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Center for Local History Blog

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

Airport and A Movie

Airport Drive-In

Did you know that Crystal City was home to Arlington’s first drive-in movie theater?

Back of screen at Airport Drive-In Theater, Spring 1949. Photo Courtesy of Rex Paul Foley

The “Airport Drive-In” was operated by Paul J. Foley from 1947-1963 at 2001 Richmond Highway, just behind National Airport. Advertising a capacity for 1,000 cars, the Airport Drive-In quickly became a favorite of citizens in post-war Arlington.

The Airport Drive-In officially opened on September 10th, 1947, showing the film “Dragonwyck” starring Gene Tierney. Guests of honor included Arlington County officials, as well as Miss Arlington 1947, Peggy Wilson.

As the first drive-in in Arlington and one of the first in Virginia, the venture was initially very successful. Thanks to its strategic location between D.C. and Arlington, as well as frequently hosting fundraisers for the Arlington Safety Council, the Airport Drive-In began to establish itself as a staple in the community. 

Dedicated to providing a family-oriented service, kids under 12 were admitted free, and cartoons were frequently played as part of the program. Families and couples were drawn from D.C. as well as the developing suburbs of South Arlington.

Washington Post, September 10th, 1947

Arlington Daily, September 15, 1947, CLH Collections

NoVa Sun, April 16th, 1948, CLH Collections

Growing Up at the Drive-In

Rex Paul Foley, son of Paul Foley, remembers what it was like growing up at the drive in.

“My father Paul J. Foley owned and operated this drive-in. I have wonderful memories, especially about having carte blanche access to the snack bar when it was open and closed. Our snack bar had delicious Smithfield Bar-B-Que sandwiches and other choices such as Pepper Steak from Murry’s Steaks. It was also the place where my brother and I learned how to drive. When we would come during the daytime with my dad (guess he was counting the money???) we would drive around the 25 acres, hoping not to hit any poles…I believe that the last movie that played for the last two weeks was The Dirty Dozen and I think I was there every night those last few weeks. 

Advertisement for opening day, Photo Courtesy of Rex Paul Foley

Movie showtimes, Washington Post, August 11th, 1954

Segregation at the Drive-In

Virginia’s laws regarding "Separation of Races" in public settings had been adopted in 1926, requiring racially separate seating at any “public hall, theater, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage.” This law also provided that any proprietor who failed to segregate their audience would "be fined not less than $100 nor more than $500 for each offense” and that any patron of the theater who refused to take a seat in the assigned section or refused to move to the assigned section when requested, "shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof fined not less than $10 no more than $25 for each offense.”

An Arlington judge ruled in 1957 that the segregated seating laws were valid, but in 1958 another judge ruled the law unconstitutional. And though no court had reversed the 1958 ruling, the laws still existed in practice. The Virginia State Government officially ended segregation in movie theaters in 1963. Learn more about the activists who desegregated Arlington's movie theaters in our 2022 blogpost.

Smart Growth Ends Airport Drive-In

Unfortunately, the drive-in’s convenient location would be its undoing. Finally falling victim to the expanding development of Crystal City, the Airport Drive-In closed in 1963. Today, the site is the location of the Crystal Plaza Apartment Complex.

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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Oral History: Anhthu Lu

Finding Home Away from Home

Arlington Voices the Oral History Collection

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

Anhthu Lu was born in Vietnam and immigrated to Arlington after the fall of Saigon in 1975. From roughly 1975-1980, the U.S. population of Vietnamese immigrants - many of whom were refugees - had grown from 15,000 to 245,000.

At the same time, the Clarendon neighborhood transformed from a declining shopping destination to a supportive and bustling Vietnamese enclave that became known as "Little Saigon," brimming with stores that provided both imported goods and a sense of community for Vietnamese-Americans.

Vietnam Center in Little Saigon, 1980

In a 2016 interview, Lu described the harrowing account of her family's escape from Saigon, as well as the difficult journey from resettlement camps in the Philippines to become settled in Arlington.

In the following excerpt, Lu talks about her reaction to Little Saigon and the positive affect that it had on her as a young refugee:

Narrator: Anhthu Lu
Interviewer: Kim O'Connell
Date: March 16th, 2016

AL: Our eyes lit up. We went in there, and for the first time, you can hear the Vietnamese language and see the Vietnamese products, and things that we know, and things that we need, and things that we knew all our lives. I saw the fish sauce, and the rice paper, and all of the spices and stuff like that. We were like, "so there will be a chance we'll have Vietnamese food again."

The name "Little Saigon" didn't enter our mind until Little Saigon in Southern California started to come up, and then that became like a trademark for wherever the Vietnamese-Americans are, and it became Little Saigon. But at that time, we just called it the Vietnamese market. So at the end of the week, "Are you going to the Vietnamese market?" And it's understood that once you go out there, you have more chances to run into all your friends and family... it's become an oriental area for the Vietnamese people to go...And you can speak in Vietnamese, and totally feel like you're in Vietnam.

It felt really safe. It's like something that you know, and so you're comfortable with it. You feel like, "Oh, if I go there, that's my town." Home away from home. Once you feel that, you start to feel like you're already established here, and you've started to feel comfortable. And from there, you open the door out to bring in more of the way of life here in the US, and the way of thinking...For people like my parents or older people to go there and they have such a language barrier, that they feel more comfortable in an enclave of just Vietnamese. When they go there and start feeling comfortable, they can start speaking a little bit of English here and there, and they start to feel like, "Oh, I'm opening up more to take in a different culture than what's mine."

 

You can find the entire transcript in the Center for Local History - VA 975.5295 A7243oh ser.12 no.13: Book a Research Appointment.

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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Plane Crash at Bishop O’Connell High School

“Please remain in your classrooms until further notified. A plane has just crashed on the football field”

On May 12, 1988, a single engine plane was forced to make a crash landing on the baseball field at Bishop O’Connell High School.

"Examining the wreckage, safety workers make sure that the downed plane is not in danger of catching on fire"

Pilot Edward Sanchez and passenger Dick Sheeringa were on a business trip from Toronto to Raleigh. They had planned to refuel at National Airport, but the plane’s gas gauges malfunctioned - incorrectly showing more fuel than was in the tank - and the plane began to lose altitude.

Witnesses said the plane touched down in the middle of the baseball field, crushed a wooden bench, and maneuvered around fleeing students before crashing into a chain link fence bordering Underwood Street.

Coach Ed Iacobucci was playing softball with his class when the plane crashed. What he and his students saw that day was reported in the Washington Post and the school yearbook.

“The plane clipped some trees and headed for us. It just missed the girls by two or three feet…The plane was heading right for one kid. I yelled, ‘Get out of the way, Michael!’, it missed him by a couple of feet. Michael said he was going to church tonight.” - Ed Iacobucci, Washington Post

“I was running right next to the airplane. I had to pull my friend down, the wing was right beside my face.” -Sophomore Rosemary Pellegrino, Bishop O'Connell Yearbook

Luckily there were no injuries to students, and both the pilot and passenger were able to walk away from the crash with only minor injuries.

Headline and photos are from the 1988 Bishop O'Connell Yearbook. The Center for Local History has a large collection of Arlington yearbooks both in print and digitized. To learn more, visit https://library.arlingtonva.libguides.com/yearbooks

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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Union Army Balloon Corp

September 1861 - August 1863

While the first successful hot air balloon flights were completed in France in the 1790s, due to the work of Thaddeus S.C. Lowe (1832-1913), Arlington is home to their first use by the United States military. Lowe was a scientist and inventor who would go on to be known as the “Grandfather of Military Aerial Recon in the United States.”

Professor Lowe, c. 1860, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

Professor Lowe, 1861, Photo Courtesy of National Air and Space Museum

By the 1850s, Lowe was well regarded for his advanced meteorological theories and his reputation as an amateur balloonist. He gained national attention in 1861 when, on a test flight for a Trans-Atlantic balloon voyage, he was blown off course and imprisoned in South Carolina as a Union Spy.

Shortly after being cleared as a scientist, Lowe was released from jail and invited to Washington D.C. to perform demonstrations of his balloons for President Abraham Lincoln. On July 11, 1861, by hanging telegraph wires to his staff on the ground, Lowe sent a message from 500 feet above the White House that read,

“This point of observation commands an area near 50 miles in diameter. The city with its girdle of encampments presents a superb scene. I have pleasure in sending you this first dispatch ever telegraphed from an aerial station.”

President Lincoln was so impressed with Lowe and his balloons that he offered him the civilian position of Chief Aeronaut of the newly formed Union Army Balloon Corp.

Lowe’s Balloon Being Prepared in front  of the Capitol Building, 1861, Photo Courtesy of Ghosts of D.C.

Balloon View of Washington, May 1861, Photo Courtesy of U.S. Senate

Formation of Balloon Corps (Summer 1861)

Stationed at Fort Corcoran, in today’s Rosslyn/North Highlands Neighborhoods, the Balloon Corp’s mission was to provide aerial reconnaissance of Confederate troops just outside of Arlington.

The Balloon Corp was expanded after the first Battle of Bull Run. Lowe’s fleet of Balloons would grow to seven balloons that could be stationed up and down the Potomac River. To transport their balloons, the Balloon Corp was given use of a coal barge converted to be the world’s first aircraft carrier, the USS George Washington Parke Custis.

During the summer of 1861, Lowe and the Balloon Corp would make multiple ascensions over the Arlington Heights and Balls Crossroads (now Ballston) area in order to observe Confederate positions at Falls Church.

Drawing of USS George Washington Parke Custis with balloon ascending over Potomac River near Mount Vernon, November 1861, Photo Courtesy of United States Naval Institute

Lowe’s balloons were perfect for defensive observations, as he could safely evaluate the Confederate’s position and strength from the relative safety of his balloon. By using signal flags and a telegraph in the balloon, Lowe was able to relay messages quickly to the forces on the ground.

Lowe filling balloon from portable hydrogen generator, Gaines Mill Virginia, June 1, 1862, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress 

The U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission reported,

"On September 24, 1861, Lowe ascended to more than 1,000 feet (305 meters) near Arlington, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, DC, and began telegraphing intelligence on the Confederate troops located at Falls Church, Virginia, more than three miles (4.8 kilometers) away. Union guns were aimed and fired accurately at the Confederate troops without actually being able to see them—a first in the history of warfare."

Although the Confederate troops were unable to see the Union guns firing at them, they were often able to see the reconnaissance balloon. Enemy soldiers and artillery frequently fired potshots at Lowe, often hitting near his staff on the ground below him. This earned him the nickname of "The Most Shot at Man" of the Civil War by the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

Professor Lowe observing Battle of Fair Oaks from balloon, May 1862, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

Distrust of the Balloon Corp

Over the next two years, Lowe and the Balloon Corp would provide reconnaissance for the battles of Yorktown, Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), Fredericksburg, Mechanicsville, and Chancellorsville. But Lowe’s information was often ignored by his commanding officers, and many were reluctant to trust a civilian employee of the Army.

The Battle of Fair Oaks, VA, May 31, 1862, “Intrepid” War Balloon in Distance, Photo Courtesy of National Park Service

Although Lowe reported that he was able to accurately call out Confederate positions in good weather, some Union Army members believed the reports were altered to "render their own importance greater, thereby insuring themselves what might be profitable employment." As a result, many Union generals distrusted the Balloon Corp’s information, instead favoring traditional methods of reconnaissance. George Armstrong Custer, who rode in Lowe’s balloons in April 1862, stated:

“The large majority of the army, without giving it a personal test, condemned and ridiculed the system of balloon reconnaissance”

Lowe filling balloon INTREPID from balloon CONSTITUTION at Fair Oaks, VA, 1862, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

Balloon Camp, Gaines' Hill, near Richmond, VA: telegraphing, reporting, and sketching during the Battle of Fair Oaks, June 1, 1862, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

End of the Balloon Corp

The Balloon Corp would not last to the end of the Civil War. In 1863, Lowe resigned after a dispute about his pay. Shortly after, the unit was rejected from joining Col. Albert Myer’s Signal School and then disbanded. 

Lowe retired to Pasadena, California, where he later won the Elliott Cresson Medal for the Invention Held to be Most Useful to Mankind for his work in the cold storage industry. He also founded the Mount Lowe Railway and the Citizens Bank of Los Angeles, which is now a part of Wells Fargo. His granddaughter,  Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes, was a pioneer aviator who broke Amelia Earheart’s air speed record in 1930.

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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Orville Wright Takes Flight at Ft. Myer

1908

Arlington is the home to the country’s first military test flights, which lead directly to the adoption of aircraft for military use. Orville Wright came to Arlington in 1908 to demonstrate his new flying machine for the U.S. Government and U.S. Army.

Wright and his assistants arrived in late August 1908, bringing the aircraft from Ohio. Over the course of several days, Wright would perform small flight tests at Ft. Myer in the hopes of selling the machine to the Army. Wright began making small test runs across the parade field on September 3, and by September 9, the flights began to last over an hour, with Orville flying 40mph 120 feet in the air, in front of huge crowds that gathered to watch as he broke multiple existing flight records.

Orville Wright, Lt. Thomas Selfridge, Major Squire, and Lt. Benjamin D. Foulois with flyer at Ft. Myer, September 1908, Photo Courtesy of Wright Brothers History

One of those watching was Gutzon Borglum, an American sculptor best known for working on Mount Rushmore. In an attempt to describe the plane, he said,

“Within stood the most unlikely, spider-like frame, with twin cotton covered, horizontal frames, one above the other, about six feet apart. There is nothing about the contraption that would suggest to the lay mind its possible use, should he find it unattended in a field; nothing that would suggest to him what it might do or that it was built for anything in particular."

Orville Wright and Lieutenant Lahm flying at Fort Myer, July 27, 1909, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

After witnessing the flight, he said,

“There is no action of the ‘wings’ so you do not think of birds... It is so simple, it annoys one. It is inconceivable, yet having seen it, it now seems the most natural thing in the air. One is amazed humankind has not built it before…As soon as the motor started, the plane gave a slight jump forward. The wind from the propellers drove the hats from the spectators' head…The crowd stood open mouthed, with murmurs of wonder and an occasional toot from an automobile horn; then as he passed over us everybody let go in an uproar of shouting and handclapping. The miracle had happened! Nothing can take this step made into space from man."

Although the tests started well, they would end in disaster. On September 17, Wright took Lt. Thomas Selfridge, an aspiring Army aviation expert, on a test flight. Shortly after takeoff, one of the propellers split, sending the aircraft into the ground. Wright would suffer serious but nonlife threatening injuries, and Lt. Selfridge would later die on the operating table, making him the first victim of an accident in a powered aircraft. Because of the failure, the U.S. Army delayed further tests of this version of the aircraft until the problems could be fixed.

Bystanders work to free Lt. Selfridge, 1908, Ft. Myer, Photo Courtesy of Arlington Cemetery

Determined not to let the fatal crash hurt their reputation, the Wrights resumed test flights in early July of the following year. Because of the highly publicized crash the year prior, thousands of people came to observe the tests. This included President Taft, members of Congress, Senators, high ranking Army officials, and other influential people such as Evelyn Roosevelt.

Senators Kean, Lodge, and Bacon with wives at Ft. Myer test flights, July 1909, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

Photographers at military flight trials, Ft. Myer, July 1909, Photo Courtesy of Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum

 

The resumption of tests got off to a rocky start, requiring Wright to briefly return to Ohio to repair a torn wing. By July 12 however, Wright was able to consistently fly hour-long flights over Fort Myer. On the final acceptance test, Wright needed to fly 10 miles - from Fort Myer to Shooters Hill in Alexandria (now the George Washington Masonic Memorial), maintaining at least 40 mph and receiving a bonus of $1,000 for every mph he went faster.

Similar to the previous tests, Orville took passengers on test flights in the Arlington area to demonstrate the aircraft's speed and durability. On one flight, Wright took Major General Benjamin D. Foulois, who described the event 50 years later:

“Orville Wright, in his quiet little voice, asked me if I wouldn’t be the observer on that trip and his navigator. He picked me, I found afterwards, because I was the smallest one of the group - less wind resistance, less gasoline…When I got into the airplane with him, he quietly turned to me and said, ‘If we have any trouble on this trip, I’m going to pick out the thickest clump of trees I can find and land in it’, which sent a little reminder to me that I’d picked out a course with no landing fields on it…”

Washington Post, July 31st, 1909, Access Provided by ProQuest

 

First Army Aeroplane Flight, Fort Myer, Virginia, July 1909, Video Courtesy of UK National Archives

Although Wright and Foulois had initially overshot Alexandria, they were able to successfully return and land back at Ft. Myer. The test was a resounding success. Wright’s last test run with Foulois passed all of the Army’s requirements, and they purchased the world’s first military aircraft for $30,000.

Lt. Thomas Selfridge would later be honored with the Selfridge Gate in Arlington Cemetery, and the 1909 Wright Military Flyer is on display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C.

Orville Wright flying over crowd at Ft. Myer, July 1909, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

Orville Wright flying, July 1909, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

Orville Wright flying above Ft. Myer, July 1909, Photo Courtesy of Library of Congress

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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Dawson House

As the only surviving stone structure in Arlington County from the 18th or 19th century, the Dawson House, located at 2133 N. Taft St., is also the only building still standing that was inside Arlington’s Civil War fortifications.

Dawson Terrace – originally known as the “Dawson Bailey House” – was established as early as 1859, when the Dawson Family purchased the 82 acre farm.

Dawson House, CLH Collections

First Owners

The property in which the Dawson House was built on would change hands multiple times before the Dawson family took ownership. Most notably was founding father George Mason IV, who controlled almost all of the Rosslyn and Northern Highlands neighborhoods by 1767. While building his own home at Gunston Hall, the Mason family leased and sold much of his land to local tenant farmers who worked and lived on the land. 

One parcel of land included the future Dawson property. An 1856 newspaper advertisement announced the sale of a valuable farm at auction-

“containing eighty-two acres… The improvements consist of a good stone dwelling, orchard of peach and apples of choices fruits in thriving condition, an excellent spring of water, with two running streams of water, with Oak and Pine Timber sufficient for fencing and fuel; one half has been in cultivation and other is in good condition”

Newspaper advertisement for Dawson property, c. 1858, CLH Collections

The stone dwelling mentioned in the advertisement was likely used as a warehouse for crops or housing for tenant farmers and is believed to be a part of the Dawson House today.

Thomas B. Dawson Family (Owned 1859-1895)

The Dawsons, a wealthy family from Maryland, purchased the advertised land for $2,378 in 1859. Thomas B. Dawson moved in by July 1860 with his wife and three young daughters, naming the property “Rio-Vista” (Spanish for “River View”). As soon as Dawson moved onto the land in July 1860, he immediately began to renovate the structure, and is credited with doubling the size of the original stone dwelling. Dawson’s additions are now the eastern half of the building, built to exactly mirror the original structure. 

A letter from Thomas Dawson’s granddaughter in the 1950s confirms, “My grandfather…bought the house…in 1859. At that time, there were 85 acres and a small stone house, two rooms, one above the other. It is part of the house as it is today, at the west end. He added the rest of the stone house in 1859.”

Still visible today, Dawson carved his initials, “T.B.D-1859”, into the east side first floor window upon completion of the addition.

"T.B.D 1859" carved into east side of Dawson House, CLH Collections

Drawing of the Dawson House before extension, "History of Northern Highlands", CLH Collections

Civil War

The Civil War broke out just two months after Bessie Dawson, the youngest daughter, was born. Strategically, the Dawson house was important due to its position on a hill overlooking Washington. When Virginia voted to leave the Union on May 24th, 1861, the Dawson family ended up in the middle of Arlington’s Union Army Civil War defense ring. While they were lucky to keep the residence as their home, their property was heavily affected by the nearby soldiers, who established Fort Bennett on their property and Fort Corcoran just Southeast of their property.

The soldiers burned their barn, slaughtered the livestock, confined the family to their house, and reportedly used the house for target practice. Because an important military road connecting the forts was laid directly in front of the home, the family needed a special pass to leave the property.

The Dawsons were not alone. Most of the farms along the Potomac were destroyed by Union soldiers in order to build the ring of forts established under the Defenses of Washington. After the war, the Dawson family received $3,369 in reparations for destroyed property and stolen crops from the Union soldiers - much higher than the typical payout of $300-400, indicating an especially high degree of property destruction.

Topographical Map of the Original District of Columbia and Environs Showing the Fortifications Around the City of Washington, 1862, CLH Collections

Dawson Family (1895-1955)

When Thomas Dawson died in 1895, the land was split between his 4 daughters. Over time, as the daughters married and moved away, they began to sell off the surrounding land to developers. Bessie Dawson was the only one who remained in the house, living there with her husband William Conway Bailey. The name “Dawson-Bailey House” originated from this time period, when it was believed that her husband was related to the Bailey family of Bailey’s Crossroads. As this connection has been proven false, the name was changed to “Dawson House” to reflect the family’s importance to the property.

County Use

Bessie continued selling off her father's land, and by 1940 there was nothing left of Dawson’s original farm except for the Dawson House. This allowed for the development of Adams Street, Doubleday’s Road (N. Courthouse Road), the Palisades Apartments, the First Church of Nazarene, and the Bay-Eva Castle, which were all built on the former Dawson property.

While Dr. Jacobs was constructing the nearby “Bay-Eva Castle” in 1936, he found a spring that once belonged to the Dawson Terrace property enclosed with a small metal roof. According to Bessie Dawson, “her father would take black walnuts from the trees near his home to soldiers camped near this spring. Soldiers were cutting down many trees for firewood, and Mr. Dawson asked them to leave the tulip poplar tree which shaded the spring”. Workers used leftover bricks from the Bay-Eva Castle to construct the current structure surrounding the spring, and the tree is still standing today.

Dawson House Spring, CLH Collections

In 1951, Bessie agreed to sell the final acres of her land, except for the house itself, to Arlington County in order to build a playground. Completed a year later, it was dedicated as Dawson Terrace Park to honor her father’s contribution to the area. 

Upon Bessie’s death in 1955, the County acquired the Dawson Home to turn it into a teen and community center, adding a modern building with rec space and an auditorium in the early 1960s. In 1996, the Dawson House was designated as a Local Historic District.

Although Dawson Terrace has been in almost constant use since being acquired by the County, the Dawson House itself was only being used for Parks & Rec storage. Since 2017, The Center for Local History has occupied the building for processing archival collections. Today, The Community Center still holds County and community events on the property.

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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Fire Battalion Chief Judith Brewer

Arlington's First Female Fire Fighter

Did you know that Arlington is believed to be home to the first full-time career female firefighter in the United States? Judith Brewer, then Judith Livers, was hired in 1974 at Clarendon Station #4, serving 15 years before retiring as one of the first female battalion chiefs in the country.

After working briefly as a beautician, Brewer became interested in firefighting while helping her then husband study for his fire science degree. She was particularly moved by images of children who were injured in fires.

Judith Brewer, Photo Courtesy of Arlington Fire Journal 

Brewer began the qualification course to become an emergency technician, with the goal of riding in ambulances to assist firefighters. After becoming certified, she taught the 100 hour course to volunteer and professional firemen at Northern Virginia Community College.

When she applied to her husband’s volunteer unit in Mt. Vernon, she was rejected twice. “That made me angry. So I said to heck with the volunteers and I talked to Tom about becoming a professional firefighter” (Washington Star-News 7/28/74)

Getting Hired

The process for a woman to become a firefighter was not an easy one in the 1970s. Women had only been hired as secretaries or to do other clerical duties at firehouses, and many firemen did not believe that it was possible for a woman to do the job.

Clarendon Station #4, 1969, CLH Collections

Brewer was hired in 1974 at Arlington’s Clarendon Station #4 by Fire Chief Robert Groshon. Although her initial goal was to stay on the rescue squad, she quickly fell in love with firefighting and began her training to become a full time firefighter.

After passing the required book tests, her first challenge was the grueling physical tests. This  included climbing a 50 foot ladder, holding a hose steady for 2 minutes while 100 pounds of pressure pumped through it, finding her way through a smoke filled building blindfolded while wearing all her gear, and moving a 100 pound sandbag 50 times in 10 minutes. Brewer initially failed the physical test, due to not meeting the time limit moving sandbags. But instead of giving up, she built a training course at home and practiced for three months in order to retake and pass the physical test.

Resistance from Men

Despite Brewer having proven herself strong enough to pass both the physical and mental tests required to become a firefighter, men were still resistant to allowing her in the department. One firefighter said, “It is not a woman’s job…physically a woman cannot handle it. When I took this job I didn’t think I’d have to work with minorities and women and things like that.”

Much of the opposition towards Brewer was based on sexist ideology that was built into the environment. As Sarah Vee Moseley explains in "Women’s Entrance Into the Fire Department: A Theory of Collaboration and Crisis,"

“Brewer’s body was central in her peer’s evaluation of her: her stature comes up frequently in archival records. Her fellow firefighters were staunchly opposed to the hiring of women because of this characterization of women as small, weak, and delicate…while firefighters cited her weight and height as reasons to object to her hiring…it came down to gender. This was rigid rhetorical gendering: no matter how well a woman’s body preformed, that body was regarded as inferior”

Just three weeks after Brewer was hired, the Arlington Professional Firefighters Association and the Ladies Auxiliary took an official stance against hiring more women firefighters. The President of the Firefighters Association, William Hartman, explained that, “The biggest problem is that the men want separate bedrooms and toilet facilities for women firefighters…their wives aren’t at all happy that their husbands are sharing a bedroom with a woman, even in a dormitory style fire station.” (The Arlington News 3/21/74)

Brewer, Photo Courtesy of Arlington Fire Department

Resistance from Firefighter Wives

The women involved at Clarendon Station #4 were particularly against the idea of a female firefighter. Brewer remembered, “The wives are extremely upset… One of them confronted me in the kitchen one night when I turned around and said something to her husband. She screamed at me and told me not to talk to her husband… A few of the women think it’s immoral and possibly illegal for me to share the same bunk room as the men…They’ve gone to the County Manager and circulated petitions. They say they’ll go to court in order to keep women from bunking with their husbands"

In addition to the sleeping arrangements, the wives claimed that increased press surrounding Brewer was interfering with firefighter’s daily duties. Firemen were harassed for interviews around the firehouse, with some men complaining that being watched like a “fish in a fishbowl” only added to the tensions. Some reporters took it a step further, and in an attempt to cover Brewer’s story, “Television camera crews and reporters swarmed over the firehouse…at one point followed them onto their trucks screaming, ‘Can we go?’ when a fire call came in during an interview” (Washington Post 4/3/74).

Progress and Promotions

Even if they held onto their sexist ideology, some men felt that, “I just ain’t used to having a female here…but you got to give somebody a chance. If it works out, fine. I’ll give Judy and any other girl who comes on a chance because I think it took a helluva woman to apply for this job” In 1974, just months after Brewer was hired, 6 women joined the San Diego, California Fire Department and one woman joined Alexandria, Virginia.

Once Brewer proved herself in the field, she slowly became accepted as part of the culture. In an interview with the Washington Star Journal 3 months after she was hired, her Captain Lou Galleno said, “She’s a very determined person. Within a month and a half she was capable of tilling (controlling the back wheels of the firetruck) fire calls. I took her out six times and then I broke her loose. If she had come here to make a joke of my job…I wouldn’t have wanted any part of her. But she wanted to be a firefighter.”

According to Brewer, it took 6 months for the men to stop treating her as an oddity, and another 2 years before the men stopped watching her every move on calls. While Brewer’s hiring was part of a wave of women joining Fire Departments all across the Country, another woman would not be hired in Arlington for 6 years.

Brewer c. 1995, CLH Collections

In 1988, Brewer was promoted to Captain, and finally given her own bedroom and bathroom facilities. Two years later she was promoted to the rank of Battalion Chief, one of the few women to hold the position in the country at the time. Brewer held the rank of Battalion Chief until her retirement in 1995, and was in charge of 6 fire stations across Arlington including Clarendon Station #4, where she got her start. 

Arlington Women in Firefighting Today

As of 2017 there were 29 women firefighters/EMS working in Arlington. In 2013, Arlington County started “Camp Heat,'' a five day summer camp experience created to inspire more young women to join Arlington’s Fire and Emergency Medical Services. Campers have the chance to meet female leaders in the department, participate in training, and experience the everyday life of a firefighter. Today Camp Heat is open to anyone under the age of 18.

Campers watch a staged fire at Camp Heat, 2013, Photo Courtesy of NPR

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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Pelham Town

A Lost Arlington Community

Arlington in the early 1900s included many small Black communities. Today the best known among them are Hall’s Hill in North Arlington, Queen City in what is now the Pentagon area, and Green Valley in South Arlington.

One of the lesser known communities was Pelham Town, a small neighborhood near the Marymount Campus, between today’s 24th Street and N. Wakefield Street.

Map of Pelham Town from Arlington County Atlas, 1935, CLH Collections

Consisting primarily of members of the Pelham family, Pelham Town began in the 1860s, when Moses Pelham Sr. (1828-1904) and his brothers Gibson, Ed, and Burrell, moved to Arlington County from Culpeper, Virginia. Their father was freed from enslavement to the Pelham family in 1819 at the age of 21.

Pelham Sr. initially acquired one acre of land just northeast of Hall’s Hill. In 1874 he built his home and married Isabella Washington, and by 1894 he had acquired an additional acre. Isabella had eight children who lived to adulthood, and the family became an important part of the social support network for a community which sourced almost all of its services from within its boundaries during decades of segregation. In “History of Mt. Salvation Baptist Church (1879-2019),” Deaconess Portia A. Haskins wrote of how “During the late 1800s Moses Pelham Sr. was well regarded for selling some of his property to assist freed slaves in their quest for land ownership.” 

Upon the death of Moses Pelham Sr. in 1904, his land was divided among his six remaining children - Moses Jr., Burrell, Edward, John, Annie Spriggs (née Pelham), and Matilda Robinson (née Pelham) - who each established a home on the lot. 

Drawing of Pelham Town by W. Palmer, c.1940s, CLH Collections

Life in Pelham Town

William Pelham Sr. (1900-2003), the grandson of Moses Pelham Sr., remained as an influential community leader in Arlington his whole life. In a 1986 interview with the Arlington Library Oral History Project, he describes Pelham Town as a rural but close knit community. Life in Pelham Town included walking to school along a dirt Glebe Road, watching mules used for the construction of the Old Dominion Railroad, and baptisms in Spout Run near today’s intersection of Langston Blvd and Kirkwood Road.

Like much of Arlington at the time, houses had livestock including pigs and chickens, vegetable gardens, and no running water. Residents acquired water from a spring almost half a mile away until the neighborhood kids, “would dig that place in the ground until we got so far down in the ground one day a shovel fell on one of the boys' heads and then they cut it off.  And then the neighbors got together – and they finished the well, and that well was 75 feet down in the ground.”

Pelham Family's Community Involvement

Moses Pelham Sr. hosted some of the first prayer services led by Reverend Cyrus Carter after the Mount Salvation Baptist Church was organized in 1872. As one of the few African-American men able to own land at the time, he assisted in the purchase of a permanent church property in 1884. Two of his sons, Burrell, and Moses Jr., as well as his grandson William Pelham would serve as Deacons for the church.

The original church building would also house the predecessor to the Langston School, then called the Sumner School. By hosting school during the week and religious services on Sunday, it became the area's first local school for Black children, which was incredibly important to the community of Hall’s Hill.

Cover of History of Mt. Salvation Baptist Church by Deaconess Portia A. Haskins, CLH Collections

In “A View from Hall's Hill: African American Community Development in Arlington, Virginia from the Civil War to the Turn of the Century”, Author Lindsey Bestebreurtje writes,

"Schools were not only used for education but also to provide neighborhood children with a sense of community, connection, and insulation from negative outside white influences which they would be more likely to experience if they had to travel great distances beyond their communities.”

Segregation laws at the time resulted in severe underfunding and overcrowding, as the building only held two classrooms. Classes were often held at the nearby Oddfellows Hall until a new building was built for the school in 1925. Upon completion of the building, The Sumner School would be renamed the John M. Langston Elementary School in honor of the founding dean of Howard University Law School.  

The End of Pelham Town

Pelham Town ceased to exist in the mid 1900s due to the combination of pressure from local white developers and Jim Crow housing laws aimed to disenfranchise Black residents. A change in Arlington County’s housing laws after World War One required that every home be connected to the County water. However, according to William Pelham, “they put in city water and said you had to be connected to it or you couldn’t get an occupancy permit. But they wouldn’t let me connect my house. The white people who were moving in didn’t like my colored tenants. So I sold.” 

In addition, new roads constructed for a white housing development failed to connect to the existing streets in the community. This prevented residents in Pelham Town from having reasonable access to their homes. In “Up on the Hill: An Oral History of the Halls Hill Neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia”, William Pelham remembers, “The technicality was they could not get in and out of the property…Now they’ve got condos over there. That’s how these properties get away from us.” 

William Pelham left Pelham Town in 1928 but continued to rent to Black residents until the 1940s.

Map of African-American Settlements in Arlington County, 1970, CLH Collections

Map of Alexandria County, Virginia for the Virginia Title Co., 1900, Library of Congress

Pelham Family

Many of the Pelham Family members stayed in Arlington and moved to the Hall’s Hill/Highview Park area. William Pelham became the longest serving Deacon at Mt. Salvation Baptist Church, serving over 50 years. The cemetery of the church was designated a historic district in 2021, and still holds the graves of many members of the Pelham family.

Mt. Salvation Baptist Church before the modern remodel, 1954, Photo Courtesy of InsideNova

Portrait and Quote of William Pelham, "History of Mt. Salvation Baptist Church" by Portia Haskins, CLH Collections

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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Arlington’s Autorailer Experiment

1936-1939

Since the first trolley began running in 1896 - from Rosslyn to Fort Myer, just outside of Arlington National Cemetery - public transportation has been an important aspect of Arlington’s identity and development.

Autorailer picking up passengers c. 1938; CLH Collections

Having easy access to public transportation was an integral part of the growth and development of Arlington. The 1930s in Arlington saw a massive rise in population thanks to the government’s New Deal Programs, which brought thousands of government jobs into Arlington. Many workers were forced to live farther and farther away from D.C. as there were few housing options left close to the city. Even though half of American families owned a car by 1930, many still relied on companies like the Washington-Virginia Railway to get them to and from work.

When the Washington-Virginia railway went bankrupt in 1927, local community members and businesses gathered to form their own company, the Arlington & Fairfax Railway Company. By purchasing the former tracks, the new company was able to continue service between Fairfax City and Rosslyn. It also promoted tourism and vacations among D.C. residents, allowing them to travel to local landmarks like Mount Vernon, Great Falls, the National Cemetery, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The company, under Vice President G. Hall Roosevelt, nephew of Theodore Roosevelt and youngest brother of Elenanor Roosevelt, operated at a loss for 9 years until deteriorating infrastructure, competition from cars, and the loss of tracks into DC threatened to shut down the line for good.

Detroit Investment

In June of 1936, the Arlington & Fairfax Railway was saved by an investor from Detroit, The Evans Product Company. Evans was looking to break into the streetcar market and chose the D.C. area to promote their new innovation, the Autorailer - a hybrid streetcar and motorbus that was able to travel on both railroad tracks and paved roads, seamlessly transitioning at railroad crossings with the push of a lever.

Life Magazine Ad for Autorailers, August 1936. Photo courtesy of The Old Motor

In exchange for 51% of the company, The Evans Company invested $30,000 to rehabilitate the infrastructure, and supplied six autorailers for immediate use. Between December 1936 and January 1937, Evans spent over $125,000 to replace Arlington's remaining streetcars with the autorailers. To highlight the new technology, they renamed the company “Arlington & Fairfax Auto Railway."

Promotional newsreel made by Chevrolet in 1935 containing the "Evans Auto-Railer," an automobile that runs down railroad tracks in Jackson, Michigan. Prelinger Archives; Public Domain.

"Dual-Purpose and Streamlined"

The Autorailer was designed as a combination trolley streetcar and motor bus, with rubber tires for the road, and flanged wheels that could be set down to ride along the electric railroad tracks. Each vehicle typically had 4 wheels, a Chevrolet or Ford engine, and could carry 20-27 passengers. A rear compartment also allowed for the transport of mail and luggage.

The Arlington & Fairfax Auto Railway Company operated two lines out of Rosslyn starting in December 1936. The Main line went from Rosslyn to Fairfax, via Clarendon, Falls Church, and Vienna. The Arlington Line traveled from Rosslyn to Ft. Myer, via Green Valley and Arlington Cemetery. The Autorailer ran every twenty minutes for 15 cents each way, and commuters could get from Rosslyn to Fort Myer in just under an hour.

Although newspapers at the time claimed that “comparatively little mechanical trouble has been experienced, despite the newness of the vehicle” (Transit Journal, March 1937), contemporary analysis of the autorailer by John E. Merriken in "Old Dominion Trolley Too: A History of the Mount Vernon Line" deemed them, “Relatively primitive vehicles noticeably inferior to both the railcars they replaced and to contemporary motor buses”

AutoRailer1

Autorailer, January 1939; CLH collections

Autorailer's flanged wheel and rubber tire, c. 1935; Photo courtesy of The Prelinger Archives

AutoRailer4

Autorailers going to Arlington Cemetery and West Falls Church c. 1938; photo from CLH Collections

Crossing the Potomac Into DC

Previous trolleys had been able to travel across the Long Bridge to provide service into Washington D.C. This line was abandoned in 1930 when the station was destroyed for the construction of the Federal Triangle.

One of the immediate goals of the Arlington & Fairfax Auto Railway was to regain service into D.C. The company repeatedly petitioned to obtain permission to enter the city over the Key Bridge and resume service down Pennsylvania Avenue, filing at least two applications in 1937.

Although the application was finally granted in November 1938, it isn’t clear whether any autorailers ever crossed over the Potomac River, as two months later the Capital Transit Company successfully defended their right to a monopoly on passenger service in Washington, and the Arlington & Fairfax Auto Railway was barred from using the Key Bridge.

Return to Bankruptcy, and to County Roadways

The loss of service into D.C. was the final nail in the coffin for the Arlington & Fairfax Auto Railway, and by September of 1939, the company was once again bankrupt. With no investors to save them this time, they began to liquidate their stock of autorailers.

While much of the fleet was sold across the country, four remained in Arlington and were sold to the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. Three were used for general maintenance and repairs and one was converted to do repair work on the overhead electric lines for the tracks until 1944. Most of the railroad tracks were released to the County to be used for roads and highways, including Fairfax Drive, Clarendon Blvd in Arlington, and Electric Avenue in Vienna (Fairfax County).

Regarding Public Transportation and Segregation in Virginia

In 1904, the Virginia General Assembly gave streetcar companies the power to segregate passengers by race. Two years later, the Assembly enacted legislation that required racial segregation on Virginia streetcars. In 1946, forced segregation on interstate buses was declared unconstitutional after Irene Morgan appealed her case to the U.S. Supreme Court. And in 1960, another Supreme Court case, Boynton v. Virginia, banned segregation by race on any type of public transportation. Learn more about this topic at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

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

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