Columnist, author, and local historian Charlie Clark will discuss his latest book: Lost Arlington County. Arlington began three centuries ago as the farm section of Alexandria County and emerged in the 1900s as a vibrant suburb of the nation’s capital. Global notice came after the creation and expansion of Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon, and Fort Myer, site of history’s first airplane casualty–September 17, 1908. Add in some modern marquee employers–PBS, WETA, Nestlé, the Foreign Service Institute, and Amazon–and it’s a recipe for accelerated change. Unsurprisingly, residents are increasingly at odds over rising housing costs and demolitions of long-valued homes and businesses. A key to preserving Arlington’s character is a deeper knowledge of history.Local journalist and author Charlie Clark provides a compendium of gone-but-not-forgotten institutions, businesses, homes, and amusements. He’ll also outline the new AHS preservation education program for homeowners, builders, and real estate agents.

This event is one of the free monthly public presentations sponsored by the Arlington Historical Society and Marymount University’s Department of History and Politics. It was held on May 12, 2022. The video is 40 minutes in length.