News

The planned sale of a historic property in the Penrose community may be a way for the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington to find a permanent home.

An online fundraising effort is seeking to help purchase the circa-1900 home at 2312 2nd Street S. In the early 20th century, this served as the Hunter Station trolley stop, where the Fort Myer branch of the D.C., Alexandria and Falls Church commuter-rail line connected to trolley service.


Schools

Arlington’s oldest elementary school is celebrating its 100th anniversary on Friday with student-centered activities and a community picnic.

Festivities at Barcroft Elementary School will include a human chain beginning at the site of the original Barcroft School and a mini “field day” where students participate in games and activities that kids might have played 100 years ago.


News

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To Northern Virginia Democrats, 1952 will be remembered as the year victory slipped narrowly away.


News

New “stumbling stones” are honoring the lives of two individuals enslaved in present-day Boulevard Manor in the 18th century.

The brass markers in the sidewalk at 516 N. Livingston Street honor the lives of Con and Killemacse, who in the mid-1700s were enslaved on farmland that now forms the Boulevard Manor neighborhood.


News

The Arlington Historical Society is calling on local writers to bring key aspects of the county’s history to life as the nation’s 250th birthday approaches next year.

The new writing project, “250 by 2026,” aims to round up 250 stories that may not be in the public consciousness.


News

A recent event by the Arlington Historical Society marked the 250th anniversary of the founding of local and statewide militias in the Revolutionary War era.

The program held at the Ball-Sellers House on Saturday honored the establishment of the Fairfax militia in January 1775, followed by the creation of a statewide militia in August of that year.


News

Arlington’s Green Valley community has a long and, in many ways, distinguished past.

Coming into being before the Civil War, it served as a home to freed Black residents and carried on as a refuge for the African-American community in a county and commonwealth that, until the 1960s, adhered to a rigid system of segregation in housing and other facets of daily life.


News

A new Arlington Historical Society exhibition looks at the life and legacy of what may have been Arlington’s first Chinese-inspired restaurant.

“The Family Tea House: Where Culture and Cuisine Met in Arlington” delves into the story of Family Tea House, the dishes it offered and the role it played in a brief but important episode in Virginia’s civil rights movement.


News

A new documentary delving into the lives of residents at a Columbia Pike affordable housing complex made its debut on Saturday.

“We Are Barcroft: A 60-Acre History of People & Place,” seeks to preserve the stories of people who came to the Barcroft Apartments from around the globe.


News

New research is shedding light on a 40-acre military camp for Black soldiers that fanned out from the southeast corner of Columbia Pike and S. Courthouse Road during the Civil War.

Camp Casey served as a key recruiting and training ground for the military regiments that would become known as the U.S. Colored Troops. Some of the soldiers had been enslaved, while others were either born free or emancipated.


News

Sitting on the reference stacks at the Charlie Clark Center for Local History at Arlington Central Library are five thick, blue, nearly 50-year-old bound editions.

They are the archives of the Arlington County Bicentennial Commission, which, from 1974 through the end of 1976, was tasked with overseeing local efforts to celebrate the nation’s 200th birthday.


News

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.


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