[youtube]http://youtu.be/htIgBOttJv0[/youtube]
Recorded at Central Library, January 12, 2013
101-year-old Martha Ann Miller speaks to the Arlington Branch of the American Association of University Women, sharing her years as a teacher in Arlington and particularly the struggles over desegregation in the 1960′s.
The First Century, and Not Ready for the Rocking Chair Yet by Martha Ann Miller is available in the Virginia Room.
The 1935 Arlington County Directory of Street Names represents a unique moment in Arlington history-- a time when many Arlingtonians had to re-learn the names of their streets and those of their neighbors.
Page 1 from the Arlington County Virginia Directory of Street Names, 1935, screenshot of scanned document opened in the Community Archives.
In 1932, Arlington County had already begun a boom in population that would only continue over the next several decades. Between 1900 and 1930, the population of the once-rural area had grown by over 350%--from 6,430 to 23,278--despite the annexation of sizable portions of land by the city of Alexandria in 1915 and 1929.
New streetcar suburbs began popping up all around Arlington County--between 1900 and 1910 alone, plats for seventy new subdivisions were entered into the County Deed Books.
However, these new developments sprang up with little to no coordination or central planning, and by 1932, this was beginning to create problems. The developments formed what was, in effect, a confusing archipelago of small, unconnected towns, and street names were frequently repeated throughout the county. There were, by one account, as many as twenty-five different roads named "Arlington," for example, as well as many roads known as "Washington," "Virginia," and "Lee."
Visitors found the county difficult to navigate, neighborhood names had to be attached to mailing addresses to ensure that letters arrived at the right building, and some DC-area businesses even refused to deliver to customers in Arlington. There were also concerns about the Fire Department being dispatched to a house at the same address in the wrong subdivision.
1935 Arlington County Franklin Insurance Property Atlas
The newly-established “County Board-County Manager” Government of Arlington decided very quickly to try to rectify this situation. One of the primary issues motivating them seems to have been the desire to see a Post Office in Arlington, as mail service to Arlington had been routed through Washington D.C. since 1925, and the Post Office Department had dictated that no Post Office would be allocated to Arlington until its street naming scheme was more coherent and logical. To this end, a Street Naming Committee was established, tasked with rationalizing the county's street naming scheme.
Initially, the committee considered simply eliminating duplicate street names, leaving one street with each repeated name. The committee quickly decided that this approach was insufficient, and that a more general, systemic plan was necessary. Soliciting feedback from the county’s residents, the committee got a variety of proposals, from continuing DC’s alphabetical/numeric scheme to having the residents of each street vote on a street name.
Eventually, the committee decided on essentially the county’s current street naming scheme:
The Committee’s recommendations were put forward for public comment, and were approved with several small amendments in August of 1934--thirty months after the project began. In 1936, Arlington County was assigned a local Postmaster for the first time in over ten years, and the next year, the Postmaster General of the United States of America was on hand for the dedication of the cornerstone of the new Post Office in Clarendon--the first federal government building in Arlington County.
For people researching Arlington before 1934, the street name change can present challenges. This searchable PDF of the Arlington County Virginia Directory of Street Names, which opens by clicking or tapping on the cover image, can help with navigation of Arlington before the change.
To learn more about Arlington's history, visit the Center for Local History on the first floor of the Central Library.
Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share?
Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.
Do you have a question about this story, or a personal experience to share? Use this form to send a message to the Center for Local History.
"*" indicates required fields
In the 1950s and 1960s especially, American citizenry was encouraged to be proactive in protecting themselves from nuclear fallout (remember “Duck and Cover”?).
Arlington was no exception. In late 1960s, the Northern Virginia Regional Planning Commission, which covered the cities of Alexandria, Fairfax and Falls Church and Arlington, Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William Counties, developed a civil defense plan for a possible nuclear attack. These plans included a fallout shelter program, mapping shelters in regard to population centers and how to get people to those shelters.
The Northern Virginia Region Community Shelter Program, published in 1968, outlined these plans and processes, and also published maps of shelter locations for subsets of the region. The Arlington Edition of the map sectioned the county into color-coded zones so users could find a shelter in their area and contained tips on creating and stocking your own shelter. The above image shows the fallout shelter locations for Shirlington, and the image below lists the names of these shelters. The map itself has the following introduction:
“In case of danger from fallout from a nuclear attack upon this country, you and your family would need to know WHERE TO GO and WHAT TO DO. This Community Shelter Plan contains this information for every citizen. It is based on making the best possible use of the fallout protection now available. If you and your family take action, as this Plan recommends, you will have maximum chance for survival from fallout effects.”
Did you have a fallout shelter in your home or neighborhood? Do you remember preparing for “the Big One”? We want to hear from you.
Presented on September 20, 2012, at Central Library, as part of the Virginia Room’s ongoing Arlington Reunion series.
Hoffman-Boston High School was created in South Arlington as a segregated junior high school for African Americans. It later served as the County’s first high school, and closed after graduating its last full class in 1964.
The school was later reopened as Hoffman Boston Elementary in the Oakridge neighborhood, and remains part of the Arlington schools system.
The program included screening of footage of the 1964 Hoffman-Boston Homecoming celebration, depicting the queen’s court, parade and homecoming football game, which Mr. Milton Rowe Sr. has donated to the Virginia Room.
Learn more about Local History at Arlington Public Library.
Artists crossover from performing to producing, find parallel careers in film, literature, and the visual arts with regularity. In earlier times, this phenomenon was less prevalent, excepting well-known performers such as Elvis and Frank Sinatra. Arlington’s own Gerald M. Lewis had a rich and varied career, being involved in many different aspects of music including performing, instruction, production, and recording.
From 1954-1979, Mr. Lewis served as a band director for Gunston and Stratford Junior High Schools, and Wakefield and Washington-Lee High Schools. At his home on 216 S. Pershing Drive, Lewis also owned and operated Gerald Lewis Recording. Housed in a mobile home adjacent to his residence, Gerald Lewis Recording was a mobile recording unit that offered him the ability to record performers and public events on location.
Operating from 1964-1991, a remarkably diverse customer base utilized Mr. Lewis’ recording service. Local Virginia and Maryland schools and churches recorded public events and concerts, including performances from high school marching bands and public speakers.
Local recording artists also took advantage of Lewis’ expertise. In 1985, Teen-Beat Records artists Unrest used the mobile studio to master their debut 7” single “So You Want To Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star”/ “Zelda” (Side A) – “The Hill” (Side B), which was also the first Teen-Beat vinyl release. Unrest band member and Teen-Beat impresario Mark Robinson recalls, “He [Lewis] essentially was the broker for Teen-Beat to press our first record. He put the master tape together, sent it to the pressing plant, etc. I paid him, and he paid the pressing plant. I found his number in the Yellow Pages. He also recorded and pressed up the Arlington All-County Orchestra record that I was on back in 4th or 5th grade, so I knew that this guy knew how to make a record.”
In 1996, Mr. Lewis and his wife Elizabeth, a music teacher at Wakefield High School, moved to Tennessee where he continued to be involved in music, directing, arranging, and playing trombone for the Pleasant Hill Ensemble until his passing in March of 2008, at the age of 82.
Do you have any memories of Mr. Lewis or his recording services?
The American Civil War started on April 12, 1861 with the firing on Fort Sumter, and ranged across the states from Pennsylvania to New Orleans. You probably know about the many battles waged here, in Virginia and the DC area. But did you know that you can follow the events of the Civil War in real time?
To commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the Washington Post developed a set of linked Twitter accounts that “tweet” events of the Civil War, 150 years after they happened.
To experience the Civil War as it would have been tweeted, subscribe to the Tweeting the Civil War list on twitter, or bookmark the page link on your computer.
Tweeting characters include:
While we often think of history as incidents centered on explosive battles or an inevitable tide of history, the “Tweeting the Civil War” project reminds us in 140 characters that history is the collective experience of many individuals living their day-to-day lives.
Presented March 12, 2011 by Virginia Room Archivist Heather Crocetto, at the GMU Arlington Campus Library’s Open House.
Click on maps to enlarge, or view them on flickr.
Part 1
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poQiGkGR7C8[/youtube]
Part 2
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CclQIW6F8A[/youtube]
Part 3
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72Il6XIgKnA[/youtube]
Learn more about Arlington on our Local History page.
Photgraph by Pamela Powers
In 1941, Ms. Broyhill assembled a group of women from Arlington churches, civic groups and associations and formed the Arlington Rose Garden Association, now called the Arlington Rose Foundation. After ten years of fundraising they finally realized their dream when the rose garden opened on the grounds of what was then Arlington Hospital (now Virginia Hospital Center) in 1951.
Ten years later the garden was moved to Bon Air Park; the transfer was completed in 1964. Today the garden is maintained by the Arlington’s Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources. It contains approximately 135 different rose varieties and 2,500 plants on about one acre.
In the center of the garden is the famous Peace rose and the Veterans’ Honor ™ rose. The Peace rose is a yellow blend Hybrid Tea developed by Frances Meilland in France in 1935. When World War II began Meilland sent the rose to friends in Germany, Italy and the U.S. in the hopes of ensuring its survival. Called the Peace rose in the U.S. to commemorate the end of the war, it was formally introduced on April 19, 1945, the day Berlin fell.
The Veterans’ Honor ™ rose, a dark red hybrid tea rose, was created by Jackson and Perkins in 1999 to commemorate America’s veterans.
The Foundation sponsors an annual rose competition for growers. This year’s district competition, which includes 70 competitive categories, will be at held at Merrifield Garden Center- Fair Oaks location on September 22nd from 1 to 6 pm and September 23rd from 11am to 4 pm. See www. arlingtonrose.org for more details as well as for information about the Arlington Rose Foundation’s activities and rose advice.
Plans are also underway for a Bon Air Memorial Rose garden celebration day on Saturday, October 6. Along with docent-led tours, rose rooting classes and poetry inspired by roses, the legacy and unique gift that Ms. Broyhill bestowed to Arlington will be on prime display.
What are your favorite memories of Bon Air Rose Garden? Or other wonderful rose gardens in Arlington?
This Streamline Moderne-style storefront was the home of Dan Kain Trophies, which was the store in Arlington for trophies, ribbons and plaques for many years. Although Dan Kain Trophies is now located in Merrifield in Fairfax County, it still has a major impact on the community; so much so that although the building is currently a restaurant called Lyon Hall, many Arlingtonians still call it the Dan Kain Building.
The Dan Kain Building, shown above in 1998, was constructed in the mid-1940s for Frank Lyon, who rented it out to a series of businesses selling appliances, electronics and finally furniture. In 1963, Dan Kain moved his trophy business, which he had established in his home, into the building, and Dan Kan Trophies stayed there for 40 years, providing not just Arlington but northern Virginia with signs, trophies and other materials for government and private groups. In 1973, ads appeared in the Washington Post for “Special Prices for Bowling Leagues.” With its specialized products, friendly service and unique home, Dan Kain Trophies became an institution.
In 1988, the County Board unanimously approved the Dan Kain Building as a Local Historic District. It is an excellent example of the Streamline Moderne style of architecture, with its lack of ornamentation, streamlining, and distinctive wrap around to North Highland Street. The interior was renovated in 2004, and Dan Kan Trophies, now owned by longtime employee Jim Preziotti, left Washington Boulevard to relocate to 2207 N. Pershing Drive.
A GSA federal contract in 2009 to make trophies and signs was an indication of the business’s continuing vitality. However, the economy’s downturn hurt Dan Kain Trophies; budgets set aside for trophies, medals and plaques were diminished as belts were tightened. When the Pershing Drive location was scheduled to be torn down in 2010, the business ended up moving to Merrifield, where rent is cheaper. However, Dan Kain Trophies is still in business, marking people’s milestones and helping preserve memories. And the building to which it is linked still stands proudly, still a vital part of Clarendon’s business district.
What about you?
What are your memories of Dan Kan Trophies and its building?
Demolition of the Arlington Funeral Home, a landmark in Virginia Square since 1956 (5 years before Central opened), began last week in preparation for nine story mixed use commercial building. When completed, the new building will include a multi-use performance space known as a black box theater.
That’s probably a fitting legacy.
As theology professor Thomas Long explained in a 2009 New York Times essay, funerals are “a form of community theater in which we enact publicly the journey from here to there, thereby enabling both the dead and the living to process the reality and meaning of mortality.”
The history of the Arlington Funeral Home:
