You already know about Carlin, Nevada, and Carlinville, Illinois. And you
probably already know about Bayou Carlin in southern Louisiana; Lake Carlin in
northern Wisconsin; Carlin Ridge in MacDonald County, Missouri, and about Carlin
Park in Jupiter, FL.
But now you can update yourself with the very latest about the Glencarlyn
section of Arlington, Virginia -- originally known as Carlin's Springs. This
includes inf. about Carlin House, the oldest community house in Arlington.
For more inf. about any of these cities or sites, please visit
http://attorney.carlin.net/carlin-cities.htm, which has sections about Bayou
Carlin, Lake Carlin, Carlin Ridge, various Carlin Parks -- and about Glencarlyn
in Arlington, VA.
Glencarlyn, originally Carlin Springs, was once owned by George Washington's
tailor, William Carlin.
Here's the latest about Glencarlyn, from The Washington Post:
Copyright 1999 The Washington Post
The Washington Post, May 22, 1999, Saturday, Final Edition
SECTION: REAL ESTATE; Pg. G01; WHERE WE LIVE
HEADLINE: A WindowTo the Past; Glencarlyn's Grasp on History Appeals to
Longtime Residents
BYLINE: Lois Baron, Special to The Washington Post
BODY: History is on display in Glencarlyn.
First off, there's the oldest house in Arlington, with its original
clapboard roof and a cutout showing the original log cabin's wall.
Then there's Carlin Hall, a charming antique structure that has served as
social center, church, school, public library and, now, county-run
preschool.
There's General Burdett's house--a real Victorian, as opposed to all the
faux Victorians and neo-Victorians that dot the landscape. Burdett is the
guy who turned Carlin Springs, a summer resort, into Glencarlyn, home to
"all men and women of modest means," as his 1887 sales flier put it,
intended to attract government workers from the District.
And, of course, there's George Washington's brass surveyor's mark in the
Glencarlyn Branch Library.
"The main thing that enthralls us about the community is the historical
nature of it," said Vivian Nielsen, 73, who moved there in 1963 when her
husband, Al, was transferred to the Washington area by the Bureau of
Reclamation.
What's not so obvious is how much families like to stay in Glencarlyn.
Betty Vertiz's father was born in Glencarlyn. He and his wife put up a
Sears, Roebuck and Co. house there, and Vertiz was born in it in 1927. Her
nephew still lives in the house, right behind where Vertiz lives today. A
cousin is in the neighborhood as well.
Marion Higgins, 80, thought her family would live in Glencarlyn for three
years. "We'd moved so much up till then," she said. They've stayed put
since
1961, except for moving across the street. "I always wanted to have a
property to back [onto] the park," she said, and told a neighbor know that
if she'd ever like to sell, the Higginses would be interested. The
opportunity came in 1978, and over they went.
Three families that started out as renters on Ann Cohen's street have
bought houses. Cohen, 46, bought a house in the neighborhood 15 years ago
after her parents settled there.
Cohen, president of the Glencarlyn Citizens Association, also will move
within the neighborhood. She's marrying her next-door neighbor, a romance
that bloomed last summer after 14 years of friendship. First her new husband
will move into her house, because it's bigger, and then they'll set about
finding another house--in Glencarlyn.
The first house in what would become Glencarlyn belonged to John Ball, a
farmer and probably a member of the prominent Ball family of Virginia that
included George Washington's mother.
Ball received 166 acres in 1742 from Lord Fairfax. Portions of his log
cabin, including the original clapboard roof, can still be seen in the house
at 5620 S. Third Street. Some years later George Washington bought a nearby
parcel that had been granted to Moses Ball, probably a cousin of John Ball,
and one of Washington's brass surveyor marks survived on an oak. The tree
was replaced by a monument, with the brass marker being kept in the
Glencarlyn library.
William Carlin, one of Washington's tailors, bought John Ball's property
in 1772. A century later, a Carlin descendant turned the family property
into a weekend resort for folks who came by train--where a bike path is
now--from Washington and Alexandria. The two springs in the area were dubbed
the Carlin Springs and in the mid-1870s were the rumored site of rich
deposits of gold. The rumors, however, did not pan out.
In 1887, Samuel S. Burdett and William W. Curtis bought 132 acres in the
Carlin Springs neighborhood for $ 8,000. They offered lots of "not less than
6,000 square feet of ground" for $ 100, which could be paid off at $ 10 a
month. The next year Burdett established the Carlin Springs Cooperative
Association, one of the first planned cooperative residential communities in
the country.
Today, houses in the neighborhood range from the low $ 170,000s to a high
of $ 419,900, said Gary Fitzgibbon, a Remax agent. He recently sold a
neo-Victorian for $ 315,000. Ann Cohen said some houses sell for as low as $
150,000. That end of the price range typically reflects a two-bedroom, 1
1/2-bath house on a slab foundation.
"We particularly love it because it's close in, yet it's more than 100
years old," said Barbara Downey, 49. She and her husband, Jim, 50, have
owned a neo-Victorian since 1984. "When Jim worked at the Pentagon, he'd say
that it took him longer to get from his parking space into his office than
from here to the Pentagon."
Cohen characterizes the homeowners as easygoing. They did galvanize in
1970 when neighbors worried that a developer would snap up a large lot
abutting Glencarlyn Park for town houses. In 48 hours, 86 residents raised $
17,000 to buy the land, which the county later bought.
More recently, Glencarlyn successfully protested the possible closing of
the Glencarlyn branch of the Arlington library system.
"We'd never lived before where there was an active association like this
one," said Vivian Nielsen, 73. "We were quite surprised and pleased to find
this way to get citizen representation" on what happens in the neighborhood.
The association sponsors Glencarlyn Days, the first weekend in June,
which involves a potluck dinner and street dance Friday, and a pancake
breakfast, parade, often a house tour, and then games and a picnic in the
park Saturday.
Despite its history, Glencarlyn is not a dusty archive. "The neighborhood
has changed and changed back again," Marion Higgins said. "It was full of
children. Then, after our four grew up and left, for a while there was not a
child to be seen, and now we're inundated again. It's nice to see children
back."
Betty Vertiz remembers four grades attending the one-room schoolhouse and
the roads being mostly dirt and cinders. But, she said, "When you stay here,
you don't notice the changes so much."
The neighborhood streets don't go very far. But the people who live there
wonder, why would you want to go farther than Glencarlyn?
WHERE WE LIVE
BOUNDARIES: The neighborhood lies south of Route 50 (Arlington
Boulevard), east of Carlin Springs Road and north of the Northern Virginia
Doctors Medical Center. On the east is Glencarlyn Park.
NUMBER OF HOUSES: About 605
SCHOOLS: Glencarlyn Elementary, Kenmore Middle and Wakefield High
schools.
PROPERTY SALES: 16 sales in the last 12 months, excluding private sales.
A two-bedroom, one-bath house on a slab foundation sells for about $
160,000. A new house can cost more than $ 300,000.
WITHIN WALKING DISTANCE: Glencarlyn Park and Library, Long Branch Nature
Center, Columbia Pike, bike path, Northern Virginia Doctors Medical Center.
10 MINUTES BY CAR: Seven Corners shopping, Baileys Crossroads, Ballston
Common, Clarendon restaurants, Northern Virginia Community
College--Alexandria Campus, Fort Myer, Iwo Jima Memorial.
15 MINUTES BY CAR: The Pentagon. Betty Geris, 74, moved into her house 50
years ago when it was newly built. She has lived in Glencarlyn all her life.
This house, at 5620 S. Third Street in Glencarlyn, is the oldest in
Arlington. Walls from the original log cabin, believed to have been built by
John Ball, a farmer and probably a member of the prominent Ball family of
Virginia that included George Washington's mother, are encased within walls
that were added later.
GRAPHIC: Photo, LOIS RAIMONDO; Photo, LOIS RAIMONDO; Map, TWP