{"nrhp_refnum":"97001111","name":"Washington National Airport Terminal and South Hangar Line","other_names":["VDHR File No. 00-45"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"Thomas Ave.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Arlington","county":"Arlington County","state":"VA","lat":38.85153001450007,"lon":-77.04120488838487,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1997-09-12","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Architecture","Transportation"],"significance_levels":["national"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A federal airport terminal and the South Hangar Line (six surviving hangars) at Washington National Airport along the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. The Terminal was completed in 1941 and the last hangar in 1948, all designed by the same federal agency.","why_significant":"The 1941 Terminal is presented as a successful functional answer to early air travel, blending Art Deco/Streamlined Moderne, Colonial Revival and Stripped Classical styles. The South Hangar Line is noted for long-span steel construction, structural concrete and distinctive sliding leaf and canopy doors. By the mid-1940s it gave Washington National the largest grouping of hangars of any US airport.","narrative":"Washington National Airport sits on filled land beside the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. Two parts of it are recognized here: the 1941 Terminal and the South Hangar Line, built in stages between 1941 and 1948. The Terminal is an arc-shaped, stepped building of steel and cast-in-place concrete. It combines Streamlined Moderne banding, a Colonial Revival portico-and-wing layout and Stripped Classical detail. Its airside Waiting Room window, 200 feet long and 30 feet high, gave passengers and spectators views of the airfield. Decorative features include exposed-aggregate mosaics by John J. Earley and interiors guided by Ethel Pilson Warren. The hangars are noted for long-span steel construction, structural concrete and combined sliding leaf and canopy doors. Six of the original seven survive, since Hangar No. 1 was demolished in 1990. Later additions have obscured much of the Terminal's ends, but a rehabilitation program aims to remove them and restore its original appearance.","period_of_significance":null,"architect_builder":"Howard L. Cheney (principal designer of the Terminal and Hangar No. 1); mosaics by John J. Earley; interiors by Ethel Pilson Warren","architectural_style":"Modern Movement: Moderne (Streamlined Moderne with Colonial Revival and Stripped Classical influences)","criteria":[],"status_note":"Terminal heavily altered by later additions; rehabilitation under way as part of the Capital Development Program. Hangar No. 1 was demolished in 1990. The airport remains in air-related use.","vacant_flag":false,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:52:00.811274-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/16/6796/41679616/content/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_VA/97001111.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001111/169c533ff2-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/97001111/169c533ff2-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 4.0","author":"Larry D. Moore","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reagan_terminal_A_entrance_2013.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">Larry D. Moore</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 4.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Reagan_terminal_A_entrance_2013.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/41679616","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_National_Airport_Terminal_and_South_Hangar_Line","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q18159154"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/virginia/arlington-county/washington-national-airport-terminal-and-south-hangar-line-97001111/"}