Arlington leaders on Tuesday (May 13) honored the legacy of a once-vibrant community wiped off the map to make way for construction around the Pentagon.
Board members also expressed regret at how those residents were treated by county leaders eight decades ago.
County Board members used the meeting to celebrate Queen City, which had been established in the early 1890s but in 1942 was acquired through eminent domain by the federal government.
The 900-plus residents of the community were displaced, many of them moving to other historically African-American communities in Arlington and across the region. Among them: Green Valley, Halls Hill, Arlington View and Baileys Crossroads.
The decision by the federal government to acquire the 30-acre community for Pentagon road and parking-lot construction took place without any input sought from local leaders.
At the May 13 event, Board Chair Takis Karantonis said county leaders failed Queen City residents by not advocating for them at the time.
“Arlington should have done more,” he said.
Recognition of the community and its residents “is long overdue,” Karantonis said.
At the event was William Vollin. Now 94, he is one of the last surviving members of the Queen City community.
Vollin said demolition of the community “destroyed the hopes and dreams and aspirations of so many people.”
“I frame this as an atrocity,” he told Board members.
An historic marker was approved in January by the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, and will be placed at the southeast corner of Army Navy Drive and S. Joyce Street. A formal unveiling is set for June.
It will be in addition to a 35-foot-tall work of public art honoring the community, installed in 2023 in the Metropolitan Park development located nearby.
Tree Stewards honored with park award: At their May 13 meeting, Board members also honored Tree Stewards of Arlington and Alexandria as recipient of the annual Bill Thomas Park Volunteer Award.
“We are thrilled” to recognize the organization, Karantonis said.
The annual accolade is presented by the county government through the Park and Recreation Commission.
William Way, a member of the commission, said the organization was being honored for its efforts supporting tree health, citizen science, advocacy and education.
Volunteers with the organization in 2024 provided more than 1,700 hours of volunteer service.
The local initiative is part of Virginia Tree Stewards, a project of the Trees Virginia, the commonwealth’s urban-forest council.
Karantonis said the award to Tree Stewards, and other recognitions at the meeting, represented “a celebration of a spirit of community and a spirit of diversity — our real civic fabric.”
Centennial of Bozman’s birth noted: Board members on Tuesday marked the centennial of the birth of Ellen Bozman, Arlington’s longest-serving County Board member.
“She was a passionate pioneer,” Karantonis said.
Born on April 21, 1925, Bozman was elected to the Board in 1973 and won six successive elections before retiring in December 1997. Several years after her death in 2009, the county government’s headquarters building was renamed in her honor.
