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Arlington Public Library

Throwback Thursday

A Taste of Arlington History

Recipes from Over 300 Years

Did you know that the Center for Local History holds dozens of cookbooks that document the history of Virginia cuisine from the 17th century to present day?

This includes recipes copied from the housekeeping books of Woodlawn plantation and George Mason’s Gunston Hall, as well as modern takes on old classics, such as Sally Lunn bread and Brunswick stew.

The most unique cookbooks, however, are the community cookbooks that have been lovingly compiled by various church groups and organizations in Arlington over the years.

These cookbooks were usually created to raise funds and awareness for different causes in the Arlington community. For instance, the Clarendon United Methodist Church Handbell Choir published Medley of Morsels in December 1986 to raise money to purchase new handbells. In some cases, additional funding was provided by local businesses in exchange for ad space between recipes, providing current readers with a glimpse of bygone eras in Arlington history.

These ads are from “Our Favorite Recipes,” created by the Christian Women’s Fellowship of the Pershing Drive Christian Church in 1962. Of these Arlington businesses, including the iconic Bob Peck Chevrolet, only Mario’s Pizza is still operating.

“Kitchen Favorites from the Good Neighbor” was compiled and published by the Arlington County Chapter of the American Red Cross in May 1982 to commemorate the 65th anniversary of the chapter. It’s full of wonderful illustrations by Karen Beasley and was assembled by an army of volunteers. This illustration is for Pot Roast Diablo by Florence Churchill and can be found on page 47.

Fundraising through cookbooks has been an American tradition since 1864 when Maria J. Moss published A Poetical Cookbook (so-called because the recipes rhymed for entertainment and easy memorization) and donated the proceeds to subsidize medical costs for Union soldiers injured in the Civil War.

A century later, so many community organizations had taken up the idea that publishing companies began offering custom cookbook services – templates with built-in illustrations, measurement guides, and helpful tips and tricks marketed toward housewives. That said, many of the CLH’s community cookbooks were printed, illustrated, and constructed “in-house,” harnessing the time and talents of dedicated community members.

In addition to fundraising, cookbooks celebrate community organizations and help document their histories and values. For example, Arlington Presbyterian Church made “Table Treasures” in 2008 to celebrate a “Century of Hospitality” since the church was founded on April 12, 1908. They preface their collection of recipes with an introduction that sketches the history of the congregation and draws upon their organizational archives to illustrate the church’s longtime dedication to feeding the soul and body.

“Forest Favorites” was compiled in 1976 by the women of the Miriam Gruber Fellowship at Arlington Forest United Methodist Church. It is bound with wooden covers made by Gene Dauma of the Methodist Men, in keeping with the “forest” theme. The cover illustration was likely done by Betty Quinn, one of the Miriam Gruber Fellowship members.

The intimate association between food and faith comes as no surprise, and similar sentiments are found in other church cookbooks that contain recipes for Happiness and tempting cakes inspired by Bible verses.

“Medley of Morsels” is chock full of fun illustrations by Handbell Choir members Linda Gilbert and Patti Morris, as well as some contributions from the Kindergarten, First, and Second grade Sunday school classes. This recipe for Refrigerator Pickles by Margaret Helm taken from page 18.

Recipe for Bible Cake found in “Our Favorite Recipes” by the Christian Women’s Fellowship of the Pershing Drive Christian Church on pages 25-26.

Recipe for Happiness found in “Forest Favorites.”

Most importantly, the CLH’s community cookbook collection preserves the memory of all those who created, perfected, and passed along their beloved home recipes. Most recipes credit their cook, and many are also dedicated to the mothers, grandmothers, church organizers, and community leaders that taught them.

As the Arlington Red Cross puts it in their cookbook, “A recipe that is not shared with others will soon be forgotten, but when it’s shared, it will be enjoyed by future generations.” So please, try out some of the recipes included in this post or stop by to check out what other delicious treats the collection has in store.

Works Cited

All images are from the following cook books in the Library's collection:

Additional Source: Jessica Stoller-Conrad. “Long Before Social Networking, Community Cookbooks Ruled The Stove.” The Salt. July 20, 2012.

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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Parkington

Arlington's First Shopping Mall

Before it was known as the Ballston Quarter, Parkington was the largest shopping center on the East Coast and one of the first major shopping malls in the Washington D.C. area. 

The Hecht Company, c. 1950s, CLH Collections

Publicized as “the area’s most dramatic venture in retail merchandising” when it opened in 1951, Parkington represented the post-war boom in suburban life and centralized, indoor retail shopping.

Located at the historic "Balls Crossroads" intersection of Wilson Boulevard and Glebe Road, Parkington Shopping Center was built on the site of the former Ballston Stadium (video). Used for practice by the Washington Redskins in 1938, the stadium had also been home to many local football games between Arlington neighborhoods under the Arlington County Federation of Boys’ Clubs.

Construction

Financed and constructed by Hecht's Department Store, Parkington was the flagship of Hecht's chain on the East Coast.

During construction, Parkington drew its name from the large, multistory parking garage at the heart of the development. It was described by the Evening Star in 1950 as “the first suburban shopping center with a four tiered parking garage built over a score of retail stores in the middle of the area.”

Officially opened on November 2, 1951, Hecht's was hailed as a "miracle of planning" - a modern and exciting improvement to the shopping experience.

Parkington and W&T Grant Co., c. 1951, CLH Collections

Hecht's had a first aid room staffed by a full time nurse, bridal consultants, maternity shops, and interior decorating services, as well as an auditorium and spaces to hold classes in upholstery.

Car pulling into Parkington garage, c. 1951, CLH Collections

Unknown model outside of Hecht's, c. 1951, CLH Collections

Birth of the Modern Mall

Many aspects of malls today that are taken for granted were still in the trial phase during the lifetime of Parkington. Newspapers at the time celebrated the “foolproof escalators… one person wide…they’re said to be safer than the broader types” and the way “shoppers may window shop from store to store without fear of being run over by delivery trucks” as well as the novelty of a store that was “fully air conditioned and fireproofed by a sprinkler system.” Features like a public address system throughout the building and background music while shopping were also brand new and helped establish Parkington as a hub of shopping innovation.

Upon opening, the Washington Post described Parkington Shopping Center as, 

“A towering green brick building with an all-glass facade, lighted from behind by 180 fluorescent tubes…Hecht customers may drive to the store level in which they wish to shop, park their car, walk a few yards into the store and buy the items they want.”

The concept of the “shopping mall” was so exciting that the BBC, in collaboration with the United States Information Agency, produced a half an hour long program on American shopping malls, with Hecht’s as the focus. Describing Parkington as the blueprint for the modern mall/department store, they said,

“Ten years ago, there was no such shape as this in our American countryside. In recent years, these box-like structures have become part of the semi-rural scene all over America. Today their presence in a village or a suburb is accepted by most Americans without a thought. They’re just part of the changing picture. They are the magnets that attract customers from miles around.”

Watch the Report From America: Parkington Shopping Center

With the aim of diverting area shoppers to Arlington by the lure of one-stop shopping, the 5 story, 1,146,000 sq. ft. building grew to hold over 30 stores. 

Parkington Shopping Center added stores like Walgreens, Giant Foods, McCrorys, Hub Furniture, Stag’s Shops Men’s Clothing, Crawford Clothes, Wilbur Roger’s Women’s Apparel, the Casual Corner, and a Disney themed children’s barber. Restaurants at Parkington included a Polish bakery, South Pacific Polynesian Cuisine and the Virginia Room Restaurant on the basement floor, which held a conveyor belt in order to bring meals and take away dirty dishes.

Construction of McCrory's, c. 1951, CLH Collections

A Community Fixture

Parkington quickly established itself as an important part of the Arlington community. Hecht’s three story glass wall was used to display messages along the entire block, becoming a local landmark for residents. The “sign” contained eighty-seven 10ft by 14ft canvas panels, which were used to create messages in celebration of the holidays and to support organizations like the Heart Fund and Arlington Beautification Association.

The glass façade of the Hecht Company celebrating the Girl Scouts 50th Anniversary, c. 1952, CLH Collections

Advertising for the Arlington Beautification Association,  c. 1950s, CLH Collections

During the 1950s - at its peak in popularity - Parkington drew in local and national celebrities for events. In 1956, after an upgrade to the decorations and murals inside the store, Hecht’s established the “Freedom Fair”, honoring the 15th anniversary of Series E United States Savings Bonds as a way to show off the renovated facilities. Hecht’s brought comedians Abbott and Costello, Charlie Brown cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, artist Norman Rockwell, and actors Virginia Mayo, Michael O’Shea, Buddy Hackett, Jeanne Crain, and “Miss Frances” Horwich to Arlington for shows and events for customers. That same year, Parkington celebrated its 5th birthday with a 12 foot high birthday cake and prizes for local residents.

Abbott and Costello with Arlington Police, 1956, Photo Courtesy of Arlington PD

Parkington's Decline and Closure

Although Parkington grossed over $223 million in 1959 and expanded with a 12 story office building in 1963, the success would not last long. More department stores and malls opened in the area through the 1960s and 70s, competing with the already aging Parkington complex. By 1979, with the addition of the Ballston Orange Line Metro stop, property value skyrocketed and the 30-year-old facilities were in desperate need of renovation. 

Plans were brought forth to completely raze the original structure and rebuild, leaving Hecht’s as the only building standing.  After Arlington County approved a $13 million investment in 1982, the $100 million renovation project was officially unveiled, with construction finishing in 1986. A naming contest among Arlington County residents renamed the site from Parkington to Ballston Common Mall for its reopening in October 1986.

Arlington Journal, January 15, 1981, CLH Collections

Arlington Journal, January 15, 1981, CLH Collections

The new Ballston Common Mall included 4 stories for retail and nine additional stories were added above the mall to be used as office space. One hundred new businesses, including a J.C. Penneys, were added; the only stores to survive the transition besides Hecht’s were Casual Corner, Waldenbooks, General Nutrition Center, and Dart Drug.

At the end of the 1990s, the Ballston Common Mall was once again in need of changes and by the early 2000s, the parking garage was transformed into the Kettler Capitals Iceplex (the HQ and practice facility for NHL team the Washington Capitals). The Hecht Company was sold to Macy's in 2005 and the Hecht's name was subsequently phased out. By 2016, most of the businesses had been closed in order to redevelop the entire site into the Ballston Quarter.

The Francis Copeland Collection

The Francis Copeland Collection at the Center for Local History features over 200 previously unseen images. These photo negatives document the construction of Hecht's and its surrounding Parkington Shopping Center. The photos also offer a glimpse into the 1940s-1950s Ballston neighborhood of Arlington.

Copeland was the Visual Color Lab Manager for Hecht’s Department Store, and worked in their Parkington location during the 1970s. When the store decided to discard a large group of negatives from the 1940s and 1950s, Copeland donated them to the CLH and other archives around the area. To view more photos of Hecht's and Parkington, visit the Francis Copeland Collection.

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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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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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

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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

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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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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

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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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The USS Arlington

Arlington's Naval Voyage Through the 20th Century

The first USS Arlington, c. 1947;
Photo Courtesy of Naval History and Heritage Command

World War Two

The first United States Navy Ship to be named Arlington was a general cargo ship that was converted into a troop transport in 1944 for World War Two. Capable of carrying over 1,000 soldiers, the Arlington acted as a training vessel for sailors on the West Coast. It then became a troop transport at the end of the war.

The Arlington was decommissioned in 1946 and remained in the Navy’s reserve fleet until it was sold for scrap in the 1960s.

The second USS Arlington after conversion, c. 1960s;
Photo from CLH collections

Cold War Communications

As the technology of the Cold War advanced, need arose for a powerful communications ship that could relay messages anywhere across the world. In 1967, the former aircraft carrier USS SAIPAN was converted into a Communication Relay Ship and officially commissioned as the USS Arlington in honor of the Arlington Radio Towers, which had been the site of the first trans-Atlantic voice communication in 1915.

At a length of 684 feet, a crew of about 1,000 men, and a top speed of 33 knots, the Arlington was the ideal choice to act as a communication relay hub. After beating the USS Boston in a race to Guantanamo Bay, the USS Arlington earned a reputation as one of the fastest ships in the Navy’s fleet. Upon winning the race, the ship adopted the nickname the “Road Runner,” and its crew displayed a flag of the television cartoon character when entering port or pulled alongside another ship for refueling or to provide assistance. They also played the character’s theme song whenever the flag was raised.

After participating in NATO training exercises across Europe, the Arlington acted as communication support for US troops in Vietnam, most notably at the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1967.

President Nixon aboard the USS Arlington with Captain Murphree before the Apollo 11 landing, 1969;
Photo courtesy of NavSource.

Assisting the Space Race

Thanks to its advanced radio and communication capabilities, the USS Arlington assisted in the return of several Apollo spaceships. In December, 1968, it served as the primary communication ship for the recovery of Apollo 8, and in May, 1969, it assisted in the recovery of Apollo 10.

Because the USS Arlington was stationed near the landing zone, it was chosen as one of the main ships in assisting in the recovery of the Apollo 11 astronauts after they reached the moon in July 1969. The role of the USS Arlington was classified, and not revealed to the public until years after the landings.

The USS Arlington’s contribution to the Apollo missions would be its last for the US Navy. The Arlington returned to the United States in January of 1970 to be decommissioned and was officially sold as scrap in 1976.

Although the ship was only formally active for 4 years, it was awarded 7 campaign stars for its efforts in Vietnam.

The third USS Arlington participates in recovery training of the Orion capsule, 2013;
Photo courtesy of NASA

USS Arlington Today

In 2004, the US Navy decided to name 3 of the Navy’s new ships in honor of the 9/11 attacks. The USS Arlington was launched in 2010, along with the sister ships USS New York and USS Somerset.

In 2013, the new USS Arlington helped NASA in stationary recovery training of the Orion spacecraft.

The USS Arlington honors the 184 victims and thousands of emergency, fire and rescue personnel of Arlington Country and localities in the National Capital Region who provided critical emergency assistance after the attack. The ship was built with a museum to honor the victims of the Pentagon which includes pieces of steel from the Pentagon 9-11 crash site. To read more about the USS Arlington, visit https://www.arlingtonva.us/Government/Topics/ussarlington

To learn more about Arlington's history, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.

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Lustron Steel Homes in Arlington

1947-1950: A Slice of American Architectural History

“If Lustron fails, let us forever quit talking about mass-produced houses” - Senator Ralph Flanders, Suffolk News Herald, August 9, 1949.

Lustron Home Advertisement - Late 1940’s, Courtesy of Washington University.

By the end of World War Two, Arlington County was in the middle of a housing crisis. The completion of the Pentagon in 1943 made the area a prime destination for government workers as well as troops returning after the war, more than doubling Arlington’s population from 57,000 to 135,000 between 1940 and 1950.  

 Residential construction had almost completely stopped during the war years due to materials rationing. One solution to this nation-wide housing crisis came from inventor Carl Strandland, who converted his steel factory in Columbus Ohio - which had built bombers during the war - into an assembly line for cheap, pre-made, steel houses that required as little maintenance as possible. 

In 1947, Strandland’s factory began to turn out the components for “fireproof, termite proof, and vermin proof” Lustron Homes - 11 of which ended up in Arlington. 

Lustron Advertisement from Life Magazine, April 19th, 1948; photo courtesy of Make it Mid-Century

The Lustron Home

Each house was created piece by piece on an assembly line in the main factory in Columbus, Ohio and then shipped unassembled by truck to the desired location. Once the components arrived, it would be assembled by a licensed "Builder/Dealer." Most of the homes in Arlington were constructed by local companies Carlton Construction or Construction Associates. Construction could take anywhere from 9 days to 3 weeks, depending on the experience of the crew.

The homes were one story, constructed from steel with a porcelain steel enamel cover available in typical 1950’s colors such as surf blue, dove gray, desert tan, and maize yellow. The inside was designed to be modern and futuristic, aimed at making life as easy as possible for young families.

To set Lustron apart from other prefabricated homes, design features included a round fireplace and a radiant ceiling heating system, which integrated with the metal walls to trap heat. They also came with a built-in combination washing machine/dishwasher, bookshelves, and wall units.

Floor Plan of Westchester Deluxe Model; image courtesy of Make it Mid-Century

 

Much of the appeal of the Lustron Homes came from the ease of cleaning; the metal paneled interior walls were easily washed with water. Homeowners could simply take a hose to the outside of their house in order to clean it.

The affordable price of the homes put them in high demand; they began at about $6,000 but had jumped to almost $10,000 by 1950 in an effort to make the company more profitable.

Lustron Homes in Arlington

After a model Lustron Home was placed in Foggy Bottom, over 1200 orders were placed in the DMV area in a few months. But due to strict housing codes that affected what kinds of homes were built, difficulty obtaining permits, and delivery issues, only 11 homes were completed in Arlington. The largest concentration of these homes were 5 of the Westchester Deluxe Model 2 homes, built in the Columbia Forest neighborhood in 1949 as part of a failed planned community of 100 prefabricated, metal homes.

Although a large collection of Lustron Homes were built at the Marine Corp Base in Quantico, only 4 more were built in the DMV area before the company went out of business in 1950.

Columbia Forest Lustron Home, Arlington, 1998; CLH photo.

Columbia Forest Lustron Home, Arlington, 2022; CLH photo.

Preservation

Of the 11 original Lustron Homes in Arlington, only two remain. Most were destroyed in the last 20 years, to make way for larger, more modern housing.

In 2005, local Lustron owner Clifford M. Krowne offered to donate his nearly original Lustron Home to Arlington in exchange for the County’s removal of the house from his property. The next year, the County Board accepted responsibility of the house by disassembling and placing it into storage until a suitable use could be found for it.

Krowne’s home experienced a short period of national fame when it was loaned to the Museum of Modern Art in New York for the exhibit, “Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling,'' from May to November 2008. Only partially reconstructed for the exhibit, the Lustron Home helped to illustrate the fad of pre-made houses in the 20th century.

Krowne Lustron being dismantled: the crew removes the steel framing pieces supporting the chimney flue, and the crane lifts another whole roof truss off and over the shell of the house. 2006 photo by Cynthia Liccese-Torres and Kim A. O'Connell, courtesy of CRM Journal, National Park Service.

After the exhibit in New York, Arlington County placed the Krowne Lustron Home back into storage until 2011, when the County Board voted unanimously to donate it to the Ohio Historical Connection, which holds the Lustron Corporate Archives. Reassembled as the centerpiece of the exhibit “1950’s: Building the American Dream,” the Home has seen over 870,000 visitors since 2013.

Lustron Memories

Although some have described the houses as, “like living in a filing cabinet,” or complained that they “had felt a draft through the walls on cold, gusty nights,” the homes were also popular and well received. A 1980 Washington Post interview with a homeowner described her home experience living in a Lustron Home as, “sturdy and well built. Snug-fitting doors and windows make them very comfortable...she particularly appreciates the ease with which she can clean the attractive, hard-finished interior.”

Do you have any memories of living in or visiting a Lustron Home in Arlington? We want to hear from you!

The Center for Local History invites the Arlington Community to play an active role in documenting our history by donating stories and materials to our permanent collection. Learn more https://library.arlingtonva.us/center-for-local-history/center-for-local-history-call-for-donations/

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