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Arlington Public Library

Center for Local History Blog

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

Halloween Party!

Oral History Excerpt with Tally Bowman

Speaking of a neighborhood woman who was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union who gave “interesting” Halloween parties:

“She used to give Halloween parties to all the children in the neighborhood and show them these movies on people drunk…they were silent movies. And these men [in the films] would get their paychecks and go to a saloon, you know, and then go out…and our kids had never seen anything like that and…this was trying to teach them not to do this sort of thing I guess. And it was a couple of Halloweens before we found out. She had lots of cookies and lots of punch, that’s the only thing [the kids] would talk about . . .

“Then one year a friend of Mrs. Bowman’s said to her, ‘Well, you know what happened at our house last night?’ Bill, her oldest boy…about seven years old…her husband was late coming home…he was a lawyer in the government and he had real high job over there. She said, ‘Well, I wonder what happened to Daddy?’ And he said, ‘Well, maybe he stopped by the saloon and got some beers.’ And she said, ‘Where did you get that from?’ So on questioning him and feeding him some ice cream and cake, she found out that he found it out over there at the Halloween party!

“When the neighbor who had been giving the ‘parties’ was confronted she thought what happened was great, but she quit giving the parties because she refused to give up showing the movies, and her ‘secret’ was out! Everyone, however, according to Mrs. Bowman, had a good laugh over it!”

The quote above is from our oral history collection, which you can find in the library catalog. Oral history tapes and transcripts are available in the Virginia Room.

What About You?

What kind of Halloween parties did you attend in Arlington? What was trick-or-treating like? Let us know what you remember!

Arlington’s "Down Town"

Clarendon in the 1940s

In 1900 when Clarendon was established as a village, it consisted of 25 acres intersected by Wilson Boulevard and bounded by Jackson Street on the west and Highland and Herndon Streets on the east.

An electric trolley line furnished transportation, and the Clarendon Citizens Association organized a firefighting force in 1909.

By the 1940’s, when this photograph was taken, Clarendon was Arlington’s “downtown” area, the place to shop, with not only Yeatman’s Hardware, pictured in the upper right, but also a Sears, J.C. Penney’s and Woolworth’s in the main Wilson Boulevard corridor. This photograph is where Wilson Boulevard merges with N. Hartford and N. Highland Streets.

What About You?

What was Clarendon like in the 1940s and 1950s? How has it changed over the years? Let us know what you remember!

 

We've Been Published!

Zachary Schrag, an assistant professor of history at George Mason University, used materials in the Virginia Room and the Arlington Community Archives while writing The Great Society Subway: A History of the Washington Metro. The book is a general history of the Washington metro system, and believes the system grew out of the Great Society beliefs of the 1960s and 1970s. Above is a diagram used in the book, which can be found in the Virginia Room’s vertical file. This set of folders holds clippings, brochures and other ephemera on a wide variety of subjects about Arlington and the state of Virginia. The Virginia Room also holds many county publications from throughout the 20th century, covering topics such as population, finances, community planning and education, which also helped with the author’s research.

Congratulations to Mr. Schrag on the publication of his book!

What About You?
What you do remember about the creation of the Washington Metro? What was traveling in the area like before it? Let us know what you remember!

The Ashton Heights Women’s Club

The Ashton Heights Women’s Club originally started as a sewing circle that met near the Clarendon area in 1923.

It only took a year for membership to increase so much that the members decided to establish a women’s club instead. Since there were 35 charter members of the club, the women decided they needed a permanent meeting place, and went to local real estate developer Ashton Jones. Jones not only provided a lot on N. Irving Street, near Pershing Drive, but also helped obtain a loan to purchase the lot and build a clubhouse. To show their appreciation, the new club named themselves after Jones and “his” neighborhood, becoming the Ashton Heights Women’s Club.

Over the years, the Ashton Heights Women’s Club gained recognition for their work in the community. They organized bake sales, pot-luck dinners and garage sales, and let local youth and church groups hold dances and socials in their building. They also sponsored youth scholarships.

In 1927, the club joined other women’s clubs in the county to form the Federation of Women’s Clubs of Arlington County, which later was affiliated with the Virginia Federation of Women’s Clubs and the national General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Scrapbook contests, where individual clubs created scrapbooks covering their activities in a given year, were sponsored by all three federations. The scrapbook above is for the 1940-1941 club year, and has a watercolor drawing of the clubhouse on the cover.

In 2005, the club, down to a handful of older members, disbanded and sold their property on N. Irving Street. Their scrapbooks and other records were donated to the Arlington Community Archives, along with a generous monetary donation to preserve ten of their scrapbooks. The scrapbooks selected for preservation all have hand-decorated pages and fancy lettering, making these scrapbooks not just chronicles of the Ashton Heights Women’s Club’s activities, but beautiful artifacts in their own right.

What About You?

Were you or someone you know a member of the Ashton Heights Women’s Club? Did you attend any of their events? What about other local women’s clubs? Let us know what you remember!

 

50 Years of Education, 50 Years of Good Friends

2006 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first graduating class from Wakefield High School.
Originally built to house 2,000 students, an article in the December 1955 School Board Journal described the building as “an easily maintainable, functionally designed building that cleverly utilizes local materials.”

In the first PTA Bulletin (September 1953), the staff was described as follows:

77 members hold BA’s
33 members hold MA’s
2 members hold PhD’s

Average number of years experience in the profession: 6

The goal for the first PTA night was 1,000 members and those who wished to join were asked to “bring pencils, as well as the correct amount of money for dues – $1 for each family or 75 cents for an individual parent or teacher.”

The Virginia Room holds an almost complete run of Wakefield High School yearbooks, and the Community Archives holds PTA and school records, including student-created posters for the 1970-71 school year. The Virginia Room is also the official repository for the Arlington County School Board records.

Alumni and friends will be on hand for the Virginia Room’s “Arlington Reunion” program Friday, September 29, at 10 a.m. in the Central Library auditorium to share their memories of Wakefield. If you have stories to share come join us for the program!

What About You?

Did you go to Wakefield High School? Let us know what you remember!

 

Breaking Religious Barriers

Herman J. Obermayer, former owner of the Northern Virginia Sun and first openly Jewish member of the Washington Golf and Country Club in the twentieth century:

“I joined in ’77 so a year or so earlier I was contacted by two friends of mine who were prominent in the community who I knew who said would I like to become a member, that they thought it was about time to have a Jewish member and I could afford it and I was prominent and blah, blah.

“I said yes if there would not be a fight. It didn’t mean that much. . . But if they wanted me I thought it would add a dimension to my life and I’d be glad to if I wasn’t going to be in a fight.

“Within a month or two they contacted me and said there wouldn’t be. These friends of mine who shepherded me through reported that there was a single member of the board who was opposed to having a Jewish member and that most of the leaders felt very positively that it was time for Washington Golf and Country Club to have Jewish members and if I was willing to be a member they would like to have me.

“I had the particularly gratifying experience of having seven or eight sponsoring letters from people when they heard this was coming up wanted to get involved in supporting us. I’d like to believe it was because we were so charming but I really believe its because they really thought it was time for Washington Golf and Country Club not to be known as a place that excluded Jews. And we have now belonged 26 or 27 years and I have never had a single question about anything. In the meantime I indicated that I hoped I wouldn’t be a token, that they would take in other Jews. I didn’t make any conditions. Within a very few years they took in several.”

The image above was taken from a Franklin Survey map book of Arlington, published in 1935. The quote above is from our oral history collection, which you can find in the library catalog. Survey and plat map books, and oral history tapes and transcripts are available in the Virginia Room.

 

What About You?
What do you remember about Washington Golf and Country Club? What are your experiences with the Jewish community in Arlington? Let us know what you remember!

 

"The Magazine"

The history of your neighborhood, churches, civil war forts and other historic sites in Arlington.

AHS covert

Did you know that in earlier times Arlington County was part of the District of Columbia?

When and why did Arlington adopt the county manager form of government?

When did Sears’ mail-order houses first appear in Arlington?

The “Arlington Historical Magazine” will help you answer these questions and discover other interesting facts about the history of Arlington County. Published annually since October 1957 by the Arlington Historical Society, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this fall, the Magazine is a wonderful resource for researchers and history enthusiasts.

Issues typically feature writings about the history of buildings, roads, railways, airports, Civil War camps and forts, and civic leaders in Arlington, or feature recollections of longtime Arlingtonians. Illustrations, sketches, maps and photographs often support the research and add to the reader’s education and enjoyment. Articles submitted to this journal of scholarly research are evaluated by an editorial board.

The Virginia Room has a complete run of the Magazine, with an index created by staff.

 

 What About You?

Have you attended a Historical Society function, or visited their home on Arlington Ridge Road? Let us know what you remember!

 

School Days at Stewart Elementary

Stewart school

Stewart Elementary School, erected in 1938, was located at 2400 N. Underwood Street, and named for Charles E. Stewart, a noted civic leader of East Falls Church.

It was rare to name a school in Arlington for a living person, but an exception was made in Mr. Stewart’s case. At the school’s dedication, Dr. Henry Knowles of the East Falls Church Citizens Association, said “. . . this school was not named for Mr. Stewart so much for what he did as for what he is. . . this school was named for character.”

In 1953 Tuckahoe Elementary School was built nearby at 6550 N. 26th Street. Third and fourth graders stayed at the old Stewart school while kindergartners, 1st, 2nd, 5th and 6th graders attended Tuckahoe. Students of both schools visited the library, attended assemblies and had hot lunches at Tuckahoe. In 1971, Stewart school was given to the Recreation Department. Today, the former site of Stewart School is Charles E. Stewart Park with a multi-use field, playground basketball court, gazebo and wooded grassy area.

 

What About You?
Did you go to Stewart or Tuckahoe Elementary? Did you use Stewart when it belonged to the Recreation Department? Let us know what you remember!

 

The Flying Machine

In 1908, Orville Wright arrived in Arlington to show his “flying machine” to military officers at Fort Myer.

The army had requested bids for a plane that could hold two men and fly for at least one hour for observation and reconnaissance purposes. Orville and his brother Wilbur built the machine and Orville brought it to Fort Myer for a demonstration. Orville made several flights in the first two weeks of September, setting new endurance records and impressing his audience, which included interested members of the public. However, on his last flight on the 17th, the plane crashed. Wright was injured and Lt. Thomas E. Selfridge was killed. The Selfridge Gate of Arlington National Cemetery now stands near the crash site.

Despite the crash, the US Army was interested in Wright’s machine. The brothers made improvements to the plane when it was repaired, and did a new round of flights at Fort Myer during the summer of 1909. The new machine was bought by the Army and called Signal Corps Airplane No. 1.

Silent film footage of a 1908 flight have been recently found at Fort Myer. The Virginia Room holds maps and reports documenting Fort Myer at the start of the 20th century.

What About You?

Were you or a family member stationed at Fort Meyer? Did you ever attend one of their public events? Let us know what you remember!

 

Ready, Set, GO!!!!!

The Optimist Club

For many years after its inception in 1946, the Optimist Club of Arlington sponsored a kids coaster car race in the summer.

The race pictured shown here took place on August 19, 1950. All the participants received a t-shirt, and many went home with ribbons, but it is unknown if the boys built their own cars, or where exactly the race took place.

Optimist Clubs are local groups under the mantle of Optimist International that serve youth by providing scholarships and activities that promote good citizenship and good character. Today, the Arlington Optimist Club holds essay and oratorical contests, has a large Christmas tree sale, and sponsors many youth sports teams.

The photograph above comes from a collection put together for a 50th anniversary publication. Many photos of the Arlington Optimist Club’s membership and activities, as well as newsletters, directories and other archival material, can be found in the Arlington Community Archives. Finding aids to the collection can be found in the Virginia Room.

What About You?

Are you or a family member an Optimist? Did you participate or attend in any Optimist Club-sponsored activities, such as the coaster car race? Let us know what you remember!

 



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