97-703: FanGraphs.com is a website run by Fangraphs Inc., located in Arlington , Virginia , and created and owned by David Appelman that provides statistics for every player in Major League Baseball history. On September 18, 2009, Fangraphs Inc. launched an iPhone app in partnership with Hawk Ridge Consulting, which was discontinued before returning in 2022. Fangraphs has a number of content partners including ESPN , SB Nation and Fanhouse . FanGraphs creates several products: Arlington County, Virginia Arlington County , or simply Arlington ,
194-479: A Union Army soldier. Later that month, on August 27, another large incursion of 600 to 800 Confederate soldiers clashed with Union soldiers at Ball's Crossroads, Hall's Hill, and at the present-day border between the Falls Church and Arlington. A number of soldiers on both sides were killed. However, the territory in present-day Arlington never fell under Confederate control and was not attacked. In 1870,
291-629: A below ground rapid transit system, now the Washington Metro , which included two lines in Arlington. Initial plans called for what became the Orange Line to parallel I-66 , which would have mainly benefited Fairfax County . Arlington County officials called for the stations in Arlington to be placed along the decaying commercial corridor between Rosslyn and Ballston that included Clarendon. A new regional transportation planning entity
388-843: A cash contribution, in order to obtain the highest allowable amounts of increased building density in new development projects, most of which are planned near Metrorail station areas. A number of the county's residential neighborhoods and larger garden-style apartment complexes are listed in the National Register of Historic Places and/or designated under the County government's zoning ordinance as local historic preservation districts . These include Arlington Village, Arlington Forest, Ashton Heights, Buckingham, Cherrydale, Claremont, Colonial Village, Fairlington , Lyon Park, Lyon Village, Maywood, Nauck , Penrose, Waverly Hills and Westover. Many of Arlington County's neighborhoods participate in
485-755: A commission as a cornet in the United States Army and was promoted to second lieutenant in March. He served as aide-de-camp to General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and was honorably discharged on June 15, 1800. During the War of 1812, Custis, despite physical infirmities, assisted in the firing of an artillery piece to help defend Washington, D.C., from the British during the Battle of Bladensburg . Custis also delivered and published an address condemning
582-582: A girl named Lucy with the slave Caroline Branham . In 1802, the Washington Jockey Club sought a site for a new race course, as its old site—which occupied land from the rear of what is now the site of Decatur House at H Street and Jackson Place, across Seventeenth Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, to Twentieth Street, where the Eisenhower Executive Office Building sits today—was suffering encroachment from
679-646: A group of parents of both white and black students to end segregation. Black pupils were still denied admission to white schools, but the lawsuit went before the U.S. District Court, which ruled that Arlington schools were to be desegregated by the 1958–59 academic year. In January 1959 both the U.S. District Court and the Virginia Supreme Court had ruled against Virginia's massive resistance movement, which opposed racial integration. The Arlington County Central Library's collections include written materials as well as accounts in its Oral History Project of
776-513: A long-range benefit. Citizen input and county planners came up with a workable compromise, with some limits on development. The two lines in Arlington were inaugurated in 1977. The Orange Line's creation was more problematic than the Blue Line's. The Blue Line served the Pentagon and National Airport and boosted the commercial development of Crystal City and Pentagon City. Property values along
873-688: A memorial to George Washington. An Army veteran of the War of 1812 , George W. P. Custis and his wife Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis were buried in a fenced-in area now located in section 13. Other family members include: daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis Lee ; Maria Carter Syphax , illegitimate daughter of enslaved (and later freed) maid, Arianna Carter Syphax, son-in-law: Robert Edward Lee, and seven grandchildren: George Custis Lee, Mary, William, Robert E. Jr., Anne, Eleanor, and Mildred. George W. P. Custis and his wife Mary Fitzhugh Custis who raised their daughter Mary Anna Randolph Custis at Arlington, left
970-416: A model revitalization for older suburbs. In 1965, after years of negotiations, Arlington swapped some land in the south end with Alexandria, though less than originally planned. The land was located along King Street and Four Mile Run. The exchange allowed the two jurisdictions to straighten out the boundary and helped highway and sewer projects to go forward. It moved into Arlington several acres of land to
1067-540: A nearby home owned by Custis relatives. When Mary Custis Lee did not pay her property taxes in person, the estate was legally confiscated. The United States would later return it, and then purchase the property from Custis Lee. Union troops occupied Arlington on May 24. On July 16, 1862, the United States Congress passed legislation authorizing the purchase of land for national cemeteries for military dead. In May 1864, large numbers of Union forces died in
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#17328008949871164-533: A plantation in what became Arlington, Virginia . High atop a hill overlooking the Potomac River and Washington, D.C. , Custis built the Greek Revival mansion Arlington House (1803–18), as a shrine to George Washington. There he preserved and displayed many of Washington's belongings. Custis also wrote historical plays about Virginia, delivered a number of patriotic addresses, and was the author of
1261-400: A population of 238,643 as of the 2020 census . If Arlington County were incorporated as a city, it would rank as the third-most populous city in the state. With a land area of 26 square miles (67 km ), Arlington County is the geographically smallest self-governing county in the nation. Arlington County is home to the Pentagon , the world's second-largest office structure, which houses
1358-568: A son, Benedict Swingate Calvert , who was Custis's maternal grandfather. Custis's father, John Parke Custis , was the son of Martha Washington by her marriage to Daniel Parke Custis . Custis's sister Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis Lewis married George Washington's nephew, Lawrence Lewis . As a wedding present, Washington gave Nelly a section of Mount Vernon's land, on which the Lewises established Woodlawn plantation and constructed Woodlawn Mansion. The National Park Service has listed Woodlawn on
1455-516: A steward to manage. He also owned 58 slaves in what became Arlington County, then the Alexandria section of the District of Columbia. One of these slaves was his valet Philip Lee . In 1830, Custis owned 57 slaves in the Alexandria section of the District of Columbia, and in 1840 owned 52 slaves in that area (33 male and 19 female). The Alexandria slave schedules are missing or misindexed for
1552-508: A third of Arlington County's population. Over the course of the century, the Black population dwindled. Neighborhoods in Arlington set up racial covenants and forbade Blacks from owning or domiciling property. In 1938, Arlington banned row houses, a type of housing that was heavily used by Black residents. By October 1942, not a single rental unit was available in the county. In the 1940s, the federal government evicted black neighborhoods to build
1649-645: A white-collar transplant population mostly of Northern stock. While a population of white-collar government transplant workers had always been present in the county, particularly in its far northern areas and in Lyon Village, the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s saw the complete dominance of this group over the majority of Arlington's residential neighborhoods, and mostly economically eliminated the former working-class residents of areas such as Cherrydale, Lyon Park, Rosslyn, Virginia Square, Claremont, and Arlington Forest, among other neighborhoods. The transformation of Clarendon
1746-531: Is a county in the U.S. state of Virginia . The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C. , the national capital. Arlington County is coextensive with the U.S. Census Bureau 's census-designated place of Arlington. Arlington County is the eighth-most populous county in the Washington metropolitan area with
1843-540: Is now Dorothy Hamm Middle School, with the admission of black pupils Donald Deskins, Michael Jones, Lance Newman, and Gloria Thompson. The U.S. Supreme Court 's ruling in 1954, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka , Kansas had struck down the previous ruling on racial segregation Plessy v. Ferguson that held that facilities could be racially "separate but equal". Brown v. Board of Education ruled that "racially separate educational facilities were inherently unequal". The elected Arlington County School Board presumed that
1940-1049: Is now part of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , in Arlington County, Virginia , which his father had purchased in 1778. However, six months after Custis's birth, his father died of " camp fever " at Yorktown, Virginia , shortly after the British army surrendered there. Custis's grandmother, Martha Dandridge Custis Washington , had been widowed in 1757, and married George Washington in January 1759. His father had grown up at Mount Vernon . Following John Parke Custis's death, Custis and his sister, Nelly, were taken in by George and Martha Washington and grew up at Mount Vernon. Custis's two oldest sisters, Elizabeth and Martha, remained at Abingdon with their widowed mother, who in 1783 married Dr. David Stuart , an Alexandria physician and associate of George Washington. The Washingtons brought Custis and Nelly, 8 and 10 years old, respectively, to New York City in 1789 to live in
2037-461: Is particularly striking. This neighborhood, a downtown shopping area, fell into decay. It became home to a vibrant Vietnamese business community in the 1970s and 1980s known as Little Saigon . It has now been significantly gentrified. Its Vietnamese population is now barely visible, except for several holdout businesses. Arlington's careful planning for the Metro has transformed the county and has become
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#17328008949872134-672: Is water. It is the smallest county by area in Virginia and is the smallest self-governing county in the United States. About 4.6 square miles (11.9 km ) (17.6%) of the county is federal property. The county courthouse and most government offices are located in the Courthouse neighborhood. Since the late 20th century, the county government has pursued a development strategy of concentrating much of its new development near transit facilities, such as Metrorail stations and
2231-678: Is within the National Cemetery, the National Park Service presently administers the House and its grounds as a memorial to Robert E. Lee. Confederate incursions from Falls Church , Minor's Hill and Upton's Hill , then securely in Confederate hands, occurred as far east as the present-day Ballston . On August 17, 1861, 600 Confederate soldiers engaged the 23rd New York Infantry Regiment near Ballston, killing
2328-556: The Battle of Yorktown , the final battle of the American Revolution , Arlington Estate was inherited by his son, then-six-month-old George Washington Parke Custis. John Parke Custis, his sister Martha ( Patsy ) Parke Custis, his son George (named after George Washington, the step-father of John). and his daughter Eleanor ( Nelly ) Parke Custis (later Lewis) grew up at Mount Vernon, the home of Martha and George Washington. George Washington Parke Custis built Arlington House as
2425-471: The Battle of the Wilderness , requiring a large new cemetery to be built near the District of Columbia. A study quickly determined that Arlington Estate was the most suitable property for this purpose. While Private William Henry Christmas became the first Union soldier buried at Arlington on May 13, 1864, formal authorization for burials did not occur until June 15, 1864. In January 1799, Custis accepted
2522-567: The British Crown were awarded to prominent Englishmen in exchange for political favors and efforts as part of the county's early development. One of the grantees was Thomas Fairfax for whom both Fairfax County and the City of Fairfax are named. The county's name was derived from Henry Bennet , the Earl of Arlington , which was a plantation along the Potomac River , and Arlington House ,
2619-643: The Chesapeake and Ohio Canal in Georgetown , which was farther inland and on the northern side of the Potomac River next to Washington, D.C. Members of Congress from other areas of Virginia used their influence to prohibit funding for projects, including the Alexandria Canal , which would have increased competition with their home districts. Congress also prohibited the federal government from establishing any offices in Alexandria, which made
2716-502: The City of Alexandria was legally separated from Alexandria County by an amendment to the Virginia Constitution that made all Virginia incorporated cities (though not incorporated towns ) independent of the counties with which they had previously been a part. Confusion between the city and the county of Alexandria having the same name led to a movement to rename Alexandria County. In 1896, an electric trolley line
2813-594: The National Register of Historic Places . Another sister of Custis, Martha Parke Custis Peter, married Thomas Peter. Using Martha's inheritances from George and Martha Washington, the Peters purchased property in Georgetown within the District of Columbia. The couple then constructed the Tudor Place mansion on the property. Tudor Place and its grounds, which the National Park Service has listed on
2910-938: The Potomac River , and the growing Washington City on the opposite side of the river. Interrupted by the War of 1812 (and material shortages after the British burned the American capital city), Custis finally completed the mansion's exterior using slave labor and materials on site in 1818. Custis intended the mansion to serve as a memorial to George Washington, and included design elements similar to that of George Washington's Mount Vernon. Custis famously displayed relics from Mount Vernon at events he held at Arlington House. On July 7, 1804, Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh . Of their four children, only one daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis , survived to maturity. Friends throughout their childhood, she married her distant cousin, Robert E. Lee at Arlington House on June 30, 1831. Lee's father, Henry Lee III (Light-Horse Harry Lee) had delivered
3007-660: The Rosslyn neighborhood, was completed. At the time of completion, the Turnberry Tower was the tallest residential building in the Washington metropolitan area . In 2017, Nestlé USA chose 1812 N Moore in Rosslyn as their U.S. headquarters. In 2018, Amazon.com, Inc. announced that it would build its co-headquarters in the Crystal City neighborhood, anchoring a broader area of Arlington and Alexandria that
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3104-538: The University of Virginia and Virginia Tech are also located in the county. Corporations based in the county include the co-headquarters of Amazon , several consulting firms , and the global headquarters of Boeing , Raytheon Technologies and BAE Systems Platforms & Services . Present-day Arlington County was part of Fairfax County in the Colony of Virginia during the colonial era . Land grants from
3201-441: The eulogy at George Washington's December 18, 1799, funeral. There are over 300,000 headstones and hundreds of memorials at Arlington National Cemetery. Arlington House itself is a memorial to George Washington . The son of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington , John Parke Custis purchased the 1,100-acre (450 ha) tract of wooded land on the Potomac River north of Alexandria , Virginia in 1778. When John Parke Custis died after
3298-798: The first and second presidential mansions . Following the transfer of the national capital to Philadelphia , the original " First Family " occupied the President's House from 1790 to 1797. Custis (nicknamed "Washy" or "Wash") attended—but did not graduate from— Philadelphia Academy (the preparatory school of what is now the University of Pennsylvania ); the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University ); and St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland . George Washington repeatedly expressed frustration with young Custis and his inability to improve
3395-399: The 2018 ParkScore ranking of the top 100 park systems across the United States, according to the ranking methodologies of Trust for Public Land . George Washington Parke Custis Maria Carter Syphax, illegitimate daughter of enslaved (and later freed) maid, Arianna Carter Syphax Son-in-law: Robert Edward Lee George Washington Parke Custis (April 30, 1781 – October 10, 1857)
3492-522: The Arlington County government's Neighborhood Conservation Program (NCP). Each of these neighborhoods has a Neighborhood Conservation Plan that describes the neighborhood's characteristics, history and recommendations for capital improvement projects that the County government funds through the NCP. Arlington is often spoken of as divided between North Arlington and South Arlington, which designate
3589-641: The Boys of the West! (ca. 1830), North Point, or, Baltimore Defended (1833), and Montgomerie, or, The Orphan of a Wreck (1836). Custis wrote a series of biographical essays about his adoptive father that were compiled and posthumously published in 1859 and 1860, after his own death in 1857, as Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington . Custis was descended from a number of aristocratic colonial era families, as well as, through his mother Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart , British nobility and, very distantly, from
3686-587: The Civil War ended, the Abingdon estate's heir, Alexander Hunter , filed a federal lawsuit to recover the property. James A. Garfield , a Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives who was a brigadier general in the Union Army during the Civil War and later became the 20th President of the United States , was an attorney on Hunter's legal team. In 1870, the U.S. Supreme Court found that
3783-543: The Civil War, the U.S. federal government confiscated the Abingdon estate, which was located on and near the present Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport , when its owner failed to pay the estate's property tax in person because he was serving in the Confederate States Army . The government then sold the property at auction, and the purchaser leased the property to a third party. In 1865, after
3880-442: The Metro lines increased significantly for both residential and commercial property. The ensuing gentrification caused the mostly working and lower middle class white Southern residents to either be priced out of rent or in some cases sell their homes. This permanently changed the character of the city, and ultimately resulted in the virtual eradication of this group over the coming 30 years, being replaced with an increasing presence of
3977-590: The National Register of Historic Places, contain features that resemble those of Arlington House and Woodlawn. Custis died on October 10, 1857, and was buried at his Arlington estate alongside his wife, Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis , who had died four years earlier. Custis's will provided that: Custis' death impacted the careers of Robert E. Lee and his two elder sons on the cusp of the American Civil War . Then-Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee, named as
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4074-540: The Pentagon and make room for highway construction. In 1908, Potomac was incorporated as a town in Alexandria County, and was annexed by Alexandria in 1930. In 1920, the Virginia legislature renamed the area Arlington County to avoid confusion with the City of Alexandria which had become an independent city in 1870 under the new Virginia Constitution adopted after the Civil War. In the 1930s, Hoover Field
4171-478: The Society, but his wife and daughter continued to support it for many years. Colonization was generally unpopular with African American slaves. Of the Arlington slaves, only William Burke and his family chose to move to Liberia. In 1854, William and Rosabella Burke and their children left Arlington House for Monrovia, Liberia . Rosabella continued to write to Mrs. Lee and named a new daughter "Martha" in tribute to
4268-696: The Supreme Court of the United States ruled in favor of Lee in United States v. Lee , 106 U. S. 196. Lee then sold the property back to the United States government for $ 150,000. Arlington House, built by Custis to honor George Washington, is now the Robert E. Lee Memorial. It is restored and open to the public under the auspices of the National Park Service , while the Department of Defense controls Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery on
4365-426: The U.S. federal government had illegally confiscated the property and ordered that it be returned to Hunter. The property included the former residence of Confederate General Robert E. Lee 's family at and around Arlington House , which had been subjected to an appraisal of $ 26,810, on which a real estate tax of $ 92.07 was assessed. Likely fearing an encounter with Union officials, Lee's wife, Mary Anna Custis Lee ,
4462-645: The University of Virginia. This campus was subsequently renamed University College, then the Northern Virginia Branch of the University of Virginia, then George Mason College of the University of Virginia, and finally to its present name, George Mason University . The Henry G. Shirley Highway, also known as Interstate 395 , was constructed during World War II , along with adjacent developments such as Shirlington , Fairlington , and Parkfairfax . In February 1959, Arlington Public Schools desegregated racially at Stratford Junior High School, which
4559-581: The Virginia legislature to approve such a transfer, known as retrocession . On February 3, 1846, the Virginia General Assembly agreed to accept the retrocession of Alexandria if Congress approved. Following additional lobbying by Alexandrians, Congress passed legislation on July 9, 1846 , to return all the District's territory south of the Potomac River back to Virginia, pursuant to a referendum, and President James K. Polk signed
4656-575: The borders of the area that eventually became Arlington, but the citizens in Washington, D.C., were no longer considered residents of Maryland or Virginia, which represented the end of their federal representation in Congress. Prior to retrocession, residents of Alexandria County expected the proximity of the federal capital to result in higher land prices and the growth of regional commerce. The county instead found itself struggling to compete with
4753-547: The ceremony celebrating the laying of the cornerstone of the Washington Monument by Freemasons . Along with President James K. Polk , the ceremony attracted 20,000 other spectators. On July 4, 1850, Custis dedicated a stone that the people of the District of Columbia had donated to the Monument at a ceremony that President Zachary Taylor attended, five days before Taylor died from food poisoning. In 1853,
4850-403: The county less important to the functioning of the national government. Alexandria was a center for the slave trade ; Franklin and Armfield Office in Alexandria was once an office used in slave trading. Rumors circulated that abolitionists in Congress were attempting to end slavery in the District, an act that, at the time, would have further depressed Alexandria's slavery-based economy. At
4947-415: The county. In 2024, Arlington County circuit court judge David Schell overturned this zoning change after a small group of NIMBY homeowners filed a lawsuit against the county. Schell ruled that Arlington County did not study the potential impacts adequately. Arlington County is located in Northern Virginia and is surrounded by Fairfax County and Falls Church to the west, the city of Alexandria to
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#17328008949875044-650: The death of Revolutionary War general James Lingan , whom a Baltimore mob killed for defending an anti-war publisher's right to oppose the war. With Mrs. Madison, it is reported that Custis initiated the saving of George Washington's portrait from the Executive Mansion (The White House) from the British troops. Custis owned land and enslaved people in several Virginia counties. In the 1820 U.S. Federal Census, he owned 116 slaves in New Kent County, Virginia in land he inherited from his father and hired
5141-745: The desegregation struggle in the county. During the 1960s, Arlington experienced challenges related to a large influx of newcomers during the 1950s. M.T. Broyhill & Sons Corporation was at the forefront of building the new communities for these newcomers, which would lead to the election of Joel Broyhill as the representative of Virginia's 10th congressional district for 11 terms. The old commercial districts did not have ample off-street parking and many shoppers were taking their business to new commercial centers, such as Parkington and Seven Corners. Suburbs further out in Virginia and Maryland were expanding, and Arlington's main commercial center in Clarendon
5238-728: The duration of the Civil War, the Confederacy claimed the whole of antebellum Virginia, including the more staunchly Union-supporting northwestern counties that eventually broke away and were later admitted to the Union in 1863 as West Virginia . However, the Confederacy never fully controlled all of present-day Northern Virginia . In 1862, the U.S. Congress passed a law that required that obligated owners of property in districts where active Confederate insurrections were occurring to pay their real estate taxes in person. In 1864, during
5335-675: The estate to her. Custis stipulated that whomever owned his beloved Arlington must be named Custis. Therefore, Arlington would go to his daughter and then to his grandson, Custis Lee. Mary Anna Custis married her distant cousin, United States Army Lieutenant Robert E. Lee in June 1831. With the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War on April 12, 1861, Robert E. Lee resigned from the United States Army and took command of Virginia's confederate forces on April 23, 1861. Mary Custis Lee left Arlington on May 15, 1861 to join her daughters at Ravensworth,
5432-580: The family residence on that property. George Washington Parke Custis , grandson of First Lady Martha Washington , acquired the land in 1802. The estate was later passed down to Mary Anna Custis Lee , wife of Robert E. Lee , a Confederate general during the American Civil War , and then later seized by the U.S. federal government in a tax sale. The property later became the Arlington National Cemetery . Present-day Arlington County and most of present-day Alexandria were ceded to
5529-418: The family. In 1826, Custis admitted the paternity of Maria Carter , who had been born in 1803 to Arianna "Airy" Carter (1776–1880), an African-American slave maid at the Arlington estate who had earlier resided at Mount Vernon as a slave of Martha Washington. Maria lived and worked at Arlington as a slave until 1826, when she married Charles Syphax, a slave who oversaw the dining room of Arlington House. (It
5626-405: The federal district was a square, measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side, totaling 100 square miles (260 km ). In 1791 and 1792, Andrew Ellicott and several assistants placed boundary stones at every mile point. Fourteen of these markers were in Virginia, and many of the stones are still standing. When Congress arrived in the new capital from Philadelphia , one of their first acts
5723-750: The federal government for its market value. Arlington House is now a museum, interpreted by the National Park Service as the Robert E. Lee Memorial. Fort Myer and Arlington National Cemetery are also located on what had been Custis' plantation. Custis was born on April 30, 1781, at his mother's family home, Mount Airy, which survives in Rosaryville State Park in Prince George's County, Maryland . He initially lived with his parents John Parke Custis and Eleanor Calvert Custis, and his sisters Elizabeth Parke Custis , Martha Parke Custis and Nelly Custis , at Abingdon Plantation , which
5820-593: The federal territory's borders to the southeast in order to include the existing town of Alexandria. In 1791, Congress , at Washington's request, amended the Residence Act to approve the new site, including the territory ceded by Virginia. The amendment to the Residence Act prohibited the "erection of the public buildings otherwise than on the Maryland side of the River Potomac." The initial shape of
5917-429: The formation of West Virginia as a state, which comprised what then 51 counties in the northwest part of the state that favored abolitionism. Largely as a result of the economic neglect by Congress, divisions over slavery, and the lack of voting rights for the residents of the District, a movement grew to return Alexandria to Virginia from the District of Columbia. From 1840 to 1846, Alexandrians petitioned Congress and
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#17328008949876014-445: The growth of the Federal City. Under the leadership of John Tayloe III and Charles Carnan Ridgely , and with the support of Custis, Gen. John Peter Van Ness , Dr. William Thornton , John Threlkeld of Georgetown and George Calvert of Riversdale , Bladensburg, Maryland, the races were moved to Holmstead Farm's one-mile oval track on Meridian Hill, south of Columbia Road, between Fourteenth and Sixteenth streets. In 1815, Custis
6111-551: The headquarters of the U.S. Department of Defense . Other notable locations are DARPA , the Drug Enforcement Administration 's headquarters, Reagan National Airport , and Arlington National Cemetery . Colleges and universities in the county include Marymount University and George Mason University 's Antonin Scalia Law School , School of Business , the Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution , and Schar School of Policy and Government . Graduate programs, research, and non-traditional student education centers affiliated with
6208-544: The high-volume bus lines of Columbia Pike . Within the transit areas, the government has a policy of encouraging mixed-use and pedestrian- and transit-oriented development . Some of these " urban village " communities include: In 2002, Arlington received the EPA 's National Award for Smart Growth Achievement for "Overall Excellence in Smart Growth ." In 2005, the County implemented an affordable housing ordinance that requires most developers to contribute significant affordable housing resources, either in units or through
6305-423: The last census of his lifetime, in 1850. By 1850, Custis owned 98 enslaved people in New Kent County, and an additional 34 in King William County, Virginia. During the 1820s, Custis was an active member of the American Colonization Society —an organization led by his cousin Bushrod Washington and that supported the colonization of free blacks in Africa, particularly in Liberia . Custis eventually lost interest in
6402-429: The legislation the next day. A referendum on retrocession was held on September 1 and 2, 1846, and the voters in Alexandria voted in favor of the retrocession by a margin of 734 to 116, while those in the rest of Alexandria County voted against retrocession 106 to 29. Pursuant to the referendum, President Polk issued a proclamation of transfer on September 7, 1846. However, the Virginia legislature did not immediately accept
6499-432: The new federal government by Virginia . On July 16, 1790, the Congress passed the Residence Act , which authorized the relocation of the capital from Philadelphia to a location to be selected on the Potomac River by U.S. President George Washington . The Residence Act originally only allowed the President to select a location in Maryland as far east as the Anacostia River . President Washington, however, shifted
6596-435: The owner of the property, chose not pay the tax in person. She instead sent an agent on her behalf, but Union officials refused to accept it. As a result of the 1862 law, the U.S. federal government confiscated the property, and transformed it into a military cemetery. After the Civil War ended and his parents died, George Washington Custis Lee , the Lees' eldest son, initiated a federal legal action in an attempt to recover
6693-456: The political boundaries of Alexandria County. During the American Civil War , Virginia seceded from the Union following a statewide referendum on May 23, 1861; the voters from Alexandria County approved secession by a vote of 958–48. The vote indicates the degree to which its only town, Alexandria, was pro-secession and pro-Confederate. Rural county residents outside Alexandria were largely Union loyalists and voted against secession. For
6790-540: The posthumously published Recollections and Private Memoirs of George Washington (1860). His daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis , married Robert E. Lee . They inherited Arlington House and the plantation surrounding it, but the property was soon confiscated by the federal government during the Civil War . After the war, the US Supreme Court determined the property to have been illegally confiscated and ordered it returned to Lee's heirs. After regaining Arlington, George Washington Custis Lee immediately sold it back to
6887-423: The property. In December 1882, the U.S. Supreme Court found that the U.S. federal government illegally confiscated the property without due process, and the property was returned to Custis Lee. In 1883, the U.S. Congress purchased the property from Lee for its fair market value of $ 150,000, whereupon the property became a military reservation and eventually Arlington National Cemetery . Although Arlington House
6984-513: The remaining Custis slaves, as this was the last day within the five year limit he was allowed to retain them. In 1864, Montgomery C. Meigs , Quartermaster General of the United States Army , appropriated some parts of Arlington Plantation for use as a military burial ground. After the Civil War ended, George Washington Custis Lee sued and recovered title to the Arlington Plantation from the United States government in 1882, when
7081-477: The retrocession offer. Virginia legislators were concerned that Alexandria County residents had not been properly included in the retrocession proceedings. After months of debate, on March 13, 1847, the Virginia General Assembly voted to formally accept the retrocession legislation. In 1852, the Virginia legislature voted to incorporate a portion of Alexandria County as the City of Alexandria, which until then had been administered only as an unincorporated town within
7178-531: The royal houses of Hanover and Stuart . His mother was descended from Charles Calvert, 3rd Baron Baltimore , and Henry Lee of Ditchley , one of whose descendants was Edward Lee, 1st Earl of Lichfield , who married Charlotte Fitzroy , an illegitimate daughter of Charles II by one of his mistresses, Barbara Palmer . It is believed Custis was descended from George I's natural daughter Melusina von der Schulenburg, Countess of Walsingham , whose extra-marital liaison with Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore , produced
7275-480: The same time, an active abolitionist movement arose in Virginia that created a division on the question of slavery in the Virginia General Assembly . Pro-slavery Virginians recognized that if Alexandria were returned to Virginia, it could provide two new representatives who favored slavery in the state legislature. Some time after retrocession, during the American Civil War , this division led to
7372-465: The sections of the county that lie north and south of Arlington Boulevard . Places in Arlington are often identified by their location in one or the other. Much consideration is given to socioeconomic and demographic differences between these two portions of the county and the respective amounts of attention they receive in the way of public services. Arlington ranks fourth in the nation, immediately after Washington, D.C. , for park access and quality in
7469-530: The site of an early skirmish in the American Civil War. In 1846, the federal government retroceded to the state of Virginia the portion of the District of Columbia that was south and west of the Potomac River, which at the time contained the city and county of Alexandria . Custis initially opposed the retrocession, but later spoke in support of it. The General Assembly approved the retrocession on March 13, 1847. On July 4, 1848, Custis attended
7566-484: The south of the old county line that had not been a part of the District of Columbia. On September 11, 2001 , five al-Qaeda hijackers deliberately crashed American Airlines Flight 77 into the Pentagon , killing 115 Pentagon employees and 10 contractors in the building, and all 53 passengers, six crew members, and five hijackers on board the aircraft. The coordinated attacks were the most deadly terrorist attack in world history. In 2009, Turnberry Tower, located in
7663-432: The southeast, and the national capital of Washington, D.C. to the northeast across the Potomac River , which forms the county's northern border. Minor's Hill and Upton's Hill represent the county's western borders. According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 26.1 square miles (67.6 km ), 26.0 square miles (67.3 km ) of which is land and 0.1 square miles (0.3 km ) (0.4%) of which
7760-592: The state would defer to localities and in January 1956 announced plans to integrate Arlington schools. The state responded by suspending the county's right to an elected school board. The Arlington County Board , the ruling body for the county, appointed segregationists to the school board and blocked plans for desegregation. Lawyers for the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) filed suit on behalf of
7857-526: The termination of Martha's life estate. However, Martha's executor, Bushrod Washington , refused to sell to Custis the Mount Vernon estate on which Custis had been living and which Bushrod Washington (George Washington's nephew) had inherited. Custis thereupon moved into a four-room, 80-year-old house on land inherited from his father, who had called it "Mount Washington". Almost immediately, Custis began constructing Arlington House on his land, which at
7954-689: The time was within Alexandria County (now Arlington County) in the District of Columbia . Hiring George Hadfield as architect, he constructed a mansion that was the first example of Greek Revival architecture in America. He located the building on a prominent hill overlooking the Georgetown-Alexandria Turnpike (at the approximate location of the present Eisenhower Drive in Arlington National Cemetery),
8051-482: The turn of the century. Custis served briefly at the arsenal at Harper's Ferry, but never experienced combat. When Custis came of age in 1802, he inherited large amounts of money, land, and property from the estates of his father, John Parke Custis, and grandfather Daniel Parke Custis . When Martha Washington died (also in 1802), Custis received both a bequest from her (as he had upon George Washington's death in 1799) as well as his father's former plantations because of
8148-611: The will's executor, took a two-year leave from his army post in Texas to settle the estate. During this period Lee was ordered to lead troops to quash John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry . By 1859, Lee's eldest son, George Washington Custis Lee, got transferred to an army position in Washington, D.C., so that he could care for Arlington plantation, where his mother and sisters were living. Lee's second son, Rooney Lee, resigned his army commission, got married, and took over farming White House and Romancoke plantations near Richmond. Robert E. Lee
8245-713: The writer Benson John Lossing visited Custis at Arlington House. Custis achieved some distinction as an orator and playwright. In addition to the Lingan eulogy, he delivered The Celebration of the Russian Victories, in Georgetown, District of Columbia; on June 5, 1813 (1813). Two of Custis's plays, The Indian Prophecy; or Visions of Glory (1827) and Pocahontas; or, The Settlers of Virginia (1830), were published during his lifetime. Other plays included The Rail Road (1828), The Eighth of January, or, Hurra for
8342-485: The youth's attitude. Upon young Custis's return to Mount Vernon after only one term at St. John's, George Washington sent him to his mother and stepfather (Dr. David Stuart) at Hope Park , writing, "He appears to me to be moped and Stupid, says nothing, and is always in some hole or corner excluded from the Company." His grandfather gave him a sword when "Wash" Custis received a Virginia military commission shortly before
8439-481: Was a religious ceremony only; enslaved people could not legally marry.) Soon after Maria's marriage, Custis freed her and gave her a 17-acre (7-hectare) plot in the southwest corner of the Arlington estate. Maria subsequently raised ten children on her property, thus establishing the Syphax family . Tall trees and stretches of grassland reportedly surrounded Maria's white cottage. Custis is also believed to have fathered
8536-590: Was able to leave for Texas to resume his army career in February 1860. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Union Army forces seized the 1,100-acre (4.5 km ) Arlington Plantation for strategic reasons (protection of the river and national capital). The United States government then confiscated the Custis estate for non-payment of taxes. In 1863, a "Freedman's Village" was established there for freed slaves. On December 29, 1862, Robert Lee freed all of
8633-514: Was an American antiquarian , author, playwright, and plantation owner. He was a veteran of the War of 1812. His father, John Parke Custis served in the American Revolution with then-General George Washington. John Parke Custis died after the Battle of Yorktown that ended the American Revolution. George W. P. Custis was the grandson of Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (wife of George Washington). His father John Parke Custis
8730-505: Was built from Washington, D.C. through Ballston ; Northern Virginia trolleys were a significant factor in the county's growth. In 1920, the trolley was named Arlington County , named after Arlington House , the home of the American Civil War Confederate general Robert E. Lee later seized by the Union in a tax sale, is located on the grounds of Arlington National Cemetery . In 1900, Blacks were more than
8827-575: Was declining, similar to what happened in other downtown centers. With the growth of these other suburbs, some planners and politicians pushed for highway expansion. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 would have enabled that expansion in Arlington. The administrator of the National Capital Transportation Agency, economist C. Darwin Stolzenbach, saw the benefits of rapid transit for the region and oversaw plans for
8924-532: Was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society . One biographer claimed Lafayette and his son Georges Washington de La Fayette visited Custis at Mount Vernon in 1825, although Custis was then living at Arlington House. In 1836, Custis established a mill on Four Mile Run and Columbia Pike, in what a decade later became Arlington County, Virginia, as described below. It ground grain for nearby farmers, and eventually became
9021-502: Was established on the present site of the Pentagon; in that decade, Buckingham, Colonial Village, and other apartment communities also opened. World War II brought a boom to the county, but one that could not be met by new construction due to rationing imposed by the war effort. In October 1949, the University of Virginia in Charlottesville created an extension center in the county named Northern Virginia University Center of
9118-534: Was formed, the Washington Metropolitan Transit Authority. Arlington officials renewed their push for a route that benefited the commercial corridor along Wilson Boulevard, which prevailed. There were neighborhood concerns that there would be high-density development along the corridor that would disrupt the character of old neighborhoods. With the population in the county declining, political leaders saw economic development as
9215-482: Was simultaneously rebranded as National Landing . By 2020, single-family detached homes accounted for nearly 75% of zoned property in Arlington. In 2023, the Arlington County city council unanimously approved a modest zoning change to permit sixplexes (so-called " missing middle " housing) on lots previously zoned exclusively for single-family homes. The change reversed exclusionary zoning laws that were initially erected to keep low-income people and minorities out of
9312-442: Was the stepson of George Washington . His mother was Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart. He and his sister Nelly were officially the wards of his mother's second husband (their stepfather, Dr. David Stuart). His father, his father's sister Patsy, his own sister Eleanor (Nelly) and he grew up at George Washington's Mount Vernon . Upon reaching age 21, Custis inherited a large fortune from his late father, John Parke Custis , including
9409-629: Was to pass the Organic Act of 1801 , officially organizing the District of Columbia and placing the entire federal territory, including present-day Washington, D.C., Georgetown , and Alexandria under the exclusive control of Congress. The territory in the District was organized into two counties: the County of Washington to the east of the Potomac River and the County of Alexandria to the west. It included almost all of present-day Arlington County and part of present-day Alexandria. The Act established
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