Preservation Arlington remembers when the Hecht’s department store in Ballston (at the former Parkington Shopping Center) carried seasonal displays for everyone to anticipate and enjoy. Photo courtesy of ©Lloyd Wolf. All rights reserved.
On occasion, Preservation Arlington will highlight unique historic houses that are on the market in Arlington County. In this case, the house is not for sale, but free to a caring new owner. With this column, we hope to raise awareness of some of the true housing gems we have here. Some might be in great condition and just need to be maintained by their next owner, while others may need a steward with heart and passion to restore and…
We are pleased to publish this guest post from Leslie Aun, who purchased and restored the historic Crossman House in 2012. Her story illustrates how dedicated homeowners can resurrect a valuable but needy property with passion and perseverance. (Be sure to scroll down for a photo gallery of the house, with before and after shots of the renovation. All photos courtesy of the author.) The year was 1892 and President Grover Cleveland had been elected to a second term, Sherlock…
It is a prime time to move to Colonial Village! Now largely a condo community, the historic garden apartment development at Colonial Village was the first Federal Housing Administration-insured large-scale rental housing project in the United States. Begun in 1935, it served as a model for FHA projects as well as for exemplary site planning, landscaping, construction type, and design. Colonial Village, in its entirety, is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as on the…
In November 2013 a total of 23 demolition permits were applied for in Arlington County. Twenty-one of them were for single family homes, and one was for a commercial building. Five of the houses and the commercial building are part of a major site redevelopment. We show all of these doomed properties below. The demolition of these houses and buildings represents an incredible loss of history, architecture, time, energy, and materials. Some of these houses are in National Register neighborhoods;…
The Arlington Planning Commission’s Site Plan Review Committee (SPRC) is continuing to assess plans for the property at 1401 Wilson Boulevard, the location of the “Deep Throat” garage. The final agenda has not been released yet, but it appears that this will be the second item (8:30 to 10:00 PM) at its meeting on Monday, December 16, at 7 pm. Already recognized with a County Historical Marker, the proposed redevelopment of this site has increased awareness of its cultural importance…
The bungalow, as a residential form, proliferated in Arlington in the 1910s and 1920s. On the market now are three wonderful houses built circa 1910 to 1925 that represent the popularity of the residential style during that period. Usually modest one- to one-and-a-half-story houses, bungalows were approachable and even more affordable to the middle class when they became available in pre-fab kits from retailers like Sears, Roebuck and Company (see Arlington magazine’s recent feature article on this topic here). Two…
Members of the Arlington Planning Commission’s Site Plan Review Committee (SPRC) will be holding a meeting on Monday, December 9, to discuss proposed redevelopments in Arlington. The second part of that meeting, from 8:30 to 10:00 pm, will cover the Blue Goose, the building owned by Marymount University at 1000 N. Glebe Road. The building, which was included on Preservation Arlington’s 2013 list of Endangered Historic Places, is now threatened with demolition as part of plans to redevelop the site….
Preserved & Developed is a biweekly series of articles by Preservation Arlington highlighting local development projects that have involved both development of a site and preservation of historic resources. The projects highlight a wide range of challenges and solutions over many years. At the time they were completed the projects represented a commitment by the developer and the community to embrace the future and preserve the past. Preservation Arlington is awarding each project a gold, silver, or bronze star based…