Immigration, Demand Alter Historic Nauck

In Nauck, big new homes sometimes can be found adjacent to modest-sized older ones. (Susan Straight For The Washington Post)

From talk among the old-timers, Coachman knows there's a feeling that the newcomers don't really think of Nauck as a neighborhood. To the new residents, "it may just be the location of their house."

Rivera, for instance, said he moved to Nauck because he was looking for affordable rental housing. Although he likes the neighborhood, he doesn't plan to remain forever.

"We'll stay maybe two years. The rent is not too expensive," he said.

Residents Toni Brooks and her husband, Isaac Jr., met in the first grade at Drew School in the 1950s. "We've always been the best of friends," remembered Brooks. A couple of years after she graduated from Howard University, she and Isaac realized they were more than just childhood buddies. Both sets of parents, who had moved independently to Nauck in the late 1940s and had known each other through the PTA, "were very pleased -- and not very surprised," said Brooks.

Though her husband's job with now-gone Eastern Airlines took them all over the East Coast, flying privileges meant they could come home nearly every other week. "Our children always had the same pediatrician here in Arlington," said Brooks.

The Brooks family moved back to Nauck's South Pollard Street in the late 1990s to care for Toni's aging mother. Since moving back, Isaac, who is in his late fifties, is careful to instruct people that his name is "Isaac Junior," so as not to be confused with his father, who still lives on adjacent South Kemper Road.

The Brookses are happy to be back in their childhood neighborhood, but probably would not have moved back if they had had to purchase a home rather than move in with a parent. Rising home prices have made Nauck -- one of the last relatively affordable pockets in Arlington -- unaffordable for some who grew up there.

One of the remaining low-cost pockets of units in Nauck, the cooperative Dunbar Homes, may go the way of many of the Glebe Road properties that were sold to developers and razed to make way for more expensive townhouses.

The several buildings of Dunbar Homes, roughly 80 units, were built just after World War II and have not undergone any major renovations in 30 years, according to Portia Clark, first vice president of the Nauck Civic Association. "It needs renovations, but [all of the owners] have to agree," said Clark. The civic association has discussed options with the homeowners, but made no recommendation of how to respond to the very eager developers who have approached the complex. Dunbar Homes sits on the edge of the booming Shirlington area, making it very attractive to investors.

The problem in selling is that most of the residents -- many of whom are elderly -- grew up in Nauck and would not be able to purchase another home there, explained Clark.

Even many of the owners of single-family homes are being pushed out by rising property taxes. "We have a significant aging population here who are house-rich but cash-poor," Clark said.

At least one of the three high-rise condominiums proposed for the Nauck area includes affordable units, with below-market rates for current retail owners in the Green Valley business section of Nauck. Even with the affordable designation, some residents expressed skepticism that their grown children or friends would be able to purchase them.

For the still-young children of Nauck, changes in county regulations mean they will no longer have to ride the bus to elementary school outside their neighborhood.

Toni Brooks said it's a change for the better that all Nauck children will attend Drew Elementary School starting this fall. Drew has been a model school since 1971, meaning all Arlington County elementary schoolchildren could apply to be accepted on a lottery basis.