Arlington Forest’s hidden amphitheater, sense of community set it apart

Allison Kennett, who has lived in Arlington Forest since 1998, said that’s just the way the community works.

“Our neighborhood is pretty good about uniting around things that they care about,” she said. “When we rally up, there’s something worth rallying about.”

Evidence of the volunteer ethos that allows the community to mobilize and sustain itself can be found in the newsletter, which can run up to 16 pages with local ads, news stories and commentary, and regular features including a “kids for hire” section with information about teens available for dog-walking, babysitting and yard work. The newsletter keeps residents apprised of ways they can get involved in local issues, from forest cleanup to advocacy for safer intersections. Love of community is also evidenced in the 161-page historical account of Arlington Forest, edited by neighborhood historian John Naland, that begins when George Washington, an early owner, surveyed the land in 1785.

The 850 houses that now make up Arlington Forest — and still receive a hand-delivered copy of the newsletter — are primarily boxy red-brick Colonials that date to the neighborhood’s official development by the Meadowbrook Construction Company in the early 1940s. Bisected by Arlington Boulevard, the neighborhood was developed in three sections: Northside, which includes the popular Lubber Run Park and recently rebuilt community center, as well as a little shopping center as old as the neighborhood; Southside, on the opposite site of the boulevard; and Greenbrier to the west, which includes the neighborhood’s two Civil War-era home sites and abuts Arlington’s Bluemont bike trail.

Elsewhere in Arlington, teardown projects in favor of new and bigger houses are becoming more common. But Arlington Forest has only seen a handful of teardowns. Those needing extra space prefer to build creative additions, Kennett said, which provides continuity to the neighborhood and adds interest to the neighborhood’s popular house and garden tour, offered every few years.

“These little cubes that we have,” Kennett said, “It’s just so crazy how many different ways you can augment that or reconfigure that.”

With easy walking access to the Lubber Run, Bluemont, Four Mile Run and Washington and Old Dominion trails, Arlington Forest is a paradise for walkers, runners and cyclists. Michael Wardian, a professional ultrarunner who put the neighborhood on the national map in April 2020 by running a four-mile loop there every hour for 63 hours — 262.5 miles in all — often posts photos from the shady dirt trails of Lubber Run.

Naland, the historian who has been in his Arlington Forest house since 1999, said he has seen a resurgence of wildlife in the area, including deer and foxes, on the sunrise walks he takes with his dog.

Of all the neighborhood amenities, the amphitheater holds a special place in residents’ hearts. Esther Bowring, president of the Arlington Forest Citizens Association, said she now takes her 6-year-old grandson to free shows offered on Fridays and Saturdays during the summer, just as she once brought her children. Acts run the gamut of musical styles and have included the Arlington Philharmonic and the 257th Army Band.

“It’s a great way to expose kids to the arts at an early age, because they’re outside and they can run around,” said Bowring, who has lived in the neighborhood since 1980 and serves as co-president of the amphitheater foundation.

Though Arlington Forest houses sold for under $6,000 in 1940, they now command a premium. Of the 26 houses sold last year, the average price was $1.05 million, said Casey O’Neal, a real estate agent with Compass who has lived in the neighborhood for more than four decades. Houses that sell for more than $1 million typically have one- and two-story additions, he said. The lowest-price was a modest 1950 brick single-story house for $715,000, while the highest was $1.55 million for a fully renovated 3,400 square-foot farmhouse with five bedrooms. Of the three houses now on the market, the lowest-priced is a two-story with a 1,490 square-foot original floor plan for $829,000 and the highest is a rare new-construction six-bedroom on 4,700 square feet for $2.15 million.

Colleen Nguyen, a relative newcomer to Arlington Forest who purchased her 1940 house in 2021 after living in a condo nearby for 13 years, said she loves that her children, ages 6 and 10, can crisscross the neighborhood to knock on friends’ doors and play together. In addition to Lubber Run Park and Community Center, her family frequents Brick’s Pizza in the Arlington Forest Shopping Center, which features such specials as The Ballston Pizza and The Arlingtonian and participates in PTA fundraisers. Nguyen said she’s confident she’s found her permanent home in Arlington Forest.

While the houses and yards are not as big as in some other parts of Arlington, that means “folks actually get to see each other and get to know each other,” she said. “You actually spend time with your community.”

The roughly triangular neighborhood is bordered by Carlin Springs Road and George Mason Drive to the north; Glencarlyn Park to the east; and South Aberdeen Street and North Henderson Road to the east.

Barrett Elementary, Escuela Key Immersion School (Elementary), Kenmore Middle School, Washington-Liberty High School.

The 25B bus serves Carlin Springs Road and the 4B stops in the neighborhood. The Ballston-MU Metro station on the Orange Line is just over a mile away.