RG 175: Records of the Arlington Heritage Alliance, Inc., 1976-2006

Collection Number

RG 175

History

The Arlington Heritage Alliance was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in 1989 "to work for the preservation and creative uses of sites within Arlington County, Virginia, which are of historical, architectural, cultural, natural, and national significance." They cooperate with the Arlington County Historical Society and the County Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board (HALRB).

They are now known as Preservation Arlington; their website is www.preservationarlington.org.

Scope and Content

The files of the Arlington Heritage Alliance, Inc., a private, nonprofit organization, consist of 11.26 linear feet and cover the time period from 1976 to 2006, with most of the materials dating 1988-2003.

The collection is arranged into six series. Series 1 is the files of the Board of Operation including its records of incorporation, its organization, minutes of the annual meetings and board of directors, by-laws, and correspondence files (later called Chronological Files). Membership files are in Series 2, and Programs, Tours and Special Events (including garden tours, heritage walks, programs, and a preservation dinner) are in Series 3. Series 4, Issues, comprises the bulk of the collection and are subject-oriented files including the Abingdon plantation, the designation of Buckingham as an historic district, Lawyers' Row, Fort C.F. Smith, Fort Ethan Allen, and the Columbia Pike Initiative. Series 5, Publications and Public Relations, includes brochures and press releases.

Series 6, Audio-Visual Materials, contains an extensive photograph collection. There are almost 400 slides of historic buildings, commercial districts, schools and other places of interest in Arlington County, most taken by Vic Muniec. A grant from the Bell Atlantic Corporation enabled the Alliance to document and photograph the Lawyers' Row buildings before they were demolished in 1990.

Additional files from Victor E. Muniec, American Heritage Alliance (AHA), were donated in 2010. Victor Muniec and his wife, Judith Priestley Muniec, were founding members of the AHA and were lifelong advocates of historic preservation. These were added to RG 175 as Series 7, Victor E. Muniec Files. Subseries 1 are AHA files, Subseries 2 are files on Arlington County, Subseries 3 are files on Virginia and the Washington, DC, area, Subseries 4 is related to Historic Preservation, and Subseries 5 is miscellaneous publications. Included with this acquisition were many photographs, many of which were prints of slides in the previous donation. These make up Subseries 6. If the photograph had a corresponding slide, the number on the slide was also used on the photograph.

Arrangement and Description

The Arlington Heritage Alliance (AHA) had provided a list of their files. The order and division of the files are substantially the same as the AHA – that is, the series names are identical to the ones used by AHA with a few exceptions. Some extensive files were separated into subject files and further divided chronologically, such as the ones on Buckingham, Clarendon, and Fort C.F. Smith. File names are in alphabetical order and then chronological order. The pins and VHS videotape in Series 6 have been filed in a separate Artifacts Box. Some folders in this collection have photographs or negatives. Files with photographs have an asterisk [*} after the title and files with negative have a double asterisk [**] after the title.

The slides were organized by subject with some rearrangement to keep that order. Unknown and unidentified slides are at the end of the file. Appendix I is a list of the slides in a spreadsheet. Appendix II is a list of photos with file names provided by the archivist.

Some of the Vic Muniec files were organized in binders and those headings were retained. Other files were loose and named as labeled. They were then organized by the archivist in subject order, and then within those subjects, chronologically.

Provenance

Gail Baker donated the bulk of the collection in two donations in 2008 and 2009. Vic Muniec made a further donation in 2010.

Restrictions

There are no restrictions.

Related Collections

Related Record Groups are Record Group 22, Records of Arlington County Historical Boards and Commissions (including the HALRB), Record Group 30, Historic Neighborhood and Building Reports, and Photograph Collection 230, Arlington Historical Society Photographs.