{"nrhp_refnum":"04000047","name":"Columbia Forest Historic District","other_names":["Vdhr # 000-9416"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by 11th, S. Edison, S. Dinwiddie, S. Columbus, S. George Mason, and S. Frederick St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Arlington","county":"Arlington County","state":"VA","lat":38.851416811000064,"lon":-77.11107562559295,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-02-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Community Planning and Development","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A residential historic district in southwest Arlington County, Virginia, about eight miles from Washington, D.C. It consists of 233 single-family Colonial Revival dwellings built in two phases from 1942 to 1945 under a federal defense housing program.","why_significant":"The nomination presents Columbia Forest as a neighborhood built by the federal Defense Housing Corporation, under the Army Corps of Engineers, to house defense and government workers' families during World War II. It was one of three such projects in Arlington County. The houses keep their original massing, spacing, proportions and overall feeling as a government-motivated suburban neighborhood. The text in this excerpt does not include the full Section 8 statement of significance.","narrative":"Columbia Forest is a small residential neighborhood in the southwest corner of Arlington County, Virginia, made up of 233 two-story Colonial Revival houses built between 1942 and 1945. It was created when the federal Defense Housing Corporation, working through the Army Corps of Engineers, sought to ease a wartime housing shortage for defense and government workers near Washington, D.C. Westbrook, Incorporated built the first phase in concrete block, and Jesse Johnson built the later brick phase. Builders varied the number of bays, wall material and gable orientation to produce seven house forms, each with the same number of rooms. Curving streets, cul-de-sacs, mature trees and houses set in close pairs give the area its character. Rear additions, replacement windows and new siding have changed some houses, yet the original massing, setbacks and overall feeling of a government-planned suburb remain largely intact. Later development around the district was excluded from the boundary.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Westbrook, Incorporated (first-phase concrete-block dwellings); Jesse Johnson (second-phase brick dwellings); design and construction under the Army Corps of Engineers","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals / Colonial Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Still in residential use as single dwellings. Some houses have rear additions, replacement windows, and aluminum, vinyl or formstone cladding, but the district is described as largely intact.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.168679-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/20/6796/41679620/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/04000047.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000047/dadc51f7b3-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000047/dadc51f7b3-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY-SA 3.0","author":"Farragutful","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_Forest_Historic_District_01.JPG\" rel=\"noopener\">Farragutful</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY-SA 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Columbia_Forest_Historic_District_01.JPG"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679620","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Columbia_Forest_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712202"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/arlington-county/columbia-forest-historic-district-04000047/"}