Whenever the subject of air travel or airports in Arlington is raised, it is perhaps inevitable that talk of National Airport will dominate any discussion. A glance through decades past, however, reveals the interesting story of Hoover Airport, Arlington’s first airfield.

Located in a pasture at the south end of the 14th Street Bridge on land now chiefly occupied by the Pentagon, Hoover Airport opened in 1926. Curiously enough, the following year saw another airport, Washington Airport, open virtually next door to Hoover on grounds previously housing a race track and horse show. After four years, the two combined services and became a single enterprise operating under the name Hoover Airport.

Diminutive even by 1930 standards, Hoover Airport had a single 2,400 foot runway which was intersected at mid-point by a road which had to be chained off by guards when the aircraft were landing or taking off. As advances were rapidly being made in the field of aviation, the shortcomings of Hoover Airport soon became apparent. In 1938, ground was broken at Gravelly Point, located at the Potomac’s edge where the Abingdon estate had been, and by 1941, Washington National Airport was open for business and Hoover Airport was no more.

What About You?

What are your memories regarding air travel from and to Arlington? Let us know what you remember!

Around this time each year, the cry of “Play Ball!” heralds the start of another season of baseball.

While the Washington Senators, Baltimore Orioles, and now the Washington Nationals dominate most local discussions concerning America’s Pastime, there is a fascinating, if unheralded, aspect of baseball that took root decades ago in Arlington’s African-American community. The earliest team, dating back to 1910, the Old Virginia Blues, played each Sunday on a field in East Arlington near Arlington Junction.

The two best known teams, the Virginia White Sox and the Green Valley Black Sox, started playing ball in the 1930’s and helped to provide a gathering place for local residents and families to socialize. Starting around May 30th of each year, weekends would see teams competing at a ball field situated near High View Park, on land which is now occupied by the Virginia Hospital Center, near George Mason Drive and Lee Highway. After the land was purchased for development, the teams folded, lacking a place to play.

What About You?

Did you have a family member, or, perhaps know anyone that played for the Virginia White Sox or the Green Valley Black Sox? Let us know what you remember!

In 1900, Congress transferred 400 acres of land along the Potomac near Ft. Myer to the Department of Agriculture in order to create an experimental farm for plant testing and the improvement of plants and methods of cultivation.

The area had been neglected for many years and even the top soil had been taken for the National Cemetery. Over the years a number of interesting activities and experiments took place at the farm:

• Americans on governmental or private missions abroad were encouraged to send foreign plants home to see if they would help improve domestic plants. The farm naturalized over 100,000 types of foreign plants for domestic use; soybeans are one of the best known crops to be introduced this way.
• When a plant disease threatened to wipe out the domestic sugarcane industry in the 1920s, the Farm led the way in developing immunity to this blight which ultimately resulted in the rebuilding of the sugarcane industry.
• One of the more unusual examples of the Farm’s experiments involved grasses for golf greens. Before WWI the country’s golf courses were almost entirely dependent on German grown seed for their grasses. When the supply was cut off by the war, golf courses throughout the country contributed funds for experiments at Arlington to develop new domestic varieties.

With the development of Arlington National Cemetery and the construction of Memorial Bridge there was pressure to relocate the farm.

In 1932 much of the farm’s work was shifted to Beltsville, MD, and by 1941 the remainder of the property had been transferred to the War Department for use in the National Defense Program.

What About You?

Do you recall the Arlington experimental farm? Let us know what you remember!

School Integration in Arlington

When four African American students, seventh graders Gloria Thompson, Ronald Diskins, Lance Newman and Michael Jones (above, left to right), entered Stratford Junior High School (now H.B. Woodlawn) on February 2, 1959, Stratford became the first white public school in Virginia to admit black students.

In opposition to the state’s plan of “massive resistance,” the Virginia NAACP developed a strategy to focus their energy first where the black population was small, and the Byrd machine weak, and it worked. Arlington, with an African American population of about five percent, fit that description. In addition, it had a strong core of black activists, as well as whites who supported their cause and also did not want the Arlington schools closed down.

On that cold winter day, half of Arlington’s police force, wearing white battle helmets and equipped with gas grenades and masks, were deployed around the entire perimeter of the school grounds. Fifteen plainclothesmen were on duty inside the school building, to which only students and teachers were allowed access. Press and other media, while present in large numbers, were barred from the premises of the school. Because of the precautions taken and the careful groundwork that was laid, the day passed without serious incident.

This date, however, marked the beginning of a process, for it was not until 1971 that Arlington schools were fully integrated.

The Virginia Room holds a wide array of materials on desegregation of the county’s public schools. There are several oral histories, archival collections, photographs, vertical files that include newspaper clippings, and recordings of Library events featuring students and administrators of the time.

What About You?

What do you remember about Arlington at this time? Did you go to Stratford Junior High in the late 1950s or early 1960s? Let us know what you remember!

Funded by a bond referendum in 1961, the Westover Branch Library, seen here in the 1970s, was opened to the public in June of 1963.

Prior to this, the Westover branch, founded in 1949, was located in small rented basement rooms at 1530 N. Longfellow Street, but the needs of the community soon outgrew the space. The new location at 1800 N. Lexington Street was designed by J. Russell Bailey, who also designed the Cherrydale branch building and the original Central Library in 1961.

From the Westover Library Dedication program:

“The modern split level design permits the entrance-level circulation desk to serve both the adult area on the upper level and the children’s room on the lower level. The latter opens to a grass terrace for story hour use. Full length windows on the north wall provide good light. Air-conditioning has been installed.”

Local women’s and civic groups planted trees and maintained flower beds on the grounds, and helped purchase new furniture and books for the shelves. The Westover Library had quickly become part of the community. However, that community has kept on growing, and the Westover branch has packed a lot of books and information in a small space to keep up with community needs.

A larger, more modern Westover Branch Library opened in October 2009.

What About You?

What do you remember about Westover library? How about other Arlington branch libraries? Do you have any photographs of those buildings? Let us know what you remember!