Parkfairfax, Virginia

Last updated

Parkfairfax Historic District
Parkfairfax Entrance.JPG
Preston Road entrance to Parkfairfax
Alexandria, Virginia.svg
Red pog.svg
LocationBounded by Quaker Ln., US 395, Beverley Dr., Wellington Rd., Gunston Rd., Valley Dr., Glebe Rd. and Four-mile Run, Alexandria, Virginia
Coordinates 38°50′12″N77°4′48″W / 38.83667°N 77.08000°W / 38.83667; -77.08000
Area132 acres (53 ha)
Built1941
ArchitectSchultz, Leonard and Associates; Clarke, G.D., and Rapuano, Michael
Architectural styleColonial Revival
NRHP reference No. 99000146 [1]
VLR No.100-0151
Significant dates
Added to NRHPFebruary 22, 1999
Designated VLRDecember 10, 1998 [2]

Parkfairfax is a neighborhood in Alexandria, Virginia, United States, located in the northwestern part of the city near the boundary with Arlington County. Nearby thoroughfares are Interstate 395 (Shirley Highway), State Route 402 (Quaker Lane), and West Glebe Road.

Contents

The neighborhood consists of 1,684 townhouse-type condominium apartments in more than 200 buildings on 132 acres (53  ha ) built in 1941 and 1942 by Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York at the request of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt to provide housing near the new Pentagon. Like the neighboring Arlington County neighborhood of Fairlington, Parkfairfax is listed on both the National Register of Historic Places and on the Virginia Landmarks Register.

The name is similar to those of other Metropolitan Life projects that use a local area name preceded by "park" (e.g., Parkchester, Parklabrea, and Parkmerced) despite the area not having been a part of Fairfax County since 1801. [3]

History

Parkfairfax in 2006 Parkfairfax.JPG
Parkfairfax in 2006

Parkfairfax was originally on 202 acres (82  ha ) and was the only Metropolitan Life project of this type to have no high-rise buildings.

Former presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford both lived in Parkfairfax for a time when they were in the United States Congress. Secretary of State (under John F. Kennedy) Dean Rusk also lived in Parkfairfax.

In 1976, Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła—the future Pope John Paul II—visited the Parkfairfax apartment of Polish-American journalist John M. Szostak and offered his blessing. [4]

From 1977 to 1979, Parkfairfax was renovated and sold as condominium apartments by The IDI Group Companies. [5]

Recreation and commerce

The Arlington County community of Shirlington provides restaurants, stores, bars, live theater, a cinema, and the Washington & Old Dominion Railroad Trail trailhead within walking distance for Parkfairfax residents via a pedestrian walkway that crosses the Shirlington Circle interchange with I-395. Nearby shopping can be found at The Village at Shirlington.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shirlington, Virginia</span> Human settlement in Arlington County, Virginia, United States of America

Shirlington is an unincorporated urban area, officially called an "urban village", in the southern part of Arlington County, Virginia, United States, adjacent to the Fairlington area. The word "Shirlington" is a combination of "Shirley" and "Arlington".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Park La Brea, Los Angeles</span> Neighborhood of Los Angeles in California, United States

Park La Brea is an apartment community in the Miracle Mile District of Los Angeles, California. With 4,255 units located in eighteen 13-story towers and thirty-one two-story buildings, it is among the largest apartment complexes in the continental United States. It sits on 160 acres (0.65 km2) of land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pentagon City</span> Area of Arlington County, Virginia, US

Pentagon City is an unincorporated neighborhood located in the southeast portion of Arlington County, Virginia, near the Pentagon and Arlington National Cemetery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parkchester, Bronx</span> Neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City

Parkchester is a planned community and neighborhood originally developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and located in the central Bronx, New York City. The immediate surrounding area also takes its name from the complex. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise, are East Tremont Avenue to the north, Castle Hill Avenue to the east, Westchester Avenue to the south, East 177th Street/Cross Bronx Expressway to the southwest, and White Plains Road to the west. Metropolitan Avenue, Unionport Road, and White Plains Road are the primary thoroughfares through Parkchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fairlington, Virginia</span> United States historic place

Fairlington is an unincorporated neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia, United States, located adjacent to Shirlington in the southernmost part of the county on the boundary with the City of Alexandria. The main thoroughfares are Interstate 395 which divides the neighborhood into North and South Fairlington, State Route 7 and State Route 402.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parkmerced, San Francisco</span> Apartment complex in the California city

Parkmerced is a neighborhood in San Francisco, California. It was designed by architects Leonard Schultze and Thomas Dolliver Church in the early 1940s. Parkmerced is the second-largest single-owner neighborhood of apartment blocks west of the Mississippi River after Park La Brea in Los Angeles. It was a planned neighborhood of high-rise apartment towers and low-rise garden apartments in southwestern San Francisco for middle-income tenants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Woodlawn (Alexandria, Virginia)</span> Historic house in Virginia, United States

Woodlawn is a historic house located in Fairfax County, Virginia. Originally a part of Mount Vernon, George Washington's historic plantation estate, it was subdivided in the 19th century by abolitionists to demonstrate the viability of a free labor system. The address is now 9000 Richmond Highway, Alexandria, Virginia, but due to expansion of Fort Belvoir and reconstruction of historic Route 1, access is via Woodlawn Road slightly south of Jeff Todd Way/State Route 235. The house is a designated National Historic Landmark, primarily for its association with the Washington family, but also for the role it played in the historic preservation movement. It is now a museum property owned and managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virginia State Route 402</span> State highway in Virginia, United States

State Route 402 is a primary state highway in the U.S. state of Virginia. Known as Quaker Lane, the state highway runs 1.65 miles (2.66 km) from SR 420 north to Interstate 395 at Shirlington Circle within the independent city of Alexandria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlington Transit</span>

Arlington Transit (ART) is a bus transit system that operates in Arlington County, Virginia, and is managed by the county government. The bus system provides service within Arlington County, and connects to Metrobus, nearby Metrorail stations, Virginia Railway Express, and other local bus systems. Most ART routes serve to connect county neighborhoods to local Metrorail stations, as well as the Shirlington Bus Station. It includes part of the Pike Ride service along Columbia Pike, which is shared with WMATA. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 2,258,200, or about 8,100 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Riverton Houses</span> Complex of residential buildings

The Riverton Houses is a large residential development in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City.

Penrose is a neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia, USA, located roughly three miles from Washington, D.C. It is bordered by Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall to the east, Columbia Pike to the south, S. Walter Reed Drive and S. Fillmore St. to the west and U.S. Route 50 to the north. The Naval Support Facility Arlington is located within the neighborhood boundaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Village at Shirlington</span> Shopping mall in Arlington, Virginia

The Village at Shirlington opened as Shirlington Shopping Center in 1944, and was the first large shopping center to open in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and one of the earliest in the United States. It is located along Campbell Avenue at the intersection of Shirley Highway and Quaker Lane / Shirlington Road in Arlington, Virginia. The center has been known since the mid-1980s as The Village at Shirlington.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arlington Village Historic District (Arlington, Virginia)</span> Historic district in Virginia, United States

The Arlington Village Historic District is a national historic district located at Arlington County, Virginia. It contains 657 contributing buildings in a residential neighborhood in South Arlington. The area was constructed in 1939, and is a planned garden apartment community that incorporates recreational areas, open spaces, a swimming pool and courtyards within five superblocks. It also includes a shopping center consisting of six stores. The garden apartments are presented as two-story, brick rowhouses with Colonial Revival detailing. There are three building types distinguished by the roof form: flat, gambrel, or gable. Arlington Village was the first large-scale rental project in Arlington County and the first Federal Housing Administration-insured garden apartment development. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonial Village (Arlington, Virginia)</span> United States historic place

Colonial Village is a historic garden apartment complex located at Arlington County, Virginia, United States. It contains 226 contributing buildings built in four stages between 1935 and 1940. The buildings hold approximately 1,055 apartments. The brick Colonial Revival-style buildings are situated around courtyards with clusters of five and seven buildings to larger groupings of up to thirteen. Colonial Village was the first Federal Housing Administration-insured, large-scale, rental housing project erected in the United States. The complex has been converted to condominiums split into three phases and two apartment complexes: Colonial Village Apartments and Colonial Village West.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parkway Village (Queens)</span> United States historic place

Parkway Village is a garden apartment complex with 675 residential units, located on 35 acres (14 ha) in the Briarwood section of Queens in New York City. It was completed in 1947 to house United Nations employees and delegates, many of whom had faced racial discrimination when they sought housing in other areas.

Alexandria, Virginia, an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, is located along the western bank of the Potomac River. The city of approximately 151,000 is about six miles south of downtown Washington, D.C.

Nauck is a neighborhood in the southern part of Arlington County, Virginia, known locally as Green Valley. It is bordered by Four Mile Run and Shirlington to the south, Douglas Park to the west, I-395 to the east, and Columbia Heights and the Army-Navy Country Club to the north. The southeastern corner of the neighborhood borders the City of Alexandria.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barcroft–South Fairlington Line</span>

The Barcroft–South Fairlington Line, designated as Route 22A, Route 22C, or Route 22F, is a daily bus route operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority between Ballston–MU station of the Orange and Silver lines of the Washington Metro or Skyline City (22F) and Pentagon station of the Yellow and Blue lines of the Washington Metro. The 22 Line trips are roughly 20 minutes during peak hours, 30 minutes during off peak, and 60 minutes on weekends. This line provides service to Ballston or Skyline City and the Pentagon Transit Center from the neighborhoods of Arlington County, Fairfax County and Alexandria.

The Hunting Point–Ballston Line, designated as Route 10B, is a daily bus route operated by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority between Hunting Point and Ballston–MU station of the Orange and Silver lines of the Washington Metro. This line provides service within the neighborhoods in Fairfax County, Alexandria, and Arlington County. Alongside the neighborhoods, it also brings service through the marketplace, businesses, and offices within the counties.

References

  1. "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places . National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
  2. "Virginia Landmarks Register". Virginia Department of Historic Resources. Retrieved May 12, 2013.
  3. The area was part of Arlington County and its predecessors until it was annexed by the independent city of Alexandria in 1929.
  4. The Pope's Condo in Alexandria, WETA, 9/21/2015
  5. Bobeczko, Laura (Spring 1997). "A Study in Decentralized Living: Parkfairfax, Alexandria, Virginia" (PDF). Historic Alexandria Quarterly. III (6): 11–13. Retrieved July 11, 2017.