Boulevard Manor, one of the neighborhoods of Arlington, is bounded by the border of Fairfax, Wilson Boulevard, Arlington Boulevard (Rt. 50), and by Bluemont Park. For 10,000 years this land has been occupied. A thousand years ago, this land was of the Powhatan Indians, and their spring still exists on the grounds of Dominion Hills Pool. These Indians did not have a permanent settlement here, leaving behind only arrowheads and similar artifacts. Around the time of the Civil War, water was bottled and sold from the spring.
By the 1700’s, drawn by the temptation of gold and the desire for land, Lord Fairfax owned the area known as Northern Neck, much of the land now in Virginia all along the Potomac. Thomas Pearson in 1707 (660 acres) and John Ball in 1742 (166 acres) obtained land grants parts of which are now Boulevard Manor. At the beginning of the 1800’s, this land was mostly wooded, but soon became land used for tobacco, cotton, corn, and cherry trees. Although farmers initially struggled in the area, the population boom in the mid-1800’s surrounding Washington, DC caused “scientific farming”, or more sophisticated methods of farming that increased crop yield to be used in the area. A noted “scientific farmer”, Timothy Bishop Munson, took possession of much of the Boulevard Manor land. During the Civil War, both Munson’s and Upton’s Hills were used as Confederate spy outposts. After the first battle of Manassas the hills became a kind of no-man’s land. Upton’s Hill’s was the location for a confederate fort for spying on the Union capital, as there is a clear view to Washington, DC. After the war, Munson’s Hill was renamed as Spy Hill because of this.
In 1860 the Alexandra, Loudon & Hampshire Railroad lay track through the Four Mile Run valley. This was later known as the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad. During the first battle of Manassas during the Civil War, Confederate armies destroyed the Leesburg part of the track. The Federal army, using flat bed train cars, moved troops along the Four Mile Run Valley to Vienna.
After the war, the Reeves and Torreyson families purchased land now considered Boulevard Manor. The house built for George and Lucy Reeves in 1896 is the one still standing, known as the Reeves mansion. Nelson Reeves, born in 1900 was their youngest son. During the World Wars, Arlington became less rural and more a suburb of Washington, DC, and trolley and railroad lines on Wilson Boulevard and through Bluemont to Bluemont Junction became more important. Nelson and his family used the land as a dairy farm, and much of the Boulevard Manor land was pasture for the cows. When Arlington Boulevard was built, it cut through the pasture land, but an overpass was created so the cows could still roam freely. In 1930 Leroy Eakin bought land from the Reeves family to develop for housing, but the only defined street was Montague. In 1955, Ashlawn Elementary was built. July of that same year, Reeves shut down the dairy farm after suburban growth in the area and Hurricane Hazel’s storm damage hurt the farm. He remained in the house until 2000, when he died. By the 1970’s housing developments expanded to cover all of the land that wasn’t part of Bluemont Park, which was created from some of Reevesland, and the land that the Reeves mansion remained on. In this way Boulevard manor is one of the “oldest new” neighborhoods. Because of the county zoning restrictions, high rises will never be built, and this neighborhood will remain the way it is currently.
In Boulevard Manor, 64% of houses are owned, and 36% are rented. The majority were built between 1940 and 1959; none were built before 1940, and none after 2000. The median selling price of a single-family home is $589,300 compared the national figure of $171,800. There are currently no homes for sale, under construction, or under foreclosure. (as of 2010)
The national Census reports that in 2010 the population of Arlington was 207,627, a 9.6% increase from 2000. The county is 64% white, 15.1% hispanic, 9.5% asian, and 8.2% black. The average household is 2.11 people, an unemployment of only 2.33%, and a median household income of $103,384. The majority of jobs in Arlington are government or armed forces ones, and the daytime population is around 227,000.
According to the 2010 national census, the national owned to rented ratio of properties is 65% to 35%. The average household size was 2.58 people. The national population was 308,745,538, 73.4% of the population was white, 16.3% hispanic, 12.6% black, and 4.8% asian.
Lane, Anne Belle. “Boulevard Manor and Spy Hill Subdivision” from “Arlington Historical Magazine” ed. Phyllis w. Johnson. Arlington Historical Society: 1987. Volume 8 no.3 p.14-27
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