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Arlington, VA Suffragist Mary Morris Lockwood

The Charlie Clark Center for Local History (CCCLH) sat down with Nancy Tate to talk about the origins of the women's suffrage movement and the historical marker for Arlington suffragist Mary Morris Lockwood (1871–1936).

Tate is a longtime member of the League of Women Voters of Arlington and Alexandria City and has served as the executive director of the League of Women Voters of the United States.

The marker is located next to the Arlington Science Focus Elementary School, at 1501 North Lincoln Street, across from Hayes Park, in Arlington, Virginia 22201.

This interview was recorded on May 30, 2025, at the Charlie Clark Center for Local History and is part of the VA voting rights exhibition "From Barriers to Ballots." You can read the transcript of the interview below or stream it online.

The transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Image of Mary Morris Lockwood, weekly newspaper "The Suffragist," June 6, 1914, Library of VA.

Mary Morris Lockwood, Silent Sentinel

Mary Morris Lockwood lived in Arlington, VA, and was actively involved in the civic life of her community. She was also engaged in civic reforms. For instance, she helped found the library system of Arlington, St. Andrew's Episcopal Church and the Federation of Women's Clubs. She is particularly known as a very active suffragist.

Suffragists were women and men who worked very hard over a 72-year period to ensure equal voting rights for women.

And she did that living right here in Arlington. Both by setting up chapters of some of the suffrage groups in the state, raising money, lobbying her federal legislators from this district and marching in parades.

Parades were a common tactic to draw attention to the suffrage movement. Lockwood marched, for instance, in the very well-known 1913 march down Pennsylvania Avenue when thousands of women from around the country came to DC to show support for women’s right to vote.

She's particularly significant because she was one of the so-called Silent Sentinels, the women who stood in front of the White House every day for a year in 1917, holding banners saying: "Mr. President, how long must women wait for liberty?"

This photograph shows picketers marching from the National Women’s Party headquarters to their posts in front of the White House in 1917. Courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

A Letter from Mother

They were trying of course to influence President Woodrow Wilson to support a constitutional amendment to provide voting rights to women. It took him a while, but he ultimately urged Congress to pass it. And in 1919 Congress finally did that, sending it on to the state legislatures to ratify.

The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified in 1920, guaranteeing that the right to vote could not be denied on the basis of sex. **

But it was a hard-fought fight right to the end, because the amendment only passed by one vote in the legislature of the last state, Tennessee.  And that only happened when one young male legislator flipped his vote after receiving a letter from his mother urging him to do that.

You can't get better drama than this story of women finally getting into the Constitution!

The Suffragist, June 14, 1919. The Suffragist was created in 1913 by Alice Paul and the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage (later the National Woman’s Party) to spread women’s political news and garner public support for a suffrage amendment. Courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

It Took Many People

As a side note to that, these roadside markers are meant to honor and commemorate the many, many people who worked for over 72 years for women’s suffrage. Mary Lockwood was only one of the many who had become invisible over the years. As part of the 2020 centennial of the 19th Amendment, a wide range of efforts were undertaken to highlight the work of these suffragists.

And it's significant to know that there were active suffragists in Virginia, because the Virginia General Assembly was completely against women voting. They fought it to the very end.

Women like Mary Lockwood, who were going around the state and trying to educate people and get support, may be even more heroic than other suffragists around the country because they were facing so much hostility.

Sign, ca. 1920, designed to be placed in the window of a home so that all who passed would know that the woman within had exercised her right under the 19th Amendment and registered to vote. Courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

Organizing for Women’s Suffrage

The organized efforts to get the vote started in 1848. It took until the late 1800s, when some of the state legislatures, particularly in the Western states, began to allow women to vote. How they did that varied. Some of them allowed women to vote on every race up to president. Some said only the school board race, some said everything except the school board race. I guess in the West it was easier to see the equal contributions that women were making.

Regardless of the differences between states, it took multiple suffrage campaigns in every state to achieve voting rights for women.  It took petitions. It took marches. Sometimes it was legal action. Sometimes women such as Susan B. Anthony went to vote, knowing it was illegal, just to highlight the injustice of being arrested or fined for exercising their voice as citizens.

Women's suffrage postcard, 1915. A popular anti-suffrage argument claimed that entering the supposedly masculine world of politics would take away from women’s femininity. This postcard directly refutes that argument by giving examples of other tasks women commonly performed that were not considered feminine but were not thought to take away from their "womanliness." Courtesy of the National Museum of American History.

By the 1900s, More Momentum Was Building for the Women’s Vote

The women's rights movement started as part of the abolitionist movement. Over the years different groups evolved, and the movement splintered somewhat. There's a lot of complexity to this story, which we don't have time to go into here.

By the time you get into the 1910s, momentum was building. By 1918, women were already voting for president in a number of states. Senators and congressmen who had been elected from those states started making Congress more receptive to the suffrage arguments.

And during World War I, when so many women were doing so such much to support the war, it became harder, even for President Wilson, to ignore their exclusion from the body politic. In fact, he used this rationale in urging Congress to pass the amendment.

Photo of the historical marker for suffragist Mary Morris Lockwood, located at 1501 North Lincoln Street, across Hayes Park in Arlington, VA.
Photo of the historical marker for suffragist Mary Morris Lockwood, located at 1501 North Lincoln Street, across from Hayes Park in Arlington, VA.

Virginia Did Not Change its Own Constitution Until 1952

Just to get back to Virginia—and most of the Southern states—which, I must say were against women's voting rights because, of course, they were against Black voting rights. And why would they want Black women to vote when they were already trying to suppress the Black men? That was a block of states that was pretty hard to move.

The 19th Amendment passed in 1920. Women in some of the states had been voting since at least 1910. If every state had been left to handle the issue on its own, those of us who live in Virginia would have waited a whole lot longer to vote. Virginia did not change its own constitution until 1952.

It's quite a wonderful story and there are so many people who worked so hard to make women’s voting rights a reality. As I’ve said, many of their stories have not been told. Increasingly, there is an effort such as these roadside markers to tell those stories.

I’m happy to share such stories—like that of Mary Lockwood—with you.

**  It needs to be noted that the 19th Amendment did not enfranchise U.S. women who continued to be excluded from voting for reasons other than their sex. That included those who were not considered citizens (such as members of tribal organizations), those who were prevented by state Jim Crow laws, and those who lived in the District of Columbia.

About Nancy Tate

Nancy Tate is a longtime member of the Arlington League of Women Voters, now the League of Women Voters of Arlington and Alexandria City (LWV-AAC). She has served as president of the LWV-AAC and currently serves as chair of the history committee.

From 2000-2015, Tate served as the executive director of the National League of Women Voters, known as the League of Women Voters of the United States.

The League of Women Voters is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization working to protect and expand voting rights. It operates at all levels—federal, state and local—to ensure everyone is represented in our democracy.

Swimming Away The Dog Days

The Stuart Paine Swimming and Diving Collection began with a mystery.

In 1967, at the age of 14, Stuart Paine began diving at the Springboard Swimming Pool in Springfield, VA, and shortly thereafter started participating in meets with the Northern Virginia Swimming League (NVSL). When Paine won first place in the 1968 NVSL 3-Meter Meet, NVSL recorded him as the first winner of the 3-Meter Meet in their official historical record.

However, Paine was present at the same meet the previous year, so he knew he couldn’t be the first person to win the 3-Meter Meet. This meant the official NVSL record was both inaccurate and incomplete.

A photo of Stuart Paine, who was in the center with a trophy at the 1969 NVSL meet.

Stuart Paine (bottom row, center) showing off his trophy at the 1969 NVSL meet. From RG 395: Stuart Paine Swimming and Diving Collection.

Realizing the discrepancy, Paine wanted to give earlier NVSL winners the recognition that they deserved. This led him to research the early history of the league as well as swimming and diving in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, MD, and nearby areas. In 2016, Paine presented his findings to NVSL in a formal request for them to update their records.

In 2023, he donated this report, along with artifacts such as diving medals, patches and photographs, to the Charlie Clark Center for Local History for researchers to access. We consulted the Paine collection to learn about swimming in Arlington through the years.

Swimming in Arlington before the 1950s

Most people living in Arlington before the mid-20th century swam in natural creeks and rivers. Everett E. Norton, who grew up in Columbia Pike in the 1920s and '30s, used to go swimming at Four Mile Run as a child. Later, he would take trips to Fort Myer to swim at the pool there, which required a membership.

Buckingham Pool House in 1991.

Buckingham Pool House in 1991. The swimming pool complex was integral to the original plan for Buckingham Village, envisioned in the late 1930s as a self-contained community that included recreational, entertainment, and educational facilities. This also meant that the pool house was closed to non-residents of Buckingham.

In 1939, with no public swimming pool of its own, Arlington County arranged to transport children to the Washington, D.C., municipal pool in East Potomac Park. Until at least 1947, swimming sessions were segregated by gender. In 1950, Arlington began sending buses of Black children to East Potomac Park for desegregated swimming. Until then, only white children were permitted.

Children lined up to board a school bus.

Several children lined up to board a school bus to go to a public swimming pool in D.C. From RG 32: Documents from the County Manager's Library, 1889-1994.

Opening Pools in Arlington

The era of Northern Virginia community pools began in the summer of 1953 with the opening of Bradlee Towers Pool in Alexandria and Holmes Run Acres in Falls Church. A boom of swimming pool developments followed. Arlington gained its first community pool in 1955 with the opening of the Arlington Forest neighborhood pool.

When Ruth Cocklin moved to Arlington from California in 1954, she was surprised to find that Arlington didn’t have many swimming pools. Because they had few safe and accessible places to learn, many children didn’t know how to swim. Cocklin came together with her neighbors to establish a swimming pool for their neighborhood, which became the Donaldson Run Swimming Pool.

COCKLIN: “Another thing that I was surprised to find is that a lot of the children (and these were from middle-class families - from professional parents) didn't know how to swim; there was no place to swim. Arlington had no swimming pools.

We belonged to the Fort Myer club, but a number of people in our neighborhood, headed up by Julian Serles and Bob Kovaric and Allan Dean – and my husband was involved with this, Ken Weaver was another one – worked to start a swimming pool for our neighborhood...This became the Donaldson Run Swimming Pool, perhaps the most beautiful one that exists today in Arlington, although there are several neighborhood pools.

The Arlington Forest, I think, was the first one and Donaldson Run was the second, and it took a long time. There was talk of putting it on land on Military Road and the neighbors rose up in horror at that. Eventually they settled on this site on Marcey Road which was at that time a little separated from other people. But the people on Birchwood Place were sure that they were going to be overwhelmed with traffic and it took several years to get it through. And I think the pool finally opened in 1958 and that was a boon.

My children knew how to swim, but a lot of these youngsters simply didn't know a thing at all about it. And I personally think swimming is one of the things everybody should learn, basic swimming at least. Whether you get involved in racing or anything, is another thing.”

INTERVIEWER: “There are three or four of those neighborhood association pools.”

COCKLIN: “Arlington Forest, Overlee, and I think there are a couple of others in Arlington, I'm not sure. But there have been others out in McLean. They still are very, very popular and have long, long waiting lists.”

As new pools continued to open, the Northern Virginia Swimming League was established in May 1956 to organize swim and dive meets among competitive youth representing pools across the area.

The 1950s also marked the establishment and expansion of high schools in Arlington, many of which had swimming pools and swim teams of their own. Wakefield, Yorktown , and Washington-Lee (now Washington-Liberty) all had competitive swim teams by the 1960s. By 1969, all Arlington high schools were desegregated, as were their swim programs.

What’s your favorite place to go swimming in Arlington? Leave a comment and let us know!

 

Sources

RG 395: Stuart Paine Swimming and Diving Collection, 1892-2023.

Interview with Ruth C. Cocklin. Full transcript online.

Interview with Everett E. Norton. Full transcript online.

Library of Congress: Buckingham Apartment Complex.

Arlington County Website: Buckingham Village Historic District.

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

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

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Lessons From Nature

Dr. Phoebe Hall Knipling and Valerie B. Kitchens were Arlington women who advocated for environmental conservation and education.

Today marks the 54th anniversary of Earth Day, first celebrated on April 22, 1970. Earth Day commemorates the birth of the modern environmental movement and invites us to renew our commitment to protecting the planet.

Environmental activism in Arlington predates the first celebration of Earth Day by over a decade. World War II triggered a major shift toward industrialization in Northern Virginia – Arlington County’s population soared while urbanization and development increased. As open land quickly diminished, some Arlingtonians began to recognize the need to improve environmental awareness and conserve the disappearing natural landscape. Two such pioneers were Dr. Phoebe Hall Knipling and Valerie B. Kitchens.

Dr. Phoebe Hall Knipling

Dr. Phoebie Knipling riding a scooter at a Public School Science Fair.

Phoebe Knipling riding a scooter at the Arlington Public Schools Science Fair, 1959. From RG 111: Arlington Outdoor Education Association Records, 1947-2017.

Dr. Phoebe Hall Knipling (1910-1988) was the first female Science Supervisor for Arlington Public Schools (APS) and the first woman to hold such a position in the state of Virginia. In the late 1950s, Dr. Knipling started a summer science enrichment program that incorporated outdoor education for students.

This program transported students to various public and private lands in Northern Virginia to study life sciences, astronomy, geology, meteorology, agronomy and conservation, among other subjects that benefitted from firsthand encounters with nature.

A map of a valley in Virginia.

Students, Stars, and Outdoor Education pamphlet, page 2. From RG 111.

As open, natural lands became increasingly unavailable, Dr. Knipling argued that it was necessary for APS to acquire their own land for outdoor education. With the help of community representatives, parents of APS students and five school staff members, she established the Arlington Outdoor Education Association (AOEA) as a volunteer-run nonprofit on July 3, 1967, to create an outdoor lab exclusively for APS student use.

On March 14, 1968, the AOEA purchased a 200-acre site in Fauquier County at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The site featured a spring-fed stream, a pond, hiking trails, a natural amphitheater and diverse plant and animal life. At Dr. Knipling’s suggestion, the land became known both as Tahl which means “Wonderful Valley” and as Floraunaretum, meaning "interaction of flora and fauna in an outdoor setting."

Visitors exploring a stream at the Arlington Outdoor Education Association Lab.

Visitors exploring a stream at the Arlington Outdoor Education Association Outdoor Lab, 1975. From RG 111.

After Dr. Knipling retired in 1975, the AOEA board voted to rename the property the Phoebe Hall Knipling Outdoor Lab to honor her years of service to science education in Arlington County. Currently, four APS classes visit the Outdoor Lab every week in addition to three week-long summer camps.

 Learn more about Dr. Phoebe Hall Knipling and the Arlington Outdoor Education Association.

Valerie B. Kitchens

A "Clear Water" bumper sticker.

Valerie Kitchens’ “Clean Water” bumper sticker. From RG 348: Valerie Kitchens Papers, 1967-2010.

Valerie B. Kitchens (1937-2013) was a local activist for conservation, wildlife, parks and other political issues that affected Arlington County and Northern Virginia. Born in Cresskill, New Jersey, she earned a master’s degree in Foreign Affairs from Georgetown University in 1964.

In the late 1960s, Kitchens attended the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s graduate school and became active in the Audubon Naturalist Society, contributing articles and research on the endangered Eastern Bluebird. She served as President of the Northern Virginia Chapter of the Virginia Society of Ornithology and was involved in local birdwatching groups.

A blueprint plan for a birdhouse.

Plans for a Bluebird house distributed by Valerie and her husband, Allen, in the late 1960s for the Audubon Naturalist Society. From RG 348

As an active member of Friends of Arlington Parks from the late 1970s through early 1990s, Kitchens fought to preserve Arlington’s natural and historic landscape, including what is now Fort C.F. Smith Park. She served on the Board of Directors for the Arlington Outdoor Education Association in the mid-1980s, supporting the Outdoor Lab that Dr. Knipling established in 1967.

Kitchens continued to appreciate and protect the natural beauty of Northern Virginia until her death in 2013.

Learn more about Valerie B. Kitchens.

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

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

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Then and Now: Chinn Funeral Service

three african-american men standing outside the Chinn Funeral Service building.

Chinn Funeral Service. Green Valley/Nauck, Arlington, 1979. Photo by Lloyd Wolf. From PG 700: Arlington Photographic Documentary Project.

Chinn Funeral Service was established by James Elwood Chinn in Green Valley (formerly known as Nauck) in 1942. As a Black-owned funeral home operating under Jim Crow segregation, Chinn Funeral Service provided an invaluable service to the Black community when white-owned funeral homes refused to serve them.

After apprenticing with James Chinn for three years, Robert Baker, Jr. purchased the business in 1969. His twin brother Rupert soon joined him as a business partner, and they became trusted pillars of the community through their compassionate service and dedication to their neighbors, helping them through times of loss.

In an interview with the Virginia Tech Legacy Business Studio conducted in 2017, Robert’s daughter Tyra Baker – then manager of the family business – described the twins' talent for lessening the burdens of their grieving customers:

"Rupert, he had a really, I don’t know, funny sense of humor. He had a way to make you laugh and smile when you knew you don’t want to, or maybe even shouldn’t. But even in the worst times, he can make you get through it pretty easily. And my dad has always had a calming voice, and you know, I guess the whole community trusted them. So, they would come here, and my dad and Uncle Rupert would make the arrangements for them, help them out, pretty much take over, so that it was very easy for them to get through it."

Robert Baker, Jr. was deeply involved in community organizations such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, the Nauck Business Association and Shirlington Road Revitalization movement. He earned the NAACP Community Appreciation Award and was awarded Mortician of the Year by the Virginia District Morticians Association. Along with Rupert, both brothers were recipients of the Arlington Best Business Award granted by the Arlington County Board.

Chinn Funeral Service in Present day.

Chinn-Baker Funeral Service, present day. Image courtesy of Google Maps.

Today, Chinn-Baker Funeral Service still operates out of its original building and is run by the descendants of Robert and Rupert Baker. In her interview, Tyra Baker explained that although the surrounding neighborhood has changed since the business was first established, they continue to perform funerals for families that have lived in the area for many generations. “[I]f Chinn buried your grandmother, your great-grandmother, they’ll probably bury your mother and your father. We still have three churches in the area that traditionally have come to Chinn Funeral Home. So, if you are at that church, you probably will come to Chinn Funeral Home.”

Serving the community for more than 80 years, Chinn-Baker Funeral Service hopes to continue meeting the needs of Arlington’s grieving families for many years to come.

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves, and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

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Inner Ear Studio

The entrance in Inner Ear Studio.

The low-key entrance to Inner Ear Studio at its former 2701 South Oakland Street location. From PG 250: Documenting Arlington’s Changing Scene.

When Don Zientara settled in Arlington 50 years ago, he did not expect to become a local music legend. Like many others, he moved to Arlington in 1974 to work for the federal government.

As a high schooler in the early 1960s, Zientara began his lifelong obsession with sound engineering when he started playing in bands and recording his own music. He graduated from Syracuse University in 1970 and completed a year of graduate work at West Virginia University in Morgantown before being drafted into the Army.

As part of the Army’s educational program, Zientara took on a position as a painter in Alexandria with the Army Exhibit Unit. This eventually brought him to work for the National Gallery of Art in their exhibitions department and, later, as their recording engineer.

Meanwhile, Zientara continued to grow his personal collection of recording equipment, setting up a home studio on his porch in the open air of Arlington’s suburbia.

Don Zientara's recording equipment.

Interior of the South Oakland location, showing some of Zientara’s recording equipment. From PG 250.

Although Zientara didn’t set out to record D.C.’s punk scene in his new studio, he found himself in the right place at the right time. After recording tracks for his friend and former bandmate Robert Goldstein (who would later play with the Urban Verbs), he was introduced to Skip Groff of Yesterday and Today Records.

Groff connected him with a budding network of young punk musicians in the area. Word quickly spread among local artists that Zientara could provide a laid-back, creative and affordable recording experience.

A wall of tapes and artwork at a music studio.

A wall of tapes and artwork collected over the years from friends and clients at the South Oakland studio. From PG 250.

In this segment, Zientara explains how his experimental approach to recording meshed well with the punk bands that rebelled against a commercialized, polished sound. He also lacked prejudice against the young punks, who were regularly turned out of studios and venues at the time.

INTERVIEWER: ...Obviously, a lot of people associate your studio and yourself with Dischord and a lot of the DC punk movement. And that certainly is a huge cultural thing for music and society and the area. Did you ever have a sense at the time that it was going to become what it was?

ZIENTARA: No, no. Call me unaware, but the thing is punk music at the time was a very, very niche style, “movement,” call it what you want, “cultural phenomena.” [0:17:16] And the bands had hard times getting to play at places because nobody wanted them because there were fights that would break out, and they looked funny. They had safety pins and razor blades in their leather jackets. And it was a revolt of sorts from, you know, kids, the way they normally revolt.

But it was both visual and musical at the same time, too, and the music reflected that. At the time, there was the California sound, which was very, very produced and very controlled in a way. [0:18:01] And these guys basically—mostly guys, not all, but most of the guys—said that it's really the energy behind it that matters. And they felt that a lot of groups just had no energy and wanted to—you know, they felt that. “Let's go in the other direction. Let's put the energy behind it. Let's not care about how long the songs are or how great we can play.”

None of them were Pat Metheny or anything like that. They all were basically starting musicians. Their equipment was generally kind of lousy, or at the very least, the middle of the road, at least at the very start. Of course, a lot of them got better instruments and got better at their instrument as it went along. So it was—I don't know where it was going; all I know was I was trying to capture their energy. [0:19:10] And I guess I latched on to the right thing as far as what to focus on because they kind of liked it. So that's where it went.

View of Inner Ear's control room.

A view of Inner Ear’s control room at the South Oakland studio. From PG 250.

Eventually, Zientara moved his studio setup from the porch to the basement of his house on South Ivy Street, turning his cramped furnace room into a control room. Although this allowed Zientara to communicate with the musicians more easily during recording sessions, it required him to work beside a gas furnace and water heater without windows or ventilation. By 1990, he started renting out a space on South Oakland Street that provided the room necessary for Inner Ear to grow.

In 2021, Arlington County bought the lot that includes the building Zientara rented for Inner Ear Studio. After operating for three decades from its location at 2701 South Oakland, the studio closed its doors in October of that year. Nonetheless, Zientara has no intention of slowing down. He currently runs Inner Ear from the basement in his house where it all began and continues to record new artists from the D.C. area and beyond.

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves, and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

Do you have a personal experience of Inner Ear Studio or the D.C. punk scene you wish to share?

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Snow Days Gone By

Snow Day Memories in Arlington

A family home covered in snow.

Dudley family home in snow, ca. 1920s. This is where Cherrydale Library is currently located. From PG 204: Dudley Family Photographs. 

While Virginia may not be known for frigid winter weather, it's had its fair share of record-breaking blizzards.  

On January 28, 1772, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson both noted in their diaries that 3 feet of snow fell, marking Virginia’s largest snowfall ever recorded. In January 1857, March 1888 and February 1899, Virginia experienced extreme snowstorms that froze rivers, took down telephone poles and brought transportation by road and water to a halt.  

On January 28, 1922 – exactly 150 years after the “Washington-Jefferson Storm” – 28 inches of snow immobilized the D.C. area, collapsing the roof of the Knickerbocker Theater in Northwest Washington and killing 100 people.  

The Jewett house covered in snow.

The Nelson J. Jewett house, covered in snow, 1920. The house was an early meeting place for the Rock Spring Congregational church. From RG 123: Records of the Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ [UCC], 1908-2003. 

In an era before reliable city-organized snow removal, even mild snowstorms would present serious challenges for workers and travelers. In an interview with George L. Vollin, Jr., who was born and raised in Queen City at the turn of the 20th century, he recalls how impossible it was to ride his bike in the snow to make his rounds as a Post Office messenger while he was in junior high school.  

He remembers sidewalks and streets full of snow in the winter. "The snow just laid there. They didn't have too much clearing at all. You'd see it there, they had sometimes anywhere from 4 to 6 inches of snow. And then another snow would catch it.”  

Floyd A. Hawkins had a similar struggle getting to work on unplowed roads in his Ford Model-T Ford. In 1925, the year he moved to Arlington, “The snow got so deep that I could hardly get it out a distance of about 4 or 5 blocks from home.” When Hawkins got off work after midnight, he would have to change his tires before driving home. 

A house covered in snow in Arlington, VA.

A house covered in snow somewhere in Arlington, Virginia, possibly Rock Spring, 1925. From RG 123: Records of the Rock Spring Congregational United Church of Christ [UCC], 1908-2003. 

For others, however, snow meant sleigh rides and ice skating.  

Mildred H. Ritchie grew up in Barcroft in the 1920s and remembers the snowy days of her youth fondly.  

“Palmer’s Hill (on Columbia Pike) was a source of delight to the young at heart, parents and children alike, for miles around—in wintertime snows. The Pike from Taylor Street East (for a distance of three long, downhill blocks) ran in an S-curve to the little bridge over Doctor’s Run at the bottom. Few (if any) cars traveled in snow or ice at night, and the hill was always filled with sleds as soon as the snow was deep enough. Bonfires were kept going at the top, for warming frostbitten fingers and toes—and [for] storytelling. Sometimes, too, we could use Palmer’s Hill—cow field hill—a long, sweeping stretch—wonderful and fast when there was a crust on top.”   

Children have enjoyed sledding down Arlington’s snowy hills for many decades.  

Ernest A. Golden, who graduated from Washington-Lee High School in 1942, remembers going sleigh riding on 15th street and earning a scar on his chin that lasted a lifetime. In his interview, he said the winters seemed snowier when he was young, before the city began combatting it with salt and chemicals: “[W]e’d wake up in the morning and everything would be covered in snow. We’d get out the old sleds and down the hill we would go.” 

A church covered in snow.

Presbyterian Church of the Covenant on Military Road, date unknown. From RG 100: Arlington County Government Photographs, 1915-1997.

Another popular sledding spot was at the Reeves farm, also known as Reevesland. The last owner of the Reevesland dairy farm was Nelson Reeves, who was born in the farmhouse in 1900 and spent his life there, working as a third-generation farmer. His three children, Marcia Nelson Reeves Rodgers, Ronald Irving Reeves and Cheryl Louise Reeves Scannell, remember how their own Reeve’s Hill was widely known as one of the best sledding hills in the county: 

CHERYL: You talk about the winter activities. We would go sledding of course, sledding on Reeves Hill. You probably heard, it’s talked about through the county that Reevesland Hill is one of the best hills to go sledding on. I know dad always got such enjoyment of the people being out there on the hill and watching them sled. We loved it. We built our little ramp with the snow and jump over and see how far we could go on the bottom, the flat land like you said, see if we could make it all the way to the creek. I don’t think we ever made it that far but had a good time. 

...

RONALD: I remember the best hill to actually slide down I think was 5th Road. It was the steepest road in the neighborhood and still is I guess. 

CHERYL: Was it a traveled road at that time? 

RONALD: Yes, but they’d slick it over. We actually pool water down, have it ice over real good and you’d get at the top of that, and we had several sleds. We’d soap the runners down with soap. You started at 5th Road and go down the hill and you’d actually cross over Manchester Street. There were homes down there then. You’d go between these two houses and go actually into the park itself. And there was a little drainage ditch there that, when you went through the houses and down into the park, you had to cross over that drainage ditch. And then there was kind of a berm there. But you’d hit that ditch and go up that berm. That was the end of your trip. Then you’d see how far you’d get down into the park. That was the best ride. 

MARCIA: I want to just add one thing to Ron’s. That was the neatest hill to ever go sledding on, and it was so high and so long, but the only trouble was once you got down it took half the day to walk back up to the top of the hill to go down again. 

RONALD: And the fun part was, if you get behind somebody—the sled I remember that I had and some of the others had, the runners that would actually curl up into the back part of the frame, you could hold onto it. But if you didn’t like the guys you were sliding down with, you’d take that and you’d kind of flip his sled sideways and he’s go tumbling down the road.

When snow comes to Arlington this year, take advantage of it and have some fun. Don’t forget to thank your neighborhood snowplow while you’re at it! 

Citations

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves, and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

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Remembering Thomas Oxendine

First Native American Navy Pilot

Long-time Arlington resident Thomas Oxendine became the first Native American Navy pilot when he enlisted in 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor and U.S. entrance into World War II. His distinguished Navy career would bring him to Arlington in 1965 to work at the Pentagon and, later, for the Bureau of Indian Affairs during a period of intense American Indian activism in the 1970s. In 2007, he discussed his fascinating life and career in an oral history interview with the Center for Local History. 

Please note that the phrases “Native American,” “Native,” “American Indian,” and “Indian” are used interchangeably in this blog post. This is aligned with Oxendine’s own use of these phrases, and accounts for the names of organizations and movements that use various terms of identity. For further information, see this guide on terminology prepared by the National Museum of the American Indian. 

A photo of a young Thomas Oxendine.

A young Thomas Oxendine. From the University of North Carolina at Pembroke Indianhead Volume 66, p. 221.

A Lumbee Indian from North Carolina, Thomas (“Tom”) Oxendine was born in 1922 in a small village west of Pembroke. The oldest of eight children, he learned to read and write before he started school at the age of 5, leading him to graduate from Cherokee Indian Normal High School when he was only 15.

He enrolled in Cherokee Normal College (now called the University of North Carolina at Pembroke) to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in education, where he began taking flight courses in a civilian pilot training program funded by aviator Horace Barnes. Despite the U.S. military’s official policy of racial segregation, Barnes had petitioned the government to train ten Native Americans to fly through a program similar to the Black pilot training program that operated out of Tuskegee University.

A photo of Oxendine with another pilot.

Oxendine in flight training. From Hail to UNCP!: A 125-year History of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, p. 102.

Through this three-month course, Oxendine earned his private pilot license at 18, and in 1942 he attempted to enlist in the Navy. At that time, the Navy restricted American Indians from becoming officers. However, to address the Navy’s wartime needs, an exception was made that allowed Oxendine to participate in Navy flight training.

Oxendine built an illustrious career as a Navy pilot, taking part in 33 battles during World War II and earning many medals. This includes the Distinguished Flying Cross, which he was awarded for risking his life to rescue another soldier while under gunfire on Yap Island in 1944 (an excerpt of Oxendine’s interview where he recalls the rescue mission here). 

A newspaper clipping of Thomas Oxendine.

Oxendine received widespread press coverage as the first American Indian Navy pilot. Here, the reporter refers to him as a Cherokee Indian because the Lumbee were at that time part of the National Congress of American Indians under the name “Cherokee Indians of Robeson County.” In 1952, the tribe voted to adopt the name “Lumbee.” From The Flint Journal, December 25, 1942, p. 18.

In 1965, after retiring from two decades of flying, Oxendine received orders to relocate for an assignment at the Pentagon with the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations in the Plans Division. As Oxendine prepared to move to Arlington, he received some good advice from a Navy Captain, including how to avoid the dreaded traffic jams on Shirley Highway:

OXENDINE: ...At the end of my career in flying I was assigned as a Deputy Fleet Information Officer at US Pacific Fleet where we put out all of the press releases for what’s going on out in the Pacific. At the end of that tour, I was ordered back for duty at the Pentagon. Never having served in the Pentagon here in Washington, some time a lot of aviators tend to try to avoid that. So, I was in my seventeenth year or so. I received orders to OPNAV [Office of the Chief of Naval Operations] in the Plans Division for contingency planning.

A Navy Captain said: "Ox, I have some good advice for you. Don’t rush back there and try to find a place before the packers so they don’t have to store your goods. Go back, take a month or two, Arna Valley or some place, let them store your things and take your own time about where you want to live because too many people rush back and make quick decisions and then regret that decision the length of time they’re in Arlington.” That was his first bit of advice. Second bit of advice he gave me was: don’t live anywhere where you have to use that Shirley Highway to get to the Pentagon, which is now 395. It was just a four-lane drive at that time. He said twice a day that is a parking lot. The third thing is: " Don’t live anywhere where you have to cross a bridge to get to the Pentagon."

So, putting that all together wind up coming into Arlington and I wound up at 1141 North Harrison Street and I’ve been very happy there. I made that decision. Four miles from the Pentagon and never any problems of commuting.

Oxendines home

Oxendine’s home at 1141 North Harrison, where he lived for 45 years with his wife, Elizabeth Moody Oxendine, and their three sons.

After moving to Arlington, Oxendine became an aviation plans officer for the Office of Information in the Secretary of Defense, then headed the public affairs unit for the Naval Air Systems Command located in Crystal City. In 1970, Oxendine retired from the Navy to become head of the Public Information Office at the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), a position he held for 17 years.

He joined the BIA at a particularly contentious time, as the Red Power Movement ushered in a new age of American Indian activism and increased demands for Indian self-determination. Oxendine’s expertise was sought out under the direction of Commissioner of Indian Affairs Louis R. Bruce Jr., a Mohawk who pushed for the recruitment of Indians to head BIA activities and create policies that could better serve federally recognized tribes.

Oxendine with Chief W.R. Richardson speaking to a tribe.

Tom Oxendine and Chief W. R. Richardson of the Haliwa-Saponi speaking at one of that tribe's powwows in the 1970s. From the Fall, 2005, edition of Tar Heel Junior Historian: North Carolina History for Students.

Despite these efforts to restructure the BIA, many Indians involved in the Red Power Movement regarded the organization with wariness and distrust due to its long history of disenfranchising Native Americans while erasing Native culture and language through its infamous Indian boarding schools.

Two years into Oxendine’s BIA tenure, hundreds of Native American activists took part in “The Trail of Broken Treaties,” caravanning across the nation toward D.C. to demand a meeting with President Nixon and deliver their Twenty-Point Position Paper, aiming to assert the sovereignty of the Indian Nations and reopen treaty negotiations.

When they arrived on November 1, 1972, protestors were denied this meeting and found themselves lacking adequate housing. While attempting to arrange for temporary shelter in the BIA building, conflict erupted as guards tried to forcibly remove protestors, who refused to leave, barricading themselves in.

By the end of their six-day siege, protestors had taken possession of many BIA files that they claimed as evidence of corruption and scandal within the BIA, as well as Native artwork and cultural objects that they regarded as rightfully theirs.

The Trail of Broken Treaties was only the beginning of a decade of intense American Indian activism, including the Wounded Knee Occupation, the 1976 Trail of Self-Determination, and The Longest Walk in 1978.

The 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation in South Dakota received wide press coverage, and Oxendine conducted many of the twice-daily press briefings of the protest, handling international journalists as well as dozens of American TV crews, newspaper reporters, wire-service representatives, magazine writers, and members of the Indian and underground press.

While working for the BIA, Oxendine became involved in the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI), an American Indian and Alaska Native rights organization founded to represent Native tribes and to resist federal pressure for termination of tribal rights and cultural assimilation.

NCAI provided support and advocacy for Nixon’s proposed policy of American Indian self-determination, which was passed in 1975 as Public Law 638, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.

The act expanded tribal authority over the administration of federal funding and reversed a 30-year effort by the federal government to sever treaty relationships with and obligations to Indian tribes. Oxendine also became a member of the National Aviation Club and was one of the first American Indians to be admitted to the National Press Club in D.C.

At home in Arlington, he served as chair of the Indian Parent Committee, collaborating with the Arlington school system to address the specific needs of American Indian children.

a notice for a public hearing held by the Indian parent committee.

Notice for a Public Hearing held by the Indian Parent Committee on January 23, 1978, inviting parents, teachers, and students alike to discuss how Arlington schools could better address the needs of American Indian children. Northern Virginia Sun, vol. 41, no. 6, January 9, 1978.

After retiring from his role as a public information officer, Oxendine was sought out by the Census Bureau to promote the participation of Native Americans and Alaska Natives in the count. He also worked for a consulting firm overseeing agreements between Native tribes and companies seeking to do business on reservations.

In his work, Oxendine valued transparency and clarity around the relationship between Native Americans and the United States government, viewing knowledge as a tool that American Indians could use to advocate for themselves and their tribes.

Throughout his lengthy career, Oxendine took responsibility for sharing the truth, no matter how difficult that truth may be. He often sought guidance from one of the great lessons he learned in his college philosophy class: “Truth is good, it’s the lack of information where the problems are.”

Thomas Oxendine passed away on May 27, 2010, at his home in Arlington. Although many remember him as a hero for his service in World War II, he left behind an equally impressive legacy advocating for Native American rights.

You can find Thomas Oxendine’s interview in its entirety in the Center for Local History – VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.3 no.207.

Further Reading:

Lakota Woman It is a memoir by Mary Brave Bird, a Sicangu Lakota formerly known as Mary Crow Dog. In it, she describes her participation in the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties and the 1973 Indian Occupation at Wounded Knee. For other recommendations, see the Native American Voices Book List.

Works Cited:

Baker, Donald P. "U.S. Accused of Exhibiting BIA Damage: U.S. Accused of Showing BIA Damage." The Washington Post, Times Herald, November 23, 1972.

Blair, William M. "Shake-up Pressed at Indian Bureau: A Dominant Role for Indians Is Aim of Reorganization." New York Times, December 9, 1971, p. 29.

"Chief Flying Eagle." The Flint (MI) Journal, December 25, 1942, p. 18.

Eliades, David K., Thomas T. Locklear, and Linda E. Oxendine. Hail to UNCP!: A 125-year History of the University of North Carolina at Pembroke. University of North Carolina, 2014.

Horton, Paul B. Readings in the Sociology of Social Problems, 2nd ed. (Prentice-Hall, 1975), p. 299.

National Parks Service. The Struggle for Sovereignty: American Indian Activism in the Nation’s Capital, 1968-1978.

Neufeld, William. Slingshot Warbirds: World War II U.S. Navy Scout-Observation Airmen. 2003.

North Carolina Museum of History. Tar Heel Junior Historian: North Carolina History for Students. Fall, 2005.

The Northern Virginia Sun, vol. 41, no. 6, January 9, 1978.

Obituary for Thomas Oxendine, The Robesonian, May 29, 2010.

The University of Florida Department of History. Interview with Thomas Oxendine, November 6, 1974.

The University of North Carolina at Pembroke. The Indianhead, vol. 66. 2011.

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves, and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

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Funeral Programs: A Genealogical Treasure

Newly Digitized Resource for Historians and Researchers

The Center for Local History’s online collection now includes over 100 documents from funerals of Black community members, donated by Arlington residents Birdie and Mable Alston. These materials will be an important resource for historians and genealogical researchers.

FUNERAL PROGRAMS FROM THE BIRDIE AND MABLE ALSTON COLLECTION

Using Funeral Programs

For African-Americans doing genealogical research, information such as exact dates of birth and death, past residences, place of burial, and maiden names are often difficult to find in the South due to slavery and segregation laws.

According to the Georgia Public Library Service, “The records of many in these communities were often either destroyed, kept in private hands, or never created in the first place.”

These gaps in information can often be found in funeral programs. They may often give valuable personal information about the deceased’s life including hobbies, friends, relatives, and community involvement.

Funeral Program for Evelyn Syphax, 2000, CLH Collections

Obituaries can also give context to a person’s life beyond genealogical information and provide insight to researchers that might not be available elsewhere.

In addition, large groups of obituaries give a broader view of a community's makeup and show larger local historical trends.

Funeral Program for Dr. Nathaniel R. Richardson, 1966, CLH Collections

Funeral Program for Mrs. Viola P. Chase, 1968, CLH Collections

Funeral Program for Lillian Brooks Williams, 1973, CLH Collections

Birdie and Mable Alston

Birdie (1919-2020) and Mable (née Shirley) Alston (1920-2017) were married neighborhood activists and prominent community members in the Halls Hill/Highview Park area. The Alston’s came to Arlington in 1944 and settled in Halls Hill in 1947. Both were heavily involved with the Langston Civic Association and the NAACP.

CLH Staff recently finished digitizing Series 1: Funeral Programs of RG338, Birdie and Mable Alston Collection. This includes over 100 programs from funerals of the area’s Black community members spanning from 1961-2011. Each program contains information about the deceased’s life and family, with many including photographs.

Funeral Program for Clifton Randolph Brown, 1993, CLH Collections

Obituary for Clifton Randolph Brown, 1993, CLH Collections

About the Birdie and Mable Alston Collection

Upon Birdie Alston’s death in 2017, his estate donated much of his personal files, photographs, and other materials to the Center for Local History. The materials relate to the various community organizations that the Alston’s were involved with, such as the NAACP, Langston Civic Association, Halls Hill (High View Park) Neighborhood Preservation Plan, and Calloway United Methodist Church. The material dates from 1905-2019, making it an important resource for documenting the changes in Arlington’s Black community.

Related Collections in the CLH

For other collections of active Black citizens in Arlington, see RG 11, Papers of Edmond C. Fleet, and see RG 349, Dorothy Hamm Personal Papers. There are also several oral history interviews detailing life in the Halls Hill/Highview Park neighborhood, including one from Birdie Alston in 1991. RG 48, Records of the NAACP, Arlington Branch, has more detail on this group where the Alston’s were members.

Help Build Arlington's Community History

The Center for Local History (CLH) collects, preserves, and shares resources that illustrate Arlington County’s history, diversity and communities. Learn how you can play an active role in documenting Arlington's history by donating physical and/or digital materials for the Center for Local History’s permanent collection.

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

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

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by

Video: History of the American Nazi Party in Arlington

With Local Author and Historian Charlie Clark

Watch now: https://youtu.be/2m-9t8UznbQ

Since the violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, the threat of renewed political agitation by neo-Nazis has haunted public safety officials. There may be some lessons to be learned by looking into our own local history.

Why did George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American Navy veteran, choose Arlington County as his base of operations for his racist and anti-Semitic American Nazi Party?  This and other questions are answered in Clark’s illustrated talk, presented in partnership with the Center for Local History.

A longtime journalist in the Washington, D.C. area, Charlie Clark writes the weekly “Our Man in Arlington” column for the Falls Church News-Press. He has just published his fifth book, a memoir of adolescence titled “My Gap Year–Reinterpreted.” Last year he published “George Washington Parke Custis: A Rarefied Life in America’s First Family,” with McFarland Books. With the History Press, he has published “Lost Arlington County, Arlington County Chronicles,” and “Hidden History of Arlington County.” In July 2019, he retired as senior correspondent for Government Executive Media Group, part of Atlantic Media. He previously has worked as an editor or writer for The Washington Post, Congressional Quarterly, National Journal, Time-Life Books, Tax Analysts and the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He lives in East Falls Church with his wife Ellen.

 

Attention History Buffs

The Center for Local History along with the National Archives is celebrating American Archives Month throughout October.

Although American Archives Month is coming to an end, through the Center for Local History you can always access local history.

Join us for two upcoming programs to learn about the history of the American Nazi Party in Arlington and how to use The Virginia Chronicle to delve deeper into your family history or to find information on the transformation and growth of Arlington.

George Lincoln Rockwell at former U.S. party headquarters, 1965.

History of the American Nazi Party in Arlington

Wednesday, Nov. 2, 7-8 p.m.
Online only, registration required

Join the Center for Local History and author and historian Charlie Clark for a virtual presentation about the history of the American Nazi Party in Arlington.

Since the violent protests by white supremacists in Charlottesville, VA in 2017, the threat of renewed political agitation by neo-Nazis has haunted public safety officials.

There may be some lessons to be learned from this by looking into our own local history.  Why did George Lincoln Rockwell, a former American Navy veteran, choose Arlington County as his base of operations for his racist and anti-Semitic American Nazi Party?  This and other questions will be answered in Clark's illustrated talk.

Register

News clip of The Sun, 1936.

Learn how to use The Virginia Chronicle

Wednesday, Dec. 7, 7-8 p.m.
Online only, registration required

Join the Center for Local History to learn how to effectively access and use The Virginia Chronicle in your research. Newspapers are a great source for historians, genealogists, educators and students. The Virginia Chronicle is a historical archive of Virginia newspapers, hosted by the Library of Virginia, which provides free access to full text searching and digitized images of over 2.5 million newspaper pages.

This presentation will cover:

  • Setting up an account
  • Helpful search tips
  • How to apply newspaper research to your project
  • Ways you can help The Virginia Chronicle
  • Q&A
Register

Attention APS High School Alumni

Are you an APS high school graduate and want to take a walk down memory lane? The Center for Local History holds a collection of over 350 Arlington County school yearbooks.

Book a research appointment. Come explore the Center for Local History.

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