Buckingham

Buckingham is a historic neighborhood located in Arlington, Virginia. A significant portion of the neighborhood is listed in the National Register of Historic Places, the Virginia Landmarks Register and in the County’s Local Historic District.

Buckingham offers some of the most diverse housing options in Arlington, which include apartments (both at market rate and via affordable housing programs), condominiums, townhouses and single family homes. According to Zillow, the median 2020 housing price for our neighborhood was $692,793.

Residents of our neighborhood have easy access to Ballston Quarter (formerly Ballston Common Mall) and the Buckingham Shopping Center, both of which offer excellent shopping and dining options.

 

Transportation

Buckingham is an ideal walking community and those who live in the neighborhood can access all the conveniences of modern day life without using a car.

From our neighborhood to the closest metro station, Ballston Metro station (orange/silver line), it is only a 10 minute walk.

In addition, Buckingham is served by a multitude of Metrobus and Arlington Transit (ART) bus lines, along N Glebe Rd (10B, 23A, 23B, 23T and 41), N George Mason Dr (22A, 22B, 22C),  Arlington Blvd (4A), N Henderson Rd (4B) and N Pershing Dr (4B).

Bicyclists can get in and out of our neighborhood via the Arlington Blvd trail. Not far from us is also Custis (I-66) and Bluemont Junction trails. There are also many on-street routes within the neighborhood. There is also one Capital Bikeshare station at the intersection of N Pershing and N George Mason Dr. and another station at Carlin Springs Rd. and N Thomas St.

Boundaries of Buckingham’s Neighborhood

Buckingham is bordered by a patch-work of streets in North Arlington, Virginia.

The Buckingham area consists of the neighborhood enclosed in the boundaries described by US Route 50 (Arlington Blvd) on the South side, North Glebe Road on the east side and North Carlin Springs Road on the northern boundary. Three streets connect North Carlin Springs and US Route 50 along the western border of the neighborhood: the border heads south down North Carlin Springs then along North George Mason Drive to North Henderson Road which connects with US Route 50.

Historic Buckingham

In 1935, Allie S. Freed, Clarence Stein and Henry Wright founded a company that they named Paramount Communities, Inc. Freed, the company’s president, was the owner of Paramount Motors Corporation (a taxi manufacturer), the chairman of the influential Committee for Economic Recovery and an associate of President Roosevelt. Stein, a developer of several residential communities throughout the nation, served as general manager. Wright, a well-known proponent of the Garden City movement, served as the company’s planner and architect. In December 1936, Paramount began construction of the Buckingham garden apartment complex through a subsidiary named Buckingham Community, Inc.

Market-rate loans from the New Deal’s Federal Housing Authority financed much of the Buckingham Community’s development. On November 27, 1937, Eleanor Roosevelt (the nation’s First Lady) visited the growing garden apartment complex. She recorded her impressions of the project in her daily “My Day” column, stating, “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.” Utilizing assembly line methods that Allie Freed had developed at Paramount Motors, the first units of the 1200-unit Buckingham Community opened during 1937. The nationally and locally recognized historic garden apartments constructed between 1937 and 1953 as part of the original Buckingham community occupies a significant percentage of the present Buckingham neighborhood.

To read more about the neighborhood history, follow this link.