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The First Arlington County Fair

For over 40 years the Arlington County Fair has been an important community event in both the County and Northern Virginia.

Arlington held its first County Fair in 1977, led by a nonprofit, all-volunteer group, which organized and operated the event.

Floyd Hawkins, who at the age of 81 helped start the Arlington County Fair, and served as the Fair’s treasurer for 10 years, from 1977 to 1987.
The Center for Local History conducted an oral history interview with Hawkins in 1986.

Harvest Day

The idea for the Fair emerged from the County’s community gardens program. Resident gardeners had been planning a Harvest Day to display the produce from the program’s 10 community garden plots. One thing led to another, and the idea expanded to involve more members of the Arlington community.

The First Arlington County Fair

The inaugural Arlington County Fair began on Friday, August 26, 1977, at the Thomas Jefferson Community Center. It started with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at noon and ended at 6 p.m. on Sunday, August 28.

It was noted at the time that Arlington's fair was the only event of this type held between Gaithersburg, MD, and Manassas, VA. It was also billed as one of the country's rare “urban fairs” – combining the elements of a traditional county fair in an urban setting. Anticipation for the Fair brewed around this melding of the new and old, as one reporter noted in an August 25, 1977 Washington Post preview:

“Where can an exceptional chrysanthemum raised on the tenth-floor balcony of the Crystal House apartment complex in Arlington receive its just due? Until this week, nowhere. However, if entered before 9 a.m. Friday it could be a blue-ribbon winner in the First Annual Arlington County Fair.”

Among the activities at the first Arlington County Fair were ribbon competitions in home arts, preserving, crafts, cake decorating, produce, flower arranging, individual flowers, paints, photography, sculpture, clothing, and baked goods. Also featured were exhibits and demonstrations of arts and crafts, as well as booths from groups such as the Arlington Office of Consumer Affairs and the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. The Arlington County Fair, according to Ware Page - the first chairman and a local freelancer in consulting and advertising - was designed to appeal to the diversity of Arlington’s population:

“Our fair is unique. It will reflect Arlington’s pluralistic nature. There will be religious groups, business interests, local gardeners, charity and community groups all under one roof.”

While there was a limited livestock showing at the event – two pigs, two sheep, and two goats imported from the 4-H club in Loudoun county – there was plenty of flora and fauna to go around. About 270 families were farming loaned plots established by the community garden program, and many of them participated in activities.

Like today, entrance to the first Arlington County Fair was free, and a variety of items were available for purchase among the many booths and vendors. But another important element of the typical rural fair (and today's County Fair) was missing in 1977 - a midway.

Excerpts from the compilation of winning recipes from the baked goods competition, 1981 Arlington County Fair.

Arlington County Fair "premium booklets" from 1983 and 1988 include information about shuttle buses, competitions and schedules.

Rapid Growth in the 1980s

By 1983, only five years after the Arlington County Fair began, more than 200 booths and exhibitors were registered to exhibit over the Fair weekend. By 1984, the live entertainment boasted a diverse range of performers including a ventriloquist, the Old Dominion Cloggers, barbershop quartet music by the Arlingtones, bluegrass, jazz, big band music, and Hungarian folk songs. Karate demonstrations and aerobic dancing were also performed.

Livestock Out, Thrill Rides In

Livestock mostly ceased making any appearances after 1977, with a few exceptions (such as pony rides and racing piglets). Midway rides were added in later years.

The Thomas Jefferson Community Center, where the Arlington County Fair has taken place since 1977.

"Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow"

The Arlington County Fair has become one of the largest free events on the East Coast, with attendance reaching over 84,000.

After the first few years, each County Fair has had a theme: “Arlington – Yesterday, Today & Tomorrow” (1986); “The Many Faces of Arlington” (2003); “Groovy Since 1977” (2016), which payed tribute to the County Fair’s origins, are just a few.

What will this year's theme be? We'll find out this summer when we see you at the County Fair!

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? 

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This Week in 19th Amendment History: First Issue of The Woman’s Journal

January 8, 1870

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment with stories about the people and events that led to the passage of women’s suffrage in the United States.

The Woman’s Journal was a women’s rights publication that produced its first issue on January 8, 1870.  One of the most significant and popular publications of the women’s suffrage movement, it ran in various forms from 1870 to 1931.

Founded by suffragist Lucy Stone and her husband Henry Browne Blackwell in Boston, Massachusetts, the Woman's Journal aimed to provide a broad segment of women with information on the women’s rights movement and the suffrage cause. Content included speeches, debates, and women’s convention notes, all under the broader banner of the mission:

“devoted to the interests of Woman – to her educational, industrial, legal and political equality, and especially to her right of suffrage.”

Lucy Stone with daughter Alice Stone Blackwell. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Journal’s first issue aligned with a significant anniversary in the suffrage timeline, as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s journal, The Revolution, had published its first copy on January 8, 1868, two years prior.

The Woman’s Journal was a weekly publication and published every Saturday in Boston and Chicago. In addition to Stone, editors of the first issue included Mary Livermore, Julia Ward Howe, William Lloyd Garrison and, T.W. Higginson.

Stone and Blackwell’s daughter Alice Stone Blackwell started as an editor in 1881 and became sole editor in 1909 after her mother and father’s deaths, where she remained in the position until 1917.

The Woman’s Journal was funded with a $10,000 seed donation from benefactor Elizabeth Eddy and sustained itself through advertisements and subscriptions. At the time of the first publication, subscriptions started at an annual price of $3.00, with deals offered to readers who brought in more subscribers.

Though ad sales were sparse, the journal notably did not allocate space for tobacco, liquor, or medicinal advertisements.

The Journal’s leadership did attempt to reach a larger audience by hiring suffragists licensed as “newsboys” to hawk the publication on the Boston Common.

The inaugural issue of The Woman's Journal included articles such as “Woman as a Preacher,” which contended that women could and should be leaders in their religious communities; a history of “Women’s Rights in France During the Last Century”; and investigative pieces “What the Women of California are Doing” and “Can Women Hold Office in Iowa?”.

Front page of the first issue of the Woman’s Journal, published January 8, 1870, from Harvard Library.

Suffragist Margaret Foley distributing the Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News, 1913. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

In 1916, the Journal hired Margaret Foley – a well-known speaker on women’s issues – to travel and host speaking engagements in the South and Midwest to promote the publication.

During its six decades, the Journal was absorbed and affiliated with numerous other suffrage journals, newsletters and periodicals. When the Journal was founded, it incorporated the Woman’s Advocate, and in 1910 it joined with the National American Woman Suffrage Association’s (NAWSA) in-house publication, the Progress. From 1910-1912, NAWSA contributed financial support and managerial oversight, and the Journal was subtitled as the “official organ of the National American Woman Suffrage Association.” From 1912 to 1916, the Journal was referred to as the Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News.

Front page of the ‘Woman’s Journal and Suffrage News” with the headline: ‘Parade struggles to victory despite disgraceful scenes,’ shows images of the women’s suffrage parade in Washington, March 3, 1913.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

In response to prolonged financial instability, in 1917, the Woman’s Journal was sold to Carrie Chapman Catt’s Leslie Woman Suffrage Commission, which proceeded to merge the Journal, the Woman Voter, and National Suffrage News to form a new title, The Woman Citizen.

The Woman Citizen took the place as NAWSA’s official publication and published until the late 1920s, when it was again called the Woman’s Journal. This iteration of the publication ran until 1931.

Learn more

The full archives of the Woman’s Journal are now available through Harvard Library’s online digitized collection.

2020 marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States. Learn how Arlington County is commemorating this milestone of civil rights on the Arlington County website.

What Happened to Arlington’s Radio Towers?

From 1913 to 1941, the Arlington Radio Towers dominated the Arlington skyline, visible for miles in either direction. 

Standing at the intersection of Columbia Pike and Courthouse Road, the towers were built by the U.S. Navy Department to house the nation’s first radio station.

Arlington Radio Towers and Alcova Heights neighborhood, date unknown.

Referred to as “Radio Arlington” or “NAA,” the station provided numerous services while it was active, and used multiple transmitters, which operated on both longwave and shortwave frequencies.

The Navy selected Arlington as the site of this historic structure after a survey of numerous potential locations in the Washington, D.C., area. Upon choosing a tract near Fort Myer, 13.4 acres of land was transferred from the War Department to the Navy, and construction began in 1911.

In addition to the towers themselves, two other facilities were built on the site: one to house the transmitters and serve as office space for the superintendent of the Naval Radio Service, and another to house receiving transmitters and quarters for the crew.

The towers came to be known as the “Three Sisters.” The tallest stood at 600 feet tall, with its accompanying “sisters” at 450 feet. This made the 600-foot tower the tallest freestanding radio tower in the world at the time of its construction, as well as the most powerful station (2,643 meters and 113 kHz, respectively). The towers were also the second-largest man-made structure in the world at the time, second to the Eiffel Tower, to which the towers also drew comparisons in their respective designs. In 1923, two 200-foot towers were added to the structure.

The Arlington Radio Towers, ca. 1920.

Designed to facilitate communication between the government and fleet commanders at sea, and as part of a “high-powered chain” of connected radio towers linking Washington, D.C., to the rest of the country, the towers pioneered efforts in advancing wireless communication. In 1915, the president of AT&T made a telephone call from New York City to Mare Island, California, via the Arlington towers – the first transmission of this type. Later that year, the towers made the first Trans-Atlantic voice communication with a call between the Three Sisters and the Eiffel Tower – a distance of more than 3,600 miles. The towers also served as the nation’s timekeeper and weather station, broadcasting daily time signals and weather reports between 1913 and 1936.

The towers initially used a 100-kilowatt Fessenden rotary-spark, which remained in use until July 8, 1923. The Federal Telegraph Company also installed 35-kilowatt Poulsen arc transmitters, which were found to be superior and from then on more widely used. In the 1920s, vacuum tube transmitters mostly replaced the older models both in Arlington and other broadcasting towers installed by the Navy.

Arlington Radio Towers, date unknown. Photo caption reads:
“View of Radio Towers on Court House [sic] Road, from rear of Sommers house, showing how undeveloped the area was.”

In 1917, the towers also played a quiet but important role in the United States’ entry into World War I.

According to the Arlington Historical Society, on the morning of April 6, as Congress decided to enter the U.S. into the war, the Joint Resolution was to be sent to President Woodrow Wilson for signing at 1:00 p.m. that day. Fifteen minutes before the signing was to take place, all stations of the navy system were instructed to cease operations to receive the signal that war was imminent. As the president signed the resolution, a naval commander in the executive office manually signaled an assistant standing in the adjacent State, War, and Navy Building (now the Eisenhower Executive Office Building), who notified the radio station, which transmitted the first declaration of war sent by radio to U.S. warships at sea.

The radio industry was under the control of the federal government during the war, and the Three Sisters towers continued to broadcast time signals, weather reports, and news bulletins throughout wartime. During this period, civilians were banned from possessing and operating radio receivers, but this ban was lifted on April 15, 1919.

The towers were dismantled in 1941, described as a menace to the newly constructed Washington National Airport (which had replaced the Washington-Hoover Airport that same year). The radio transmission carried by the towers was transferred to Annapolis, as were the towers themselves, which were disassembled and reconstructed at the Maryland site.

News article from The Northern Virginia Sun, January 3, 1941.

Transmitting equipment from the Three Sisters also went to Annapolis, while receiving equipment was transferred to a station at Cheltenham. The Navy later brokered a $1 contract for the removal of the remainder of the structure, which was taken for scrap.

Until 1956, the Arlington site served primarily as a link between the different Naval Communication Stations in Washington, D.C. The Navy ordered the disestablishment of NAA on July 1 of that year, followed by various ceremonies championing the legacy of the bygone structures and the station itself. The Annapolis and Cheltenham sites then took on the duties that were, up until then, still being conducted at the Arlington location. Today, the site formerly occupied by the towers is still home to military communications departments, including the Defense Communications Agency.

The Arlington community missed the towers very much, with one writer for the Northern Virginia Sun eulogizing their absence:

“The skyline will seem blank to those accustomed to the sight of the ‘three sisters,’ but, like everything else, the sense of their loss will not last long. Time moves too fast for that.”

A "U.S. Wireless Station Fort Myer, VA" postcard sent in 1916 shows a color photograph of the radio towers.

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

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This Week in 19th Amendment History: Wyoming Day

December 10, 1869

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment with stories about the people and events that led to the passage of women’s suffrage in the United States.

One hundred and fifty years ago this week, Wyoming made a significant – though complicated – stride on the path toward women’s suffrage.

On December 10, 1869, the frontier territory became the first to explicitly grant women the right to vote when governor John Campbell approved “An Act to Grant to the Women of Wyoming Territory the Right of Suffrage and to Hold Office.”

Wyoming Territory

Wyoming had been founded as a territory in July 1868, a time when post Civil War Reconstruction politics determined much of the legislative landscape.

President Grant appointed an almost entirely Republican government in 1869, including the territory’s governor, secretary, and attorney general. These “Radical Republicans” were named after their support for and passage of the 14th Amendment - guaranteeing that former slaves would be citizens and protected equally under the law - and the 15th Amendment - guaranteeing that individuals could not be denied the right to vote based on race or previous slave status.

The question of women's suffrage was also being raised throughout American politics. Suffrage bills in the Washington, Nebraska and Dakota territories had failed in the 1850s and 1860s, as had constitutional amendments that would have granted women the right to vote.

William Bright

The Wyoming bill was introduced by (among others) a saloonkeeper turned territorial legislator originally from Alexandria, Virginia. William Bright had fought for the Union Army during the Civil War, and later found his way to Wyoming during the gold rush, where he settled in South Pass.

Bright began his foray into the political scene as a Democrat. Like many of his fellow Democrats after the Civil War, Bright disagreed with the "Radical Republicans" and President Ulysses S. Grant in regards to Reconstruction, and had been known to speak out against them - but he appears not to have opposed the issue to women's suffrage.

Photo of the suffrage bill.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Despite Wyoming's "Radical Republican" leadership - attorney general Joseph Carey issued an official legal opinion emphasizing the 15th Amendment’s stipulation that no one (man) could be denied the vote on the basis of race - in the September 1869 territorial election only Democrats were elected to the legislature. Wyoming’s delegate to Congress that year was a Democrat.

William Bright was among the Democrats elected to the upper house of the Wyoming legislature (referred to as the Council) and subsequently appointed as president of the Council.

This legislature soon produced a significant series of laws in favor of women’s rights, including a resolution allowing women to sit in on legislative proceedings, a law guaranteeing teachers be paid equally no matter their gender, and a bill ensuring that married women could have property rights independent of their husbands.

“Scene at the Polls in Cheyenne,” 1888.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The Wyoming Bill

Bright’s suffrage bill followed. Upon introducing the bill, it passed in the Council 6-2. In the House, it faced more pushback. Attempts were made to sabotage the bill through racial prejudice, including by adding an amendment to extend the right to vote to women of color. This amendment was not added to the final bill.

One amendment that did prevail was to raise the voting age for women from 18 to 21. After this addition, the suffrage bill passed 7-4 with one abstention. Governor Campbell signed the bill into law a few days later.

No records were made of the actual proceedings of the legislative session that resulted in the bill’s passage, but newspaper reports reflect a nearly humorous atmosphere accompanying this historic legislation, suggesting that the bill itself may have been perceived as a joke. The Cheyenne-based Wyoming Tribune reported that “amid the greatest hilarity, and after the presentation of various funny amendments and in the full expectation of a gubernatorial veto, an act was passed enfranchising the women of Wyoming.”

Mrs. Esther Morris, the 1st woman judge in Wyoming Territory.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Getting the Vote for Women

Though the exact details of what other events directly precipitated the suffrage law are unclear, one frequently-referenced 1926 account credits South Pass resident Esther Hobart Morris as its catalyst.

Morris purportedly hosted a tea party as a forum to present her case for women’s suffrage to legislators, allegedly including Bright. While Morris’s actual role in the bill has been contested, it is notable that following the 1869 passage of the suffrage law, she became the first female justice of the peace in the United States (taking over after her predecessor resigned in protest of the new law).

In September 1870, Wyoming women formally voted in their first election and the territory’s second. On September 6, sixty-nine-year-old Louisa Swain of Laramie, Wyoming, became the first woman in the country to democratically cast a vote. About 300 of the total 600 eligible women voted, and many selected Republicans on their ballots. A Republican took over the position as delegate to Congress, and by 1871 a swath of Republicans broke into the previously Democrat-dominated legislature.

However, all was not smooth sailing in this new era: the newly elected legislature soon passed a bill to repeal the 1869 law, which was vetoed by Governor Campbell, whose veto was then overridden by a two-thirds vote in the House. Once it reached the Council, the bill then failed by one vote, and the suffrage law stood, never to be challenged again.

Why Women's Suffrage?

Various theories have been proposed as to the motivations behind passage of the bill, which at the time was a radical decision.

Was suffrage a publicity stunt designed to bring more settlers (and female settlers in particular) to the territory? In 1869 Wyoming was comprised of only about 6,000 recorded adult men and 1,000 women. It was also the most recently designated territory, and quite remote.

Was the bill a political power move to keep the Democrats in territorial power? Added to any possible political maneuvering was the potential for a reactionary veto by the Republican governor - had that happened, it would have been an embarrassing blow to Campbell and a boon to the Democrats.

Was the bill a sign of the schism growing between the abolitionists/Reconstructionists and the suffragists? Some of the Wyoming legislators argued that white women should have the vote instead of the African-Americans enfranchised under the 15th Amendment, or that they should be prioritized in the steps toward universal suffrage. The divide between those in support of the 15th Amendment and those against it would prove to be significant in the suffrage movement, with famous suffragists such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony opposing the enfranchisement of African-American men. This divide came to define much of the suffrage movement itself.

The Equality State

Despite the questionable motives surrounding this landmark day, Wyoming – which was later nicknamed “the Equality State” – continued its progressive legislative streak, and in 1889 approved the country’s first state constitution granting full voting rights to women.

In 1924, the state garnered another national first when Nellie Tayloe Ross was elected the first female governor in the United States.

2020 marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States. Learn how Arlington County is commemorating this milestone of civil rights on the Arlington County website.

The Early History of Arlington’s Parks and Recreation Department

Starting with a $500 allocation in 1933, Arlington has grown over the past 75 years from one public park on Four Mile Run in 1941 to a Countywide system of parks, playgrounds, and programs.

In 1933, the Arlington County Board earmarked $500 for parks and playgrounds – amenities that at the time were still rare in the county. The initial funding of $500 was reduced from a proposed $2,500, but it allowed for the acquisition of land and maintenance of parcels that had been donated by developers.

This was the beginning of the County's first parks and recreation department, formally established in 1944 as the Department of Parks and Playgrounds.

First Public Park

Starting in 1936, the Arlington County School Board was given oversight of all recreational programs. That year also marked another major milestone - the acquisition of the County’s first public park. Located in the Four Mile Run-Lubber Run area, the park spanned 54 acres, and maintenance and development of the park were completed by members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, a work relief program established as part of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.

In 1941, the Lubber Run Park formally opened to the public. Opening day was planned as a grand celebration, with a ceremony attended by State and County officials, and a massing of the colors performed by the Fort Myer Color Guard. But the festivities were rained out in a torrential downpour, and the park’s ceremonial start instead began simply, with its use by members of the County.

News story from the Northern Virginia Sun, February 13, 1936

In 1948 the County Board shifted the responsibility of County parks to the County Manager.

Recreation Centers

In 1951, Arlington County purchased the Henderson House at 4811 Third Street North to establish its first recreation center, later called the Arlington Recreation Center. The Center burned down in 1954, and in 1956 it was replaced with the Lubber Run Community Center, which remained open until 2018.

Henderson House, circa 1950.

Henderson House barn after the fire, 1954.

Growth and Innovation

The Department of Recreation and Parks (as it was known starting in 1953) continued to grow, as did its innovations and additions.

In 1954, the department established the Silver Age Club No. 1, Virginia's first public recreation program designed for senior citizens. In 1960, Arlington's first therapeutic recreation playground was established for children with special needs. And by 1971, the County's parks included lighted outdoor sports facilities, an amphitheater in Lubber Run Park, and the establishment of nature trails.

Lubber Run Park Entrance Sign and Lubber Run Park Amphitheater, respectively. Photos courtesy of Arlington, VA Parks and Recreation.

Negro Recreation Section

Until 1962, the Arlington parks system was segregated. The Negro Recreation Section was designated by the parks department for African-American members of the community who were denied access to County parks. Created in 1948, the Negro Recreation Section provided sports and arts-related programming and held public events, which were often held at the Langston Recreation Center or Hoffman-Boston School. Ernest E. Johnson served as its supervisor from 1948-1962.

Parks and Recreation Today

In 2012, the parks system became formally known as the Department of Parks and Recreation, as it is referred to today. Currently, about 11 percent of Arlington’s land is reserved for parks, amounting to thousands of acres across the county.

Learn more and Arlington’s Department of Parks and Recreation through an interactive timeline of the department’s history.

Learn more about the history of the Negro Recreation Section in the Center for Local History’s Community Archives.

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.

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This Week in 19th Amendment History: The Death of Sojourner Truth

November 26, 1883

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment with stories about the people and events that led to the passage of women’s suffrage in the United States.

Born into slavery as Isabella Baumfree (sometimes written as Bomfree) in 1797, Truth was enslaved in Dutch-speaking Ulster County, New York, where she was bought and sold four times throughout her life. In 1827, she escaped with her daughter, Sophia after her master failed to uphold the recently-passed New York Anti-Slavery law, and Truth and her daughter were taken in by an abolitionist family who bought their freedom.

Soon after her escape, Truth sued for the freedom of her five-year-old son Peter, who had been sold illegally under the New York law and transported to Alabama. Truth won the case and secured the return of her son, making her among the first black women to successfully sue a white man in court.

Photo of Soujourner Truth. Caption on photo reads: "If de fust woman God ever made was strong enough to turn de world upside down all alone, dese women all togedder ought to be able to turn it back and get it right side up agin." Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Beginning in 1828, Truth lived in New York City where she joined in the religious revival movement that came to be known as the Second Great Awakening. She became a Christian and worked in a Methodist perfectionist commune which stressed the belief of the equality of all human beings.

Truth renamed herself on June 1, 1843 - the day of Pentecost, which commemorates the Holy Spirit filling Jesus’ disciples - and was christened “Sojourner Truth.”

Working as a traveling preacher, Truth met William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass, prominent members of the abolitionist movement. She also met suffragists Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony over the course of her travels. Later in life, however, Truth distanced herself from the mainstream suffrage movement because activists such as Anthony did not support granting the right to vote to African Americans.

Portrait of Sojourner Truth. Caption on portrait reads: "I sell the shadow to support the substance." Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Truth rose to national prominence both for her speeches and published works. In 1850, she published her autobiography, “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth,” which reached widespread acclaim and readership. In 1851, Truth embarked on a lecture tour that included a stop at the National Women’s Convention (the second of its kind) in Akron, Ohio, where she delivered what would become the famous “Ain’t I a Woman?” speech.

The speech is best known in its 1863 reproduction by a white abolitionist named Frances Dana Barker Gage, which introduced the line “Ain’t I a Woman?” (originally written as “Ar’n’t I a woman?”). However, this iteration was an extreme reworking of Truth’s original speech, with Gage changing most of Truth’s words and falsely attributing a southern slave dialect. The most authentic version of the speech was published soon after its delivery by Rev. Marius Robinson in the Anti-Slavery Bugle and does not include its famous titular line. From that original 1851 transcript:

“May I say a few words? I want to say a few words about this matter. I am a woman’s rights. I have as much muscle as any man and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it. I am as strong as any man that is now. As for intellect, all I can say is, if women have a pint and man a quart - why can’t she have her little pint full? You need not be afraid to give us our rights for fear we will take too much, for we can’t take more than our pint’ll hold.”

Portrait of Sojourner Truth. Caption on portrait says: "I sell the shadow to support the substance." Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

In 1857, Truth moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where she helped escaped slaves cross to the North via the Underground Railroad. When the Civil War commenced, she worked to recruit African American men to fight in the Union Army and collected money and supplies for the troops. Among those who joined the cause was Truth’s grandson, James Caldwell, who was taken prisoner as a member of the Massachusetts Infantry Regiment and spent years in a few prisoner of war camps.

During the Civil War, she continued to lobby against segregation, and spent time in Washington, D.C. In 1864, following a violent incident she faced on a D.C. streetcar, Truth met with Abraham Lincoln to challenge the segregation of streetcars. She also counseled African American soldiers, taught former slaves domestic skills, and sought out jobs for African Americans who were left homeless and without jobs. In a letter written in February 1864, Truth commented on a visit to freedmen during the war: “It is good to live in it & behold the shackles fall from the manacled limbs. Oh if I were ten years younger I would go down with these soldiers here & be the Mother of the Regiment!”

The photograph shows African-American adults and children reading books in front of their barracks. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

In 1865, Truth accepted a position with the National Relief Association at Freedmen’s Village in Arlington Heights. Situated at the intersection between Columbia Pike and South Joyce Street, this stretch of land was a settlement for former slaves between 1863 and 1900. Here, Truth served as “counselor to the freed people,” and provided support at the Freedmen’s Bureau, where she collected provisions for patients in the Freedmen’s Hospital. Truth also advocated securing land grants from the government to former slaves, though these calls largely went unanswered by Congress.

Truth spent her final years in Michigan. She continued to speak on and advocate for the issues of women’s rights, universal suffrage, and prison reform until her death in 1883.

Learn more in “The Narrative of Sojourner Truth,” available at the Library and online.

2020 marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States. Learn how Arlington County is commemorating this milestone of civil rights on the Arlington County website.

The Royal Family in Arlington

You probably know that members of the United Kingdom’s royal family make regular visits to the United States for diplomatic and ceremonial purposes.

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at the Arlington Cemetery, June 1939.

But over the last 80 years members of the royal family have stopped in Arlington too, drawing much local attention and stirring up royal fervor!

Here are a few of their notable visits to the area:

June 1939

King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, parents to the current Queen Elizabeth II, were the first reigning British monarchs to visit the United States and made a stop in Arlington during their time in the country. The trip garnered both local and national excitement, with one columnist from The Northern Virginia Sun declaring that “you will look a long time to find in your history books anything that quite reaches the level of the moment which will be recorded this afternoon.”

Those gathered in Washington D.C. to greet the royals upon their arrival on June 8 included a group of approximately 300 Arlington residents. An entire division of the Arlington Boy Scouts attended the event. Three children from Arlington were also selected to participate as guards of honor for the royal arrival, including a representative from the Girl Scouts, a member of the Rover Scouts, and a cub scout from the Clarendon Methodist Church. In preparation for the occasion, the Arlington County Board voted for the hours between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. on June 8 to be considered a holiday. Arlington County schools were also given the day off as a holiday, marking a slightly early end to the school year.

In the society pages of The Sun newspaper, it was reported that numerous Arlington residents attended the garden party thrown for the royal couple at the British Embassy during their stay. On the second day of their visit, the couple toured Mount Vernon and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery, before embarking north for appointments in New York.

October/November 1951

As part of a tour of the nation’s capital, Princess Elizabeth (who wouldn’t begin her reign as queen until February 1952) and Prince Philip also made stops at Mount Vernon and the Arlington National Cemetery during their brief three-day visit to the Washington, D.C., area, which bookended a longer tour of the Canadian territories.

From The Daily Sun, October 31, 1951.

During their time in D.C., the royal couple stayed at Blair House, the temporary residence of President Truman while the White House was being renovated – a project that lasted four years, from 1949 to 1952.

The princess and prince’s visit proved to be a whirlwind, scheduled out to the minute with activities and events. On the second day of their trip, the couple hosted a reception at the British Embassy, during which 2,000 people were selected to shake the princess’s hand. The honored guests were notified of their selection via mailed invitations in late October, which included the forewarning that the reception line “will be kept moving briskly at the request of Scotland Yard” and “Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip may not be questioned or quoted.” The couple was then treated to a dinner and party hosted by the President and First Lady.

Stops at Mount Vernon and the Arlington National Cemetery also took place on the second day of their visit. A 21-gun salute was fired in honor of the princess, after which their motorcade proceeded to the amphitheater through the cemetery’s west entrance. The couple was then brought through the trophy room to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where Princess Elizabeth laid a wreath.

The ceremony was accompanied by a performance of “Taps,” as well as “God Save the King” and “The Star-Spangled Banner” during the visit. The cemetery was understandably closed to traffic the day of the event, though citizens were permitted to attend the ceremony on foot.

October 1957

Six years after her first visit to the U.S., this trip marked Queen Elizabeth’s first American visit as sovereign. This tour also included a stop at the Arlington National Cemetery, where the Queen would once again pay respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

Queen Elizabeth lays a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at the Arlington National Cemetery, 1957.

During this trip, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip touched down stateside October 16 at the Patrick Henry Airport (now the Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport), where they kicked off a two-day stay in Virginia. The couple attended the 350th-anniversary celebration of the founding of Jamestown, toured the College of William and Mary, and dined at the Williamsburg Inn before departing for the D.C. area on President Eisenhower’s official airplane, the Columbine III.

From there, the queen and prince were welcomed by President Eisenhower and the First Lady, as well as Secretary of State John Foster Dulles, and set off on a full schedule of appearances. The pair toured the Capitol Building with Vice President Richard Nixon and Pat Nixon, visited the National Cathedral, laid the cornerstone for the new British Embassy, and laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier crossing over to Arlington for this appointment.

The couple also traveled to College Park to take in a football game on October 19, in which Maryland upset UNC 21-7. After the game, Queen Elizabeth infamously asked to see an American supermarket and the royal motorcade headed for the Queenstown Giant Food grocery store in West Hyattsville, where they were given a brief tour as awestruck shoppers looked on.

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

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This Week in 19th Amendment History: The Night of Terror

November 14, 1917

Celebrate the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment with stories about the people and events that led to the passage of women’s suffrage in the United States.

Just over 100 years ago this week, on November 14, 1917, a group of suffragists underwent a horrifying night of torture and abuse that would come to be known as the “Night of Terror.”

33 women protesters were taken to the Occoquan Workhouse in Fairfax County and subjected to brutal treatment by the prison’s guards in retaliation for the women’s ongoing peaceful protest for the right to vote.

Some of the picket line on Nov. 10, 1917. Left to right: Mrs. Catherine Martinette, Eagle Grove, Iowa. Mrs. William Kent, Kentfield, California. Miss Mary Bartlett Dixon, Easton, Md. Mrs. C.T. Robertson, Salt Lake City, Utah. Miss Cora Week, New York City. Miss Amy Ju[e]ngling, Buffalo, N.Y. Miss Ha. Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. (Photographer). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The arrest and imprisonment of the women was the culmination of months of organized protest. In response to the reelection of Woodrow Wilson, members of the National Woman’s Party (sometimes referred to as the “Silent Sentinels”) picketed for months outside of the White House. Bolstered by banners, signs, and a consistent physical presence, they called for the president to back a federal amendment granting women the right to vote (by 1917, nine U.S. states had extended voting rights to women).

The protests – carried out on a rotating basis to ensure a constant presence at the White House - had gone smoothly following their start after Wilson’s reelection. Wilson had even invited protesters inside the White House for coffee, although the invitation was declined.

But the mood changed after the U.S. entry into World War I, on April 6, 1917. The heightened patriotic fervor made criticism of the government more and more fraught, and members of the suffrage movement suffered for their outspoken and visible criticism of the president.

Policewoman arrests Florence Youmans of Minnesota and Annie Arniel (center) of Delaware for refusing to give up their banners. June 1917. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Helena Hill Weed, of Norwalk, CT, serving 3 day sentence in D.C. prison for carrying banner "Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed." July 6-8, 1917. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

In June 1917, members of the ongoing picket began to get arrested. By October, police issued an ultimatum: if the picket continued, protesters could face sentences of up to six months in prison. Many of the arrested protesters were charged with “obstructing traffic” or given fines.

Hunger strikes emerged in the jails and workhouses where protesters were held, leading to force-feeding and other violent practices carried out by prison staff. In response to this, leader Alice Paul marched from the National Woman’s Party headquarters to the White House with a banner reading: “The time has come to conquer or submit for there is but one choice - we have made it” - the same slogan President Wilson used on posters encouraging Americans to buy war bonds.

The day after the police announce that future pickets would be given limit of 6 mos. in prison, Alice Paul led picket line with banner reading "The time has come to conquer or submit for there is but one choice - we have made it." October 20, 1917, Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. (Photographer). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Ten months into the ongoing picketing efforts, on November 13, 1917, 33 women were arrested around the White House. By the next day, they arrived at the Occoquan Workhouse, where, demanding to be recognized as political prisoners, they refused to put on prison uniforms or participate in the mandated work shifts.

Cell blocks at Occoquan [Workhouse], ca. 1917, Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. (Photographer). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The prison guards responded with violence. On orders from Occoquan Superintendent W.H. Whittaker, guards physically assaulted the women and threw them into dark and filthy cells.

One suffragist, Dora Lewis, was violently thrown down, hitting her head on an iron bed. Alice Cosu, who witnessed this, suffered a heart attack and did not receive medical treatment until the next day.  Organizer Lucy Burns was chained with her hands over her head to the bars in her cell and forced to stand for the entirety of the night.  Fellow protester Julia Emory assumed the same position for the night in solidarity.

One of the protesters, Doris Stevens, wrote an account of the “Night of Terror” entitled “Jailed for Freedom,” which chronicled the events of their imprisonment. She included excerpts of Lucy Burn’s accounts, which were recorded clandestinely during her imprisonment on scraps of paper and smuggled out of the workhouse.

 

Miss [Lucy] Burns in Occoquan Workhouse, November 1917, Harris & Ewing, Washington, D.C. (Photographer). Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

Burns writes: “(Whittaker) refused to hear our demand for political rights. Seized by guards from behind, flung off my feet, and shot out of the room. All of us were seized by men guards and dragged to cells in men’s part.”

During their time in Occoquan, many arrestees resorted to hunger strikes. In response to this, the guards force-fed the women raw eggs and milk, causing them to become ill.  At one point, marines from the nearby Quantico Station were brought in to support the Occoquan guards.  By the time the women were released, many were too weak to walk on their own.

Kate Heffelfinger after her release from Occoquan Prison, ca. 1917. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.

The imprisoned suffragists were returned to D.C. after a November 23 ruling determined that, since they were arrested in D.C., it was illegal to incarcerate them in Virginia.  By November 28, they were out on bail, and by March of the following year, all of their arrests had been declared unconstitutional.

In early January 1918, President Wilson expressed his support for the voting rights amendment, which passed in the House but failed in Senate.  It would take until 1920 before the amendment was formally incorporated into the U.S. Constitution. The “Night of Terror” remains a pivotal point in the struggle for suffrage, a true show of the solidarity of the protesters and the lengths to which they would go for their cause – and the lengths their opposition would go to hamper their efforts.

Research sources used in this piece:

Read about Gertrude Crocker, Arlington's own Silent Sentinel suffragette, also jailed multiple time in 1917.

Learn more in these books available at the Library:

2020 marks the centennial of women’s suffrage in the United States. Learn how Arlington County is commemorating this milestone of civil rights on the Arlington County website.

Arlington Theatre ‘N’ Bowling

On August 15, 1940, one of Arlington’s premier cinemas – the Arlington Theatre – opened its doors.

Architect’s conception of the Arlington Recreation Center, which included the Arlington Theatre. From special coverage of the building’s opening in The Sun, August 16, 1940.

Located at the intersection of Columbia Pike and South Fillmore Street, the Art Deco style building was a cinematic façade fit for its wide variety of movie screenings and could seat over 600 moviegoers at a time.

Part of a boom in cinema construction around the county, the Arlington Theatre joined the Wilson, Ashton, and Buckingham Theatres – all of which were part of the Neighborhood Theatres franchise. The Arlington Theatre was designed by architect Fred Bishop, who also designed Richmond’s iconic Byrd Theater and the Beacon Theatre in Hopewell.

The Arlington Theatre was a part of a larger building called the Arlington Recreation Center, which included commercial storefronts, a pharmacy, and a 24-lane bowling alley on the second and third floors. The bowling alley featured “modern, high speed” Brunswick Balke alleys and acoustical soundproofing. Bowlers could also treat themselves to the Center’s soda fountain and sandwich bar, or have orders delivered straight to their lanes.

Ad for the Bowling Center at Arlington Theatre

The Arlington Theatre drew major media attention for its inaugural night. Its opening was covered in a special section of the August 16, 1940, edition of The Sun, where it was featured alongside pieces on the broader growth and development around the Columbia Pike area. A reporter described the theatre:

“Modern in every respect, housed in a fireproof building and equipped with the famous Carrier air conditioning system, which also cools and refreshes the bowling alleys and the pharmacy. Large, spring-bottom seat(s), amply spaced, assure comfort for theatre patrons, while the lobby, lounges, and restrooms are furnished and decorated in modern and attractive styles.”

The theatre’s first film showing was a 6:30 p.m. screening of the 1940 film “My Favorite Wife,” the “delightfully delirious comedy” (according to the theatre’s advertisement) starring Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. Part of the popular screwball comedy genre of the era and adapted from the Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, “Enoch Arden,” the film garnered a successful opening night, with one reviewer describing it as “fast-paced, delightful comedy entertainment.”

The film played for two additional showings during opening week, screening in full on Friday, August 16 and Saturday, August 17. All screenings were accompanied by a screening of the “Information Please” program, a radio quiz show in which audience members would ask experts questions. The panel show was so popular that RKO-Pathé Pictures released filmed versions of the radio program that were released as 10-minute-long clips to accompany feature film screenings. The “guest guesser” for this particular broadcast was the 1940 Republican presidential nominee Wendell Willkie.

The Arlington Theatre also became a popular location for numerous community events, and in 1940 hosted then First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for a charity Christmas Party held by the Kiwanis Club. During World War II, the theater was a place to buy bonds and defense stamps to support the troops. The Arlington Theatre and the other Neighborhood Theatres in the area would host themed screenings, including designating September 1942 as “Salute to our Heroes” month, with ads for showtimes also including the call, “Come on, moviegoers! Buy war stamps here!”

The Arlington Cinema ‘N’ Drafthouse in 2004

In 1985, the building transitioned to its modern iteration as the Arlington Cinema ‘N’ Drafthouse, which still operates today. It stands as one of the last operational cinema buildings from the heyday of the 1930s and 1940s construction and includes the Arlington Theatre’s original theater behind its movie screen with lighting, storage, and a green room. The Cinema seats up to 275 guests and features both movie screenings and live entertainment.

Read The Sun’s coverage of the Arlington Theatre’s 1940 opening in the Community Archives.

Learn more about local cinema history in “Movie Theaters of Washington DC,” by Robert K. Headley, available at the Library.

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.

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Rediscover Haunted Arlington

Four stories to keep you up at night this October...

The Spirits at Overlee

Have you met the ghost of Margaret Febrey?

Febrey-Kincheloe House, from Poolside, 1997

In 2012 construction workers at the Overlee Community Center pool site reported that they were not alone - they would often see a little girl in Victorian clothing climbing through the debris and walking the site.

The construction site was on the grounds of a former historic mansion, known most recently as the Febrey-Kincheloe House, which stood for more than a century. Ernest Febrey constructed the grand home in the 1890s, where he raised his daughter, Margaret.

The Kincheloe family eventually bought the house from the Febrey family. When Mr. Kincheloe suddenly died, Mrs. Kincheloe converted the house into a rest home for Washington dignitaries called the Crestwood Sanitarium in 1947. In 1957 the house was converted into a community center clubhouse, and a pool was installed for the neighbors to enjoy. For many years clubhouse caretakers reported hearing music and laughing late into the night, but when they would investigate the noises, the sounds immediately ceased. The caretakers attributed the unseen source of the noises to the home's time as a sanitarium.

Young Margaret died in January of 1913 of a tubercular infection of the spine called Pott’s disease, and rumors are that the Febrey family abandoned the home soon after she passed away. But unlike the unseen clubhouse spirits, Margaret is not shy. Not only has she been seen around the property often, many people have reported speaking to her. Before the sale of the Febrey-Kincheloe House, contractors and realtors spoke of seeing a strangely dressed girl in the house standing by the basement stairs, and demolition workers spoke to her when they were razing the house in 2012. She’s been seen poolside and swimmers have reported speaking to a girl in a grey Victorian dress.

Children, if you meet Margaret at the pool, don’t be afraid. It’s said she likes to make friends with the children she meets.

Old Post Chapel

Fort Myer, now Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall, has always had a storied history...

Old Post Chapel and New Gate at the Arlington National Cemetery

In 1864 the United States government began converting what had been the Lee Family’s estate into a burial ground for Union Army dead, housing for freed slaves and land for various military purposes. In 1861 Fort Ramsey, later renamed Fort Cass, was built on part of the land. However, after the end of the Civil War, it was abandoned.

In 1862 the Army built Fort Whipple a short distance southeast of Fort Cass. Its fortifications likewise were abandoned after the war ended, but its grounds were converted into the Signal School of Instruction for Army and Navy Officers in 1869. In 1881 it was renamed Fort Myer after Brigadier General Albert J. Myer, who had led the Signal School until his death in 1880.

In 1908 Fort Myer was the site of the first aviation fatality during one of Orville Wright’s first exhibition flights. And it was the location of the “Three Sisters” radio towers, which were the first to broadcast a voice across the United States and eventually over the Atlantic.

The Old Post Chapel, the only chapel on the grounds of the former Fort Whipple, holds the most claims of paranormal presences.

The Old Post Chapel was commissioned by Major George Patton Jr. in 1933 when he toured the chapels on the grounds of the Walter Reed Hospital. Patton told Post Commander Colonel Kenyon Joyce that the new chapel should combine the functions of a principal chapel with those of a mortuary chapel in one building.

Workers broke ground in February 1934, and the chapel was officially dedicated on April 21, 1935, where it was known for its attractive spire and intricate stained-glass windows. The chapel serves as a place of worship for the community, a wedding chapel, and a place of final honors for those laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Many fallen service members have lain in wait in the Old Post Chapel for their final trip, and it has allowed family members to grieve in private.

So it is unsurprising that many active duty service members have reported hearing disembodied voices and footsteps in the chapel when they have been alone.

Locked doors have unlocked themselves and opened on their own. K9 units patrolling with service people will refuse to go into the building, and balk at the door, especially at night. And visitors describe a young grief-stricken woman dressed in white who waits for her sweetheart; rumors are that she threw herself from the bell tower, which remains locked to this day.

Wakefield High School

Phantom of the Theater

Wakefield High School in 1996

Who knows where the Wakefield High School ghost has chosen to perform since the school theater it used to haunt was demolished in 2013...

Students and staff said that if you sat very quietly in the balcony seats of the theater, you might see and hear things you could not explain. The piano would begin to play even though no one was sitting at the keyboard. The lights would operate even though no one was in the lighting booth. And the light fixtures themselves would turn to impossible angles, sometimes coming to rest on the person in the balcony or the lone audience member.

Who was the ghost? Rumors say a crew member fell from the catwalk and died in the early 1960s, and was sometimes seen high up on the catwalk, once again reliving his last moments.

Arlington Hall

Who was that woman?

Arlington Hall Girls off for Sight-Seeing Trip - Washington, D.C.

The stately building near the intersection of Arlington Boulevard and South George Mason Drive may no longer be home to military codebreakers, but it's still a place of mystery.

In 1927 Dr. William Martin founded the Arlington Hall Junior College for Women. The rolling 100-acre campus included an award-winning riding club, and the stately Arlington Hall itself was home to many enviable social events including dinners, teas, balls, and formal dances.

In 1942 the Arlington Hall Junior College for Women quietly became the secret headquarters for the Signal Intelligence Service, a department dedicated to breaking German and Russian codes. Unbeknownst to the men and women working to end the war, the KGB had already infiltrated the center, spying via a long-time analyst who had defected to the U.S.S.R. After the Signal Intelligence Service expanded and transferred its headquarters, the building began its third life as a research center, and then as a satellite office for the State Department in 1989.

The building still holds its secrets - not only the unexploded Civil War-era rifle shell found sitting precariously under the hall during an excavation in 2008, but the unexplained noises that occupants hear in the quietest hours.

It is said that if you are downstairs when it is silent, and you know you are alone, you will hear footsteps above you, walking across the hard floor and then stepping onto the carpet and continuing their journey. If you go upstairs to investigate, you’ll see a young woman in a floral dress walking into and out of the women’s powder room on the way to a party. She stops to check her make-up in the mirror before she turns and vanishes...

"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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