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A Family’s Final Resting Place

Shreve family gravestoneOf the two Shreve family cemeteries in Arlington, the Southern-Shreve cemetery could possibly lay claim to having a more unique history. Located on the north side of Fairfax Drive, between North Frederick and North Harrison streets, the cemetery sat near the property of Richard and Frances (Redin) Southern. Richard Southern was a landscape architect and horticulturist, who became known for pioneering the use of the tomato as a food. It may seem hard to believe in these modern times, but prior to Southern’s efforts, the tomato was widely regarded as being poisonous and was only used for decorative purposes.

The land was given as a dowry by Frances Redin’s brother, a prominent Georgetown attorney, and was the burial place of John Redin, father of Frances and her brother. This generous act may have been precipitated by the fact that the Southerns cared for John Redin during his final years. He was buried in the garden of the Southern’s home in 1832, his gravestone being the first in what was to become the family cemetery.

Being neighbors of the Shreves, Birches, and Balls, the families intermarried and the house and property remained in the Shreve family until 1904.

There are approximately 20 marked stones in the cemetery, which is still in fairly good condition today, with the most notable being that of Richard and Francis Shreve, who were both killed by lightning on June 25th, 1874. The inscription reads: “Struck by a thunderbolt from Heaven, they both lay down and died, they left three lambs whom God had given them, may he for them provide.”

What About You?

Do you have any stories involving local family history? Let us know!

ARLINGTON ROCKS – PT. 3: "The Seventh Dawn"

Progressive rock…I’m sure that some of you still have a few King Crimson, Yes, Moody Blues, or Emerson, Lake, & Palmer albums lurking in your collections somewhere. While never approaching the popularity of the aforementioned groups, Arlington’s very own entry into the progressive rock sound of the 70’s, The Seventh Dawn, had a story arguably as unique as any, and a sound that avoided the pitfall of many of their superstar contemporaries, which has led to a modest, but well deserved reappraisal of the band that few could have predicted.
Listen to The Seventh Dawn

Essentially a songwriting project of three brothers, Heff, Bil, and Eric Munson, along with Heff’s girlfriend and wife-to-be Ann, The Seventh Dawn was formally launched in 1973. In early 1975, a college friend at Virginia Commonwealth University suggested the band record a vinyl record to accompany a “mock-up album cover” he was doing as an art assignment. Using the recording equipment available at the school’s electronic music laboratory, the resulting album, “Sunrise”, was completed in 1976. 200 copies of the disc were pressed. Though the recording was primitive by the standards of the day, there was no denying the quiet power and charm of the performances, and the songwriting was strong throughout. “Sunrise” reflected the tastes of the members, with strains of The Beatles, King Crimson, and progressive British folk acts such as Steeleye Span and Renaissance being evident.

A follow-up album, “Dreams” was recorded, but not released due to financial constraints. Weathering numerous lineup changes, the band soldiered on until breaking up 1981.

Years later, fate intervened when their seemingly forgotten album found its way into the hands of serious record buffs in the 1990’s, fetching a very expensive price on the collectors market. This resulted in the album’s reissue on vinyl, and eventually, a 2007 reissue on CD with bonus tracks, and, the release of the long deferred second album, “Dreams” as well.

What About You? Do you remember The Seventh Dawn? Let us know!

 

 

An Historic School

From School to Historical Society

Hume School Arlington Historical Society

Driving along Arlington Ridge Road you pass an old two-story brick building with a bell tower which was once the Hume School.

Named for civic leader and philanthropist Frank Hume, it is the oldest remaining school building in Arlington.

Built in 1891, the land was purchased for $250 from Frank Hume, a successful wholesale grocer in Washington D.C., who later donated land for an adjacent playground as long as the building was used as a school. When the school was built it was the County’s newest school and attacked as an extravagance as it had three rooms, considered far too large for any “foreseeable” school population. Most schools at that time were one room only.

In 1958, when the school closed, the Hume heirs deeded the property to the Arlington Historical Society, along with a $10,000 donation from one of Frank Hume’s children to help with fundraising for a proposed museum to help preserve Arlington’s heritage. The result was the Arlington Historical Society Museum, which is run primarily by volunteers and has been open at least one day a week since its inception.

What About You?

What do you remember about Hume School? How have you interacted with the Historical Society? Let us know what you remember!

 

ARLINGTON ROCKS—PT. 2: "PENTAGRAM"

 

The long standing heavy metal group Pentagram may never have had a best selling album or inked a lucrative contract with a major record label, but they have become legends to a modest, but fanatical worldwide fan base and have garnered critical raves from some of the most important rock writers and artists of the modern era.

Formed in Arlington in 1971 by lead vocalist Bobby Liebling and drummer Geof O’Keefe, the band soon began developing and perfecting their sound. Though unmistakably influenced by contemporaries such as Black Sabbath and Uriah Heep, the band were no mere copyists, boasting an unusually melodic vocalist in Liebling and an uncommon sense of subtlety, texture and drama in the guitar playing. Word of mouth led to a rehearsal for Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley of Kiss and a demo recording for Blue Oyster Cult’s producer and manager but a major label contract eluded the band.

After weathering numerous lineup changes over the years, Bobby Liebling remains the constant in the group, though recent live appearances have been few. Numerous releases documenting all phases of Pentagram’s career are easily available.

Listen to Pentagram – “Star Lady” [5MB .WMA file] Copyrighted materials, used by permission.

What About You?

Have you seen or heard Pentagram? Let us know!

 

Mystery Door

Do you recognize this scene?

Mystery door

This photograph was taken by Eleanor Lee Templeman, author of “Northern Virginia Heritage” and “Arlington Heritage,” which tell the story of our area’s development through the 1950s.

This photo was not used in either book, but was part of her donation of photographs to the Community Archives. It may be the door to a springhouse or cold food storage area.

What About You?

Do you recognize this door, or this area? The Virginia Room could use your help. Let us know what you remember!

 

Saving the Small Stuff

 

Although you may think a ticket stub, sign, receipt or postcard is something that you use and then throw away, these materials many times have a much larger value.

These bits and pieces are called ephemera, and are vital in helping construct Arlington’s history. Ephemera, as defined by the Society of American Archivists, is “materials, usually printed documents, created for a specific, limited purpose, and generally designed to be discarded after use.” Ephemera is collected because of its association with a person, event or subject, such a bill signed by a famous person, a ticket stub to a nationally-known event, or, as above, showing the logo and method of advertisement for the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

The sign above would be shown in an office or shop window, letting customers know that the business was affiliated with the Chamber of Commerce for 1949. That means they were part of a larger business community, networking with other businesses and working together on community projects.

Because of the date, the sign was meant to be thrown away at the end of the year. However, its existence in the Arlington Community Archives shows the Arlington Chamber of Commerce at the time was robust and active (the sign is made of heavy board with rich colors), and had a plan to showcase and advertise membership. Although the sign was meant to be thrown away, it remains in our collection as a valuable piece of ephemera.

The Arlington Community Archives has an entire collection of ephemera, Record Group 28, Pamphlets and Ephemera, and continues to take donations of this material. To find out more, see also “Ephemera: A Book on its Collection, Conservation and Use,” by Chris E. Makepeace, in the Virginia Room’s book collection.

 

What About You?
What kinds of ephemera do you have? What stories to they tell? 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!

 

A Generous Donation

The Virginia Room recently received a wonderful donation of two 1936 Sanborn atlases of Arlington.

Thanks to the generosity of Eric Dobson and two other anonymous donors, these maps are now available to visitors to the Virginia Room:

Sanborn maps are greatly prized by researchers.

As they were originally designed for fire insurance assessment, they are color-coded and relate the location and use of buildings, as well as the materials employed in their construction. In addition, they indicate which city/county utilities, such as water and fire service, were available, the width and names of streets, and house and block numbers. As such they are a wonderful source of information regarding the structure and use of buildings in American communities.

The Virginia Room is greatly indebted to these three generous benefactors!

To see these as well as numerous other maps: topographic, street, survey, neighborhood, etc. visit the Virginia Room at the Central Library.

What About You?

Do you or any of your family members own old maps of Arlington? Do you remember when your house got new utilities, or if you changed addresses without moving your home? If you do, let us know!

 

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