As we’ve reported, Preservation Arlington has been proud to sponsor an ongoing project by master’s degree students from Virginia Tech’s Department of Urban Affairs and Planning (National Capital Region) to collect and preserve Vietnamese heritage in Arlington.

The students have now completed the first phase of this project, which involved collecting stories, photos and artifacts from Vietnamese community members who immigrated to, shopped at or owned businesses in Arlington’s Clarendon neighborhood when it was known as “Little Saigon” during the late 1970s and early 1980s. The students recorded about a dozen oral histories, which are available to researchers at Arlington’s Center for Local History.

Here is a 17-minute compilation of these remarkable stories:

The next phase of this project will be a collaborative effort to place a historical marker to Little Saigon in Clarendon, to mark this short but significant period of Arlington’s diverse history. Learn more about this worthwhile project at the project web site.