Wakefield Shopping Center, 1309-21 Court House Road, Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia

Significance: Built to serve the Mihran Mesrobian designed Wakefield Manor apartments (1943), the Wakefield Shopping Center fell under the planning aegis that paired apartment complexes with low-scale commercial centers in the second quarter of the twentieth century. The garden apartment concept oriented the apartment buildings inward, toward a courtyard, effectively eliminating street frontage. The hope was to offer pleasant views and to bring light into each unit. The garden apartment was one design solution for permanent, cost-efficient, and affordable housing that was built from the mid-1930s to the mid 1950s. In this time period, Arlington saw 176 apartment buildings and complexes go up in the county; the first was Colonial Village (b. 1935) and many, including Wakefield, were underway by the early 1940s.

Survey number: HABS VA-1279

Building/structure dates: 1990 Demolished

Building/structure dates: 1945-1946 Initial Construction

art deco architectural elements commercial facilities shopping centers plate glass awnings arlington wakefield court house court house road arlington county virginia arlington heritage alliance historic american buildings survey mihran mesrobian parreco and von herbulis william parreco virginia b price photo ultra high resolution high resolution architecture commercial buildings architeture exterior street view united states history manor library of congress

1935 - 1970

Library of Congress

http://www.loc.gov/

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