CPHD
Our Neighborhoods - Barcroft
Location
Barcroft neighborhood is in Arlington, Virginia, USA. We are a suburb just across the Potomac river to the south of Washington, DC. Our neighborhood is bounded by Arlington Boulevard, George Mason Drive, Columbia Pike and Four Mile Run park.
History
The Barcroft community traces its history to the time of George Washington, who surveyed the land and may have built a gristmill here. George Washington Parke Custis later built the Arlington Mill on Four Mile Run near Columbia Pike. Custis' mill was destroyed during the Civil War.
Barcroft neighborhood owes its name to Dr. John Wolverton Barcroft, who built and operated a mill after the Civil War on the foundations of the Arlington Mill. It was said to have the largest mill wheel on the east coast. Dr. Barcroft, a physician and inventor, had also owned a mill further west on Columbia Pike beyond Baileys Crossroads, for which Lake Barcroft is named.
The earliest homes in the neighborhood were built near Columbia Pike beginning about 1892 as the subdivision of Corbett. This area was resubdivided under the "Barcroft" name in 1903. The community grew to the north and east, and homes gradually filled in the area of the current Barcroft neighborhood. From 1918 through the 1950's, builder Walter O'Hara and his son Robert built several hundred Barcroft homes in a variety of styles. The neighborhood also has at least one Sears home and one Lustron enameled steel home. Today the central part of Barcroft has a mix of homes built between the 1880's and the 1980's, most of them more than 30 years old. Beginning in the 1960's, townhouses and apartment buildings were built on the edges of the neighborhood along Columbia Pike, South George Mason Drive and Arlington Boulevard.
Neighborhood Goals
Their most important goals are to:
- Preserve the neighborhood's essential character as an area of single-family homes.
- Preserve the open, uncrowded nature of the neighborhood by discouraging infill and pipestem development.
- Ensure that the redevelopment of the Arlington Hall site by Federal Government agencies provides additional park space, improves public access to the site, improves the appearance of the site, provides for a usable bicycle trail to the Thomas Jefferson Community Center and does not have adverse traffic, parking or pollution impacts on Barcroft.
- Protect the core area of the neighborhood from cut-through traffic and speeding, while maintaining convenient access to and across major arterial streets and to adjacent retail centers.
- Promote pedestrian safety by completing the neighborhood's sidewalks, curbs and gutters; improving the maintenance of the sidewalks now in place; and improving street lighting where it is inadequate.
- Improve access to parks and recreation facilities.
- Support the renovation of Barcroft School to serve neighborhood needs.
- Improve the appearance of Columbia Pike businesses and encourage them to provide the mix of services and retail stores which the neighborhood needs, without increasing scale or density.
- Improve the appearance of Barcrofts streetscape at specific locations with additional landscaping or street improvements.
- Promote broader recognition of Barcroft's name with appropriate signs at entrances to the neighborhood.
- Encourage a neighborhood spirit which will preserve the friendly, open relations between neighbors which make Barcroft a fine place to live.
Parks and Recreation
Within Barcroft's boundaries, the only usable public park and recreation area at the present time is the playground and field at Barcroft School. As a school facility it is unavailable to the public during the school day, Extended Day, and other program hours, usually from 7:00 a.m. until after 6:00 p.m. on school days. The school playground is undersized, with fewer square feet per pupil than the current Virginia standard, and inadequately equipped.
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