{"nrhp_refnum":"04000048","name":"Buckingham Historic District (Boundary Increase)","other_names":["Vdhr # 000-0025"],"category":"district","location":{"address":"Bounded by N. Oxford St., Fifth St. N, N. Henderson Rd., First St. N., N. Pershing, N. Thomas St., and Second St. N.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Arlington","county":"Arlington County","state":"VA","lat":38.875690570000074,"lon":-77.10630633320288,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"2004-02-11","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Community Planning and Development","Landscape Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A boundary increase to the Buckingham Historic District, a planned garden apartment community in Arlington, Virginia, built in phases from 1937 to 1953. It includes apartment buildings, a commercial core, a community center and a few single-family houses.","why_significant":"The nomination presents Buckingham as a large, unified planned apartment community. Its superblock layout, open green space, separation of cars and pedestrians, and neighborhood shopping center reflect the garden-community planning ideals of Henry Wright, Clarence Stein and Catherine Bauer. It was built for middle-income tenants and kept a high degree of physical integrity.","narrative":"Buckingham is a garden apartment community in Arlington, Virginia, developed in six phases between 1937 and 1953. The expanded district adds 83 contributing buildings, mostly two-story brick-clad tile apartment buildings with slate roofs and Colonial Revival detailing. Henry Wright designed the exterior and site plan, with Allan F. Kamstra overseeing most of the construction. Buildings cover less than twenty percent of the land. They are arranged along angled streets and around U-shaped courtyards, with landscaped parks, interior footpaths and tree-lined streets planted on former farmland. The district also holds a small commercial center near Glebe Road and Pershing Drive, with shops, a theater, a drugstore and a post office, as well as two gatehouses and a superintendent's house. The nomination presents the complex as a notable example of planned garden-community design, built for middle-income tenants. The developer tested tenant preferences and changed the plan accordingly, for example by dropping interior garages. Most of the original character remains intact.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Henry Wright (exterior design and site planning), with Allan F. Kamstra and Albert Leuders; Kamstra oversaw phases two to six; landscaping by H.E. Van Gelder","architectural_style":"Late 19th and 20th Century Revivals/Colonial Revival; Tudor Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Retains a high degree of integrity; some original windows and roofing replaced; nine apartment houses demolished in the early 1970s, and Building 12 and the poolhouse razed around 2000. The theater is now a post office.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:03.245595-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/46/6785/41678546/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/04000048.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000048/9107a2f555-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/04000048/9107a2f555-1600.webp","licence":"Public domain","author":"Unknown authorUnknown author","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buckingham_Apartment_Complex,_Bounded_by_George_Mason_Drive,_Henderson,_Glebe,_%26_Arlington,_Virginia.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Unknown authorUnknown author</a>, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buckingham_Apartment_Complex,_Bounded_by_George_Mason_Drive,_Henderson,_Glebe,_%26_Arlington,_Virginia.jpg"},"district":{"nrhp_refnum":"98001649","name":"Buckingham Historic District","url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/districts/virginia/buckingham-historic-district-98001649/"},"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41678546","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckingham_Historic_District","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q14712102"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/arlington-county/buckingham-historic-district-boundary-increase-04000048/"}