A local initiative is ensuring the experiences of Black Arlingtonians are among those highlighted as the nation marks its 250th birthday.
Local community leader Wilma Jones used the Arlington Historical Society’s HistoryFest on Saturday to spotlight “Arlington History from the Black Side.”
Arlington’s signature program celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday attracted large crowds to Kenmore Middle School this weekend.
A little rain at the end didn’t dampen the spirits of attendees or the success of Arlington HistoryFest, which earned an estimated 2,000 attendees on Saturday. Sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society, it represented the major local effort connected with the national birthday celebration.
In the mid-1700s, most of modern-day Fairlington and Shirlington was part of a plantation called Torthorwald, a rural retreat for the wealthy Carlyle merchant family of Alexandria.
When patriarch John Carlyle died in 1780, Torthorwald was home to an enslaved population totaling more than 40. And on Sunday, two of them were honored with the placement of new “stumbling stones” near the Fairlington Villages Community Center.
Arlington’s signature project honoring the nation’s 250th birthday is expected to attract a crowd of thousands in just a couple weeks.
The Arlington History Fest is slated for Saturday, May 9 at Kenmore Middle School — a date scheduled to avoid other events taking place in D.C. on the actual anniversary. It will feature more than 40 exhibitors, representation from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (Old Guard), food trucks and dozens of historical reenactors.
A local artist’s exhibit examining the impacts of gentrification in historically Black neighborhoods is on display at the Arlington Historical Museum.
The exhibition, titled “A Different Look from a Different View,” explores local Black residents’ challenges coming to grips with changing realities in once tight-knit communities in places like Halls Hill, Green Valley and D.C. neighborhoods including Adams Morgan, Logan Circle and Navy Yard.
Arlington is gearing up to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday with a history festival and, potentially, a bell-ringing, outdoor movies and more.
“It’s a great opportunity” to bring history to the people, said Peter Vaselopulos, president of the Arlington Historical Society.
Arlington would be a very different place today if all the road plans of the county’s first General Land Use Plan (GLUP) — enacted in 1961 — had been constructed.
A massive arterial named Bluemont Drive would have cut east to southwest across the county. S. Four Mile Run Drive would have been much larger than its current configuration. A freeway in the Donaldson Run area would have connected to the George Washington Memorial Parkway.
A recent presentation from a former local official examined Virginia’s three-decade statewide transformation from politically red to purple to now (maybe) blue.
John Milliken, former County Board member and Virginia Secretary of Transportation, explored the Old Dominion’s political evolution at the gubernatorial level from the narrow 2001 election of Mark Warner to the 2025 landslide bringing Abigail Spanberger into office.
A special “stumbling stone” unveiling last week taught Gunston Middle School sixth graders about the harsh lives of those enslaved across Arlington — and in their very neighborhoods.
The stones, the latest in a series being placed across the county, recognize the lives of Sina and George, a mother-son duo enslaved during the mid-1800s in the area where the school is now located. While the full story of their lives is not known, research has uncovered some information:
The Arlington Historical Society has launched a new initiative designed to capture present-day voices for future study and understanding.
In preparation for pilot projects — including discussions with those involved in development in the Shirlington area as well as the Crystal City Underground — co-chairs Sean Denniston and Marty Suydam recently completed a five-week training session on oral histories courtesy of the Office of Historic Alexandria.
The two newest “stumbling stones” memorializing people enslaved in Arlington are located near a historic cemetery where the honorees are laid to rest.
The congregation of Lomax AME Zion Church was joined by community members on Nov. 9 to unveil the two new markers outside the church entrance on 24th Road S. in Green Valley.
The effort to memorialize people enslaved in Arlington is receiving an additional push over the coming month before it takes a winter break.
Six “stumbling stone” ceremonies have been planned through mid-November at locations across the county. They began Saturday in the Arlington View neighborhood with the unveiling of three new bronze markers embedded into the sidewalk.
