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Oral History

Oral History: Public Shoe Store

Interview with Dr. Sholom “Doc” Friedman and Karen Widmayer

Public Shoe Store, 1983.

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

Public Shoe Store in Clarendon was one of the neighborhood’s longest-running and most recognizable businesses, operating from 1938 to 2016. The business was operated by brothers Dr. Sholom H. “Doc” Friedman and Joel Friedman for much of that time, after being founded by the Friedmans’ father Samuel Friedman in the 1930s. Dr. Friedman was a trained podiatrist, and the business was known for specializing in comfort shoes and custom fitting. Dr. Friedman passed away in 2019.

The original location of the store was where the Clarendon Metro station currently stands, but when construction came through the neighborhood the business moved to its longstanding storefront at 3137 Wilson Boulevard. The shoe store was also a meeting place for members of the Arlington-Fairfax Jewish Congregation (now Etz Hayim), who would gather on the second floor of the shop.

Advertisement in the Northern Virginia Sun for Public Shoe Store, October 31, 1968. Image courtesy of Virginia Chronicle.

In this oral history, Dr. Sholom “Doc” Friedman and two of his children, Karen Widmayer and Mark Friedman, discuss the history of the shop and the impact it had on the Arlington community. Other details in the interview include how the children often ran the cash registers, and how the shop worked with President Carter's family in the 1970s. Here is a brief excerpt from the interview:

Narrator 1: Dr. Sholom “Doc” Friedman
Narrator 2: Karen Widmayer
Interviewer: Virginia Smith
Date: March 8, 2015

Public Shoe Store exterior in 1990.

Entrance to Public Shoe Store, 1990.

Virginia Smith: Okay. So how does the building work? What do you do? You set up the retail place in the main floor?

Sholom Friedman: Right.

VS: What’s downstairs?

SF: It used to be stored shoes, but I’ve been decreasing the stock now.

VS: Towards the end of this—the life of the business.

SF: Right.

VS: But that was full downstairs—was inventory.

SF: Right.

VS: And upstairs was—?

SF: Upstairs we had a little balcony.

Karen Widmayer: Yeah, the main floor is all selling floor and stock. And the basement had all stock and some storage. And then there’s a mezzanine level that’s about a quarter of a floor-size up in the back, and that was just some storage space.

SF: Storage, right.

View of Wilson Boulevard from east to west, including the large Public Shoe Store sign, 1991.

VS: So it was all your dad [Samuel Friedman] needed? Large enough?

SF: Oh, yeah. It was a pretty big operation back then.

VS: Sounds like it. What decade would you call your heyday, the best years, or the best decades?

SF: Probably after the war.

VS: So the ‘40s and ‘50s when families were moving and growing and all that sort of stuff.

SF: Right.

KW: Even when I worked there, I mean, there’d be ten or fifteen numbers pulled, people sitting and waiting. I mean, it was crazy on Saturdays.

VS: That’s good business—that was a Saturday.

KW: Yeah, that was still ’60—well, I was—started working there when I was about seven, so that’s late ‘60s and into the early ‘70s. I think at that point, that’s when things started changing a little bit with Arlington and the retail. But the businesses stayed.

Photos from Public Shoe Store around the time of its closing in 2016.

Photos from Public Shoe Store around the time of its closing in 2016.

The exterior of Public Shoe Store around the time of its closing in 2016.

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

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

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

An (Un)familiar Tune: Arlington’s Song

Though many may not know the words to this reverential tune, Arlington has had an official song for more than 50 years.

The County Song Debuts

“Arlington,” the County’s official song, was adopted unanimously in October 1970 by the County Board. The musical occasion was marked with a performance of the tune from a chorus of the Masons’ International Order of Job’s Daughters, who were dressed in 18th-century period costume. 10,000 copies of the sheet music and lyrics were later distributed by the Chamber of Commerce throughout the County.

Agenda for the October 3, 1970, debut of the Arlington song (see item No. 3). From the October 1, 1970, issue of the Northern Virginia Sun.

The song was composed by the Reverend Ernest K. Emurian (1912-2004), who from 1962 to 1981 was minister of the Cherrydale Methodist Church. In addition to his ecclesiastical duties, Emurian was also known for being a musician, poet, and writer, and wrote geographically inspired tunes about the Virginia cities of Portsmouth and Lynchburg in addition to Arlington, and penned multiple books about national songs and hymns. He was quoted as saying “If a place is worth living in, it’s worth writing a song about.”

Read: The 2015 County article “Official ‘Arlington’: Song Sung Blue and White at 45” delves further in detail about the 1970 Arlington song and Reverend Emurian.

Sheet music and lyrics for the 1970 song “Arlington,” by Ernest Emurian.

The song caught a second wind in the 20th century when in 2000, the County Board reintroduced the tune with a performance featuring some of the daughters of the original Daughters chorus who had performed the 1970 debut of the song. And what might be called a third resurrection occurred in 2016, when Arlington TV recorded and aired a performance with some of the members of the original 1970 chorus.

Watch: The 2016 performance of “Arlington.”

A Prequel Tune

Possibly even more obscure than the official song is a precursor to that 1970 tune written in 1938, though this version was never formally adopted as a piece of official County music. In August 1938, members of the local Hoffman family orchestra presented their song, “Arlington,” to the Chamber of Commerce. The tune was composed by Theodore G. Hoffman, who wrote the song with the intention for it to be used to “’ promote the public interest in and welfare of Arlington County.’”

Hoffman was a German immigrant who performed with his three sons, and who had also composed songs used by the U.S. Army during World War II along with other patriotic compositions throughout his career. A 1938 article describes the song as a march, with the lyrics paying homage to “businessmen, the neighborly spirit of the homeowners, the healthy climate, the atmosphere of happiness and the beauty of Arlington scenery.”

Photo from August 5, 1948, Northern Virginia Sun article by Margaret Troxell about T.G. Hoffman, who composed an early song for and about Arlington.

Modern Songs About Arlington

A few mainstream songs from recent years also reference Arlington, such as the Foo Fighters’ “Weenie Beenie,” named after the beloved County eatery, or “Arlington” by Fairfax-based band Emmet Swimming off of its 1996 album Arlington to Boston. However, neither of those tunes quite capture the detail and charming local specificity of the County’s official song.

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Oral History: Arlington’s First Openly LGBTQ Elected Official

In 1997, Jay Fisette became the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to office in the state of Virginia when he won a seat on the Arlington County Board.

Fisette served for six terms on the Board, from 1998 to 2017, and served as Board Chair five times, including in his final year on the Board.

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

Fisette focused on numerous issues during his tenure, including strong environmental policies, local affordable housing, and urban planning. He also has held leadership positions in organizations such as the Metropolitan Council of Governments, the Virginia Housing Development Authority, and the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance.

In his work with the Alliance, which was founded in 1981 as a local branch of the Virginia Gay Alliance, the group successfully advocated for the inclusion of sexual orientation protections in the County’s human rights ordinance.

Prior to being elected to the Board, Fisette worked as a Government Accountability Office auditor, and as director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia, which focuses on helping patients with HIV/AIDS.

Reflecting on his career in Arlington, Fisette said in an announcement stating he would not run for re-election that the County “embraced me as a gay man long before such an endorsement could be presumed, long before it became the norm.”

From left to right: Long Bridge Park Design Advisory Committee vice-chairman Carrie Johnson, County Board Chairman Jay Fisette, and Committee Chairman Tobin Smith at the groundbreaking ceremony for Long Bridge Park, April 10, 2010. From RG 199.

In this oral history interview from the Smart Growth documentary series, Jay Fisette discusses his time on the County Board, as well as development in the County.

Narrator: Jay Fisette
Interviewer: Mary Curtius
Date: April 12, 2008
Note: The audio for this interview is currently unavailable.

Mary Curtius: So Jay, what I want to know is what made you run for the board in the first place?

Jay Fisette: That’s a good question. You know I’d always been interested in studying public policy and always thought about it. When I went to California and came out it was possible there. But as a gay man, it just didn’t seem feasible honestly.

MC: Didn’t seem feasible here in Virginia?

JF: To be elected. You know most places in the country you take it off the list. It’s just not practical. But after living here for five years or so, six years, seven years, and getting to know the community it just sort of crept back into my consciousness as something that in a community like this was really feasible and I had a real connection to what I understood to be the values here and the character of this community and sort of just woke up.

A campaign brochure for Fisette’s first run for County Board in the 1993 special election. Fisette gained 49.4% of the vote but ultimately lost to Republican-endorsed Independent Ben Winslow.

This interview is available at the Center for History, and issues of the Sun and Northern Virginia Sun are available online through the CLH Community Archives and through Virginia Chronicle.

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

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

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

The History of Arlington’s Logo and Seal

Arlington is currently in the process of changing its iconography. Let's take a look back at the previous versions of the Arlington Logo as the County begins the process of updating its visual identity.

Arlington County was formally designated in 1920, changing its name from Alexandria County in order to distinguish itself from the nearby City of Alexandria. The County initially used the Virginia state seal in official documents, which depicts the Roman goddess Virtus conquering Tyranny. It is accompanied by Virginia's state motto, “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” or “Thus Always to Tyrants.”

Example of usage of the Virginia state seal in County documents, circa 1958.

Arlington House

Around the mid-1960s, Arlington began using an unofficial County seal. However, the Commonwealth’s Attorney decided that the County Board did not have the authority to adopt a seal. The County Board subsequently authorized the use of a visual signature on documentation, but in 1969 declined to make it a seal based on this legal guidance. Because of this designation, then-County Manager Vernon Ford described the seal as a “decorative medallion.”

The unofficial seal featured Arlington House and the date 1801 in later versions. This was contested by Arlington history expert Eleanor Templeman. The date was chosen to represent the formal establishment of the County of Alexandria, but Templeman argued that it could be incorrectly interpreted as the date of construction of Arlington House, which commenced in 1802. The 1801 date prevailed, however, remaining on the County seal into the 1980s.

The main image on the seal, Arlington House, was the longtime home of Robert E. Lee, leader of the Confederate Army. The building was constructed by slave labor for George Washington Parke Custis, who was George Washington’s step-grandson and Lee’s father-in-law. After the start of the Civil War, the Lee family fled and the property was used by Union troops as a burial site, and the location would eventually become part of Arlington National Cemetery.

Since 1972, the site has formally been known as “Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial,” reinstating its ties to the Confederate leader. In 2020, legislation was proposed to remove Lee’s name from the historical site, citing the erasure of Black Americans who lived in slavery on the property.

Examples of use of the state seal and unofficial County seal, from 1974 and 1976.

The "A" Logo

In 1976, the County began using an unofficial logo in the form of a stylized “A,” with Arlington House also appearing on this image. The logo was designed by Susan Neighbors, a professional illustrator from Arlington, who produced five designs based on County guidance. These options were then voted on by the public at ballot boxes placed at the County libraries, and the “A” logo won the contest.

Example of the “A” logo used by the County starting in 1976. Image circa 1979 and 1983.

County Flag Design

In September 1982, the County set out to adopt an official design for the County flag, and the County Board adopted a resolution for a flag design competition and a Flag Selection Panel to choose the design. In March of 1983, the County released a call for entries for the design of the flag to the public. Design requirements included the use of blue and white colors, and the words “Arlington County, Virginia,” as well as “1920.”

One hundred and ten people submitted designs for the contest, and Harvey J. Wilcox was selected as the winner in April of 1983. Wilcox, a deputy general counsel for the Navy, had no formal design experience and came up with the design while homebound with the flu. His imagery reflected the County’s unofficial logo and seal with a depiction of Arlington House, accompanied by a white ring and sprays of dogwoods underneath. Yellow was chosen as the background color for the flag.

Harvey Wilcox’s winning entry for the 1983 design contest.

After consulting with the Virginia Attorney General, who issued a different opinion than the one about 20 years prior, the County’s authority to have a flag was dependent on the County having a seal. So, Wilcox’s design then became the County seal, which would subsequently be presented on the County flag.

The inclusion of “1920” from the original design rules was also dropped for the final iteration, due in part to the issues that were raised by Templeman decades before. One of the issues was Arlington had multiple dates in its history that could be considered as equally significant in its history. The County seal and flag were officially adopted on June 18, 1983.

Examples of the new County seal on official documents and letterhead. Images from 1994 and the late 1990s.

The Future of the Logo

The next major step in Arlington’s formal iconography was when the County created and adopted an official logo in 2004. The logo came along with a redesign of the County website that same year and was designed by the D.C. office of Gensler Studio 585. Focus groups were held with design professionals, members of the business community, and members of the general public.

The resulting design was adopted in the summer of 2004, and, like the County seal, included a stylized representation of Arlington House, but the design drew some criticism. In a public poll of more than 1,000 responses conducted by the Arlington Sun Gazette, 81 percent opposed the new design, 15 percent supported it and 3 percent voted, 'it's OK, I guess.’ In October 2004, a petition was circulated calling for the removal of the logo, and it “even inspired a piece of folk art by an artist, who rendered the new logo in dead cicada shells."

Arlington County’s logo, adopted in 2004.

The County seal and logo were then used concurrently, but for different outlined purposes. In general, the seal is used for items relating to the County Board and for more permanent items (such as the County flag, permanent signage, and certificates).

The logo is considered a marketing sign and is used on departmental materials (such as County vehicles and general correspondence). In 2007, the County sought public comment and issued an update to the seal due to persistent inconsistencies in its rendering. The update kept the same imagery on the seal, but restored the original “Arlington blue” and refined it for online use.

In September 2020, the County announced that it would adopt a process to develop a new logo and seal, moving away from imagery related to Arlington House in County iconography. In January 2021, a Logo Review Panel was assembled to review concept submissions from the community, and in April announced five options selected from a pool of more than 250 ideas.

Stay tuned to the County’s homepage to submit your art for the next round of logo design submissions.

A pre-2007 graphic file of the County seal and the updated version, which is still in use today.

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

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Oral History: West Brothers Brick Company

Interview with Rayfield Barber

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

Arlington was once a hub for brick production – providing the materials that would make up many of the homes and buildings in the area.

The West Brothers Brick Company was founded in 1844 and came to Arlington shortly after the Civil War in 1866. Boosted by clay deposits along the Potomac, the West brothers bought 40 acres and established a powerhouse production site of local brick. Other companies quickly followed suit, and the region supported 10 plants that used local clays by 1905 - mostly producing red brick, though the West Brothers also made clay tile as well.

The company remained in operation in Arlington until 1942, when the land was taken over by the federal government to build the Pentagon. About 250 people were employed by the company at this time, and the West Brothers Brick Company subsequently moved operations to Landover, Maryland.

Bricks made by the company were used in notable buildings around the Capital Region, including the White House, the Pentagon, the Supreme Court building, both Senate office buildings, and the Capitol.

In this oral history interview, Rayfield Barber discusses his time working as a machine operator at the West Brothers Brick Company. Barber began working for the company around the time of the Great Depression in 1932, working 10 hours a day for twelve and a half cents an hour. To get to work, he would take the bus from Columbia Pike in the Barcroft neighborhood, and would later walk from the brickyard to his home in Green Valley.

West Brothers Brick Company offices at 720 15th NW in Washington, D.C., 1902.

Barber worked for West Brothers until 1937, at which point the brick workers went on strike. Later, he worked at the Hoover Airport and the National Airport for over 50 years after the Hoover airfield closed down. As a porter, he waited on celebrities like Clark Gable, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Kennedys, and in 1991 he was honored for his longtime service.

West Brothers brickyard panoramic, 1903.

Narrator: Rayfield Barber
Interviewer: Edmund Campbell and Cas Cocklin
Date: July 17, 1991

Cas Cocklin: Tell us a little bit around the brickyard.  How large was it more or less?  And how many people were employed there?  I know perhaps you don't know the exact number but roughly?

Rayfield Barber: It was a pretty large brickyard because they made bricks and tile at West Brothers Brick Company.

CC: To whom were they selling these?  To the government or to private contractors?

RB: They was selling them to the government and to private contractors.  They had a bunch of Dutch kilns which they start the bricks in.  What would happen, they would bring this through the machine, they had one machine that ran over and over with molds in it and then clay would fall into the molds and when it come around and it had a belt, a conveyor belt . . .

CC: Now was this just one mold at a time or did they have a row of molds?

RB: No, it was a whole lot of molds in this here wheel-like thing and it was big tubs in there and it would fill up, I guess it was just 4 x 8 for the bricks and then the clay would fall in there and then pat down and when it come around it had something like a knife blade, cut it off and when they did that, the plunge would drop down and knock the bricks out and they'd come right out on this conveyor belt and they'd have men standing in line, about five men standing in line off bearing the bricks. Putting them, setting them on these carts.

CC: Were they also inspecting them at the same time, in case one was broken or something?

RB: No, if it was broken, the men would just throw that brick away.

Edmund Campbell: Where did you get clay?

RB: The clay was right now where the Pentagon City is, there's a clay field right down in there and it had a little dinky, a little engine that ran by steam.

The West Brothers brick kilns, right, were eventually razed to build Pentagon. Photo from 1942.

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

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

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

Oral History: Bob & Edith’s Diner

Interview with Gregory Bolton

“Bob & Edith’s Diner with high rise apartment in background,” 2010. Photo by Emma Chaplin as part of the “Capturing Arlington” photo contest.

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

Bob & Edith’s Diner has been an Arlington mainstay for more than 50 years. Established in 1969 by Bob and Edith Bolton, the original Bob & Edith’s got started when the couple took over the location of a “Gary’s Donut Dinette” for $800. The diner started with simple Southern dishes, such as country hams, scrapple, bologna, bacon, and country breakfasts.

The Boltons later added several locations in addition to the flagship diner on Columbia Pike, and in 1982, the diner expanded from a 10-stool counter to 5 stools and 7 booths. The interiors include many photos of the Bolton family, as well as Dallas Cowboys ephemera and a jukebox.

“Color shot of Bob & Edith’s Diner,” 2010. Photo by Muna Abdulkader as part of the “Capturing Arlington” photo contest.

In this oral history interview, Bob and Edith’s son Gregory Bolton describes the history and operations of the diner and its expanding menu. Today, his son and daughter, Christopher and Tamara Bolton run Bob & Edith’s, continuing the family tradition.

Narrator: Gregory Bolton
Interviewer: Virginia Smith
Date: December 19, 2011

Bob & Edith’s Diner featured in the South Arlington section of a 1984 Arlington hotel and restaurant guide.

Bob & Edith’s Diner featured in the South Arlington section of a 1988 Arlington hotel and restaurant guide.

Gregory Bolton: When I was growing up, there was no such thing as really a menu. What there was—above the, in front of the ten stools that were there, and above the grills, there were just signs, such as The Serviceman’s Special. We’d have an artist that would paint these signs up, roughly around sixteen inches, by maybe twenty inches. And it would, for example, would have a serviceman eating a chipped beef breakfast, that we would call it SOS, Serviceman’s Special. And each product was put across the front of the diner, and that’s how you would choose what you would like. There was no hand menu; it was across the board. And we’d replace them like once or twice a year.

Virginia Smith: And then when did you go to a menu, a printed menu?

GB: We probably went to a menu, I would say maybe about twenty-five years ago. The first ten or fifteen years it was pretty much all up in front of you; you picked it out, different ideas and different products. But the menu’s ten, fifteen times larger now than it was back then.

VS: Yeah. Did you get people coming down from the Pentagon?

GB: Yes ma’am. We had Pentagon, and the Navy Annex are very big customers. We had a lot of servicemen. I would say it’s seventy-five, eighty percent is government-related, whether it’s the County, state, Pentagon—

VS: Well, it’s affordable.

GB: —The military. They seem to be very pleased with the operation, and they keep coming back.

“The original Bob & Edith’s Diner,” 2010. Photo by Matthew Welborn as part of the “Capturing Arlington” photo contest.

Sources
https://www.bobandedithsdiner.com/About-Us

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

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

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

Oral History: Margaret Troxell

Margaret Troxell (1909-2002) was a pioneering local journalist who helped found the Northern Virginia Sun.

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

Margaret Troxell moved to Arlington in 1932 after attending St. Joseph College in Maryland. She first worked for the Commonwealth Monitor, where her salary started off at $8 (half of which was used to pay for her rent as a boarder on Fillmore Street). She later took on part-time work at the Washington Post and the Washington Times, as well as a music studio manager and music instructor, teaching guitar and mandolin.

Margaret Troxell at her desk, date unknown.

To make ends meet, she also did news broadcasts for the first radio station in Arlington, WARL. In 1935, Troxell and a group of other local journalists founded the Sun, a weekly paper based in Arlington. There she worked as a journalist and editor and was known for never missing a County Board meeting in her 16 years as news editor.

Troxell and the other owners sold the Sun in 1951, and it is now known as the Northern Virginia Sun. Later in life, Troxell opened a public relations office and worked on numerous campaigns around the County. She lived in Colonial Village for over 40 years, and outside of journalism, was an active member of Arlington’s Business and Professional Women’s Club and the Virginia Conservation Commission.

In the following oral history interview, Margaret Troxell discusses what initially inspired her to become a journalist, and how she became interested in writing.

Margaret Troxell’s press pass, issued October 22, 1946

Narrator: Margaret Troxell
Interviewer: Ellen MacMahon
Date: 1984
Note: The audio for this interview is currently unavailable.

Ellen MacMahon: Can we talk, then, about your work - when you got started in journalism and what made you choose journalism.

Margaret Troxell: Well, when I was in school, in those days, professions for women were somewhat limited to teaching or nursing or something like that and, of course, I had started writing just as a child.  I have a vivid imagination, and I used to send articles and stories to papers and I would have them returned with a check when I was just 10, 12 years old - and, of course, they had no idea how old I was.  And this was very encouraging so when I reached the college level each summer in high school I worked on a newspaper.

EM: A local newspaper?

MT: Local newspapers.  Since we had this summer home in Emmetsburg, I worked on the Emmetsburg Chronicle, and that was a weekly - and I went in to see the editor, and he told me he couldn't pay me anything.  That was perfectly all right because at the time I didn't need any money.  But he taught me so much. And we had a regular barter system.  I used to go out and collect bills, and if people couldn't pay, I'd take a bushel of apples, a couple of chickens or a ham.  That was a lot of fun.  And then I worked on The Baltimore Sun one summer - different papers, Gettysburg Times and a little paper in Thurmont - and that was very interesting because I went there just to work on the paper, and the editor became very ill, and I ran the paper all summer.

EM: What an experience.

MT: That was quite an experience.  It gave me a lot of experience.  Then when I was ready to go to college, the family had a conference, and they decided that newspaper was not for their daughter, certainly not.  My father was very broadminded, and he said, "Sis, you stick to your guns, and I'm on your side." So it was finally agreed that I could take journalism if I also took education. So I am a graduate teacher.

A selection of clippings from some of Margaret Troxell’s human interest articles, from the Northern Virginia Sun (Dates from right to left: October 13, 1939; September 15, 1939; August 25, 1939)

This interview is available at the Center for History, and issues of the Sun and Northern Virginia Sun are available online through the CLH Community Archives and through Virginia Chronicle.

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

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

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

Oral History: The First Students to Desegregate Arlington Public Schools

Interviews with Lance Newman and Michael Jones

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

This week marks the 62nd anniversary of the desegregation of Arlington Public Schools. On February 2nd, 1959, four students – Lance Newman, Michael Jones, Ronald Deskins, and Gloria Thompson – entered Stratford Junior High School, making them the first students to desegregate any public school in Virginia.

This 1959 article from the Anti-Defamation League describes the first day of integrated school at Stratford Junior High School in Arlington and the preparations that had been made to make a smooth transition.

This momentous event was the culmination of decades of work from activists and community members who navigated both legal action and other acts of protest to reach this landmark decision.

In the following oral history interviews, Lance Newman (1946-2018) and Michael Jones describe their experiences attending Stratford, what the preparation leading up to February 2nd looked like, and their experiences growing up in the close-knit community of Hall’s Hill. In this segment, Newman and Jones discuss their first days at Stratford.

Narrator: Lance Newman
Interviewer 1: Judith Knudsen
Interviewer 2: Joanna Dressel
Date: February 13, 2016

From left to right, Michael Jones, Lance Newman, Ronald Deskins, and Gloria Thompson entering Stratford Junior High School on February 2, 1959.

Judith Knudsen: Let’s go back to that first day and describe the first day.

Lance Newman: Okay. Let’s see. I remember getting up, getting ready, and I think my mom was—she was probably—she told me later she was a nervous wreck.

JK: I’m sure.

LN: Yeah. And I was kind of. I wasn’t—because I was there with my buddies. Actually, Ronnie and Michael and I were really good friends because we played softball together. Gloria—I knew Gloria, but I kind of felt sorry for her because she was the only girl. But so, we went down, and we all gathered at Ronnie Deskin’s house. And there were reporters there and then all the people—community leaders. And then, we sat around and they took pictures. We got some pictures, then we piled into Mr. Jones’ car and went down to Stratford, and I guess on Old Dominion Drive they let us out, and we went—we actually went in the back of the school, not the main entrance at the front. I remember going down and getting off—crossing Old Dominion Drive. They had blocked it off—and then walking down the long pathway near the football field and tons—well, it seemed like just a gauntlet of Arlington County police. They were in their riot gear with helmets and their riot gear.

LN: And actually, we were walking in by ourselves. They purposely had us come after school started, so we just went in. We went into the central entrance near the flagpole in the back, went to the principal’s office, Mr. Richmond. They sort of had—they had a conference and they told us what to expect and all of this, tried to calm us, I guess. And then we were escorted down to our first class, and I remember going into—well, he was—my math teacher was Mr. Marks—and going into the class and seeing about thirty or—thirty all-white faces, and it was kind of tense. He was pretty good because he shook our hands and stuff and said, “Kids, this is—” and had us sit down. He had a seat and a desk for us. It was right upfront.

LN: And that was a Monday, I believe. Yeah, it was a Monday. And then, the next day—I mean it went okay. That class—and then I remember the first-period bell ringing and going out in the hallways, and Stratford was a lot bigger than HB*. I went to HB first. And I was going out in the hallway and seeing this mass of humanity changing classes, and people were kind of—pretty much—I think they were kind of staring. People were kind of—you know—wanted to ignore us. But it was tense, and then that day after school, we went back to—I guess actually we went back to my house, and then we had this press conference with the—and I remember the Washington Post and the local television stations were there and had big cameras set up, and a guy interviewed us.

*Note: Hoffman-Boston was, until 1964, the only high school for African American students in Arlington. It remained open until its final graduating class in 1964 and reopened as an elementary school in 2000.

Narrator: Michael Jones
Interviewer: Judith Knudsen
Date: July 17, 2016

Stratford Junior High School, 1959. Image courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Judith Knudsen: So, what do you remember about the day when you—when it happened? What was—?

Michael Jones: You know, the further we get away the furthest—the more I forget. The only thing I remember is getting up early that morning and crossed my mind—they dressed me and made my hair and all that—made sure my hair and everything was looking good—nice long coat and everything. We were to meet at Ronnie’s house, and then—our house is right where I stayed—my mother lives now. So, Ronnie’s house is in apartments. Well, I’m two minutes away—just across the street—and you go down to his apartment there. So, we went to his apartment, and someone drove us around—drove us to the school. Now, my recollection—and I talked to Ronnie and Lance, and they think it’s different. I always thought—and it’s too bad it’s not to the day where I could—where it would be on YouTube. I could just look it up.

JK: Exactly.

MJ: Yeah. But I always thought we went into our—Vacation Lane—went in that way, straight down that little street there and went up the steps. But they said we went in the other way. But I don’t know. I guess somebody’d go to—but anyway, went in there and we met with Mr. Claude Richmond for a while.

JK: He was the principal.

MJ: He was the principal at the time. He met with us maybe—I guess less than a half an hour before we went into class, and Ronnie and Lance were together, and me and Gloria were together. I think now that’s because Ronnie and Lance went to the Methodist church at the time. Gloria and I went to the Baptist church. So, I think that’s why they put us together in classes. And we went to the first class and—

JK: What was that like?

MJ: I don’t know. You know what? I can not—I don’t remember anything that stood out negative. So, to me, it was just a normal class. We went in there, and I guess I didn’t know anybody, which was difficult when you go—most classes—

JK: Of course. New class.

MJ: Yeah, yeah. I mean, I didn’t know anybody, so when we went into class, I guess we sat pretty close to each other, and that was it. Came out. I guess we had a ride home that first week or so—something like that. Or maybe first—maybe—I don’t know. Came home and it was—it was up. Fairly uneventful year. The only thing that I can think about that first year is some guys used to call us names in the hall, and that’s it. But nothing even bad as you see today—getting beat up or anything—and I guess because the focus—everybody knew the focus was on us at the time. If anything happened, it would be negative on not only them but the school, the state, and everybody else. So, nothing happened, it was uneventful except for those.

JK: And did—my understanding was that you stayed in the same class for all the classes. I mean, you changed classes, but you had the same group, so it was the same group all the way through the day.

MJ: Yeah. Correct. Right. I don’t remember me being in the class by myself that first year. I think Gloria was in all my classes I had.

From left to right, Michael Jones, Ronald Deskins, and Lance Newman at the February 2, 2016, County event, “An Evening to Celebrate Arlington’s History Makers.” Photo by Blake Tippens.

A plaque dedicating the Stratford Auditorium, February 2, 2016. Photo by Blake Tippens.

Learn more:

”The Story of Arlington Public School Desegregation,” tells a detailed narrative about the history of the desegregation of APS

”Oral History: Desegregation of Arlington’s Public Schools” and “A Fight for Educational Equality: Civil Rights Activist Dorothy Hamm” both detail the life and work of Dorothy Hamm, who led the efforts to desegregate APS

Project DAPS is a digital exhibit featuring nearly 2,000 digitized documents and stories related to the desegregation of Arlington Public Schools from the Arlington Public Library’s Community Archives

”Back to Stratford: Honoring Arlington’s History Makers” features a panel discussion with Michael Jones, Lance Newman, Ronald Deskins, and other community members about the desegregation process and it's legacy

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

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

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

Oral History: The Arlington Food Assistance Center

Interviews with Ann Rudd and Andy Lee

pink sound wave on a grey background

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MJ: Oh.

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

MJ: And what you—

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

MJ: So this is around 1988?

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

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

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

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

AR: No!

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

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

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

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

AFAC informational mailer distributed to community members.

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

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

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

AW: Um-hm (affirmative)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Oral History: Remembering the Early Businesses of Columbia Pike

Interview with Ruth Levin

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

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

pink sound wave on a grey background

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

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

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

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

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

Interiors of Columbia Furniture, 3102 Columbia Pike.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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