A History of the Boundaries of Arlington County, Virginia Part 4

_Postscript--Towns in Arlington County_

Of the three towns which have lain within Arlington County, the only one whose limits have been of importance to the territorial extent of the County is Alexandria. Nonetheless, to complete the record, some mention should be made of the Town of Potomac and the Town of Falls Church, the first of which lay wholly within Arlington, and the second, partly so.

Falls Church is the older town. It was chartered by the General a.s.sembly on March 30, 1875.[69] The charter set forth the boundaries as:

"Beginning at the corner of Alexandria and Fairfax Counties on J.

C. DePutron's farm; thence to the corner of W. H. Ellison and Koon [sic] on D. H. Barrett's line; thence to the corner of Sewell and Hollidge, on the new cut road; thence to the corner of J. E. Birch and H. J. England, on the Falls Church and Fairfax Courthouse road; thence to a stone in the road being a corner of B. F. Shreve, Newton, and others; thence to the crossing of the Alexandria and Georgetown roads at Taylor's corners; thence along the line of said Georgetown road to the corner of Samuel Shreve and John Febrey; thence to a pin oak tree near Dr. L. E. Gott's spring; thence to the northeast corner of John Brown's barn; thence to the crossing of Isaac Crossmun's and Bowen's line on the Chain Bridge Road; thence to the place of beginning."

[69] Acts of a.s.sembly 1874/75, Chapter 316.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP V The Towns of Falls Church and Potomac in Arlington County Drafted by W. B. Allison and B. Sims]

After Arlington adopted the County Manager form of government, the residents of so much of the Town of Falls Church as lay within Arlington County (Map V) sought to have the charter amended to reduce the limits of the Town to that portion which lay in Fairfax. An action was brought on July 7, 1932, and the Circuit Court granted the pet.i.tion on January 17, 1935.[70] This decision was appealed, however, and it was not until the next year (April 30, 1936) that the order went into effect,[71] after the lower court had been upheld by the Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.

[70] Arlington County, _Common Law Order Book 16_, p. 235 and p. 309.

[71] Arlington County, _Common Law Order Book 17_, p. 130 and p. 138.

The area affected by the order is described as:

"Beginning at a large planted stone on the estate of the late J. C.

DePutron, at the original western corner of the District of Columbia, which is also at the corner of Fairfax and Arlington counties, and at the corner of the Town of Falls Church; thence with the boundary of said Town S. 83 15' E. 2,404 feet more or less, to a planted stone in the center of Little Falls Street also called the Chain Bridge Road, at a point at which said street is intersected by the boundary of the land formerly known as the Bowen tract; thence with the boundary of said Town S. 49 15' E. 3,482 feet, more or less, to a planted granite stone at a point which formerly marked the northeast corner of John Brown's barn; thence with the boundary of said Town S. 28 45' E. 2,410 feet, more or less, to a point at which there formerly stood a large pin oak on the Gott tract; thence with the boundary of the said Town S. 4 15'

W. to the boundary between Fairfax and Arlington counties; thence with the said boundary in a northwesterly direction to the place of beginning."

The Town of Potomac was chartered by the General a.s.sembly in 1908.[72]

Its boundaries (Map V) were described as:

"Beginning at the north intersection of Bellefont Avenue in the subdivision of 'Del Ray' with the Was.h.i.+ngton and Alexandria Turnpike, thence northerly along the west line of the Turnpike to the old Georgetown Road, the northern boundary of the subdivision of St. Elmo; thence westerly along the south side of the Georgetown Road to the dividing line of Susan P. A. Calvert and Charles E.

Wood; thence with the line of Calvert and Wood to the west line of the Was.h.i.+ngton, Alexandria and Mt. Vernon R.R. Co., to its intersection with Lloyd's Lane and Bellefont Avenue to the beginning."

[72] Acts of a.s.sembly 1908, Chapter 273.

All this area was included in the annexation to Alexandria which was effected in 1929 (cf. p. 23).

One proposed town deserves mention. In 1920 a group of citizens pet.i.tioned the Circuit Court for a town charter for Clarendon. The Court denied the pet.i.tion. Upon appeal, the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia upheld the lower court, declaring that all of Arlington County was a "continuous, contiguous, and h.o.m.ogeneous community" and as such should not be subjected to subdivision for the purpose of incorporating a town.[73] Since Arlington is even more a "continuous, contiguous, and h.o.m.ogeneous" community than it was in 1922 there is no prospect that ever again will there be a town within the bounds of the County.

[73] _Bennett_ v. _Garrett_, 112 S.E. 772, decided June 15, 1922.