Library News

The Arlington Years Thoughts from County Native and Arlington Public Library Director, Diane Kresh Yesterday was the King’s birthday. He...

The Arlington Years Thoughts from County Native and Arlington Public Library Director, Diane Kresh Several weeks ago I had the...

Do you hear what I hear? As another holiday season has us in the grip (or gripe), I am reminded...

The commercial area now known as Ballston was called Parkington from the 1950s into the 1980s. The name referred to...

The Arlington Years Thoughts from County Native and Arlington Public Library Director, Diane Kresh A capacity crowd was treated Dec....

Oral histories are a vibrant and personal part of the Virginia Room’s collection. Here, Barbara Ball Savage, a W &...

July 2, 2019 update: Staff from the Center for Local History were recently contacted by a former firefighter who was...

The Plaza Branch Library has received a completed set of County Board meetings from 2003-07.  They are stored on a MyBook...

The Arlington Years Thoughts from County Native and Arlington Public Library Director, Diane Kresh On a brisk and clear September...

The ruins of Abingdon Plantation sit on a hill by a roadway in busy Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. The...

CLH Archive Post: Shelley Mann, an Olympic gold and silver medalist in the 1956 games in Melbourne, Australia, was a...

Arlington Beach and Amusement Park opened May 30, 1923, on the Potomac River in the vicinity of the Long Bridge...

Ayers’ Variety & Hardware in Westover is a unique store; their specialty is everything. From screws to toys to lawn...

On May 24, 1861, Union troops came over the river to Arlington. At the time, Alonzo Hayes, Jr., lived with...

Ellis Radio and Television Cleffie L. Ellis was born in Warren County, N.C. and moved to the Washington area in...

As an example of Arlington’s gradual change from a rural to an urban county, a milk can is used to...

The photo above is of an unidentified industrial area of Arlington flooded by the Potomac River. If you look carefully,...

Excerpt from Oral History with Walter DeGroot   Boy Scouts today are still working on merit badges, and Eagle projects,...

  The first outdoor recreation area in Arlington was developed at Arlington Spring on the banks of the Potomac near...

The Evans Autorailer was a unique gasoline powered bus with retractable flanged pilot wheels with the ability to run on...

WWII brought much growth and development to Arlington. But as one can see from this photo of the interchange of...

Among the many stately and historic homes located in Arlington County, the Rixey Mansion deserves a special mention. Set on...

Clay deposits on the shore of the Potomac supported a considerable brick making industry in Arlington until well into the...

The long standing heavy metal group Pentagram may never have had a best selling album or inked a lucrative contract...

Excerpt from Oral History with Sally B. Loving Football program Washington-Lee High School is currently undergoing a major renovation ,...

The library could hold 100,000 volumes, although, at the time of opening, the library could only fill one-third of the...

After the Beatles launched the “British Invasion” of the 1960s, it seemed like every town in America soon had any...

The Barcroft Mill not only provided wheat and corn meal to local residents, but also helped to shape and define...

The Buckingham Theatre Built by the developers of the Buckingham Community in 1939, The Buckingham, as it was known, was...

The area known as Spy Hill may not be the largest neighborhood in Arlington, but it certainly can claim to...

Starting in 1902, residents of the Fort Myer Heights area clamored for a school to serve their area. The School Board...

Dairy farming in Arlington? Why yes, Virginia, there once was such a thing. In fact, Arlington was home to a...

J.E.B. Stuart Homes The J.E.B. Stuart homes were one of several federally funded projects that built low-cost WWII housing with...

Whenever the subject of air travel or airports in Arlington is raised, it is perhaps inevitable that talk of National...

Do you recognize this scene? This photograph was taken by Eleanor Lee Templeman, author of “Northern Virginia Heritage” and “Arlington Heritage,”...

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

In 1900, Congress transferred 400 acres of land along the Potomac near Ft. Myer to the Department of Agriculture in...

Arlington has never had a shortage of unique local eateries and for many, one of the most memorable was the...

After a 14-year stint at what was affectionately known to many as “The Garage,” Signature Theatre has settled into its...

February marks the 45th anniversary of John Glenn’s space orbit. He was one of America’s original seven Mercury astronauts and orbited...

Excerpt from Oral History with Floyd Hawkins Mr. Floyd A. Hawkins, Sr. was born in 1895, and first moved with...

School Integration in Arlington When four African American students, seventh graders Gloria Thompson, Ronald Diskins, Lance Newman and Michael Jones...

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

Updated by the Center for Local History on 3/26/2018. If the phrases “chicken box for two” or “pantry pack” sound...

Although you may think a ticket stub, sign, receipt or postcard is something that you use and then throw away,...

While they may seem quaint or even primitive by modern standards, upon their completion in 1913, the Navy’s Radio Station...

The Little Tea House Restaurant, located on Arlington Ridge Road, opened in 1920 and remained there until 1963 when it...

In 1888, John Walter Clark, originally of New Jersey, bought a plot of land in the Clarendon area on what...

We Need Your Help! Do you recognize this intersection? This photograph above was taken around 1937. The signpost on the...

For a century the company called Rucker Reality has been part of the Arlington business community. The company was founded...

In 1919, the Arlington County Department of Health was one of the first full-time county departments for health services in...

The first observance of Thanksgiving in America actually took place in Virginia. A children’s cooking class sponsored by Arlington’s Department...

Finding the best way to get from one location to another was as much of a concern to Arlington residents...

Arlington Hall, located at Route 50 and George Mason Drive, was a girls finishing school founded in 1927. The school...

In 1957, there were 46,206 registered voters in Arlington County, and there were 37 election precincts. 25 years before, when...

Oral History Excerpt with Tally Bowman Speaking of a neighborhood woman who was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance...

Clarendon in the 1940s In 1900 when Clarendon was established as a village, it consisted of 25 acres intersected by...

Zachary Schrag, an assistant professor of history at George Mason University, used materials in the Virginia Room and the Arlington...

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

2006 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the first graduating class from Wakefield High School. Originally built to house 2,000 students,...

Herman J. Obermayer, former owner of the Northern Virginia Sun and first openly Jewish member of the Washington Golf and...

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

Stewart Elementary School, erected in 1938, was located at 2400 N. Underwood Street, and named for Charles E. Stewart, a...

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

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

  The photograph above shows members of Arlington’s Department of Public Works repairing the Chain Bridge water main in 1987....

The Virginia Rooms holds dozens of photographs with unidentified people and places… This photo is just one. Taken probably in...

Oral History with Barbara Ball Savage A young winner at the 1986 Arlington County fair, photographed by County Photographer Debbie...

Bill Staton was a world-renowned pool player and an inaugural member of the One Pocket Hall of Fame. The start-up...

The Virginia Room recently received a wonderful donation of two 1936 Sanborn atlases of Arlington. Thanks to the generosity of...

Luna Park was an amusement park that opened in Arlington (then known as Alexandria County) in 1906. It was situated...

This is a 13-and-under boys baseball team sponsored by Arlington County’s Negro Recreation Section. From 1948 to 1962, the Department...