann Rudd: Well I know that they started out—they were using the churches for storage of food.

MJ: Oh.

AR: They were—they used the Baptist church in Clarendon. And they used the Unitarian church and they used Little Falls Presbyterian.

MJ: And what you—

AR: They were sites where people picked up food. Twenty-five years ago was what? Something around three sites.

MJ: So this is around 1988?

AR: Yes. Yeah, so it’s been twenty-five years.

MJ: Okay. So um—Well how did you get—information out to the community?

AR: Well they worked through the county with the Department of Human Services, churches, and community organizations, you had to be referred-you could get food the first time.

MJ: Is that how you received funds? Or how—

AR: No!

MJ: — how did you get started and find a place and—? (speaking at same time)

AR: They did not—they just started calling churches to find a place. As for the money, it was donations. People donated food.

MJ: And what was your involvement in getting all of this going? Were you more on the ground trying to get donations and actual goods or—

AR: I think I was more-or-less contacting churches to see if they would let us set up there. So I think it was those three churches, but it was mainly on the Baptist church when Clarendon was the main place. And it was only open on Saturday morning.

AFAC informational mailer distributed to community members.

Narrator: Andrew “Andy” Lee
Interviewer: Anne Webb
Date: September 30, 2013

Anne Webb: So—what—but you started volunteering when AFAC was still rather small and you’ve seen it grow exponentially. Tell me about your role in all those changes.

Andy Lee: Absolutely. Sure. When I first started volunteering we were serving —serving I think around 70 families per week.

AW: Um-hm (affirmative)

AL: We had one bagging on Friday night and then one distribution on Saturday morning. AFAC was housed in the basement of what was then, Clarendon Baptist Church, and subsequently, as we grew and hired our first staff, we needed office space so Bill Knull at the time, who was president of the board, found a location at 10^th and Washington which was at the time we found it, it was being used as a motorcycle repair shop, so it was an absolute mess. … We remained there for several years and then the vision was that we need to expand further as our client load increased and we also need to be closer to our clients. Being in Clarendon the majority of our clients at the time were in Arna Valley, which no longer exists as far as low-income housing but that’s where a lot of our clients were, as well as in the Columbia Pike corridor.

So, we found a location in Shirlington working with real estate agents, Bill Knull primarily, looking at different sites and the current location on South Nelson Street, proved to be for the most part meeting the majority of our needs and so we moved in there I believe in 1996 or 1997 timeframe after some reconstruction of the infrastructure of the building and we’ve been there ever since.

In an addition, we had two primary satellite distribution sites, Clarendon Methodist Church as well as the Gunston Community Center while I was on the board. That has since expanded to multiple different locations, you know we are doing outbound. But at the time South Nelson Street was our primary location as well as the two satellite sites that we had.

As far as the client loads, as I said, when I started, we were about 70 families a week. I think at the peak last year we were around 1,600 families per week on average. I think it’s down now a little bit. But it’s still very high compared to what it used to be.

The AFAC logo as of 2020. Image courtesy of AFAC.

These interviews are available at the Center for Local History. Oral history interviews with Fred Jones, Robert Gallagher, Roberta, and John Overholt, and Ed Nolan also detail the history and work of AFAC.

Want to learn more? Record Group 313 in the Center for Local History also holds documents from and related to AFAC dating from 1948 to 2018

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

The Arlington Public Library began collecting oral histories of long-time residents in the 1970s, and since then the scope of the collection has expanded to capture the diverse voices of Arlington’s community. In 2016, staff members and volunteers recorded many additional hours of interviews, building the collection to 575 catalogued oral histories.

To browse our list of narrators indexed by interview subject, check out our community archive. To read a full transcript of an interview, visit the Center for Local History located at Central Library.

Charles Rinker: Speaking Out

A Tireless Proponent for Fair and Affordable Housing

Join us for a new series of stories from the Center for Local History highlighting members of our community who made a difference in ways that helped shape our history and created positive change.

Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Charles Rinker

Charles Rinker (1940-2015) was a tireless proponent for fair and affordable housing in Arlington County. His reach also extended to Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax County in Virginia as well as Montgomery County and Baltimore in Maryland.

His ability to meld economic savvy with public advocacy and popular sentiment made him a powerful and highly effective presence in organizations he helped found and establish such as AHC, Inc. (Arlington Housing Corp.), Arlington New Directions Coalition, A-HOME (Arlington Home Ownership Made Easier), TOAC (Tenants of Arlington County) and BRAVO (Buyer and Renters Arlington Voice).

Never reluctant to confront institutional resistance, Rinker’s ethos could perhaps best be summarized by his statements:

“If private profit is made in such a way as it deprives others in the society of the necessities of life—food, shelter, clothing, health, etc.—then it’s wrong, no matter what face one tries to put on it.”

“Ultimately we need more than the criticism of friends and neighbors to deter the displacement of low-and-moderate income households…but moral indignation from the community would be a good start.”

TOAC (Tenants of Arlington County) pamphlet

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Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Voting in Arlington: Then & Now

November 3 is fast approaching and voting this year has taken an unprecedented turn in the wake of the pandemic, with thousands of Arlingtonians voting early or sending in absentee ballots. The voting process in Arlington and beyond has historically been anything but static – here’s a look at how the voting process has changed over the years.

“People standing around a voting booth,” Arlington County, 1968. PG 214

Sign that says “Vote for the Library Bond, November 4.” Arlington County, 1959. RG 29

Arlington’s First Elections

According to historian C.B. Rose, no one living in what is now Arlington would have been able to vote until these early settlements were incorporated around 1645. Voting likely increased when the land of present-day Arlington was established as Fairfax County and received its own Court House in the town of Alexandria in 1752. At this point in time, all voting had to take place at a Court House, which limited eligible voters who lived far away from these buildings.

The first American elections were conducted by voice vote, or with paper ballots also known as “party tickets.” Unlike the “Australian” or “blanket ballots” that were used in the latter half of the 19^th century, these early ballots only carried the name of candidates from a single party. These ballots would then be counted by local party and election officials.

In 1869, a change to the Constitution meant that “secret” ballots were now required and required voters to register prior to elections. A registrar was assigned for 1,000 voters along with an accompanying polling place – an early version of the precinct system.

The Struggle for Women’s Suffrage

“Votes for first time at 79. Arlington, VA, Oct. 15. This is Mrs. O'Leary (not the Mrs. O'Leary who kissed the cow who kicked over the lantern to start the Chicago fire) but Mrs. Lucy O'Leary of this town who will cast her first vote on November 3 at age 79, for Gov. Landon. She now lives on small government pension with the aid of a small garden.” Arlington County, October 15, 1936. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

In these early elections, only a fraction of the population was permitted to vote, initially granting the right solely to propertied white men. Because of these limitations, throughout the 19^th and 20^th centuries, women’s suffrage was a major reform issue nationwide.

Gertrude Crocker was among those on the front lines fighting for women’s right to vote, and would later become a prominent Arlington citizen, owning and operating the Little Tea House. Crocker was among the “Silent Sentinels,” who, on January 10, 1917, participated in the first picket protest outside of the White House.

The 19^th Amendment was adopted on August 18, 1920, after decades of advocacy. But after the milestone of women’s suffrage came another portion of the journey for equal voting rights for all. Though women had achieved the right to vote, large portions of the country’s non-white population were still disenfranchised.

Read our series on important figures and events leading up to the passage of the 19^th Amendment.

“Citizens at the Wilson High School waiting to vote in the national presidential election. The election started at 7:45 a.m., and a continuous stream of people, mostly men, came in. The women came later in the day.” Arlington County, November 7, 1944. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Fighting Discrimination and Voter Suppression

Though the legal milestones of the 15^th and 19^th were achieved, in practice, African American voters faced innumerable barriers to voting – from Jim Crow laws, voter suppression tactics, and overt violence.

Shortly after the passage of the 15^th amendment, Virginia instituted a poll tax to restrict African American men from voting in 1876. This law was repealed in 1882, but in 1901 the state’s General Assembly called for a new constitution granted suffrage solely to white men.

A new constitution passed in 1902 and required voters to pay a tax of $1.50 six months prior to an election for each of the three years preceding an election. This disenfranchised approximately 90% of the state’s African American voting population and nearly 50% of the white men who had previously been registered to vote in Virginia. The 1902 constitution also created an administrative structure that was difficult for any average citizen to navigate. Virginia maintained poll taxes until 1966.

Local activists and groups such as the Arlington chapter of the NAACP worked tirelessly to combat voter suppression, instituting outreach campaigns and legal challenges to the poll tax. In a suit from Arlingtonian Portia Haskins against the Virginia Board of Elections and the Arlington County general registrar, the court ruled in her favor in 1966, determining that “[t]he provisions of Virginia’s dual voter registration…which treat persons who are registered only for federal elections differently from persons registered for all elections violate the equal protection laws of the 14^th Amendment.”

Poll Tax Month: a 1956 Virginia Poll Tax Flyer created by the NAACP, explaining what the poll tax was and how it related to being able to vote in both local and federal elections. View item information in Project DAPS.

The Modern Age of Voting

The last century has also seen technological developments in how we place our votes. From paper ballots, voting machines were introduced in the mid-20^th century to modernize the voting process. Today, further developments, such as digital scanners introduced in 2015, continue to streamline how we vote and how our votes are counted.

Arlington County has also seen incredible growth from its humble electoral beginnings. The County now has 54 voter precincts and accompanying polling places. Almost every aspect of voting has changed in the centuries since the County’s beginnings: from who had the right to vote, to how voting was carried out. Be sure to cast your ballot on November 3!

An early mention of the use of voting machines in Arlington. From the Northern Virginia Sun, January 5, 1940.

An early opportunity for voter to try out a voting machine. From the Northern Virginia Sun, October 18, 1951.

For more information on the history of Arlington voting, see the Arlington Historical Society’s Virtual Exhibit: A Short History of Voting in Arlington.

Election day 2020 is on November 3! Early voting will be taking place until October 31, and all mail-in ballots must be postmarked by November 3 or returned in person by November 3 at 7 p.m. Ballot drop-offs are available throughout the County. Information about in-person voting locations and other voter information in Arlington can be found through the County’s elections website.

To learn more about Arlington's history, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Portia Haskins: Taking a Stand

Join us for a new series of stories from the Center for Local History highlighting members of our community who made a difference in ways that helped shape our history and created positive change.

Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Portia Haskins

In 1965, Hall’s Hill/High View Park resident Portia Haskins filed suit against the Virginia Board of Elections and the Arlington County general registrar after learning she was required to re-register in order to vote in the upcoming election, despite having already paid her poll taxes in February and having registered for federal elections the previous year.

On April 1, 1966, in the case Portia A. Haskins v. Levin Nock Davis et al., a Federal District Court ruled in Haskins’ favor arguing that “[t]he provisions of Virginia’s dual voter registration…which treat persons who are registered only for federal elections differently from persons registered for all elections violate the equal protection laws of the 14th Amendment.” This landmark decision eliminated what was essentially a selectively administered and enforced poll tax imposed chiefly on African-American voters in Arlington County.

Photograph of Portia Haskins. Date of Photo Unknown.

Recent events have shown that progress is a process and part of an ongoing struggle. Accomplishments both great and small are seldom an endpoint but are a constant series of steps forward which cannot be taken for granted.

Portia Haskins has recently completed and published a book on the history of Mt. Salvation Baptist Church.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Dr. Roland Bruner: Taking a Stand

"He provided free medical services to the most disadvantaged in Arlington..."

Join us for a new series of stories from the Center for Local History highlighting members of our community who made a difference in ways that helped shape our history and created positive change.

Their voices were not always loud, but what they said or did had a significant impact on our community.

Dr. Roland Bruner

Dr. Roland Herman Bruner (1902-1978) was an obstetrician, lecturer, and the first African-American doctor to be hired by Arlington County’s Department of Health’s Prenatal Clinic in a time of bigotry, racism, and segregation.

Bruner received a Bachelor of Science degree from Howard University in 1928 and a Medical Degree in 1932. One of just 24 students to receive the offer of an internship at Freedmen’s Hospital in Washington D.C., he joined the staff thereafter completing his internship.

On July 29, 1934, Bruner and his wife Georgia purchased a property in Green Valley/Nauck at 2018 S. Glebe Rd. where he opened a private practice specializing in obstetrics. This allowed African-American women to deliver children in Arlington rather than having to travel to the Freedmen’s Hospital in the District of Columbia. He bartered with patients and often provided free services to the most disadvantaged, even delivering babies at the homes of people turned away by a segregated medical establishment.

Dr. Bruner examines a patient while a nurse assists.

Dr. Bruner and a nurse perform an obstetrics exam for a patient at the Arlington County Department of Health, 1938. Image had the caption "Prenatal Clinic" under it in the 1938 Rural Health Conservation Scrapbook. Photo Source: RG 21, Records of the Arlington County Department of Health: 21-1-"1938"-9

In 1935 Bruner became a part-time member of the clinical faculty of Howard University College of Medicine, where he would serve until 1951. He became a notable lecturer in the fields of women’s health and prenatal care and in 1938 he became the first African-American doctor employed by Arlington County’s Department of Health’s Prenatal Clinic. Bruner also played a vital role in the establishment of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Arlington. With a private practice spanning 45 years from 1933-1978, Dr. Roland Herman Bruner served multiple generations in his community.

In 2001, Arlington Housing Corporation (AHC) purchased Dr. Bruner’s home from the Bruner family, renovating the property into a development comprising 7 townhomes known as Bruner Place. The home was relocated on the property.

Bruner's daughter, Dr. Denise E. Bruner, is a practicing physician in Arlington County specializing in bariatrics and anti-aging.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Rediscover Lutrelle Fleming Parker, Sr.

Lutrelle Fleming Parker, Sr. was a tireless advocate for progress in Arlington County who left a legacy of remarkable civic engagement that spanned the Civil Rights Movement and desegregation of the County’s schools and businesses.

Photo of Lutrelle – Source: Susanna McBee, “Arlington County See Fervent Donor Plea,” The Washington Post, January 5, 1961.

Born in Newport News, Virginia in 1924, Parker served in the U.S. Navy on the HSS Manderson Victory during World War II as one of the Navy’s first black officers. His commitment to the Navy lasted 40 years, retiring from the Navy Reserves in 1982.

After the war, Parker worked at the U.S. Patent Office in 1947 while also studying engineering at Howard University. He began as a patent examiner and later performed a wide range of jobs for this office during his long career, including being a trial attorney, examiner-in-chief, and deputy commissioner of the office. He received his Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from Howard in 1949, the same year that he moved from Washington, D.C., to the predominantly African-American Arlington neighborhood of Green Valley with his wife, Lillian Madeleine Parker.

He continued to pursue his education and was among the first four African American students accepted to Georgetown University Law School, graduating in 1952. They purchased a house at 3024 18^th Street South in the Nauck Neighborhood (present-day Green Valley) by June of 1950.

Parker was engaged in numerous Arlington civic organizations following his move to the County, including the Nauck Citizens Association and Arlingtonians for a Better County. On November 21, 1959, Parker became the first African American appointed to Arlington County’s Planning Commission and served as its first African American chairman in 1962 and 1963. He served at least two subsequent terms and chaired the Planning Commission’s Capital Improvements Committee. Much of this time included the hotly debated statewide discussion about building I-66 across northern Virginia and through Arlington into Washington, D.C.

Parker did much to promote the overall welfare of Arlington County during his tenure on the Planning Commission and through his service on numerous local boards and committees. In his civic work, Parker also championed the built environment and educational opportunities in the historically African American communities of Arlington. His efforts included preventing the construction of the proposed “Southside Freeway” that would have displaced African American businesses and homeowners, and fighting the proposed rezoning of Green Valley’s business district that would have made the area completely residential.

In our Rediscover Shirlington blog post, there was mention of the proposed suggestion to build a parallel shopping center to the Shirlington Business Center to provide facilities available to customers of color. Parker, as chairman of the Nauck Citizens Association, spoke to The Washington Post about how this proposed development was not meant to detract from desegregation efforts but instead provide needed services to the African American community until desegregation provided all Arlingtonians with equal access to resources.

Photo of Lutrelle Fleming Parker Sr. Image courtesy of Arlington National Cemetary Website.

Parker also petitioned the Arlington School Board to address persisting inequities between Arlington’s traditionally white and black public schools following their 1959 desegregation. Thanks to his outstanding work in education policy and his time working with the PTA for the Hoffman-Boston and Drew-Kemper schools, Parker was on the list of potential candidates for the Arlington School Board in 1970.

Parker’s long list of professional and civic accomplishments includes Judge on the Court of Patent Appeals, Secretary of the Board of Trustees at Arlington Hospital, President and Board Chairman of the National Capital Area Hospital Council, Board Chairman for the George Mason University Foundation, and member of the Virginia State Council of Higher Education. We recognize Lutrelle Fleming Parker, Sr., for his decades of service to Arlington and to the generations of residents whose lives are improved thanks to his civic dedication.

"Preservation Today: Rediscovering Arlington" is a partnership between the Arlington Public Library and the Arlington County Historic Preservation Program.

Preservation Today: Rediscovering Arlington
Stories from Arlington’s Historic Preservation Program

Arlington’s heritage is a diverse fabric, where people, places, and moments are knitted together into the physical and social landscape of the County.

Arlington County’s Historic Preservation Program is dedicated to protecting this heritage and inspiring placemaking by uncovering and recognizing all these elements in Arlington’s history.

To learn more about historic sites in Arlington, visit the Arlington County Historic Preservation Program.

Delve Into Arlington’s History Through The 1920 Census

It has been 100 years since Arlington took on its name – changing from “Alexandria County” to the more distinct “Arlington” to avoid confusion with the nearby city of Alexandria. But how else has Arlington changed since then?

Sheet 3A from the Arlington Magisterial District, covering Veitch Avenue and Reston Avenue. Image courtesy of the National Archives.

New County resources show the vast changes Arlington has experienced over the last century, as it shifted from a mostly rural cluster of farms and a few small businesses to the bustling urban region we know today. Using data from the 1920 Census (made available through the Census Bureau’s “72-year rule,” which allows Census data to go into historical record after 72 years), along with local archival material, a rich picture of Arlington’s past has been revealed.

Read about how the 1920 Census project came to be from County Manager Mark Schwartz.

The project’s StoryMap shows an interactive view of the County’s history, highlighting the five enumeration districts within then-Alexandria County that are part of present-day Arlington. The Map looks at the notable people and places within each district that made up the vibrant communities of their day.

After scrolling through the various neighborhoods and citizens of 1920 Arlington, you can also view directly how present-day Arlington looks compared to 1920 – seeing how your home, school, or favorite spots around the County looked 100 years ago.

The Arlington Central Library (and Quincy Park) today, along with what the rest of the area looked like in 1920. Image taken from the 1920 Census StoryMap.

Watch: A Peek at the Census – Celebrating Arlington Then and Now (1920-2020)

View: Slideshow presentation from A Peek at the Census

Among these County resources also include the direct data from the 1920 Census. This data was taken from both the Census itself and augmented with information from death certificates, enlistments forms for World War I draftees, and the 1910 and 1930 censuses. These supplemental sources helped to fill in gaps where data from the 1920 Census was obscured, illegible, or missing.

With these additional materials, the 1920 Census tells us who was living in Arlington, where they lived, where they worked, and other important details that show what life was like at this point in time.

Taken all together, these resources show a vastly different Arlington, from its very population (going from 16,040 in 1920 to an estimated 228,400 in 2020), its demographic makeup, and even the street names that Arlingtonians traversed. Dive into these newly released resources to learn more about just how much the County has changed in the last 100 years.

A 1920 map of Arlington County rural delivery routes gestures to the largely rural composition of the County 100 years ago. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Headline from the Alexandria Gazette from September 25, 1919, signaling the County’s move to change its name. Image courtesy of the Alexandria Gazette.

Interested in learning more?

You can find national census records from 1790-1940 online through the National Archives.
Additional Arlington-related enumeration data going back to 1782 is available through the Center for Local History.
Do you have a question, feedback, or contributions to the 1920 Census Project? Email census1920@arlingtonva.us

Don’t forget: there’s still time to take the 2020 Census! Complete your form online at my2020census.gov

To learn more about Arlington's history, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Oral History: Remembering the Early Businesses of Columbia Pike

Interview with Ruth Levin

Exterior of Columbia Furniture, 3102 Columbia Pike. Circa 1962.

Arlingtonian Ruth Levin describes her memories of her family’s businesses that helped make up the vibrant landscape of the Columbia Pike. These included jewelry stores, a gift shop, and later, the Columbia Hardware & Appliance Company – which later changed names around 1956 to Columbia Furniture.

Oral histories are used to understand historical events, actors, and movements from the point of view of real people’s personal experiences.

The furniture store was also a community gathering place: Levin’s father, Sol Cohen, would keep the store open late to show the Friday night fights on TV for those who wanted to come and watch.

In this interview, Levin also discusses attending synagogue and Hebrew School in Arlington, participating in Girl Scouts, and watching the Pentagon (or, as it was known then, the Federal Building) being constructed.

Columbia Hardware & Appliance Company, 3102 Columbia Pike. Circa 1950s.

Narrator: Ruth Levin
Interviewer: Sara Collins
Date: April 16, 2007
Note: The audio for this interview is not currently available.

Interiors of Columbia Furniture, 3102 Columbia Pike.

Ruth Levin: In Arlington Village, there was Cohen Brothers Jewelers. Then eventually up where my father had the furniture store, Uncle Ben had Richard’s Jewelers. He named it for his son. So he had the jewelry store there. You know, that building was two stores. And he had the jewelry store in the little store, and my father had the hardware store – then converted to a furniture store.

Sara Collins: And that’s in the Charles Building?

RL: No, No. It’s Columbia Pike and Highland Street. It’s a picture frame place now.

SC: Oh, yes, of course. With the Kirby front.

RL: Yes. My father had that - Behm and Beger built that store for my father after the war. During the war because my father didn’t go into the service, he had to do something, so my uncle had Cohen Brothers Jewelry Store down in Arlington Village and my father opened up a gift shop there. That was a good place because all the servicemen from the Navy Annex and the Pentagon used to come up Columbia Pike and they would come in there and shop. And then after the war, my father had that building built and had a hardware store, it was Columbia Hardware.

SC: Where was that, that building that’s there now on Highland Street?

RL: Right. He just started kind of somehow getting into furniture, and so then he got out of the hardware and it was completely furniture. So instead of Columbia Hardware, it became Columbia Furniture. He had the furniture store there until he retired and sold the store to Max and Max had it until he died. Then he rented the building to the picture frame guy. They’re still there. And then eventually my father sold the building to him because he didn’t want to be bothered with it anymore.

Sher family in front of M. Sher & Sons General Merchandise, Columbia Pike and Walter Reed Drive, circa 1922. Charlie Sher can be seen in front of the family’s Model T Ford Utility Truck.

Want to learn more? The Ruth Levin Photograph Collection is digitized and available in PG 212. The Center for Local History also has a digitized oral history interview with Levin’s uncle, Charlie Sher, who helped run M. Sher & Sons General Merchandise.

The goal of the Arlington Voices project is to showcase the Center for Local History’s oral history collection in a publicly accessible and shareable way.

America’s First All-Women Swing Band Lived in Arlington

In the first half of the 20^th century, only a handful of women were able to make it as successful musicians. This precedent was upturned by the International Sweethearts of Rhythm – the first all-female, racially integrated swing band.

Four members of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

Its members took the nation by storm, fearlessly touring even as they faced discrimination, Jim Crow law, and sexism. In the 1940s, the group called Arlington home, making their mark on our local community as they toured both the nation and abroad.

Getting Their Start

The founding members of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm met as students at the Piney Woods Country Life School in central Mississippi, a boarding school for African American children. The school was known for producing musical groups, who were instructed in music and toured the country to fundraise for the school. In addition to the Sweethearts of Rhythm, the school produced the groups the Cotton Blossom Singers and The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, both of which also toured nationally.

The Sweethearts were founded at the school in 1937, and after success touring and performing while affiliated with the school, left in April 1941 to formally become professional musicians.

Historical marker paying tribute to the International Sweethearts of Rhythm and other groups from the Piney Woods School. Image courtesy of Simpson County.

The Band Arrives in Arlington

After leaving the school to become professional musicians, the Sweethearts relocated to Arlington with financial support from a now-anonymous wealthy Virginian. While living in Arlington, the band recruited professional musicians to fill the gaps of some of the younger members who had stayed at Piney Woods to finish school. They also joined the American Federation of Musicians, Local 710, Washington D.C.’s African American union for musicians. During this time, Anne Mae Winburn also took on the role as the group’s bandleader.

The band lived in a 10-room home near Columbia Pike that was referred to as the “Sweetheart House.” In an oral history with Arlington resident Delores Downing, she recalls listening to the band practice at the home as a young girl.

Listen to Delores Downing Discuss the Sweethearts:

The “Sweetheart House,” near Columbia Pike, where members of the Sweethearts lived while they were based in Arlington. Image courtesy of Queer Music Heritage.

National and International Success

During their time in Arlington, the band toured extensively, playing famous venues such as the Apollo Theatre and Savoy Ballroom in New York, and the Howard Theatre closer to home in Washington, D.C., where they set an attendance record in August 1941, drawing 35,000 patrons over the course of a week. They often performed with other star musicians, including Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ruby Dee. They also appeared in some short films called “soundies.” When touring, the band traveled on a customized bus call “Big Bertha” built during their Piney Woods days.

“Big Bertha,” the band’s customized tour bus. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

Watch: The Sweethearts of Rhythm perform “Jump Children” led by bandleader Anna Mae Winburn.

Their popularity increased when the United States’ entered World War II when they added military bases to their performance repertoire. In July of 1945, after requests from GIs serving overseas, the Sweethearts embarked on a six-month-long tour of Europe, sponsored by the USO. During their tour, the band performed in Paris, and in occupied Germany, including the cities of Heidelberg, Stuttgart, Munich, and Mannheim.

"The Sweethearts ready to depart for Europe on Liberty ship,” July 1945. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

Confronting Discrimination

The Sweethearts were known both for being all-female, which was a rarity in big bands at the time, and because the group was multi-racial, which was even rarer. Members of the group included women of African American, Chinese, Mexican, and Native American descent, along with a few white members in their later years.

Because the group toured nationally, their multiracial composition brought them hostility, particularly in the segregated south, where some members had to hide or wear makeup to appear lighter or darker in skin tone. Additionally, when the group went abroad to perform for U.S. soldiers, they often played to segregated audiences where African-American GIs were asked to sit separately.

Performance in St. Louis in 1944. Bandleader and vocalist Anna Mae Winburn vocalist (right); Tiny Davis (front); Willie Mae Wong (second from left); Roz Cron (third from left). Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

The Sweethearts Gradually Disband

After successful tours both domestically and abroad, the original band broke up in 1949 amid changing tides in the jazz sound and performance demands. The group had a reunion in 1980 at the Third Annual Women’s Jazz Festival in Kansas City.

Leaving a Powerful Legacy

The Sweethearts are often left out of mainstream discussion of the jazz and swing greats, but their legacy as a pioneering interracial, and all-female band has left an indelible mark on American music.

In 2012, their record “International Sweethearts of Rhythm: Hottest Women’s Band of the 1940s” was added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress. It featured recordings from 1944-1946, including commercial tracks and excerpts from an appearance on the Armed Forces radio service program “Jubilee.” It was released in 1984 by Rosetta Records – a label that exclusively released reissued performances by female blues and jazz artists.

Promotional photo for the International Sweethearts of Rhythm featuring members of the saxophone section. Image courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

Photo of trombonist Helen Jones, one of the original members of the Sweethearts and the daughter of Piney Woods founder Laurence C. Jones. Jones passed away early last month. Image courtesy of the New York Times, where you can read her obituary.

International Sweethearts of Rhythm album cover, Rosetta Records. Published in 1984 and recorded between 1945-1946. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Children’s books about the International Sweethearts of Rhythm available at the Library:

“Swing Sisters: The Story of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm,” by Karen Deans
“Sweethearts of Rhythm: The Story of the Greatest All-Girl Swing Band in the World,” by Marilyn Nelson

Want to learn more? The National Museum of American History has extensive photo records of the Sweethearts, which are available to the public online.

Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?

Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.

Rediscover The Arlington Property Yard

Real Estate, Race, Fraud, Politics and Equipment Sheds

Up until the early-1900s, Arlington County stored its essential facilities equipment, which at that time consisted of donkeys and wagons, behind the County Courthouse building, a beautiful Richardsonian Romanesque-styled building.

But by 1925, in response to a relocation order by Virginia Attorney General William C. Gloth, the Board of Supervisors (precursor to the County Board) began actively searching for a new, permanent Property Yard location.

Trades Center, circa 1950s. Image courtesy of Arlington County Government.

Race and Geography

In August 1925 the County purchased a 4.26-acre tract in Fort Myer Heights near the present-day intersection of Fairfax Drive and North Rhodes Street, from Charles A. Douglas, which it still owns today. The Board planned to beautify the new storage area with green lawns and flower beds to create a welcoming public space once the County relocated its equipment.

But by the 1920s, the targeted subdivision had developed into a largely segregated white streetcar suburb, and there was considerable public opposition to the County’s plan. More than 50 people attended a public meeting to protest relocating the Property Yard to this site.

Prominent white local developer Frank Lyon spoke on behalf of those assembled and argued for the development of a public park instead. Lyon owned the weekly newspaper The Monitor and had developed more than 465 acres (almost 3%) of Arlington’s land, routinely including restrictive racial and religious covenants in his deeds of the subdivision. The Board responded by agreeing to put the Fort Myer Heights parcel to another public use and continuing to evaluate potential sites for the Property Yard.

On August 9, 1926, the County purchased an approximately 41-acre parcel from Ashton C. Jones (also known for developing neighborhoods with white-only deed restrictions), Margaret V. Jones, E. Wade Ball, and Maude L. Ball across Four Mile Run, adjacent to the historically black Green Valley community.

The Four Mile Run vicinity tended toward commercial and industrial use, so the move to place the Property Yard here was a natural one. However, the fact that the County moved its project from a historically white area to a historically black area after pressure from the community is indicative of the outsized social power that white residents exercised in local politics.

Scandal in the Treasurer's Office

At the time of the land purchase, E. Wade Ball had been Arlington County’s Treasurer since 1906. Six years later, he was discovered to have been inflating the County accounts to increase his commission, leaving Arlington with only $7,000 in assets instead of the reported $419,000. Ball served 2 1/2 years in federal prison before taking up a career in local real estate.

Arlington County Property Yard, 1935. Pink markings indicate brick buildings and yellow indicates frame building. Visible in the top left is James B. Peyton’s land, including the land he allowed for use as the Green Valley Ball Park.

Development on Four Mile Run

The first buildings and storage structures at the Property Yard included a garage, workshop, stable, and office building. In order to move most of the County’s Water Works to the Property Yard from the Lyonhurst Water Works in North Arlington, in 1938 the County Board voted to enlarge the Property Yard’s storage and services.

The Property Yard continued to expand alongside the boom in Arlington’s suburban development during and after World War II. By the end of the 1940s it housed an underground fuel storage tank, facilities for the Department of Public Service’s Equipment Division, the County’s Water Works and the School Board. The County had also approved the construction of a new building, paid for by the Animal Welfare League, to replace the dog pound.

Bird’s eye view of the Arlington County Property Yard looking south, 1960.

Storage and Space

Despite the improved storage facilities built in the 1940s, the County still stored 90% of its equipment outside in 1950 and there was insufficient indoor shop space to accommodate all the equipment maintenance staff and activities.

In 1957, the County Board approved a deal with Shirlington Corporation to exchange land to improve both their operations. Work on the new section of the Property Yard successfully increased the workspace and efficiency of operations. The County’s 1959 annual report boasted that the renovated Property Yard had “14 working stalls, a painting room, a wash rack, a machine shop, tire storage, parts storage, office space, and toilet and locker rooms.” But it was not until 1962 that the County’s Equipment Division reported that nearly all the County’s equipment was stored under roofed structures.

By 1960 the Property Yard also included special storage facilities for voting machines, training facilities for the Fire and Police departments, and storage for school buses. The 60s also brought planting of a shrubbery border along the property line facing South Arlington Mill Drive, to add to the beautification and public service aspect of the facility.

Shirlington and Shirley Highway

Originally, the entrance road to the Property Yard ran through the area that later was developed as Shirlington Shopping Center in 1942-1944.

As early as 1944, the County Board began to consider changing the entrance to the recently constructed Arlington Mill Drive, away from the shopping center, and in response to the planned construction of the Henry Shirley Memorial Highway (Interstate 395).

The 1960s brought the opening of a new building for the Shirlington Branch Library at 2700 South Arlington Mill Drive (no longer extant).

Trades Center, dated 2019. Image courtesy of Arlington County Government.

By 1979, the Property Yard had been renamed the Arlington County Trades Center, and it is owned and operated jointly by Arlington County and Arlington Public Schools.

In 2000, as part of a Phased Development Site Plan, Arlington County contributed 2.4 acres of land from the Trades Center site to negotiate a public-private partnership designed to increase density and mixed-use development at the Shirlington shopping center.

"Preservation Today: Rediscovering Arlington" is a partnership between the Arlington Public Library and the Arlington County Historic Preservation Program.

Preservation Today: Rediscovering Arlington
Stories from Arlington’s Historic Preservation Program

Arlington’s heritage is a diverse fabric, where people, places, and moments are knitted together into the physical and social landscape of the County.

Arlington County’s Historic Preservation Program is dedicated to protecting this heritage and inspiring placemaking by uncovering and recognizing all these elements in Arlington’s history.

To learn more about historic sites in Arlington, visit the Arlington County Historic Preservation Program.

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Dedicated to collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the community.

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