Today at 2:15pm
In a rear wing of the Febrey-Lothrop Estate in Dominion Hills, there was an ornate wooden compass floor inlay built into what had been a library.
Like the windows, decorative ornaments and columns, it had been part of the original 1859 home that had seen Civil War soldiers, servants and national celebrities come and go over the years.
All these architectural embellishments were destroyed, and according to the Arlington County Board, any historical merit that could have justified a proposed local historic district overlay went with it.
The County Board voted unanimously at a meeting this past Saturday to reject the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB) recommendation to give the area at 6407 Wilson Blvd with a historic designation.
After more than four years of study and planning and a summer of construction, the new traffic signal at the intersection of 1400 North and 600 West is — at
Efforts to place the 9-acre Rouse estate at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and North McKinley Road into a local historic district appear to have pushed the property owner to move forward with the ânuclear optionâ â tearing it down before such government action can take place.
And, county officials say, there is not much they can do to prevent it.
âOur hands are pretty much tied,â County Board Chairman Libby Garvey said Dec. 12, effectively rebuffing a request that the county government take stronger actions to reduce the likelihood that the estateâs circa-1907 main property might be razed.
At the boardâs Dec. 12 meeting, Tom Dickinson â who last April made the request that the parcel be designated a local historic district â voiced concerns about the countyâs issuing paperwork necessary for the structures on the site to be demolished, and asked that county leaders âimmediately interveneâ on the matter.