The Old Dominion Neighborhood

Old Dominion as a quiet suburb of our Nation’s Capital and it provides the friendly atmosphere of a residential community.  In addition, Old Dominion has a rich and storied history of which we are extremely proud.

History

In the mid- 1850s, Dr. Henry Wunder and his son George Ott Wunder came to the area from Pennsylvania and bought a parcel of land near the intersection of what is now Glebe Road and Langston Blvd.  This area was long known as Wunder’s Crossroads and is the site of one of the two Arlington County historical markers in the Old Dominion area.  George Ott Wunder, among others, organized a successful campaign involving a vote on school taxes to get schools in the district.  The first school built in the Washington magisterial district was the Carne school on the site of what is now Saint Mark’s church at the intersection of Glebe Road and North 25th Street.  The one-room Carne school was supplemented by a larger frame building in 1885, and was replaced by the John Marshall school directly across the street in 1926.  The John Marshall building now houses medical offices.  Saint Mark’s church (originally Evangelical United Brethren) was built on the Carne school site in the 1940s.

The Old Dominion area was mostly farmland at the turn of the 20th century.  That was soon to change however.  In 1906 the Great Falls and Old Dominion steam railroad began to run from Rosslyn through Livingstone Heights to Great Falls.  In 1907, Frank Lyon built “Lyonhurst,” which later became the first home in the county to use electricity (tapped from the Great Falls and Old Dominion trolley line).  The Lyons sold the home and in 1946 the Spanish-style home became Missionhurst.  It is interesting to note that the rails of the Great Falls and Old Dominion railroad were the precursor of the present Old Dominion Drive, a major thoroughfare of the Old Dominion neighborhood.

Today, the Old Dominion area has an interesting mix of houses.  A number of large farmhouses and Queen Anne style houses built in the early part of the 20th century have been renovated by their owners.  There are also several catalog, or kit, houses in the area, including a number of Sears houses and at least one Montgomery Wards house and one Lewis house.  Sears catalog house models include an Avalon, a Walton, a Sunbeam, a Hathaway, a Saratoga, and a Kilbourne.

We are proud of our wonderful history and all that Old Dominion has to offer.  We hope that you will enjoy our neighborhood as much as we do.