History of Buckingham Village -- Part I, The Beginning

Buckingham Village's origins lie in the United States' greatest national crisis, the Great Depression. Its purpose and the ideals behind it embodied the vision of Depression-era liberal political leaders to restore the economic space of ordinary people in America.

In about 1936, Paramount Communities, Inc. purchased much of the land surrounding between North Carlin Springs Road, North Glebe Road, and Lee Boulevard (now Arlington Boulevard). The FHA, created three years earlier to deal with the housing crisis for working people in the Great Depression, financed much of the Buckingham Community's development. Buckingham Community Civic Association Neighborhood Conservation Plan, October 2006 ("NCP") 26. In December 1936, Paramount began construction of garden apartments on this property by its subsidiary, Buckingham Community, Inc. The Buckingham Community's first units opened in 1937. By 1941, and the United States’ entry into the Second World War, the project was largely completed. NCP 26.

Buckingham was then one of the largest garden apartment complexes in the nation. NCP 26. The complex proved a faithful fulfillment of New Deal principles, and the idea that a quality living environment could be in reach of all families. As Eleanor Roosevelt said after her visit to Buckingham Village in 1937, “It is a delightful development.... well planned .... gives one a feeling that there is a possibility of doing many things on a community basis that would make life easier for the individual family." NCP 27.

Of course, a socialist utopia did not immediately ensue. Buckingham’s charms were sufficient to draw relatively many wealthy tenants, rather than lower income families. The families who moved in quickly found certain shortcomings of conditions and value. For example, in 1938, the Buckingham Village incinerator’s smoke and odors drove tenants to protest this nuisance. In 1941, tenants struck to protest the multiple recent rent increases. NCP 27.

By 1942, with the Buckingham Community having been largely completed, North George Mason Drive extended from Arlington Boulevard past North Pershing Drive to North Henderson Road at the west end of the new development, ending at Arlington County’s Kate Waller Barrett School. In 1953, the last units of the 1200-unit Buckingham garden apartment complex were completed, ending a twelve year war time and post-war hiatus during which no new Buckingham Community buildings had opened. NCP 28.

Through the 50s and 60s, Buckingham continued to develop as a vital community for young families and working people in the DC area. From this time until the present, its fortunes rose and fell with those of the nation's economic and social changes. Buckingham's development through this period will be discussed in this history's next entry.