Aurora Highlands:
From Neighbors to Friends

By Linda Wheeler
Washington Post Staff Writer
June 24, 1995

Imagine neighbors who like each other so much they pack up and go camping in Pennsylvania for a weekend together. That is what 20 families of the Aurora Highlands neighborhood in South Arlington did last weekend as a variation on the usual block parties they hold several times a year.

"We had a ball," said Janet Dunkelberger, the immediate past president of the Aurora Highlands Civic Association. "This was our block party moved to a campsite. We all liked each other at the end of the weekend and agreed next year to invite more people to join us."

For many residents of Aurora Highlands, near National Airport, the sense of community is strong. They get together for social activities or to participate in a baby-sitting cooperative begun years ago. They circulate petitions for such concerns as the fight against the proposed closing of their local library, and many joined in the opposition to the proposal to build a football stadium just south of the neighborhood in 1992. Both efforts were successful.

They meet as a civic association on a monthly basis at the county recreation center to deal with community issues.

Richard Runkle, the current association president, said some concerns are voiced annually, such as those about the noise planes make taking off from the airport.

"For some people, it is a serious problem and for others it is not," said Runkle, a dentist. "It seems to have to do with how well their houses are insulated against sound."

He said other concerns discussed at the monthly meetings include fast-food restaurants that want to locate within the community and the pollution from tour buses left idling at the nearby Pentagon City shopping center or along residential streets.

The association meets in a building that houses a county recreation center, library, information booth and firehouse. The center offers daily programs for elderly residents as well as preschool children. The nearby tennis courts, soccer fields and softball diamonds are used year-round.

"The recreation center is very important to us," said Mildred Jean Campbell, who was born in the neighborhood 55 years ago. "There are so many programs there, especially for the little children."

Campbell, who delivers The Washington Post to 200 subscribers, remembers a neighborhood before there was a community center or a skyline of high-rise office and condominium buildings that comprise Crystal City to the east. Where the present Fashion Centre at Pentagon City now stands there was once a brickyard, and children went ice skating on ponds formed from the excavations that filled with water.

The Pentagon was built on what was swampland, a place where children were forbidden to roam, Campbell said.

Dunkelberger credits Campbell with being the reporter for the neighborhood, for keeping everyone informed on who needs what help. She said Campbell is always the one who makes sure elderly neighbors have food and that their walkways are shoveled in the winter.

"She mows lawns. She gets prescriptions. She carries groceries," Dunkelberger said. "She asks us for help."

Campbell said looking out for neighbors was what she was taught as a child.

"When I was growing up, all the older people were a part of the community," she said. "We were concerned about them."

That sense of caring is what has made Aurora Highlands special for Dunkelberger, who served two terms as the association's president. And its convenience to public transportation, such as the Metro station at Pentagon City, is another attraction, she said.

"I have a driving license I never use," she said. "When I worked downtown, I took the Metro. When I worked in Crystal City, I walked. I use my bicycle a lot."

It was transportation by plane that originally got Runkle interested in living in Aurora Highlands. Although he never launched his lecture business, he said he likes knowing that when he does, the airport is nearby. Meanwhile he either drives downtown or takes the Metro to work.

The community, bounded by Ar\my-Navy Drive, Eads Street, 26th Street, Hayes Street and Joyce Street, takes its name from a conglomeration of Aurora Hills in the southern portion of the area and Virginia Highlands to the north.

According to the 1990 census, 5,854 residents lived in 3,631 housing units. They were identified as mostly white with a mix of Hispanic, Asian and African Americans. The majority of residents over age 25 are college-educated. Of the more than 3,500 residents who are at least 16, two-thirds worked in private industry and one-third worked for either federal or local governments. The annual median family income at the time of the census was $56,192.

The community developed slowly before World War II as a fringe suburb of Alexandria and Washington, but the construction of the Pentagon in 1942 drew an influx of people to the area who bought what were then new bungalow-, colonial- and Victorian-style housing.

New housing is again drawing buyers, according to real estate agent Ike Seekford, co-owner of Arlington Realty in Aurora Highlands. He said newly built houses sell quickly, often before they are finished. They range in price from $325,000 to $425,000.

Many of these houses are being built on old lots that have been subdivided, Seekford said.

"They sell because they are new," he said. "They have four bedrooms and several bathrooms and often have a garage."

Older houses sell less quickly and range in price from $150,000 to $300,000. Often they need new bathrooms, kitchens or roofs, he said.

Mixed in with the traditional homes of Aurora Highlands are about 40 unusual houses made of concrete, a style popular at the turn of the century.

"President Teddy Roosevelt dedicated one on 18th Street in 1905," Seekford said. "They are monolithic, solid concrete, not made of blocks. They have charm and character and a sturdiness, but they are poorly insulated. They get very hot and very cold."

Seekford said 39 houses and town house condominiums had sold in the past 18 months and there are 12 free-standing homes on the market, as well as seven condominiums.

Most buyers are young, single professionals or families with small children, he said. Many want to be close enough to Crystal City to walk to work. He said the Metro station, shopping center, the cluster of restaurants along 23rd Street and the recreation center are all draws for newcomers.

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