Arlington’s Colonial Village
Why? I don’t know, but today I began reflecting on growing up in Colonial Village and the impact it had on Arlington “back in the day” which still continues today as it’s been named the best neighborhood in America for 2024 according to the ranking website “Niche”. Colonial Village has been recognized as an Arlington County Landmark and is in the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in four separate stages from 1933-1955 with one of the first FHA loans, Colonial Village’s 1100 garden type all-brick apartments was spread over 60 acres in Arlington next to Rosslyn in a beautiful courtyard setting of 240 dwellings. The community was comprised of several open spaces, pathways, gardens, lavish shrubbery, playgrounds, and strewn throughout with benches in a park-like setting.
My father was a developer and partner in the Gustave Ring Corporation developing, not only Colonial Village, but other properties including Arlington Village, Westchester and Brentwood Village in Washington, the Woodmont Country Club in Maryland, and a number of office buildings including the Ring Building. Once these properties were completed, he became the General Manager of Colonial Village from 1954-1977 when Colonial Village was purchased by Mobil Oil. My dad remained as a VP for Mobil Land Devlopment until his retirement in 1986 and was instrumental in the purchase of Reston from Gulf Oil and moving the Mobil Corporate Headquarters to Fairfax in the late 1970’s.
During my reflecting, I came to realize that my dad had created a very smooth running, effective, and efficient operation employing well over 100 folks of which many commuted daily from Washington via the bus system.
His office staff was comprised of three ladies who looked over the front desk, Mrs. Wolfe, who was the Rental Manager, and Miris, who was my dad’s secretary and bookkeeper. Dad’s office, which I described in an earlier post, was quite impressive to say the least.
The rest of the folks working at Colonial Village “back in the day” worked from what was called The Shop. I’m here to tell you The Shop was huge and was extremely efficiently laid out. In fact, it was so large it had three separate entrances–one entrance on each side opposite one another and the third at the far opposite end. When you headed into The Shop using the main entrance which was one of the side entrances, to your immediate left was where the large lawn tractors were parked, a little further down to the right was the lawn shed where the smaller lawn mowers, and all the lawn equipment was kept. Opposite the lawn shed you began to enter the expanse of The Shop where all the Cushman scooters were parked which led to the engineer’s office space and tool storage. Within this area was a large storeroom filled with parts and plumbing supplies in order to maintain all the apartments. The locker room was the next area within The Shop, where everyone had an assigned locker, would change into their gray work slacks and shirt each with their name embroidered on it. The next section within The Shop was the painter’s area which housed the vast amount of paint and paint supplies necessary to maintain Colonial Village. The last area of The Shop was an office area for some support staff and the carpenter’s shop for wood storage, tools, supplies, and a number of large power tools.
There was a group of engineers led by Dallas and later Jim where each engineer had their own Cushman scooter loaded down with tools and parts as they were responsible for all the repairs to the apartments and buildings, and the maintenance of the many boiler systems which heated the apartments by way of radiators. On the outskirts of Colonial Village property sat a small home which was actually a residence where Dallas and his family lived.
Carlyn, Dallas’s brother, was in charge of all the painters and, Robert, the carpenter who also was the locksmith. Fuzzy, his nickname, was the lead painter of 12 painters split into 4 groups who were responsible for all the painting at Colonial Village which not only amounted to the apartments, but all the hallways, common areas, and park benches. Robert was a master carpenter and maintained all the woodwork and windows and changed all the locks when apartments turned over also making and replacing keys.
Early on I very much remember Joe who led both the staff of 24 janitors and the 8 lawn crew members. He, unfortunately, became ill and did pass away as Buck took over his responsibilities. The janitor staff was assigned to a specific section of apartments and they were worked 5 1/2 days each week. They were responsible for trash pick-up Monday-Friday as folks could place their trash in front of their door on each of those days. Then they would maintain all the hallways by sweeping and mopping them, as well as any common areas including the laundry rooms. They also kept clean and bright all of the brass fixtures throughout Colonial Village.
The lawn crew worked 5 days each week and would begin their day collecting the trash that was collected daily. During the winter they would work on special projects and were the lead group responsible for snow removal. Spring, Summer, and Fall they were dedicated to maintaining all the greenery of the many courtyards and common areas and keeping all the playground equipment in good working order for the children to enjoy. They would aerate, seed, and cut the acres upon acres of grass at Colonial Village, trim the hundreds of shrubs, hedges, and trees, and rake and dispose all the leaves which fell each year. “Back in the day”, trimming was done using handheld trimming scissors and edging was accomplished using a number of hand tools which made lawn maintenance extremely labor intensive. Otey led the lawn crew who had a lot of pride and I was always amazed at how beautiful and wonderfully well-kept Colonial Village was on a daily basis.
My folks would usually host three “get togethers” during the Christmas season: a small one for the office staff at Colonial Village, a large gathering with their friends and some family, and the bringing of friends and family together on Christmas day. “Back in the day”, drinking wine was almost non-existent and beer was mostly consumed by men during daylight hours usually Budweiser or Schlitz–my, how times have changed! This meant cocktails supplied by hard liquor was by “far and away” the most popular and bourbon, scotch, or gin reigned supreme as no one drank vodka as it had no taste–again, my, how times have changed.
It took 24 oil-run boilers to heat Colonial Village and they seemed to always need a lot of care as they often broke down requiring the help and expertise provided by Capital Boiler Works. My father, like myself and no wonder why, was a constant worrier. The three things he worried most about, which meant he worried all the time, were severe thunderstorms, heavy snow, and when the next boiler breakdown was going to occur. Severe thunderstorms equated into lost power to the tenants; heavy snow equated into safety concerns for the tenants; and a boiler breakdown equated into lost heat to the tenants. Yes, my father was extremely customer service oriented and cared deeply for his tenants and employees.
Well, the reason I mentioned Capital Boiler Works, was with Colonial Village being their best customer, for Christmas, they would give my dad a present each year comprising of two cases of liquor which amply supplied the necessary fuel for the three “get togethers”. I distinctly remember this one Christmas on the day of the first “get together”, my dad was in his worry mode as the booze had yet to be delivered. My dad was beside himself, but at nearly the last moment, the General Manager from Capital Boiler Works arrived and did not disappoint. I don’t believe I ever saw my dad with a wider smile as I heard a huge sigh of relief!
At age 15, my father decided it was time for me to have a paying job. As I’ve mentioned before, I was an unpaid camp counselor for two summers at Camp Tapawingo and did earn money during the three years I delivered papers in Colonial Village, but I had yet to have a paying job following a specific schedule with responsibilities. Of course, for four summers and winters when it snowed, I worked at Colonial Village and it was hard physical work which made me have a new-found respect for all who worked there.
No doubt, removing heavy snow from sidewalks, walkways, and stairs was exhausting and even though it was freezing, I always found myself sweating underneath my clothing. The hot chocolate my mother prepared for me after a full day of shoveling was always so delicious and quickly warmed by cold body. I never had any trouble falling asleep and sleeping soundly throughout the night after a day dealing with the snow and the cold.
During the summer, I was one among a number of teenagers hired to work at Colonial Village and assigned to do lawn work or prepare vacant apartments for new tenants when the weather was rainy. You thought you might be getting a break from the heat and humidity when it rained, but getting those apartments ready wasn’t an easy job.
Certainly, lawn work consisted of mowing grass using a large tractor, smaller riding mowers, and power push mowers. We also aerated, seeded, and fertilized as well as trimmed all the shrubbery and trees, and did the edging by hand. Our goal, weather permitting, was to do all of this within a week each week during the growing season.
The day after a vacant apartment was painted, we’d go in and make sure all the windows could be raised and were in good working order. We’d clean the bathrooms from top to bottom where efficiencies, one-bedroom, and most two-bedroom apartments had only one bathroom while all three-bedroom and some two-bedroom apartments had two bathrooms. Then it was off to the kitchen where we put shelf paper in all the cabinets after they had been wiped down, cleaned the counters and sink, the refrigerator, and the oven which often times was a real mess. That ain’t all because the apartments had hardwood parquet floors which needed to be stripped using varsol and a power floor machine and then finally completely painted with a coat of thick and smelly shellac. We poured the shellac into a large thick-gauged metal bucket and spread it on the floors using an extra-wide thick paint brush. Our goal was to clean two apartments each day–one before lunch and one after lunch which could be quite a challenge depending on the size of the apartment and the condition it was left in.
Hey, don’t get me wrong as, looking back, I really enjoyed the work at Colonial Village. We worked hard, had fun, enjoyed those we worked with and were well paid as far as summer jobs go meaning as I recall $3-4/hour and overtime was not frowned upon. I certainly remember sitting on that tractor until 8PM many days and working on most Saturdays especially if we encountered a good amount of rain.
I so vividly remember my dad sitting me down before I started working at Colonial Village and having a conversation which still resonates with me today. He told me he was putting me in a difficult spot as I was the boss’s son and all the folks working there would naturally think I would enjoy favoritism, work as little as I could because I could get away with it as the boss’s son, and, no doubt, be a spy for the boss. Dad let me know he wasn’t going to be easy on me and his expectation was for me to set an example for the rest by being the hardest working employee. He said, in time, if I worked hard, I would earn the respect from all the employees, they would learn to trust me, and I would be accepted. He also warned me about getting caught up in gossip and I wasn’t to spy.
I’ll finish by saying when I was growing up “back in the day”, I wasn’t always so sure that I liked or agreed with what my father would say to me, but when I grew to a young adult, I came to the realization that he was a pretty bright guy and, of course, he was absolutely right!!