Two Newest Arlington Listings in the National Register of Historic Places - Arlington Forest Historic District and Penrose Historic District!

Arlington is proud to announce that the Arlington Forest and Penrose Historic Districts are the two newest County listings in the National Register of Historic Places! The County now has a total of 54 listings in the National Register, which is equivalent to more than 8,600 historic buildings and sites throughout Arlington!  The National Register is a celebratory list of those buildings, sites, districts, structures, and objects that are significant examples of the historical and cultural heritage of our nation. Listing in the National Register, however, does not restrict how owners may use, manage, alter, or dispose of their properties. Unlike local historic designation, National Register status does not require any type of approval for exterior alterations or new construction. More importantly, owners of buildings listed in the National Register may be eligible for Federal and/or State tax credits for the qualified rehabilitation of their historic properties.

Officially designated on December 2, 2005, the Arlington Forest Historic District is bounded by North Carlin Springs Road and North George Mason Drive to the north, Henderson Road to the east, South Aberdeen Street and South Columbus Street to the south, and North Granada Street, North Galveston Street, and 2nd Street North to the west. Arlington Boulevard (U.S. Route 50) separates the northern and southern halves of the neighborhood and centrally-located Lubber Run Park divides the western and eastern sections. Developed in four stages between 1939 and 1948, the architecture of Arlington Forest is defined by orderly rows of brick, detached, two-story, single-family homes featuring six rooms and minimal Colonial Revival decorative detailing. While there are great similarities amongst the houses, they are differentiated by variations in roof shape, porch and entrance location, use of brick and clapboard materials, and arrangement of fenestration. The Historic District also contains a period neighborhood shopping center and three public parks. Arlington Forest is one of the best examples of a mid-20th century planned, mixed-use community in Arlington County. The neighborhood typifies the innovative trends of World War II-era suburban planning, as advocated by the Federal Housing Administration in its house designs and subdivision guidelines, and incorporates curvilinear street and cul-de-sacs, community parklands, and a neighborhood shopping center into its original design. There are 724 contributing primary resources and 92 non-contributing primary resources in the Arlington Forest Historic District. The Historic District also contains 89 contributing secondary resources (garages or outbuildings) and 201 non-contributing secondary resources.

Officially designated on November 15, 2004, the Penrose Historic District is bounded by Arlington Boulevard to the north, South Wise Street and South Courthouse Road to the east, Columbia Pike to the south, and South Fillmore Street and South Walter Reed Drive to the west. The neighborhood was created with the integration of twelve distinct subdivisions platted between 1882 and 1943. Sited on a rural tract originally adjacent to the Arlington House property, Penrose contains modest single-family residences of frame and masonry construction and is defined by a variety of architectural styles and building types from the late-19th through the early-21st centuries. The most dominant forms and styles include modest interpretations of the Queen Anne, Italianate, Bungalow/Craftsman, Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Moderne, Cape Cod, and American Foursquare. There is also a notable number of mail-order houses in Penrose. There are 422 contributing primary resources, 43 contributing secondary resources, and two contributing parks in the Penrose Historic District.

Are there any additional National Register nominations currently in the works? The proposed Westover Historic District National Register nomination will be presented to the State Review Boards of the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (VDHR) in Richmond in March 2006. Other National Register nominations in progress in 2006 include the proposed historic districts of Arlington Heights, Claremont, Highland Park-Overlee Knolls, and Virginia Heights. An individual nomination for the historic Gott House on North Roosevelt Street also is being drafted. Before any of these nominations are fully completed and submitted to the state, the County's Historic Preservation Program staff will meet with the affected property owners and civic associations. All of the draft nominations will be available for a public review period prior to sending them to VDHR.  Please check back for the latest status updates on these proposed nominations!

For more information about Arlington's newest National Register designations, any pending nominations, or to learn more about taking advantage of tax credits for the rehabilitation of historic properties, please call the Historic Preservation Program staff at 703.228.3830.

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Creation of a Historic Preservation Master Plan for Arlington Is Well Underway!

In 2004, the County hired a consultant team led by Mary Means & Associates, of Alexandria, VA,  to complete the second and final phase of the planning process for creating a Historic Preservation Master Plan for Arlington. This phase involves developing three key elements:

• Task 1: A policy framework document that will be adopted by the County Board as the official policy on historic preservation. This will be a broad document that outlines and describes Countywide goals and policies for historic preservation. The bulk of the framework piece will build upon the Phase I planning process of 2002-2004, which vetted the policies with various groups, agencies, and residents. 

• Task 2: A procedure and policy by which to categorize and rank the more than 8,000 historic resources already recorded in the Countywide Historic Resources Survey. The Task 2 effort will establish specific criteria for ranking resources according to historic significance and integrity, will test the proposed criteria in two specific areas of the County (the Westover and Courtlands neighborhoods), and will offer a range of potential County policies, planning strategies, and interventions for resources in each of the four ranking categories (essential, important, notable, and minor). Task 2 will serve as the model for how the ranking criteria and incentives would work in practice Countywide. Additionally, Task 2 will provide important incentive to complete the ranking for the remainder of the County and to create the proposed Arlington County Historic Resources Inventory (HRI). When completed, the HRI will be an important preservation planning tool linked to the County's GIS system.

• Task 3: An implementation framework document detailing how the historic preservation policies will officially work in application. This document will serve as the action component to the policy framework and will be approved by the County Board.

As of January 2006, drafts of all three Master Plan elements are nearing completion and are being circulated for review among County leaders, staff, and advisory groups and commissions.  The Historic Preservation Program staff intends to have the final Policy Framework document on the County Board agenda in Spring 2006. The Implementation Framework piece is expected to be finalized and presented to the County Board in early Summer 2006.

For specific questions about the planning effort, project schedule, or to review materials prepared for Phase 2, please contact Michael Leventhal, Historic Preservation Program Coordinator, at 703.228.3813.

 Join the Historic Arlington Roundtable Lunches

Local history buffs, preservationists, and Arlingtonians alike are invited to attend the monthly gathering of the Historic Arlington Roundtable!  Now in its fourth year, the informal Roundtable is an opportunity for all those interested in the significant places and heritage of Arlington to meet one another and chat about local preservation issues.  This is not an organization; there are no by-laws, minutes, officers, or other formal structure.  The program simply consists of attendees introducing themselves and sharing preservation-related news, followed by a short presentation by a local expert or organization.

The Historic Arlington Roundtable meets the first Tuesday of each month at the County Building at 2100 Clarendon Boulevard.  The brown-bag lunches convene promptly at 12:15 pm and are over by 1:15 pm at the latest.  Please call the Historic Preservation Program staff at 703.228.3830 to confirm the meeting room location and topic.  Hope to see you there! To be added to the monthly e-mail notices that announce the monthly topics and speakers, please contact Connie Ramirez.

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Reevesland Becomes 29th Local Historic District

On December 11, 2004, the County Board voted unanimously to designate Reevesland , also known as Reeves Farm, as an Arlington Local Historic District.  Adjacent to Bluemont Park, the County purchased the property from the Reeves family in 2001. Originally known as the Torreyson Farm, Reevesland was the last dairy farm in operation in Arlington County.  The property is located at 400 North Manchester Street in western Arlington in what is now the Boulevard Manor neighborhood.  Although Reevesland originally contained 171 acres, only 2.5 acres of land containing the farmhouse and two outbuildings remain.

Three generations of the same family owned and operated the farm, which originally extended from Wilson Boulevard on the north, to beyond Arlington Boulevard to the south, and west to Seven Corners in Fairfax County.  William H. Torreyson purchased the land in 1866 and the family built a tenant house nearby as early as 1878.  This tenant house eventually became the kitchen wing to the existing farmhouse, which dates to c.1899.  The last private owner was Nelson T. Reeves, who was born in the house in 1900 and was the son of George Richard and Lucy Torreyson Reeves.  In 1924, father and son began their dairy operation, which Nelson continued until July 1955.  The farm, with the exception of the two-acre parcel containing the house, garage, and milk house, was sold off and subdivided through time.

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Reevesland Historic Marker Unveiled in Dedication Ceremony

On June 19, 2005, in a ceremony attended by County officials, residents, and Reeves family members, a roadside marker was dedicated at historic Reevesland on North Manchester Street in Bluemont Park.  Kevin Vincent, Chairman of the County's Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, led the unveiling ceremony, accompanied by County Board Vice Chairman Chris Zimmerman and County Board member Paul Ferguson.  Also in attendance were the three children of Nelson and Louise Reeves, who were the last owners and operators of this historic farmstead.  Reevesland was designated an Arlington Historic District in 2004. The marker is located along the bike path that follows Four Mile Run Creek in Bluemont Park.

The marker text reads as follows:

"All the surrounding land was once part of Reevesland, the last operating dairy farm in Arlington . Purchased in 1866 by William H. Torreyson, this 171-acre farm was run by the same family for 89 years. Torreyson’s daughter Lucy, and her husband George Reeves, were the second generation to operate the farm. Their son Nelson and his wife Louise were the third generation, operating the farm until 1955. They resided here until Nelson’s death in 2000. While the original farmhouse remains, all but 2.5 acres of the farm were developed into schools, parkland, and communities. Reevesland is a designated Arlington County Landmark."

To learn more about the County's historic marker program, please contact the Historic Preservation Program staff at 703.228.3830.

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