Neighborhoods, boundary stones, and roadways

ARLINGTON VILLAGE HISTORIC DISTRICT

Bounded by Columbia Pike and South Edgewood Street

This neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

ASHTON HEIGHTS HISTORIC DISTRICT

Bounded by Arlington Boulevard, North Irving Street, North Oxford Street, North Piedmont Street, and Wilson Boulevard

This neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

BALL’S CROSSROADS

Southeast Corner of North Glebe Road and Wilson Boulevard

This intersection has been a focal point since about 1740, when two roads were developed, one from the future site to Alexandria to the mouth of Pimmit Run, the other from Awbury’s Ferry (at the site of Rosslyn) to the Falls Church. The first came to be known as the Glebe Road because it passed the glebe of Fairfax Parish and in order to distinguish it from other roads to the Falls. The second was eventually named Wilson Boulevard in honor of President Wilson. The intersection became known as Ball’s Crossroads when Ball’s Tavern was established here in the early 1800’s.

BALLSTON

North Fairfax Drive at North Stafford Street

By 1900 a well-defined village called Central Ballston had developed in the area bounded by the present Wilson Boulevard, Taylor Street, Washington Boulevard, and Pollard Street. More diffuse settlement extended westward to Lubber Run and southward along Glebe Road to Henderson Road.

The track of the Washington, Arlington, and Falls Church Electric Railroad ran along what is now Fairfax Drive; the Ballston Station was at Ballston Avenue, now Stuart Street. Here Clements Avenue, now Stafford Street, divided to pass on either side of an old Ball family graveyard.

BARCROFT

Columbia Pike at South Four Mile Run Drive

In 1880 Dr. John W. Barcroft rebuilt the Arlington Mill. The name of the railroad station here was subsequently changed from Arlington to Barcroft, and that became the name of the residential community which developed eastward along Columbia Pike. This community, left to its own devices, developed an active civic league and its own church, school, and neighborhood house.

BOUNDARY MARKERS OF THE ORIGINAL DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

These markers are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

• Benjamin Banneker SW 9 Intermediate Boundary Stone, North 18th and North Van Buren Streets
• Northwest No. 2 Boundary Marker, 5145 North 38th Street
• Northwest No. 3 Boundary Marker, 4013 North Tazewell Street
• Southwest No. 4 Boundary Marker, King Street north of junction with South Wakefield Street
• Southwest No. 5 Boundary Marker, northeast of King Street and South Walter Reed Drive junction
• Southwest No. 6 Boundary Marker, South Jefferson Street south of Columbia Pike junction
• Southwest No. 7 Boundary Marker, behind 3101 South Manchester Street
• Southwest No. 8 Boundary Marker, junction of Wilson Boulevard and McKinley Road
• West Cornerstone, west side of Meridian Street, south of Williamsburg Boulevard junction

BRANDYMORE CASTLE

North Roosevelt Street at Four Mile Run

This landmark was first described in 1724 by surveyor Charles Broadwater as “The Rock Stones called Brandymore Castle.” Research in 1972 established that the natural formation matched the boundary descriptions on the 18th Century Land grants from Lord Fairfax to William Gunnel, James Going and Simon Pearson, George Harrison, John Caryle and John Dalton, and Captain Charles Broadwater. The origin of the name “Brandymore” is unknown, but this rocky outcrop resembles the collapsed battlements of an old castle with Four Mile Run serving as a moat.

BUCKINGHAM HISTORIC DISTRICT (1937)

Roughly bounded by North Glebe Road and North 5th Street, North Oxford Street, and North 2nd Street

This neighborhood is a designated Arlington County Landmark and is listed on the Virginia Landmarks Register and the National Register of Historic Places.

CHERRYDALE HISTORIC DISTRICT

Roughly bounded by Lorcom Lane between North Monroe Street and Military Road, Interstate 66, North Utah and North Taylor Streets south of Old Dominion Drive

In 1893 a branch post office at Lee Highway and Pollard Street was named Cherrydale, with reference to Dorsey Donaldson’s large cherry orchard in back of the present firehouse. Quincy Street was then known as Cherry Valley Road. Settlement in this area began after the Civil War and was stimulated in 1906 by the establishment of the Great Falls and Old Dominion Railway Line. Abandoned in 1935, the roadbed became Old Dominion Drive. Military Road was cut through broken and densely wooded country by Army engineers in 1861, to connect the isolated defensive works at Chain Bridge (Forts Marcy and Ethan Allen) with the Arlington Line.

This neighborhood is on the National Register of Historic Places.

COLONIAL VILLAGE (1934)

Roughly bounded by Wilson Boulevard, Lee Highway, North Veitch Street, and Queens Lane

This neighborhood is a designated Arlington County Landmark and is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Two views of Colonial Village.

COMMONS OF ARLINGTON HISTORIC DISTRICT COLONIAL VILLAGE (1934)

Bounded by South 13th Street, South Edgewood Street, and South Walter Reed Drive

This neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

FAIRLINGTON HISTORIC DISTRICT (1942-1944)

Roughly bounded by Quaker Lane, King Street, Interstate 395, South Walter Reed Drive, and South Abingdon Street

Designed in the Colonial Revival style by Kenneth Franzheim and Alan B. Mills and constructed between 1942 and 1944, Fairlington is an early example of successful community planning and large-scale, publicly financed rental housing built for defense workers and their families during World War II.

With 3,439 garden apartments, Fairlington was the largest project financed by Defense Homes Corporation (a component of the National Housing Agency) and the nation’s largest apartment complex at that time. The units were renovated and sold as condominiums between 1972 and 1977. The name Fairlington combines Fairfax and Arlington, the counties in which the project was located.

The Commonwealth of Virginia added Fairlington to the Virginia Landmarks Register on December 2, 1998 and the Federal Government selected Fairlington for the National Register for Historic Places on March 29, 1999. This neighborhood is also a designated Arlington County Landmark.

Visit the Fairlington Historical Society web site.

FREEDMAN’S VILLAGE

Foxcroft Heights Park (Southgate Road and South Oak Street)

After the outbreak of the Civil War, escaped slaves sought refuge at Union Camps and thousands crowded into the Federal City. In response to the unhealthy conditions in Washington, the government selected a site on the Arlington Heights in May, 1863, to provide freed slaves with housing and opportunities for work, training, and education. Freedman’s Village, which was located in Arlington National Cemetery, was soon built and formally dedicated on December 4, 1863. There were over 50 two-story duplex houses, two churches, a school, a meeting hall, hospital and home for the aged and infirm. In time the population exceeded 1,000. Though intended to be temporary, the Village lasted into the 1890’s, when it was closed and its residents dispersed.

GEORGE WASHINGTON MEMORIAL PARKWAY

Roughly bounded by the south side of the Potomac River from the American Legion (formerly Cabin John) Bridge to the Memorial Bridge and by the north side of the Potomac River from Brickyard Road to Chain Bridge

This roadway is on the National Register of Historic Places.

HUNTER’S CROSSROADS

Northeast corner of South Glebe Road and Columbia Pike (Route 244)

One of the routes at this historic intersection is Glebe Road, developed in the 18th century to connect Alexandria with northern Arlington. Columbia Turnpike was built in 1808 between the Long Bridge to Washington and the Little River Turnpike at Annandale. In the late 1850’s, Louisa Hunter gave land on the northeast corner of the Crossroads to a Methodist Church known as Hunter’s Chapel. During the Civil War, Federal troops dismantled the church for its building materials after using the structure as a picket post, block house, commissary, and stable. Following the Civil War the congregation used other buildings in this area. Today’s successor, Arlington Methodist Church, stands two blocks to the north on Glebe Road.

JACKSON CITY

Boundary Channel Drive at Old Jefferson Davis Highway

Near here, a group of New York speculators promoted an industrial city adjacent to Washington. They planned to dredge a seaport from Roach’s Run Lagoon. On January 11, 1836, President Andrew Jackson dedicated the site, and George Washington Parke Custis delivered an oration. The venture collapsed, and the tract was sold as farm land in 1841. After the Civil War, the area became an infamous resort known as “The Monte Carlo of America”, with gambling houses, vice dens, and a race track nearby. In 1904 concerned Arlingtonians of “The Good Citizens League” banded together and cleared out the undesirable elements.

KEY BRIDGE

US Rt. 29 over the Potomac River (connecting Rosslyn and Georgetown)

This bridge is on the National Register of Historic Places.

LYON VILLAGE HISTORIC DISTRICT

Bounded by Lee Highway, North Veitch Street, North Franklin Road, North Highland Street, North Fillmore Street, and North Kirkwood Road

This neighborhood is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

MAYWOOD HISTORIC DISTRICT (1909)

Roughly bounded by Lorcom Lane, Interstate 66, Lee Highway, and the western side of North Nelson Street

This neighborhood is a designated Arlington County Landmark and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

MOUNT VERNON MEMORIAL HIGHWAY

Washington Street and George Washington Memorial Parkway

This roadway is on the National Register of Historic Places.

WUNDER’S CROSSROADS

Northeast corner of Lee Highway and North Glebe Road

For more than half a century from the mid-1800’s the intersection of Lee Highway and Glebe Road was known as Wunders Crossroads after the family whose farm lay just Northeast. Dr. Henry S. Wunder and his son George O. Wunder were leading citizens of the county. Glebe Road was then the road to the falls. It was later named for the glebe of Fairfax parish. Its Northernmost portion was part of the Little Falls Road from Falls Church. Lee Highway, originally the Georgetown Fairfax Road was renamed to honor Robert E. Lee.