Watching Arlington Grow

I was born in Laurel, Maryland. My mom, dad, and four sisters moved to Arlington in 1958 to take care of my great grandmother, who owned the home she had built in 1940. Her property consisted of two lots, and her son, my great-uncle, lived in a small home next door.

My parents decided to remain here and put us in elementary school, which was at the time John M. Langston. It was one of the two schools for us as African Americans, the other being Hoffman Boston. My mom had also attended Langston and her 6th grade class picture is in the Langston-Brown Archives room. We lived on what was then called North Frederick Street, off Lee Highway, before North George Mason Drive went through to Washington Boulevard. My family home is still there, though we’ve remodeled and updated everything. My mom passed in 2015, but my dad and a younger sister still live there.

My favorite place growing up was my parents’ home. Now my favorite place to live is at my current home on Culpeper Street, right across from Langston Brown Community Center. I’ve been here 35 years, at what I call a perfect location. I’m at the top of the hill just doors away from Lee Highway and Heidelberg Bakery, facing the East, with sunshine always at my door early most days. I’m close enough to DC to catch the bus, go to Rosslyn or Ballston, and be in DC in about 30 minutes, and close to shopping, restaurants, bike trails, I-66, I-495, Chain Bridge, George Washington Parkway, and Reagan National in minutes.

I have watched Arlington grow over the years from low store fronts in Ballston, Clarendon, Rosslyn, and even street cars travelling from Rosslyn to Georgetown along M Street.

I recall a lot of discrimination and action by the NAACP organization in the 60s. You could buy an ice cream soda or float at Peoples Drug Store (now called CVS) on Lee Hwy and Old Dominion Drive. But if you were black you could not drink it at the fountain. My two closest girlfriends and I went to the movies and shows in DC because of the discrimination in Arlington. I saw picketing at the movie theatre in Buckingham (which is now a Post Office). I’m still in contact with Michael Jones and Gloria Thompson, two of the four students who stepped into Stratford Junior High School and made history as Arlington was the first county in Virginia to desegregate.

I have witnessed a lot of changes over the years and I feel happy and privileged that my family has been a part of this community since the late 1800s. My late grandfather William H. Pelham Sr., who lived to be 103, told stories of his grandfather Moses Pelham, who founded what became known as Pelham Town around N 24th and Wakefield Streets.

As an Arlington resident and Realtor, I care about the housing affordability for a number of reasons. I still live here, and as a retiree and Realtor, deal with the reality of the cost to afford to stay here in Arlington, and watch others—older and younger—struggle to find and afford housing in Arlington. I have children and friends and neighbors who have children, and family who have grown up in Arlington, who struggle to afford to stay here. God forbid if you move out and attempt to move back—it is a practically impossible feat unless by some miracle you’ve struck it rich.

I can only pray for a time when there will be peace, adequate housing, food, and land for all, as promised at Isaiah 65: 21-22.

By Sherry Young