Arlington's history as part of the United States goes back to the founding of the country. Plantation land in Arlington was owned by the Mason's, the Washington's, the Custis', and the Lee's. During the Civil War, Lee's plantation was confiscated and Arlington was part of the defensive parameter of forts, protecting the capital city. All the trees were cut down to build forts, for farm land, and as part of the defense. Eventually Arlington returned to being a rural suburb of chicken farms and dairy farms (the last dairy farm in Arlington was Reevesland, which is now Bluemont Park, WOD and Kenmore Middle School). The last of the back yard chicken farms disappeared not so long ago.
Arlington historically embraced smart growth. In 1932, addressing the cacophony of street names and inconsistent little neighborhoods, Arlington renamed all of the roads creating the current grid system of names and numbers. When the subway came along, Arlington embraced it - but fought both plowing the subway down the center of 66 - and letting 66 sprawl out into a multilane highway (like 395). Arlington elected to create an urban corridor, the only suburb to build subway station corridors where the stations are walking distance one to another.
Today's Errandonnee picks up in Clarendon. My first stop of the day was at the Arlington Post Office. Established in 1937, the Arlington Post Office was an attempt to begin to band together the loose confederation of neighborhoods that made up Arlington. Prior to that time, Arlington mail was handled in Washington D.C. Mural's of Arlington history, painted in 1939, can be seen on the inside walls of the Post Office.My next stop was a repeat lunch Errandonnee to the Delhi Club in Clarendon for lunch. In the 1970s, Vietnamese moved into Clarendon and the community came to be known as Little Saigon. But by the late 1970s, the Orange line of subway was under construction, disrupting business. Many of the Vietnamese businesses elected to move out of Clarendon, and established the Eden Center out at 7 Corners. When I moved back to Arlington in the late 1980s, Cafe Dalat and Little Viet Garden were some of the few Vietnamese restaurants still in Clarendon. They too have have since closed, giving way to high end, bland hipster joints. Nam Viet is probably the last remaining Vietnamese restaurant from the 1970s community (although marking a return, a new Vietnamese restaurant has opened in Shirlington).
Ballston Mall was originally Parkington. Parkington was an ambitious commercial venture. I recall my mom saying that the construction of the Mall was insane, as no one would venture that far out into the suburbs to go to shopping (the major department stores were all downtown at what is now Metro Center). Of course she was right; no one goes there - but only because even bigger shopping malls were build in places like Tyson's Corner. There was a Hot Shoppes and a Putt Putt golf right outside of Parkington. Now the county is deliberating what to do with public land right outside the Ballston Mall parking lot - and is considering building a Putt Putt golf course. Ah, the cycle of history.
