18th and 19th centuries During the
colonial era, present-day Cherrydale was part of two land grants by
Thomas Fairfax, 5th Lord Fairfax of Cameron to Thomas Going, who was given 653 acres in 1708, and Reverend James Brechin of
St Peter's Church in
New Kent County, Virginia, who was given 795 acres in 1716. Going's tract was eventually inherited by
George Mason, becoming part of the
Mason family's landholdings until it was lost by George's son
John in the 1830s after his bankruptcy. 516 acres of Brechin's parcel were sold to the
Anglican Fairfax Parish in 1770 as a
glebe, on which the original
Glebe House was built in 1775. Andrew Donaldson began farming in the area in 1780 and is considered one of Cherrydale's first permanent residents. Military Road was also built during the war in 1861 to connect the Arlington Line and Chain Bridge defenses. A small collection of buildings had developed at this intersection by 1879. Local figures, including members of the Donaldson family, and new arrivals such as Francis G. Schutt of
New York, continued to farm the land surrounding the intersection throughout the rest of the 19th century. Robert Shreve, who married into the Donaldson family, acquired Nelson's store and built his family home on North Pollard Street, which still stands today. The GF&OD Railroad reached Cherrydale in 1904, providing a commuter streetcar service to Rosslyn starting in 1907. The Dominion Heights subdivision, which consisted of 128 lots, was created shortly before this in 1905 by Josephine A. Cunningham, and was mostly developed by 1925. Streetcar stops were built at the Langston Boulevard and Military Road intersection, as well as adjacent to Dominion Heights. This stimulated further development, and by 1926 twenty subdivisions had been created in the Cherrydale area. The 1920s saw the establishment of 5 churches, the Cherrydale Branch of the
Arlington Public Library, fraternal organizations such as the Cherrydale Masonic Lodge, and the Cherrydale Women's Club. Improvements in local roads drove further growth as well as car ownership, which resulted in the eventual closure of Cherrydale's rail service in 1934. While growth slowed throughout Arlington during the
Great Depression, the expansion of government personnel during the
New Deal era and
World War II sparked renewed development; 10 subdivisions were platted in Cherrydale between 1936 and 1946. As a community in the
Jim Crow South established during the
nadir of American race relations, Cherrydale had an active
Ku Klux Klan presence in the early 1920s through the 1960s. 250 Klansmen passed through the neighborhood during a 1922 march from Chain Bridge that preceded their 1926 parade in Washington; the Klan was known to participate in public celebrations into the 1950s. Cherrydale's subdivisions also had
racially restrictive covenants that prevented
African Americans and other minority groups from purchasing property. Nearby
Halls Hill, a
segregated black community, was populated in part with former African American residents of Cherrydale.
Cherrydale sit-ins During the Civil rights era, the
Nonviolent Action Group at
Howard University organized a sit-in in Cherrydale. This took place from June 9 to June 10, 1960 at the
Peoples Drug and Cherrydale
Drug Fair lunch counters, which at the time were not welcome to black customers. Over the 2 days, protesters were refused service by the store managers and endured verbal and physical abuse from local white students of
Washington-Lee High School,
Stratford Junior High School, and St. Agnes School. Stratford had been the first school in Virginia to
desegregate in 1959. The sit-ins had a heavy media presence and were overseen by local Arlington County police, who issued warnings against Nazi Party members and other agitators. Following the sit-in, the protesters demanded to have mediated sessions with local businesses, residents, and the Arlington County government to push for the desegregation of County stores. The County Board proclaimed that they could not change the policies of private businesses, but urged business owners to voluntarily desegregate.
Further developments In 1966, the
Washington and Old Dominion Railroad closed their freight service along the Rosslyn spur and Bluemont lines, which were acquired by the
Virginia Department of Transportation to build Interstate 66. The freeway was completed in 1988; homes in Cherrydale that were formerly adjacent to the railroad tracks were moved or demolished. This was expressed in the 1994 Cherrydale Revitalization Plan, which recommended a variety of changes to improve Cherrydale's pedestrian friendliness, particularly along the Langston Boulevard commercial corridor. The 1994 plan has enabled the construction of several apartment buildings and townhouse communities. The County's 2023 Langston Boulevard Area Plan, which envisions communities along the highway becoming higher density, more
walkable, and more
mixed-use, has thus far excluded Cherrydale given the existence of the 1994 plan. ==Architecture==