George Washington

County to Remain Open Monday for Presidents Day

By ARLnow.com

(Updated at 1:50 p.m.) The celebration of George Washington’s birthday may be a state and federal holiday, but it will not be observed on a county level in Arlington this year.

The holiday colloquially known as Presidents Day — technically a federal holiday called Washington’s Birthday and a Virginia state holiday called George Washington Day — will be a day just like any other for most Arlington County offices and personnel.

Because Election Day was deemed a county holiday and an off day for many rank-and-file county employees this year, this coming Monday, Feb. 15 was removed from Arlington’s closure calendar.

“Presidents Day/George Washington Day is not holiday this year,” county spokeswoman Jennifer K. Smith confirmed to ARLnow. “Instead, this year, Election Day was a holiday. Presidents Day expected to be back as a holiday in the next fiscal year.”

As it’s not a county holiday, county offices and facilities will remain open, with some exceptions — like the county permitting office, which will be closed. Contrary to what ARLnow was initially told by the county, parking meters will not be enforced.

“To maintain consistency with metered parking enforcement practices on Columbus Day (which is also a federal holiday, but not a county holiday), metered parking will not be enforced on Monday,” Arlington County Police Department spokeswoman Kirby Clark said in an email Wednesday afternoon.

Courts and public schools, meanwhile, will be closed due to the state holiday, and Arlington Transit buses will operate on a reduced schedule.

Photo by Library of Congress on Unsplash

Which Founding Fathers Got Bucked in the 1934 Arlington Street Renaming Shuffle?

By Vernon Miles

Arlington switched over to a more “rational” street naming system in 1934, but documents from the transition give some insight into the names that were lost.

Many of the casualties were founding fathers and other Revolutionary War-related vocabulary words.

American and French revolutionary leader Marquis de Lafayette had his road stripped and incorporated into 8th Street N.

Several of the streets in what is now the Crystal City area were renamed. S. Joyce Street was once Hamilton Street, named after the ten-dollar founding father without a father, Alexander Hamilton.

Other streets throughout the area, like S. Kent Street, were previously named after George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, but don’t be too sad for those two founding fathers: they both still have streets named after them in other parts of Arlington.

A few streets were named after Native Americans. N. Hancock Street in Lyon Village was once Pocahontas Avenue. 25th Street N. in Donaldson Run was Algonquin Way, either a reference to the Algonquin tribe from the Great Lakes area or an alternate spelling of Algonquian, a Native American language associated with Virginia’s Powhatan tribe. Moccasin Trail, renamed to 24th Street N. and 22nd Street N., was once called Indian Trail.

Arlington Ridge Road has gone through a series of name changes over the years. N. Arlington Ridge Road, in once-seedy Rosslyn, had previously been called Oil Plant Road, or Oil Road, though no further information on an actual oil plant could be found.

Photo via Arlington County

Free Street Parking in Arlington Monday

By ARLnow.com

George WashingtonArlington residents and visitors will be able to remember our first president Monday by exercising their freedom to park on the street without feeding a meter.

Monday is George Washington Day in Virginia. Others know the holiday, long associated with mattress and appliance sales, as Presidents Day.

Arlington County government offices, courts, libraries and other facilities will be closed Monday. Parking meters will not be enforced.

Trash and recycling collection, however, will go on as normal.

Presidents Day Closures in Arlington

By ARLnow.com

George Washington(Updated at 10:30 p.m.) County offices, courts and schools will be closed Monday for the Presidents Day holiday.

Officially called “George Washington Day” in Virginia, or “Washington’s Birthday” on the federal level, the holiday celebrates the birth of our first president, who was born on Feb. 22, 1732. Today, Feb. 12, is Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, which is often mashed up with Washington’s birthday for the colloquial Presidents Day.

All county government offices, courts, libraries and facilities will be closed Monday for the holiday. Parking meters and zoned parking will not be enforced. Trash and recycling collection, however, will continue as normal.

Other county-level closures or service modifications are noted on Arlington’s holiday schedule page.

ARLnow.com will not be publishing on Monday, except in the event of breaking news.

Closures for Washington’s Birthday

By ARLnow.com

George WashingtonSchools and Arlington County government offices will be closed for Washington’s Birthday on Monday.

Also called Presidents Day, the holiday marks the end of a string of winter federal holidays. The next federal holiday is Memorial Day, on May 27.

In Arlington, all courts, schools, libraries and county offices will be closed. All community centers will be closed, with the exception of the Barcroft Community Center, which will be open from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

The Wakefield, Washington-Lee and Yorktown pools will be open on a holiday schedule. Monday marks the last day before the pools start their spring schedule.

ART buses will operate on a holiday schedule. Metrorail and buses will operate on a Saturday schedule. Parking meters will not be enforced.

Trash and recycling collection will proceed as normal.

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Colonial Invasion Comes to Ft. Myer — The annual spirit night for George Washington University basketball is coming to Ft. Myer’s Conmy Hall tonight. The event, which is usually held on the GW campus, will start at 8:00 p.m. It’s being held at Ft. Myer as a tribute to the military, and to celebrate GW’s basketball history — the team played at Conmy Hall from 1956 to 1975. GW students will be bused to the event from the school’s Foggy Bottom campus. [Colonial Hoops]

Late Night Shuttle Service Eyes Arlington — The DC Hopper, a nightlife shuttle service for bar-goers, is thinking about coming to Arlington. The service just launched in Bethesda, taking passengers from Bethesda to Georgetown to Dupont Circle and back in 30-passenger minibuses outfitted with TVs and free Red Bull energy drinks. Rides cost between $24 and $10. The owners say they would eventually like to expand the service to include Arlington, U Street NW, and H Street NE. [BethesdaNow]

Convert Quincy Park to Central Park? — Greater Greater Washington contributor Peter Harnik, director of the Center for City Park Excellence at the Trust for Public Land, has an idea for Arlington’s Quincy Park. He said the park, located adjacent to Arlington Central Library, should be converted to “a great central park” with trees, a pond, a bridge, landscaping, curving baths and “not a single chain-link fence.” [Greater Greater Washington]

Flickr pool photo by Alex

GW Takes Field at New Barcroft Park Home

By ARLnow.com

The George Washington University baseball team christened its new $3 million field at Barcroft Park (4200 S. Four Mile Run Drive) last Friday. The team might have lost the first game at its newly-renovated home field, but it was a victory for a Division I athletic program that finally has a Division I-caliber field.

“It was a recreational field before,” coach Steve Mrowka told the GW Hatchet. “You couldn’t really have a solid game there.”

Now, the field has artificial turf, full-sized dugouts and more standard playing dimensions. Mrowka told the Hatchet that he believes the field will improve the team’s play and help with recruitment.

The Arlington County Board approved the plan to renovate Barcroft Field #6 in September, in an agreement with GW that called for the school to pay for all renovations and to split maintenance costs 25/75 with the county. While GW is given priority on the field for games and practices, it is open for use by the community at other times (about 75 percent of playable hours).

Though the team is playing there now, work on the field is not complete. Construction crews are still busy adding features like 500-person seating capacity seating, a new concessions area, permanent dugouts and a reconfigured parking lot.

GW will be playing home games against Shepherd at the field on Saturday and Sunday, starting at 1:00 p.m. See a full game schedule on the GW Baseball website.

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Happy Birthday, George Washington

By ARLnow.com

The arbitrary federal holiday known as President’s Day might have been last week, but don’t let that stop you from recognizing the actual birthday of an actual president. Founding father George Washington turns 278 today.

Did you know that our first president owned 1,200 acres of land in Northern Virginia, much of it in Arlington? If you don’t believe it, head out on a historical trek to find the George Washington Survey Tree.

Okay, the tree is long gone, but a marker was erected at the site where it once stood. It’s located just off the W&OD trail, near the Glencarlyn and Barcroft sections of Arlington.

There is also a section of the original tree on exhibit at the Glencarlyn Library.