history

Broyhill mansion demolition kicks off with owners fending off vigilante neighborhood preservationists

By Jo DeVoe
1/15

Demolition began this weekend on the 70-year-old Broyhill mansion in the Donaldson Run neighborhood.

The lengths to which some have gone to oppose it, including allegedly impersonating a photographer and stealing tile today (Monday), has left a bitter taste in the mouths of the owners.

The 10-bedroom home at 2561 N. Vermont, near the Washington Golf and Country Club, went on the market last November for $3.6 million after the previous owner died and the beneficiary, the Catholic Prelature of Opus Dei, decided to sell it to a residential buyer, the Falls Church News-Press reported.

As of January, the only interested buyers were husband-and-wife duo Mustaq Hamza and Amanda Maldonado. They purchased the home — described on Redfin as a “jewel [that] unfolds like a diamond necklace” — f0r more than $1 million under asking price, with the intention of knocking it down and building something more suitable for family life.

“The house was built for entertaining, not for raising a family,” Maldonado told ARLnow this morning.

Some however, are upset to see it go. On Saturday, Hamza said people shouted profanities and walked onto the property and demanded materials be set aside.

“That’s not what we expected when we were trying to plan,” he said, adding that now, he and his wife are doing some “soul-searching.”

“Our intention coming here to build the house for our family seems predicated on the fact that this was a nice neighborhood to raise our children in and stay forever,” he said. “It seems not to be the case, and disappointed as we are, we’re open to having been wrong.”

Unwanted visitors — flouting signs saying “private property” and “danger” — continued on Monday afternoon, when ARLnow photographer Jay Westcott was taking photos of the demolition.

When Westcott arrived, he met a man impersonating a photographer, who announced he was “here to take the pictures.” In addition to a camera, he wore a fluorescent vest, a hard hat and a K95 mask, and left in his red Prius with, Hamza says, historically unremarkable tiles and air filters. He says he is considering filing a police report.

The couple insists that the home is not the historical marvel it has been made out to be. They have preserved items inside and given them away if people requested them, the couple said.

“There’s nothing architecturally stunning about the house — it’s a 1950s replica,” Maldonado said. “There’s nothing in the house that can’t be purchased today. We looked to see if there was anything worth preserving and anything that there was, we saved.”

Northern Virginia home builder Marvin T. Broyhill Sr. built the mansion in 1950 after making his fortune building the classic 3-bedroom brick homes that could be bought for $20,000 during the post-World War II housing boom, according to the neighborhood conservation plan for Donaldson Run.

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NEW: Five Guys looks to return to its original Columbia Pike location after redevelopment

By ARLnow.com
1/5

Five Guys appears set to return to its original location near the corner of Columbia Pike and S. Glebe Road.

Since its 1986 founding in Arlington’s Westmont Shopping Center, Five Guys has grown into a huge international burger-and-fries chain. But it has maintained its local roots, including a Northern Virginia corporate headquarters that will soon be moving to Alexandria.

Now, it is expected to open a new location on the ground floor of the Westmont apartment building that’s replacing the former strip mall. A leasing brochure seen by ARLnow suggests it will be taking a 2,400 square foot space along Columbia Pike, the second retail business listed on the leasing plan in addition to a new Allcare urgent care clinic along Glebe.

The brochure says construction on the building is expected to wrap up within the next three months or so. It is unclear how long after that Five Guys might open.

So far, Five Guys has not responded to ARLnow’s request, sent Tuesday, for confirmation of the new location.

The company has two existing Arlington locations, in Courthouse and at Reagan National Airport. The status of a previously-announced Clarendon location, in part of the former Whitlow’s space, is unclear.

NEW: Maury Park could be renamed during planning process slated for later this year

By Jo DeVoe
Maury Park (via Google Maps)

(Updated at 11 a.m.) The namesake of Maury Park in Virginia Square is Matthew Fontaine Maury, a pioneer of oceanography and a Confederate commander during the Civil War.

The park’s name could change, however, if renaming is included in a planning and renovation process slated to begin at the end of 2023.

“It is likely that the renaming of Maury Park may be considered during its upcoming master planning process, similar to other park renaming efforts,” Jerry Solomon, a spokeswoman for the Arlington Dept. of Parks and Recreation, tells ARLnow.

References to Maury have been removed over the last few years, prompted by the racial reckoning catalyzed by the murder of George Floyd by police officers. Last week, the U.S. Navy announced it will rename the oceanographic survey ship USNS Maury.

In July 2020, a statue of Maury in Richmond was removed after the mayor ordered the removal of all Confederate statues on city property.

Maury Park (3550 Wilson Blvd), a small green space behind the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington, formerly the Arlington Arts Center, may be next. The old school building that has housed the arts center since 1977 was renamed in 1944 to honor Maury.

Arlington does not currently have a process for surveying all county structures for potential renamings, but DPR considers name changes as parks and facilities come up in the renovation cycle, Solomon said.

Through the renovation process, the county renamed Henry Clay Park to Zitkala-Ša Park — at the suggestion of the Lyon Park Citizens Association — “in order to honor the prominent author and activist from the indigenous community as opposed to a known owner of slaves,” Solomon said.

Maury Park is one of three urban parks in the Virginia Square Planning Area and in the Ashton Heights Civic Association, including Herselle Milliken Park and Gum Ball Park, set for upgrades in the near future.

“The project will master plan all three parks simultaneously to identify community needs and priorities while taking into consideration that the parks are located in close proximity and should have complementary rather than duplicative features,” per the Capital Improvement Plan.

Citing the county’s renaming policy, Solomon said, “renaming will be considered if a valid justification for the renaming is provided, the name change will not cause undue confusion with the community, and an appropriate level of community support exists.”

There are no plans to officially rename the building, according to Cynthia Liccese-Torres, the coordinator for Arlington County’s historic preservation program. The school is known interchangeably as the Clarendon School and the Maury School, though it has long been identified by the Arlington Arts Center, now the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington.

Signage referring to Maury was replaced with signage for the Arlington Arts Center before 2008 during building renovations, she said.

Born in 1806 in Fredericksburg, Maury joined the U.S. Navy in 1821 and was promoted to lieutenant in 1836, according to a county webpage for the Arlington Arts Center building, which it calls the Clarendon (Maury) School. He served as superintendent of the Navy Department’s Depot of Charts and Instruments from 1842 to 1855 and from 1858 to 1861.

In the 1850s, he worked on a project to “resettle slaves from the U.S. to the Brazilian Amazon as a way to gradually phase-out slavery in the U.S.,” an effort that “ultimately went nowhere,” according to a blog post by the Library of Congress.

“Maury was neither a slave-owner nor a proponent of slavery,” the post said. “Nevertheless, in declining to fight against his native Virginia, Maury resigned his post and joined the Confederate Navy, initially to direct coastal and river defenses and develop naval mine technologies to use against the Union.”

He ended up spending most of the war abroad, “hoping to persuade Europeans to support the Confederate cause and bring the war to a quick end,” the Library of Congress post said.

According to Arlington County, Maury served as commander in the Confederate Navy and later as its secretary.

Following the end of the war, Maury remained abroad for several years before taking a professorship in meteorology at the Virginia Military Institute, in Lexington, where he would teach until his death in 1873.

Here’s how January 6, 2021 played out on ARLnow, in photos and on social media

By ARLnow.com
1/7

Today is the second anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, a historic event during which Arlington played a significant role.

It was in an Arlington hotel that some of the convicted insurrectionists had stayed and stored weapons. Arlington law enforcement and firefighters have been honored for their role in helping to protect the Capitol and treat the injured. And it was here that dozens of Virginia State Police troopers rallied before heading into the District to join the fray against the mob.

It is still surreal recalling the events of that day playing out on TV and then, closer to home, on Arlington police radio channels and traffic cameras.

Above we’ve included a gallery of photos that we published that day and below is a chronological recounting of our Twitter account on Jan. 6, from the first breaking article being published on.

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Here are some last minute, Arlington-related holiday gift ideas

By Matt Blitz
Snow falls in Rosslyn in 2020 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Christmas and Hanukkah are nearly here, which is undoubtedly provoking panic among last-minute shoppers.

Luckily, ARLnow has an Arlington-centric holiday gift guide for all those who looking for the perfect present for the the gondola fans and local literature enthusiasts in you life.

Below are eight great, last-minute Arlington-related gifts.

Silver Diner item up for auction (via Real Food for Kids)

After 26 years, the Silver Diner in Clarendon is now closed with the new Ballston location opening this past week. Now, a number of items from that restaurant are up for auction.

Money helps supports the local non-profit Real Food for Kids. The auction ends next week, on Dec. 22.

This summer, local elected officials again introduced joint legislation to remove Robert E. Lee’s name from the historic home at Arlington National Cemetery. While the bills stalled, it was actually George Washington Parke Custis who had the house built to honor George Washington.

This definitive biography by local author Charlie Clark provides the first-of-a-kind look into the life of George Washington Parke Custis and the history of Arlington’s first family.

Cans of New District beer (file photo)

With word coming that a new indoor dog park and bar may be replacing Green Valley’s New District Brewing, now is the time to stuff those stockings with beer.

Four packs of beer, including the National Landing IPA and Potomac Paddleboarder Blonde Ale, are available in the taproom whenever the brewery is open. All the beer is now packaged at their facility with its crowd-funded canning line.

Little Michael Visits Fire Station 8 book cover (via Amazon)

Help that little Arlingtonian in your life to learn local history with this book written by community leader Wilma Jones.

It tells the story of a third grader in 1955 who visits the Halls Hill fire station. For decades, Fire Station 8 was the only one in Arlington that was staffed by African-Americans.

The original station was demolished in June with a new station now in the midst of construction. It’s expected to be completed sometime late next year.

Pickleball being played outside at Walter Reed Community Center (staff photo by Matt Blitz)

Pickleball has taken Arlington by storm, even as the pickleball pop has driven some locals mad.

The county is providing a chance to get in on the craze by offering pickleball classes for all ages. The classes begin in February and continue through April, but can be purchased now.

But be careful about where you play so the county doesn’t get sued.

Inner Ear Recording Studios t-shirt (screenshot via Amazon)

Demolition day may be looming for the building that once housed legendary Inner Ear Studios, but the recording studio still lives in Don Zientara’s Arlington basement. Some have called it “the Abbey Road of Arlington.”

A t-shirt with the original Inner Ear logo is available from ARLnow on Amazon.

Ballston resident Isa Seyran serves up dishy stories in his new book detailing working in the local restaurant scene.

The subject of a recent ARLnow Press Club feature, Seyran shares a number of anecdotes in the book about working for some of the most famous chefs in the D.C. area.

Arlington Gondoliers sweatshirt

Sure, it’s actually Arlington, Texas that’s getting an XFL team, and not Arlington, Virginia, but that didn’t dissuade us from asking readers on social media what they would have named the football team.

One answer stood out:

The Arlington Gondoliers

ARLnow designed a logo and put it on a bunch of swag so everyone can support the local team that never was.

  • Bonus: Items from a local holiday market

If you are still in need of more last-minute gifts, the Forever Grateful Market in Crystal City is happening this weekend.

County says Days Inn developer needs to play up hotel’s mid-century modern origins

By Jo DeVoe
1/9

Arlington County planners say designs for the Days Inn redevelopment on Route 50 don’t pay sufficient homage to the motel’s mid-century modern bones.

Applicant and owner Nayan Patel — doing business as Arlington Boulevard LLC — proposes to replace the 128-unit, 2-story motel across the street from the Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall with apartments and 3,000 square feet of retail.

Possible community benefits include a slow-speed, shared-use drive that provides a pedestrian and cycling connection to the Arlington Blvd Trail, protected bike lanes and on-site committed affordable housing units. Residents of the the 251-unit, 8-story building at 2201 Arlington Blvd will have access to an off-leash dog run.

The Arva Apartments will borrow its name from the 67-year-old building’s original name, the Arva Motor Hotel — a portmanteau of Arlington, Virginia. It will feature reconstructions of the hotel’s triangular sign and glassy lobby exterior.

But the county says the project designers, STUDIOS Architects, can do more to emphasize this history.

The Pershing Drive General Land Use Plan study, a 2021 document that outlines the community’s vision for this site, says architectural features should honor the motel’s mid-century design or the history of the adjacent Washington-Lee Apartments. It also says the developer should incorporate the existing triangular sign and the two-story, glassy lobby at the corner of Pershing Drive and Arlington Blvd.

The motel was formerly the Arva Motor Hotel, a portmanteau of Arlington, Virginia

“While the proposal incorporates a recreated sign and a lobby area that resembles the original lobby, the structures themselves are not actually preserved,” county planner Peter Schulz said in a presentation. “Staff also believes that the architecture above the ground level does not do enough to honor either the mid-century design of the existing motel or the historic Washington-Lee apartments.”

STUDIOS Architecture Principal Ashton Allan said in a presentation that the designs embrace the Moderne and mid-century modern styles and blends them with other styles in Lyon Park to do something new.

“As we set out to add our design to this collection, we wanted to draw inspiration from history, but also make our own statement in this chorus of voices,” he said.

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New historic marker honors final resting place for early Halls Hill community

By Matt Blitz
1/3

(Updated at 8:50 p.m.) A new historic marker has gone up at the 138-year-old Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery, honoring the final resting place for a number of early Halls Hill leaders.

The county installed a historic marker in October at Mount Salvation Baptist Cemetery on N. Culpepper Street in the Halls Hill neighborhood, also known as High View Park. A brief unveiling ceremony was held in late November and attended by Board Chair Katie Cristol, local historian Charlie Clark, Black Heritage Museum president Scott Edwin Taylor, and others.

The marker reads:

“The Mt. Salvation Baptist Church trustees have maintained this cemetery since June 7, 1884 when they bought the property for $80. Reverend Cyrus Carter cultivated the congregation which began at the nearby home of Isabella Washington and Moses Pelham, Sr. The cemetery contains 89 known burials from 1916 to 1974, although earlier burials were likely.

This is the final resting place of many community leaders, including those who were formerly enslaved and their descendants. Members of this church provided stability and social support throughout segregation and served as a pillar of Arlington’s African American community. The cemetery became an Arlington Historic District in 2021.”

The cemetery was designated as a local historic district last year and the marker was approved by the county’s Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) in April 2022.

“Being a Local Historic District (LHD) is not required to request a marker, but we thought this would be a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our newest LHD and provide a small glimpse into the history for those enjoying the neighborhood,” county historic preservation planner Serena Bolliger wrote ARLnow in an email.

The cemetery is the final resting place for at least nearly 90 early residents of Halls Hill, a fact known thanks to a ground-penetrating probing survey that was done in October 2019 with permission from the church. The probing also revealed potential grave markers and borders.

Buried at Mount Salvation are a number of influential Arlingtonians including Lucretia M. Lewis, Moses Pelham, and Annie and Robert Spriggs.

Scott Edwin Taylor, president of the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, told ARLnow that what also makes Mount Salvation special is that it’s a great example of how traditional African American cemeteries were laid out and designed prior to the turn of the 20th century. Graves are often oriented east to west, with the head point westward. Burial plots tend to be shallow, no deeper than four feet, with plantings.

“Some anthropologists have suggested that marking graves with plants may have been rooted in the African belief in the living spirit,” reads the county’s report on the cemetery.

Some graves even have seashells.

“A lot of Black Americans, before the turn of the [20th] century, used seashells. It was… like asking angels to watch over the graves. A couple of the graves still have those seashells on there,” Taylor said.

Mount Salvation is one of two still-remaining, church-affiliated, historic African-American cemeteries in the Halls Hill neighborhood with the other being Calloway Cemetery on Langston Blvd.

It’s important to preserve these sites for generations to come, Taylor explained.

“The gentrification that’s going on in Arlington is moving at the speed of light,” Taylor said. “When we have landmarks like [this], we need to cherish them because it shows the real African-American experience.”

Time is running out to nominate a notable tree in Arlington

By Jo DeVoe
1/2

Know of a majestic maple, terrific tulip or winsome willow tree deserving of recognition?

Don’t leaf it until the last minute to nominate a tree for Arlington County’s recognition program for notable trees. The deadline for the 2023 honors is this Halloween (Monday, Oct. 31), which is less than two weeks away.

“Since 1987, Arlington County has recognized its most notable trees,” Arlington’s Urban Forest Manager Vincent Verweij told the Arlington County Board this spring during his presentation on the 2022 winners. “This volunteer-led program has recognized over 365 trees.”

Owners are recognized with a certificate or plaque, and sometimes, the trees are included on neighborhood walking tours.

“While these trees are not legally protected, notable tree status has often helped communicate the value of these trees in development projects, and led to increased conservation of our most prized natural resource,” Verweij said.

Nominators can fill out a form that asks for the tree’s common and species name, the tree’s street address and location on the property. There is space to write a brief description of why the nominator believes the tree should be recognized and an option to upload photos.

“Nominators other than the tree’s owner should contact the owner for consent before submitting an application,” per the county. “Owners may request that their names and addresses not appear on the public listing.”

Volunteers or county staff will measure the tree and evaluate its health before making a recommendation to the Forestry and Natural Resources Commission. Considerations include a tree’s size, age, historical and community significance, and whether its species is unique and non-invasive.

For 2022, 18 submissions were reviewed and 12 nominations were approved, Verweij said.

An Ohio museum wants to give away spare pieces of a house it owns, but needs Arlington’s permission

By Jo DeVoe
1/6

A museum in Columbus, Ohio has a piece of post-World War II Arlington history.

Technically, more than one piece — almost an entire enameled steel, prefabricated two-bedroom, one-bathroom house that originally stood in the Columbia Forest neighborhood. In 2011, Arlington County donated the home, a prefabricated steel Lustron house, to the Ohio History Connection (OHC).

Eight years after the museum rebuilt the house and put it on public display, it is looking to get rid of some parts it did not end up incorporating, like a bathroom vanity, trusses and a heating unit, per a county report. It’s offering first dibs to the Arlington County Board, which it has to do, per the terms of the donation a decade ago.

County staff recommend the Board refuse the offer, arguing that the museum is in a better position to place these pieces with other Lustron homeowners, who are mostly in the Midwest. Plus, staff say, the county already has some panelling salvaged from other Lustron homes.

“The proximity of the OHC to a robust network of Lustron Homes and owners in Ohio and beyond provides a better-suited opportunity for these historic items to be feasibly reused,” per a county report.

Arlington County had struggled for years to figure out what to do with this home, which came into its possession about 15 years ago.

Advertised as “the house America is talking about,” several thousand Lustron houses were produced between 1948-1950. Eleven were built in Arlington, giving the county the distinction of having the largest quantity in the D.C. area, per a 2006 board report.

Due to their small size and unusual construction, they “are are at great risk for demolition and are becoming increasingly rare,” according to the report.

By 2005, only six remained in Arlington — and the one in the best condition was Clifford Krowne’s 1,805-square-foot “Westchester Deluxe 02” model in “dove gray.” That year, he told the county he intended to raze the home and redevelop his property, but he offered to delay those plans if the county wanted to preserve the house but put it somewhere else.

The county agreed to pay $18,500 to have a contractor disassemble it. Plans to reassemble it in the Arlington Heights neighborhood never transpired, so it sat in storage in Chantilly, costing the county $4,800 a year, for five years, save for a brief moment of celebrity in New York City’s Museum of Modern Art.

Then, staff found a recipient: the Ohio history society.

“Though the OHC maintains the official Lustron corporate archives in its collection, the organization did not yet own an actual Lustron Home,” according to the 2022 board report. “The OHC agreed to assume all associated costs for shipping the house from Chantilly to Columbus and was eager to use the home for educational and interpretive purposes.”

If the County Board approves the refusal, the last pieces of Arlington’s post-World War II history will go to Lustron homeowners whose homes remain a testament to everything prefabricated homes represented.

“The design and manufacture of Lustrons aimed not just to satisfy an overwhelming and immediate need for affordable housing, but to raise the quality of living for middle-class Americans,” according to the county report. “Lustrons were ingenious not only in their materials, but also for their open floor plan, space-saving built-in cabinetry, and maintenance-free and fireproof all steel construction.”

The Arlington Historical Society is separately in talks with the Ohio museum about taking some pieces, the County Board report notes.

Pickup truck smashes through decorative Memorial Bridge stone railing

By ARLnow.com
Pickup truck that crashed into and damaged the side of the Memorial Bridge (photo courtesy John Wilcox)

The driver of a pickup truck nearby ran off the side of the Memorial Bridge this evening.

The truck mounted the southern sidewalk and smashed through the decorative masonry on the side of the bridge, over the GW Parkway and the Mt. Vernon Trail. It was likely just a few feet away from falling off the side of the bridge and onto the trail.

Police described it as a single-vehicle crash. U.S. Park Police officers and Arlington firefighters were among those to respond to the scene. No information on injuries or the cause of the crash was immediately available.

The inbound lanes of the bridge were closed to traffic for a time after the crash but have since reopened.

Memorial Bridge underwent an extensive, two-year rehabilitation project that wrapped up in 2020. The work included cleaning, repairing and reinstalling the bridge’s “historic granite balustrade.”

It appears that the truck smashed through one of those sections of balustrade. Repairing it may take awhile.

More on the balustrade work from a 2019 Washington Post article:

Hunks of curbing, benches and hundreds of ornate 80-pound balusters, for the balustrade, or stone railing, were scattered across a large Lorton Stone company work yard in Upper Marlboro, Md., like pieces of a huge puzzle.

There, they were being power-washed and repaired, if needed, said National Park Service spokesman Jonathan Shafer.

Many of the pieces have been stained by rust over the years from passing cars and nicked by snowplows, said Lindy Gulick, a Park Service architectural conservator.

Missing parts are being replaced by new pieces that are glued in place and sculpted to fit.

The original balusters were handcrafted from stone cut in a quarry in Mount Airy, N.C.

Replacements for the few that could not be repaired are being made with the help of a computer and with stone from the same quarry, Gulick said.

More on the crash via social media:

New public art in park next to HQ2 to commemorate former Black community

By ARLnow.com
1/5

A towering remembrance of the former Black community of Queen City is slated to be included in an Amazon-funded park next to HQ2.

Arlington’s Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) is set to review the proposed public art installation, from D.C. artist Nekisha Durrett, at its meeting tonight.

A presentation prepared for the meeting shows a 30 foot tall brick chimney stack, with the words “Queen City” written in brick, along the footpaths of the new Met Park in Pentagon City. The park is currently under construction after the County Board approved a $14 million, Amazon-funded renovation project two years ago.

The revamped park is expected to re-open at some point next year.

The proposed red brick structure, harkening back to the area’s past as a hub for brick production, will also include a decorative interior that park-goers will be able to freely enter.

Made with reclaimed bricks and illuminated by LED uplighting, the tower will seek to carry forward the legacy of the Black enclaves of Freedman’s Village and, more specifically, Queen City — two of several that dotted Arlington a century or more ago.

Freedman’s Village, founded on the former estate of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee during the Civil War, was closed by the federal government in 1900 and became part of Arlington National Cemetery. Queen City was founded nearby in response to the closure of Freedman’s Village.

But Queen City, too, would eventually be razed by the federal government — in 1942, to make way for the freeway network built around the newly-constructed Pentagon.

From the doctoral dissertation of Lindsey Bestebreurtje, Ph.D., a curator in the National Museum of African American History and Culture:

Together with the adjacent community of East Arlington, Queen City was located in south-eastern Arlington on flat land, prone to flooding from the nearby Potomac River, near several factories and along the Washington, Alexandria, and Mt. Vernon trolley line. Queen City was built around the Mt. Olive Baptist Church which had roots in Freedman’s Village. Saving one-fourth of an acre for the church, the remaining land was parceled into forty lots to be sold to church members leaving the Village. With small plots of 20 feet by 92 feet, this subdivision transformed the former farm land into a more dense and suburban environment. Many of the homes constructed by former residents of Freedman’s Village at this time were reminiscent of the simple clap-board houses they called home in the Village, making housing type another product of the Village’s diaspora.

By 1942 more than 200 working class families lived in modest but well-kept frame houses. Just as was the case in Freedman’s Village, where residents saw a thriving community, outsiders saw the black neighborhood as a ghetto. In January of 1942 construction began for the Pentagon’s road networks in the path of the communities. Properties were seized through [eminent] domain laws with modest payments. With this loss some community members left the area entirely, while other residents and institutions relocated to Arlington’s remaining black communities of Hall’s Hill, Johnson’s Hill, or Green Valley.

The dissertation notes that the destruction of the Queen City community was personally approved by the president at the time.

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