Virginia Room Follow-Up: Boulevard Manor Community Archives

When our class visited the Virginia Room in the Arlington Central Library, my research materials focused mainly on the Reeves family property in Boulevard Manor. Many of the pictures from the early- to mid- 1900’s depicted the farmland and open fields around the farmhouse that were part of the Reeves’ family farm. What I found most interesting about the photographs was the dramatic change from the past to the present. Most of the farmland that belonged to the Reeves family is now covered by houses, including my family’s home. The majority of houses built during the baby boom after World War II up until the late 1970’s are still part of the neighborhood today. What once was acres of farmland is now park property owned by Arlington County or residential neighborhoods. This dramatic changes in land use over a relatively short time frame was what I found to be most interesting during my research, and caused me to wonder: How will the neighborhood change in the next twenty to thirty years?