Street Names

In 1920, the area known as Alexandria County was divided and renamed Arlington County and the City of Alexandria.

The US Postal Service refused to establish a Post Office in Arlington until it developed an acceptable street naming and numbering scheme.  In 1932 the old magisterial districts, established in 1870, were abolished, and an integrated County government was created – and names changed, including, historically significant names!

Arlington has many places named after world-famous people, Presidents, Generals, and others of note.  It also has numbered streets that replaced names of significance and thereby a loss of historical reference.

The 1932 street naming scheme divided the county into two sections, North and South Arlington, generally separated by Arlington Boulevard (US Route 50).  Numbered streets generally run east west, parallel to Arlington Boulevard, and named streets generally run north south, with “North” and “South” designations preceding named street names and after numbered street names.

Street names increase in syllables by distance from the Potomac River, called “iterations”.  The first-tier names are one syllable. These streets are generally in alphabetical order from east to west, skipping the letters X, Y, and Z. When the end of the alphabet was reached, it is repeated with additional syllables– thus Eads, Fern, Grant, Hayes, Inge, Ives, Joyce, June, Kent, Knoll, Lynn, Nash, Ode, Pierce, Rolfe, and Queen are east of each other. Most of the boulevards, drives, and roads with historically recognized names, were not renamed (e.g., Oakcrest Road, Fort Scott Drive, Arlington Ridge Road).  Numbered and named streets tend to be broken up and are intended for local neighborhood traffic.

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Arlington County Public Library Resources

Arlington County Government Resources

• The Arlington County Virginia Directory of Street Names, revised June 1, 1935 catalogs the name changes, although there are numerous errors in it, particularly for “old names”.

Other Resources

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