A multi-day history festival commemorating the United States’ 250th birthday could be coming to Arlington next year.
The Arlington Historical Society, which presented an update on its plans for the landmark anniversary at a meeting of the Arlington County Civic Association last week, hopes to host the event next May, likely at Kenmore Middle School.
If all goes according to plan, the event could include participation by the state government’s mobile museum, which will be traveling across the commonwealth over the next two years.
“We’re calling it a once-in-a-lifetime event,” Peter Vaselopulos, president of the Arlington Historical Society, said of efforts to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776.
The historical society has been tasked by the County Board to lead efforts marking what is being called the semi-sesquicentennial, for “half of 500 years.”
The Arlington government appears to be taking a low-key approach to the celebration, not unlike what it did in the lead-up to the bicentennial celebration in 1976.
The late Edward Sayle, who chaired the county’s bicentennial committee, predicted at the time that the modest participation of the county government would turn out to be a positive thing.
“Arlington’s efforts in the commemoration rely on its greatest asset: its citizens,” Sayle said then. “In Arlington, the Bicentennial is not something you watch. It’s something you do!”
“Something you do” might also be the mantra of the 2026 celebration. To make it happen, leaders of the effort are asking for support.
“Spread the word. Tell us what we’re doing right, what we’re doing wrong,” said Sean Denniston, vice president of the historical society.
He said the goal of the upcoming commemoration was to celebrate while also acknowledging the “peaks and valleys” of history.
The historical society is hoping to receive state grant funds for some of its planned efforts. They include a compilation of stories from county residents of “the people, the places, the events that made us who we are,” Vaselopulos said.
Next year will also mark a milestone anniversary for the historical society, which turns 70 years old.
To celebrate that milestone, the society recently refurbished the Arlington Historical Museum. Vaselopulos said the reopening, which occurred in May, was designed to serve as a kickoff for all that historic advocates hope to do over the coming year.
Until 1801 when it was incorporated into the new District of Columbia, Arlington was part of Fairfax County. So, in a way, Arlington residents can claim as one of their own the most famous of Americans: George Washington.
Washington, portrayed by Daniel Cross of George Washington’s Mount Vernon, made an appearance June 10 as the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors kicked off its formal celebration of the 2026 birthday bash.
He strode into the county’s Board auditorium escorted by a procession that included a fife-and-drum accompaniment.
Fairfax Supervisor Dan Storck (D-Mount Vernon) noted that Fairfax sent two representatives — Washington and George Mason — to the Continental Congress in 1774 . That gathering provided a show of colonial unity, setting the stage for what was to follow.
The local region was, and remains, “intimately and inextricably” tied to the Revolutionary War era, Storck said.
