Description
Souvenir Program Northern Virginia Exposition: Clarendon, Virginia September 6-11, 1915
This is a reproduction of the program of the first annual Northern Virginia Expo or fair held for a week in September 1915. It began the week with an automobile parade starting at 9:30. The route went from Clarendon through Rosslyn, Cherrydale, Falls Church, and Ballston–each only a small cluster of residences and businesses. A women’s committee arranged for a “better baby” contest. The Women’s Civic League of East Falls Church had an exhibit of road building that featured lectures on how to build “Better Roads for Northern Virginia.”
The Clarendon Citizens’ Association and the Clarendon Volunteer Fire Department organized the event and hoped that this would be the first of many expos. That did not happen, this was the first and only Northern Virginia Exposition held in Arlington County until the Arlington County Fair started in 1977.
The booklet is a historic treat. It listed events, times, and the organizations sponsored them, ads for local county government positions, and the advertisements for businesses that are long gone such as Murphy & Ames Lumber Dealers in Rosslyn, Boyer’s Pharmacy in Clarendon, and “The Monitor,” the relatively short-lived newspaper owned by Frank Lyon (of Lyon Park and Lyon Village).
- Paperback: 16 pages, 11″ x 8.5″ black and white
- Publisher: The Arlington Historical Society
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