Places – Arlington
Contemporary Arlington emerges from an interesting and complex housing history. The county’s residential development between 1900 and 1968 reflected housing policies and practices of those times. As we survey the many accounts describing the course of events during this period, there are three vantage points that offer the most comprehensive view of residential development in Arlington relative to local communities. From these three vantage points we can see the changing contours of the place called Arlington.
The Hills of Northern Virginia Promotional Brochure, 1926. Courtesy, CCCLH, Arlington Public Library.
Growing Arlington:
Rural to Residential
From this vantage point, civic leaders sparked growth by reducing crime, building roads and municipal amenities such as water and sewer. This chronology of events highlights how local officials and land speculators contributed to the foundation for today’s Arlington.
Arlington Homes: Investments for All
Responding to both federal policy and the real estate industry standards, Arlington developers promoted the idea of homeownership as an investment. Placing a “home” within reach for many families of modest means, the federal agencies stimulated the supply of and the demand for local housing.
Segregated Arlington: Changing Color Lines
In 1870 many white and African American Arlingtonians 1 lived and worked on farms in close proximity to one another. 2 Over time, the national policies and business practices increasingly promoted development of white communities, leaving little room for the increasing number of African Americans or others moving to the area. African Americans cultivated strong community bonds within these changing color lines, leveraging limited resources to create a buffer from racial discrimination and shelter when confronted with involuntary relocation.
Examine the evidence
We invite the reader to form their own understanding of Arlington’s housing history. Toward this goal, we included citations to as many primary sources as possible.
After reading about each version of housing history, ask the following questions:
What is left out of this account?
How is this account limited by the types of documentation that are accessible?
In their own words…
Read excerpts from oral histories to learn more about how Arlingtonians remember the housing history of their community.
1 Nancy Perry, Spencer Crew, and Nigel M. Waters, “’We didn’t have any other place to live’: Residential Patterns in Segregated Arlington County, Virginia,” Southeastern Geographer 53, no. 4 (Winter 2013): 403–427; Lindsey Bestebreurtje, Built by the People Themselves—African American Community Development in Arlington, Virginia, from the Civil War through Civil Rights (PhD Diss., George Mason University, 2017); Jessica Kaplan, ” The Bottom: An African-American Enclave Rediscovered,” Arlington Historical Society Magazine 16, no. 2 (2018): 7-32.
2 Kaplan shares testimony by John Jackson describing his relationship with a white landowner named William Walker: “Mr. Walker and myself lived right near to each other and were more or less together every day (I used to see him every morning; or every evening since he was a boy).” Kaplan 10.