History of Boulevard Manor
(Developed in 2008 as part of the Neighborhood Conservation Plan)
1. Living Off the Land
A thousand years ago, the Powhatan Indians walked among the forests, hills, springs and bottomlands of the neighborhood now known as Boulevard Manor. They left no evidence of permanent settlements, only scattered arrowheads and other artifacts.
European settlers forever changed the landscape as they began arriving in the 1600s with hopes of finding gold, silver, and new trade routes. By the 1700s Jamestown settlers began slowly fanning out across Virginia in search of fresh land. The whole area between the Potomac and the Rappahannock became known as “The Northern Neck.”
Lord Fairfax, who owned this whole vast tract, would ‘grant’, or rent, the land to the settlers. By 1748, when the town of Alexandria was established, all of the land had been granted.
Most of the Boulevard Manor neighborhood sits on land which can be traced back to two colonial land grants: one to Thomas Pearson in 1707 and another to John Ball in 1742. The nearby Glen Carlyn neighborhood occupies the major portion of the John Ball grant (later sold to William Carlin); however, the 5800 block of 1st Street N., in Boulevard Manor, is located on the northern portion of the Ball grant. Nearly all of the remainder of Boulevard Manor lies within a portion of the 660-acre Thomas Pearson grant. The Pearson land extended northeast from Leesburg Pike at Munson Hill to the northern end of the Dominion Hills neighborhood; it was bounded on the west by Upton Hill and extended to the east nearly to Four Mile Run.
The area was still largely wooded at the beginning of the 1800s, but the forests would not last: Hickories, gums, and oaks fell to cherry and peach orchards and fields of corn, wheat, and tobacco.
Farmers had initially struggled to make a living. Their fortunes were buoyed by the creation of the nation’s capital, resulting from George Washington’s decision to place the new federal territory along the Potomac River. Indeed, present-day Arlington County lies within the original boundaries of what became the District of Columbia, until the Virginia land was returned to Virginia through retrocession in 1846. The cities of Washington and Alexandria drew a growing population that brought a thriving market for the farmers’ products, new bridges and roads, and new methods to improve depleted farms.
So-called “scientific farming” was spread by northern farmers moving south. One of them, Timothy Bishop Munson, moved his family from New York to Fairfax County in 1851.
Munson started raising fruit trees and sheep on the land which took his name, Munson’s Hill, most of which was part of the Pearson tract. The Munson’s Hill farm extended into present day Arlington and included the greater portion of Boulevard Manor.
By 1860, the neighborhood and surrounding area were home to many thriving family farms.
2. The Civil War and Reconstruction
The Civil War left its mark on the neighborhood. Virginia joined the Confederacy in 1861. In the early months of the war, the Southern army employed the high ridges in this area as prime lookouts to observe the Federal troops which crossed the Potomac and began to build fortifications. Both Munson’s and Upton’s hills became vantage points for Confederate “spies.”
Union troops defeated at the first battle of Manassas straggled back through the neighborhood, which became a “no man’s land” between the two armies. Later that year the Southern army left the area. Munson and Upton Hills became campgrounds. On the top of Upton Hill, now occupied with apartments, Union engineers constructed the earthenwork Fort Ramsay as part of the defense of Washington.
The area saw tough times during the war, but life returned to normal at its end as farms and roads were rebuilt and commerce returned. Most of the Boulevard Manor land probably was finally cleared of its native forests only when the Torreyson and Reeves families purchased it after the Civil War.
Among the new players that the Civil War’s end brought to the scene was William Henry Torreyson. Family history has it that Torreyson was one of Mosby’s Raiders, and it may be familiarity with the area through his service with that famed Confederate cavalry that brought him back to the area immediately after the war.
Torreyson in February 1866 purchased 63 acres of the former Carlin estate from Ira Lain. He brought his new bride — Mary Eliza Burroughs, the daughter of a local landowner – to this property, the first of several tracts he purchased that would become Reevesland.
The Torreyson couple lived in a log house at about First and South Madison Streets. They established a dairy farm that would last through three generations of the family and nearly 90 years. Torreyson acquired adjacent tracts of land and constantly improved them. In 1869, Torreyson purchased 94 acres from the Munson heirs, including the portion of Munson’s Hill farm extending into what is now Arlington County. Eventually, the farm encompassed 214 acres.
The couple lived on their land as prosperous farmers, and their children were part of the social whirl of the area. They built a large home, Chestnut Grove, and outbuildings near what is now the intersection of First and North Manchester Streets.
Chestnut Grove was eventually sold, became run down and was demolished in 1952 to make way for Arlington Boulevard, but not without a fight: the sturdy buildings had to be shaken to pieces by a crane.
In 1885, John J. McElhinney, a professor at the Virginia Theological Seminary in Alexandria, and his wife purchased a 94-acre section of the Pearson land grant that extended south from present day Wilson Boulevard to Arlington Boulevard, over much of present-day Boulevard Manor.
One Torreyson daughter, Lucy Ellen, married George Richard Reeves in 1894. The young couple went to Missouri for a time, where George and his brother had a farm together. In 1898, however, couple returned to help Lucy’s parents operate the farm. William Torreyson was then in ill health, perhaps from wounds he had suffered in the Civil War. In the decade that followed their return, Torreyson would deed much of his land to his daughter and his son-in-law.
In 1894, George Reeves, son of a country doctor, married Torreyson’s daughter Lucy in Virginia. They returned to Missouri for a time and had three children there, one of whom died in infancy. Mr. and Mrs. Reeves and their two surviving children, Torreyson and Ruth, returned to Virginia in 1898 to assist Lucy’s ailing father.
The house built for George and Lucy upon their return was to become the Reevesland farmhouse, the center of the current Historic District. The house expanded many times over the succeeding years. The original kitchen wing was an old tenant farmer house relocated from elsewhere on the property.
George Reeves acquired adjacent parcels to add to the Torreyson land his wife had received from her father. The couple sold milk and produce from their land to the growing populations of Washington, Alexandria and Arlington.
The turn of the 20th Century saw the family in that house, with their youngest son Nelson Reeves, born there on August 29, 1900.
3. A New Community Emerges
The 20th Century saw fundamental changes to Alexandria County, which became Arlington County in 1920. By the turn of the century, farms had already begun disappearing and most people had other jobs, although many still kept livestock for family use.
New electrified trolley lines connected the county with Washington, with Bluemont Junction, just east of the Torreyson farm, as an important hub. Trolley and railroad lines hastened trade and carried milk, produce, vacationers, picnickers, and the first commuters to and from “the country.”
Later, as the car became king, the trolley and railroad shut down. A new route for Wilson Boulevard was laid around Upton’s Hill. The road was eventually straightened to the steep, direct path it takes over the hill today.
Each of the two World Wars and the government programs created to combat the Great Depression brought more people to work for the federal government. Arlington increasingly lost its rural flavor as it became a commuter suburb of nearby Washington, with farm after farm subdivided for housing.
Land transfers also multiplied.
John McElhinney’s death in the 1890s had ushered in a number of land sales by his widow and sons. Mrs. McElhinney sold land to Susan Uber that extended north from what is now the Target complex to 6th St North. Uber sold it to George Offutt who gave the land to his son, Olin. A county road passed through this area, known as Uber Road, later became known as North Ohio Street. A section of North Livingston Street is all that remains of the road.
In 1904, Mrs. McElhinney sold George Reeves a section of land between North Montague Street and North Littleton Street.
John McElhinney’s son William and his wife owned a home at 400 North Lombardy Street that they used on weekends. They sold it in 1919 to George Reeves, who deeded it to his daughter Ruth Reeves Lane. Ruth married Munson H. Lane, Sr. in 1923, and they moved into the home the next year.
Neighbors at the time included the family farm and a few scattered families. The neighborhood was still so sparsely populated that one could ride a sled all the way from the woods in front of their yard to the bottom of the hill — but it was such a long trip that you were lucky to make it twice in one day.
Rogers McElhinney, who lived at 501 North Lombardy Street, sold off parts of his land, an acre or two at a time, whenever he needed money. One of the ten transactions he made from 1901-1910 was to Augusta B. Porte. This land, previously known as Powhatan Springs, changed hands several times and was eventually sold to the Dominion Hills Recreation Association in 1955.
Rogers McElhinney’s last transaction was the sale of his house and 9/10 of an acre to Munson H. Lane, Sr. in 1932. It became the home of Anna Belle and Munson H. Lane, Jr.
Torreyson deeded much of his land to daughters Lucy and Ruth before his death in 1910. Ruth sold her acreage in 1927. It was sold again in 1930 to Leroy Eakin, who platted out Boulevard Manor.
Eakin platted 23 lots on the north side of Arlington Boulevard and named it Boulevard Manor. Montague Road, a designated county road, and Montague Circle were the only named streets.
A clause in the deeds of these lots stated that no dwelling costing less than $5,000 would be erected on the property. Perhaps the price seemed too steep to potential buyers– only three lots were sold and one house built during that era.
The unique Spanish-style home at 110 North Montague Street was built on one lot purchased in 1932 by Amie Henry. The front portion of that lot was eventually divided into three more home sites.
World War II and its aftermath sparked a population boom. More workers flowed in to support the expanding federal government and military, baby boomers started families, and modern roads provided easy access to jobs. The neighborhood as we know it today arose quickly during this era.
Property began changing hands in earnest in 1939 with the sale of the section from 501 North Lombardy Street to 6th Street and over to Livingston Street. Additional land acquired in 1952 from Eakin and the Reeves estate was developed for more homes. Munson H. Lane, Sr. bought one lot and later sold part of it to be included in the Boulevard Manor development and another that would eventually become part of the Spy Hill development.
In 1946, Eakin sold a third lot, which was resold and subdivided several times. Six homes were built in the 1950s on the wedge of land between Montague and Nottingham Streets. In less than 20 years, hundreds of new split levels, colonials and ramblers covered much of Boulevard Manor.
In 1955, the County obtained two lots that had once belonged to Rogers McElhinney for the Ashlawn School.
4. “I am Nelson Reeves, Your Neighbor.”
Nelson Reeves married in 1929, but continued to work on the farm in partnership with his father, taking on more and more of the operation from the aging George in the 1930s.
In 1941, Nelson (who had been divorced from his first wife) married Mescal Louise Wagner. Nelson and Louise continued the dairy business and farmed the land, often using horse-drawn implements, which were more suitable than the tractor for the farm’s hilly terrain. They raised three children.
Stores, churches, and homes began to surround remaining farms, but the Reeves held on.
Although the Reeves farm corn and wheat, Nelson Reeves was primarily a dairy man whose herd of cows defined the rhythm of life in the area over the first half of the 20th century. The construction of Arlington Boulevard cut through the farm but included an underpass so cows could move freely among pastures.
Yet, the pressures of suburban growth eventually prevailed. In 1954, the County condemned 20 acres along Four Mile Run to establish Bluemont Park. That, coupled with destruction of a silo by Hurricane Hazel, provided a turning point.
Unable to run the operation any longer, Nelson Reeves milked the last cows, shipped the last milk, and shuttered the farm in July 1955. He went on to become the custodian of Oakwood Cemetery for 35 years and remained active all his life.
Jim Landrum, a neighbor adjoining the last remnant of the original farm, was among Nelson Reeves’s many friends. Jim recalls him bringing bounty from his garden, opening the farmhouse hill for sledding, leading Easter egg hunts and taking children for rides on his lawnmower. Nelson Reeves shared the bounty of his garden with neighbors and offered them advice on their own. He discussed local history with school groups and Boy Scout troops. Louise Reeves ran the local 4-H chapter.
“What those of us who lived next the Reeves remember most,” Landrum said, “is listening to Mr. Reeves talk about the history of Arlington, the dirt roads, the first automobile that came to the farm, catching the train to go to high school in Washington, seeing the Wright Brothers fly, milking the cows…” Nelson Reeves’ life was, in many ways, a time capsule of the century.
Reeves remained in the farmhouse where he was born, christened “Reevesland” by Louise, until his death in 2000 at age 99. Yet the Reeves family had one more gift to make to the community. The children of Nelson and Louise – Ron, Marcia, and Cheryl – chose to sell the remaining 2.4 acres of Reevesland to Arlington County. Although their inheritance likely would have fetched a much higher price from developers, the Reeves children made their choice in the hope that the county would preserve the property.
5. Recent Developments
Another round of home construction began in the 1970s.
The Reeves family sold another tract on North 4th Street, near the farmhouse, for construction of six colonial homes in 1973. Settlement of the Reeves estate included sale of a hilltop tract in March 1975 that became part of the Spy Hill development.
After her death in 1989, Ruth Reeves Lane’s adjoining Lombardy Street property was sold to build the Stone Ridge development. Finally, in 2005, construction began on another six homes where Anna Belle Lane’s home once stood. Boulevard Manor is now completely developed. (Mrs. Lane, although no longer residing in the neighborhood, is a fine historian who contributed greatly to this document.)
Churches and parks also appeared as the neighborhood grew.
A tract from the Reeves estate became the site of The Church of the Brethren, which held its first service in December 1957. The Arlington Community Church, built on the site of a former home on the corner of Wilson Boulevard and Livingston Street, held its first service in 1964.
As two churches arose, another departed: The Calvary Church of the Nazarene at the corner of Wilson and Manchester Street shut its doors in 1988 after 60 years. Its closure prompted numerous site use proposals, including a training center, a halfway house, and a large facility for Arlington Hospital, all of which were turned down by the civic association. After contacting the developer of the Sunrise Assisted Living Center, the association worked with the developer and with then-Chairman of the County Board Al Eisenberg to develop plans for the current facility, which opened in 1990.
Bluemont Park, established from the 20 acres of the Reeves property condemned by the County in 1954, has become a favorite gathering point for sports and picnics.
Upton Hill Regional Park was established in 1977. In the nineteenth century, this site had been farmland, orchards, and, in Civil War days, the perimeter of Fort Ramsay. In the 1960s, the American Nazi Party leased an old farmhouse on the site at 6150 Wilson Boulevard as a residence for its “stormtroopers.” George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazis, was assassinated by a disgruntled party officer nearby in 1967 in the parking lot of the Dominion Hills Shopping Centre. When the Upton Hill tract was offered for sale in the 1970s, neighbors successfully fought a proposal to build high-rise office buildings. The regional park now features a pool, picnic pavilion, batting cage, miniature golf course and hiking trails.
Powhatan Springs Park, built on land purchased by the County and dedicated in 2004, includes a skateboarding bowl, sports field, and rain garden.
After the death of Nelson Reeves, Arlington County purchased the remaining Reeves property for its value as an historic survivor of Arlington’s past and a significant open landscape adjacent to Bluemont Park. The County designated Reevesland and its remaining 2.5 acres as a landmark historic district in 2004, installed a county historic marker, and assumed responsibility for the care and use of the property. The Virginia Room of the Arlington County Library maintains a file on the Reeves Farm that includes films, pictures and a 2004 architectural study of the historical significance of the farm.
Arlington has changed dramatically in the neighborhood’s 200-year modern history. The county is undergoing a renaissance, and development again marches closer. Views of the growing, bustling Ballston corridor from our hills remind us of the rapid changes in recent years, yet much remains the same: New generations of families still call Boulevard Manor home. The parks that encircle the neighborhood and Reevesland, at its heart, provide green space in our urban village. And we share a rich history as one of Arlington’s oldest yet “newest” neighborhoods.
Sources:
Neighborhood History by Anna Belle Lane
Torreyson-Reeves Farm History
A Brief History of the Ashlawn School Neighborhood by John Huennekens
Article: A Farmer Still At Home in Arlington
Jim Landrum’s recollections of Mr. Reeves