Highland Park-Overlee Knolls

Highland Park-Overlee Knolls is a residential neighborhood of 180.7 acres in northwest Arlington County, Virginia, about five miles west of Washington, D.C. Development began in 1890 with the Fostoria subdivision and continued until the late 1950s and early 1960s, as several large parcels were subdivided and resubdivided by multiple developers and speculative builders. The neighborhood holds roughly 718 properties, mostly single-family houses, along with commercial buildings, a church, a former school, garages, sheds and landscaped parks. Earlier buildings include Queen Anne houses and a vernacular I-house. Later construction includes Colonial Revival, Craftsman bungalow, Tudor Revival, Cape Cod, ranch and split-level houses. World Wars I and II increased the demand for housing near the capital, and Federal Housing Administration guidelines shaped the modest, mass-produced forms of the mid-twentieth century. Together the buildings document the evolution of a middle-class commuter suburb across about seventy years.