Waycroft-Woodlawn Neighborhood History

Waycroft-Woodlawn is a neighborhood that consists of 585 homes, about 1,400 inhabitants, and is located north of Ballston. Its boundaries are Glebe road, I-66, 17th St, and George Mason Drive. (see the red/pink shaded region on the first map on next page) The three largest landmarks of our community are Virginia Hospital, the Hospice, and Mt. Olivet Methodist Church, which are all located, one after another, on 16th Street. There is no official community center. However, the unofficial center of the community would have to be Waycroft-Woodlawn Park. Complete with playing field, basketball court, walking paths, playground set, and a stream it is well used and enjoyed by the members of our community.

The land of Waycroft-Woodlawn was officially purchased in 1739 when it was included in a 1,246 acre grant to John Colville. Arlington and the Waycroft-Woodlawn area were thinly populated through the colonial period. (See 1878 map of the area showing individual farms and houses below) In 1800 the Arlington area had a population of about 1000 people, 300 of which were slaves. In 1850, two residents of the Waycroft-Woodlawn area, William Marcey and John Brown, had a dispute over a section of land located at the intersection of Glebe and Brown's Bend Roads (now 16th Street). In the end, both parties gave up their claims and donated the land for a church to be built upon. Mt. Olivet Methodist Church was built there over a period of 5 years (1855-1860). However, the church currently standing there is the fourth building built on those grounds.

During the Civil War, like the rest of Arlington, Waycroft-Woodlawn was occupied by Union troops. Mt. Olivet was initially used as a hospital for Union soldiers following the First Battle of Manassas or the Battle of Bull Run. However, in the following winters to come (1861-63), the building was destroyed and used for firewood by Union soldiers. Through the remainder of the 20th century the population of Arlington continued to grow until it had reached 6,600 in 1900. Waycroft Woodlawn remained a sparsely populated, rural area.

The 1920’s and 1930’s brought great change to the Waycroft-Woodlawn area. The Brumback construction firm built Woodlawn village in the 1930’s transforming the area from a rural one to a suburban one. In the area known as Waycroft individual lots were purchased and built up by separate builders. Waycroft-Woodlawn Civic Association was formed in 1937 marking the official foundation of the Waycroft-Woodlawn Community. In 1940, the W-W elementary school was constructed. During WWII, Virginia Hospital Center was built (construction finished in 1944). In the 1950’s part of highway 66 was to cut through the southeast corner of Waycroft-Woodlawn. Due to complaints and delays, this project took until 1982 to finish! In 1971 the old W-W elementary school was turned into an alternative high school. However, that only lasted until 1978 when it was shut down and transformed into the Hospice of Northern Virginia. Since its construction in 1940, the Hospital has had two major expansions. The rest of Waycroft-Woodlawn community continues to expand as well. The area is now a densely populated suburb. In the past decade, houses have been built not only in increasing amounts, but in increasing size. These new mini-mansions or mc-mansions (as we call them) dwarf their neighboring red-brick houses built in the 30’s and 40’s. The community is wealthy, with real estate prices high and a median annual income of $130,000 and there is relatively little crime in the area. Younger families continue to move into the area and keep the community alive and strong.

Pinkish area is the Waycroft-Woodlawn neighborhood.

Satellite image of W-W area. You can see the park's field right of the center of the map.

By Peter Hazel
Sources:

http://waycroft.tripod.com/his.htm

http://www.arlingtonva.us/Departments/CPHD/ons/conservation/CPHDOnsInsider_Waycroft_woodlawn.aspx

http://www.washingtonpost.com/real-estate/neighborhoods/Waycroft-Woodlawn,VA-statistics.html

Satellite image of previous map taken in 2009, where you can see the location of the park
Courtesy of googlemaps: http://maps.google.com/