S. Randolph St. - S. Oakland St. north side of Columbia Pike

Nov 10th, 2018
Village Center: Alcova Heights
The area between South Randolph Street and South Oakland Street is not actually part of the Columbia Pike Restoration but I have placed it within the Village Center mainly for convience . The Village Center actually ends at S. Randolph. The Town Center starts after S. Oakland. This entire area is residential.
On the north side of Columbia Pike between South Oakland and South Randolph which is part of the Alcova neighborhood there are two housing complexes. Alcova Row has attractive townhouses facing the Pike, which were built around 2006. The other Dundree Knolls was built in the early 1980tys. Unfortunatly these homes do not face the pike. From the pike you only see a long fench and the back of the buildings except for one small area near to South Oakland.

Alcova Row

Dundree Knolls

History

At one time this whole area was part of a forest. Most of the single family homes were built between 1921 and 1950. Some houses were built here as early as the as the mid 1850tys. At the intersection of South Oakland and Columbia Pike set back from the street was the Clardy House. The house was eventually replaced sometime in the 70tys.
Richard Lyon sent me a number of photographs of this part of Arlington. He also sent interesting information about the area. Other photos and information from him will be used on future pages. Azar Attura who used to live across the road from Clardy House gave me permission to use some text from her website.

Clardy House

My family lived on 7th St S Arlington from 1950 - 2010. I went to Barcroft Elementary 1955-61, TJ Junior High 1961-64 and Wakefield High 1964-1967... There once was is a beautiful old house that used to be on Columbia Pike and Quincy owned by Warren Clardy that I have some photos of... I took the photos in 1965 - I used to walk my dog there but I never knew who owned it - for all I know someone still lived there and it was just overgrown. Richard Lyon

This sedate tan and brown gingerbread house was just beautiful, and one day (I think it was 1970), many years after I moved to that area, I walked down the peaceful winding dirt driveway to that beautiful house, knocked on the door and presented the elderly lady with a pastel sketch that I had made of her house. Oh, it looks just like it did when my husband had it built for me!" she said softly. I lived at 3814 Columbia Pike, and my 3rd floor bedroom window faced the Clardy House... I loved that old house. Azar Attura

The photograph below shows the area in 1963 before Alcova Row and Dundree Knolls were built.

1963 Columbia Pike — photo provided by Richard Lyon
Photo by Frank R Higgins who died in 2010. He joined the Clarendon VFD in Arlington, VA in 1949 and served as a Firefighter, President and Assistant Fire Chief. He retired from the Arlington County Fire Department in 1979.