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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

For $25 you’ll enjoy: A full dome planetarium show and skytalk on the sky we see and what it would have looked like 250 years ago. Stargazing on the plaza (weather permitting). Historical displays A special meteorite collection A presentation on the history of Arlington’s planetarium

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 12/10/2026

An Evening of History Under the Stars October 16 @ 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE! Join AHS and the Friends of Arlington’s Planetarium (FOAP) for an Evening of History Under the Stars, a joint fundraiser for both organizations where the past and the night sky share the spotlight.

arlhist.org

An Evening of History Under the Stars - Arlington Historical Society

TICKETS NOW AVAILABLE! Join the Arlington Historical Society (AHS) and the Friends of Arlington’s Planetarium (FOAP) for an Evening of History Under the Stars, a joint fundraiser for both organization...

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

a side trip into Jackson City, a look at Dead Man’s Hollow today, and a glance at a common feature of the suburbs Mackey allegedly paved the way for. About Our Speaker: Michael Schaffner lives with spouse and pug in a crumbling tenant farmer’s cottage on land that once belonged to the Glebe estate.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

This Thursday, 8 October: "The Legend of Dead Man’s Hollow." 7:00 pm at Reinsch Auditorium, Marymount University. Please join local historian M. A. Schaffner for an examination of contemporary news reports of the actual crimes associated with Dead Man’s Hollow... (1/2) 🗃️🧵

arlhist.org

The Legend of Dead Man's Hollow - Arlington Historical Society

Local histories identify two nests of vice and corruption in Arlington during the early years of the 20th century: Rosslyn at the foot of the Aqueduct Bridge, and Jackson City […]

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

On Saturday, 9 May, HISTORY FEST in Arlington County: live reenactments, musical performances, historical storytelling, hands-on demonstrations, children’s activities & crafts, local food vendors, and over 40 exhibitors. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., Kenmore Middle School, 200 S. Carlin Springs Road. 🗃️

arlhist.org

HistoryFest - Arlington Historical Society

The Arlington VA250 Committee has announced plans for Arlington HistoryFest 250, a free, one-day outdoor festival commemorating the 250th anniversary of the…

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

15-Minute History: Spotlight -The Ball-Sellers House October 5 @ 2-2:30 pm. The BS House is wrapping up its 50th Anniversary season as a museum at the end of October, so we thought to remind folks what’s so unique about this c. 1750 farmhouse. Arl Historical Museum 1805 S. Arlington Ridge Road. 🗃️

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 01/10/2025

A reminder that the Arlington Historical Museum is now open on Saturdays from 10:00-4:00 pm. We're still open from 1:00-4:00 Sunday afternoons. Admission is still free! (But donations appreciated.) 1805 S. Arlington Ridge Road. 🗃️https://arlhist.org/visit/

arlhist.org

Visit - Arlington Historical Society

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Reposted by Arlington (VA) Historical Society

American Association for State and Local History @aaslh.org · 27/09/2025

The Trump administration has ordered the removal of signs and exhibits related to slavery at multiple national parks. The order includes a well-known photo of a man probably named Peter Gordon that graphically displays the wounds inflected on him when he was enslaved.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Join us as Jessica Kaplan of the Arlington Historical Society tells us about the origin of this initiative, the research being done, the work of Arlington Tech students to recreate some of the plaques, the response of the community and where to find already embedded stumbling stones.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

have been embedded into the sidewalks near the locations where they were enslaved. Many more stumbling stones will be installed throughout the county. Currently, the names of 1,100 enslaved individuals have been identified.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

had previously been unknown. But now, this family’s story will be told to a broader community. Through a partnership between AHS and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, stumbling stones, six-inch round bronze plaques, engraved with their names and dates of their births and deaths,

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Webinar: Memorializing the Enslaved of Arlington Sept. 29 @ 3:00 pm - 4:30 pm. Advance registration is not required, and this free event is open to all. The lives of Margaret Hyson and her children George and Charlotte – three people enslaved in what is now the Yorktown neighborhood in the 1800s –🗃️

arlhist.org

Webinar: Memorializing the Enslaved of Arlington - Arlington Historical Society

The lives of Margaret Hyson and her children George and Charlotte – three people enslaved in what is now the Yorktown neighborhood in the 1800s – had previously been unknown. […]

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

...and AHS is partnering with Mt. Olivert United Methodist Church to portray key figures buried in the cemetery. AHS and Mt. Olivet volunteers will portray some of those who are buried in the cemetery and introduce you to some well known and not-so-well-known Arlingtonians. ...(2/2)

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

Mt. Olivet Cemetery Tour. Sept 28 @ 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm. Mt. Olivet. United Methodist Church 1500 North Glebe Road, Arlington, VA, United States 🗃️ The cemetery of the oldest church in the county is a museum with no walls. Each of the interred has a story... (1/2)

arlhist.org

Mt. Olivet Cemetery Tour - Arlington Historical Society

The cemetery of the oldest church in the county is a museum with no walls. Each of the interred has a story and AHS is partnering with Mt. Olivert United […]

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

15-Minute History: Vice on the Virginia (Potomac) Shore. September 28 @ 2:00 pm - 2:30 pm. The Arlington Historical Museum, 1805 S. Arlington Ridge Road. Join us for a brief talk by the author George Axiotis, as he describes what life was like living outside the law in Rosslyn and Jackson City 🗃️

arlhist.org

15-Minute History: Vice on the Virginia Shore - Arlington Historical Society

Join us for a brief talk by the author of “Shootout at Jackson City,” George Axiotis, as he describes what life was like living outside the law in Rosslyn and […]

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 27/09/2025

The Arlington Historical Society (VA) is at Clarendon Day, TODAY! Saturday, September 27 @ 11:00 am - 6:00 pm AHS is helping Clarendon celebrate its history at Clarendon Day. Come by our table and get a free “Souvenir Guide from the 1915 Northern Virginia Exposition.” This is a great street festival

arlhist.org

AHS is at Clarendon Day - Arlington Historical Society

AHS is helping Clarendon celebrate its history at Clarendon Day. Come by our table and get a free “Souvenir Guide from the 1915 Northern VIrginia Exposition.” Stay for a story […]

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 14/08/2025

AHS is at the Arlington County Fair this weekend! Test your knowledge of Arlington history! Find out about Memorializing the Enslaved of Arlington, the joint project with the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington, to learn where stumbling stones are or will be placed. Find your home on an 1865 map!

arlhist.org

The Arlington Historical Society is at the County Fair - Arlington Historical Society

The Arlington Historical Society is at the Arlington County Fair. We have an indoor booth from Friday at 4 pm through Sunday at 7 pm. Stop by and say hello […]

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 13/08/2025

Come visit our booth at the Arlington Country Fair! The exhibit hall is open from late Friday afternoon through Sunday.

arlingtoncountyfair.us

Arlington County Fair – Largest Free Events on the East Coast Located In South Arlington, VA

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

This is part of the series of community events commemorating the 1965 Voting Rights Bill. See the new exhibit of photos, documents, and artifacts of voting in Arlington County. Take the reading test from the 1920s and see if you'd be allowed to exercise your constitutional rights.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 08/08/2025

SUNDAY, August 10 @2PM "Voting in Arlington County Today" Join us as the Vice-Chair of Arlington’s Electoral Board Richard Samp discusses the process for voting in Arlington County elections today and how you can get involved. (1805 South Arlington Ridge Road, Arlington)

Graphic from Museum Exhibit "From Barriers to Ballots."

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

You can also make protest signs that colonial Virginians could have used as they protested the king’s actions. We’ll have the materials for posters/signs and information about what the colonists were complaining about. Come for the history, stay for a free guided tour of this 275-year-old house.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

The Arlington (VA) Historical Society is hosting a reading of the Declaration of Independence at 1 pm. That's all of it, including the list of complaints against G III. It's located at the oldest home in the entire DC area, the Ball-Sellers House, built in the 1740s. #1776 🗃️

arlhist.org

Reading the Declaration of Independence and Making Revolutionary Protest Signs - Arlington Historical Society

“We hold these truths to be self-evident…” help read the Declaration of Independence out loud for all to hear at one of the only structures in the county that is […]

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 03/07/2025

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 19/06/2025

Arlington Historical is a free mobile app that puts Arlington, Virginia’s history at your fingertips. Find interesting stories about people, places, and events in our history. Each point on the interactive map includes historical information about the site along with historical images. 🗃️

arlingtonhistorical.com

About | Arlington Historical

Arlington Historical is a free mobile app that puts Arlington, Virginia’s history at your fingertips. Find interesting stories about people, places, and events in Arlington history, and enjoy curated ...

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 07/05/2025

The Arlington (VA) Historical Society was adding a photo of Arlington resident Julia Reinhart Powell to an exhibit panel. Ms. Powell was a Yeoman (F) in the First World War. Compare the photos to see what an AI photo editing program did to the original.

Three photos. On the left is the original of a young woman in early 20th-century attire. In the middle, the same photo, but now she has a knife! And on the right, a photo showing the image on display in a museum. The Arlington (VA) Historical Society was adding a photo of Arlington resident Julia Reinhart Powell to an exhibit panel. Ms. Powell was a Yeoman (F) in the First World War. However, the photo of her (LEFT) was too short. So, they used an AI photo editing program to enhance the image, making it longer to fit on a panel.
The resulting photo (CENTER) is fine, except, for some unknown reason, AI placed a long knife in her left hand!
In the final version (RIGHT) they cropped most of the knife out of the photo—just another AI weirdness to consider.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 04/05/2025

The Arlington Historical Museum reopened on Saturday, 3 May, after being closed for repairs, new windows, a paint job, and refurbishing ALL of the exhibits. 1805 South Arlington Ridge Road

A group of people standing in a museum, among the display cases, listening to a speaker.

People in a museum, looking at exhibits. In the foreground is a model of a local Native American village, circa 1600.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Nevertheless, his land became the basis of a thriving African-American enclave called Hall's Hill, now known as High View Park. (Excerpted, in part, from www.18thmass.com/blog the US Army’s 18th Massachusetts Volunteers were posted on the Hall property in the Civil War) (6/6)

18thmass.com

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

In 1866 Hall divided his land among relatives, but also sold smaller one-acre lots to formerly enslaved men at below market prices. But he didn’t sell land to them because he was a nice guy. White neighbors said Hall wanted to irritate them by forcing them to have African-American neighbors. (5...)

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

Although he enslaved people, Hall was a staunch Unionist. At the outbreak of the Civil War his property became of interest to both Confederate & US Army force. Confederate troops moved into the area in August 1861 and set fire to Hall's home in an attack launched from neighboring Upton's Hill. (4..)

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

The Alexandria Gazette reported Jenny killed Basil’s wife Elizabeth in 1857 & she was hung. Tired of mistreatment, the enslaved woman pushed Elizabeth into a fire, and when Elizabeth climbed out, pushed her back in. Three years later Hall remarried 23-year-old Frances Ann Harrison. (3...)

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

His land & house were maintained by enslaved people. Records show that Hall enslaved a family including Jenny Farr & her son, James Clark, as well as three additional children born into slavery on the Hall plantation. Records also show that the Halls were very harsh slave owners. (2...)

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

On this day in Arlington history, December 13, 1852: Bazil Hall, reputedly a whaling captain (& brother to the famous "DC Madame” Mary Ann Hall), bought 327 acres of land in what is now Arlington. Hall’s plantation had orchards, livestock, timber & crops such as corn. (1/...)🗃️

Map showing the Halls Hill and High View Park neighborhoods.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

Tonight's event, sponsored by AHS and the Arlington Black Heritage Museum, "Sojourner Truth Comes Alive with Karen Bostic." 7:00 pm Thursday, December 12. Reinsch Auditorium, Marymount University. Admission is free and open to the public. 🗃️

arlhist.org

Sojourner Truth Comes Alive - Arlington Historical Society

Sojourner Truth Comes Alive with Karen Bostic. The Arlington Historical Society is proud to partner with the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington to present Karen Bostic interpreting Sojourner Truth. So...

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

So there were 3 cities (or towns), Georgetown, Washington, and Alexandria, plus two counties, Washington and Alexandria.🗃️

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

The portion ceded by Maryland was named the County of Washington and the portion ceded by Virginia, which included the Town of Alexandria, was named the County of Alexandria. In 1846, the Virginia section was retroceded back to Virginia. In 1920, Alexandria County became Arlington County.

US stamp honoring the founding of the District of Columbia.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 12/12/2024

On this day in Arlington history, December 12, 1800 Washington, D.C. officially became the capital of the United States. Article 1, Section 8 gave Congress the power to accept a territory not exceeding ten miles square to be set aside as the seat of the federal government.

Map of the original District of Columbia, including the Virginia portion.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

We also had the HVAC system redone. The bricks were repointed, and the inside was repainted. We're looking to redo the inside ceiling, which is currently the old "drop-ceiling." We are currently closed as we redo all of our exhibits. We will reopen on Saturday, April 12th 2025.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Seven tons of coal had to be moved out of the basement. In 1962, Swiller Brothers music store donated 5 display cases (which we still have!), and on September 17, 1963, the museum opened to the public. In 1987, the building was renovated again. In 2023 we began having the windows refurbished.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

The county then donated the land to the newly formed and independent Arlington Historical Society. The building was in very poor repair, so AHS had to raise money to have the inside repaired and the building made usable. The building was sound, but walls, floors, and plumbing had to be redone.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

The county had purchased some of the land from Frank Hume, local businessman. Hume donated additional land. But when the country considered selling the land in 1956 they found that the title would revert to the Hume Family if the land was not used for educational purposes.

Frank Hume, who donated land used for the school.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

The school had three classrooms serving six grades. Grades 1 and 2 shared a classroom, as did grades 3 & 4, etc. By 1956 the school was far too small to handle the exploding population from suburbanization and the Baby Boom and the building was badly out of date.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 07/12/2024

Our second property is the Hume School, now the Arlington History Museum. Built in 1891, it was designed by local architect B. Stanley Simmons. Only 19 at the time, he would design 280 buildings in the DC area. The school served white students in the Aurora Heights area until 1956.

Architect's drawing of the proposed Hume School.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

🗃️The magician, Harry Baker entertained at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, for Roosevelt's grandchildren & for the children of the diplomatic corps. President of the Washington Chapter of the Society of American Magicians Baker opened a magic store in DC. He died in 1961.

The magician, Harry Baker, was known as "Society's Favorite Entertainer" & even the “White House Magician.” He entertained at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, for Roosevelt's grandchildren & for the children of the diplomatic corps. Baker was president of the Washington Chapter of the Society of American Magicians & opened a magic store in DC. In 1950, Baker had a weekly kid’s show on WMAL-TV. He died in 1961.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

The party would be held at the Arlington Theatre on Columbia Pike. Although Mrs. Roosevelt would be the headliner, kids were probably really looking forward to seeing the magician, the ventriloquist, & Santa Claus who would also make an appearance. Ventriloquist Joe King with dummy “Brandywine.” 🗃️

Ventriloquist Joe King with dummy “Brandywine.” Joe King was the ventriloquist who would be performing with his dummy “Brandywine.” He was born in southern VA & was raised in NC. At age 11, he lost an arm. At some point, King acquired a dummy & taught himself to be a ventriloquist although the profession he really wanted to pursue was portrait painting. He married his childhood sweetheart & after vacationing in DC in 1934, they bought a house in Arlington at 707 22nd Street in Virginia Heights. King worked as a graphic artist & performed ventriloquist acts at night. By then, he had acquired a new dummy which he named Brandywine. He & his wife developed a nightclub show; she sang & danced & he did a comedy routine with Brandywine. During WWII, they took their act on the road with the USO. After the war, they went on the vaudeville circuit & returned to NC where he pursued portrait work in earnest. When he ran for State House in 1950, his dummy Brandywine interviewed him & predicted he would lose. King won. After a term, he returned to full time portraiture & his reputation as an artist grew. He painted such notables as Queen Elizabeth & President Richard Nixon. He died in 1996.

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Arlington (VA) Historical Society @arlhist.bsky.social · 06/12/2024

On This Day in Arlington History, Dec 6, 1940 the "Arlington Sun" announced that 1st Lady Eleanor Roosevelt would greet more than 500 children at the 5th annual Christmas party on Christmas Eve sponsored by the Kiwanis Club of Arlington. 🗃️

Newspaper story describing Eleanor Roosevelt at a children's Christmas Party on 6 December 1940.

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