![]() ![]() īallston began to redevelop rapidly after the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority opened the Orange Line's Ballston Metrorail station on December 1, 1979, and when an entrance to Interstate 66 (I-66) opened on December 22, 1982. Parkington was anchored by the headquarters location of the Hecht Company, and was reputed to have the largest parking garage in the U.S. In 1951, the Parkington Shopping Center opened at the intersection formerly known as Balls Crossroads on the site of the present Ballston Quarter. The Fairfax trolley closed in 1939, but Metrorail’s Orange Line follows its route through Arlington. In 1912, the rival Washington & Old Dominion Railway began crossing the tracks on a bridge 200 yards west of here, following the present route of I-66 from Rosslyn. In 1910, at this location, the railway built a car barn, railyard, workshops, electrical substation, and general office. By 1907, the Fairfax trolley linked Fairfax, Vienna, and Ballston with downtown Washington. In 1896, the Washington, Arlington & Falls Church Railway began running electric trolleys from Rosslyn to Falls Church on the present routes of Fairfax Drive and I-66. ![]() A historical marker entitled "Lacey Car Barn" located near the northwest corner of N. ![]() Interstate 66 and the Bluemont Junction Trail now follow the route of this railroad branch between Rosslyn and the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad Regional Park in Bluemont Park. In 1912, a competing interurban electric trolley line, the Washington and Old Dominion Railway constructed a branch that crossed the WA&FC near the west end of Ballston (then called Lacey), near a WA&FC car barn and railyard. Also buried here in the cemetery are many of John Ball's direct and collateral descendants including John Wesley Boldin, a Civil War soldier (Company D, Third Pennsylvania Cavalry) and members of the Marcey, Stricker, Donaldson, and Croson families. John Ball was the son of Moses Ball, who was one of the pioneer settlers in the Glencarlyn area of Arlington. Ensign John Ball (1748–1814), a veteran of the American Revolution (Sixth Virginia Infantry) is buried here. This is one of Arlington's oldest family burial grounds. The Ball family burial ground on Washington Boulevard has a historical marker as well, stating: Here Clements Avenue, now Stafford Street, divided to pass on either side of an old Ball family graveyard. The track of the Washington, Arlington, and Falls Church Electric Railroad ran along what is now Fairfax Drive the Ballston Station was at Ballston Avenue, now North Stuart Street. More diffuse settlement extended westward to Lubber Run and southward along Glebe Road to Henderson Road. Stafford Street, one block east of the Ballston Metrorail station (which is at the former site of the Ballston trolley station) states:īy 1900, a well-defined village called Central Ballston had developed in the area bounded by the present-day Wilson Boulevard, Taylor Street, Washington Boulevard, and Pollard Street. A historical marker that stands near the northwestern corner of Fairfax Drive and N. Construction of the trolley line, which branched at Clarendon to serve both Rosslyn and downtown Washington, D.C., temporarily shifted much of the area's development away from the crossroads. In 1896, an interurban electric trolley line, the Fairfax line of the Washington, Arlington and Falls Church Railway (WA&FC), began operating north of the crossroads along the present route of Fairfax Drive, whose name derives from that of the trolleys' final destination, Fairfax City. The intersection became known as Ball’s Crossroads when Ball’s Tavern was established here in the early 1800s. The second was eventually named Wilson Boulevard in honor of President Wilson. The first came to be known as the Glebe Road because it passed the glebe of Fairfax Parish and in order to distinguish it from other roads to the Falls. ![]() This intersection has been a focal point since about 1740, when two roads were developed, one from the future site of Alexandria to the mouth of Pimmit Run, the other from Awbury’s Ferry (at the site of Rosslyn) to The Falls Church. Ī historical marker that stands near the southeastern corner of the intersection reads: Ballston began as Birch's Crossroads, and later became Ball's Crossroads at what is now the intersection of N. Stafford Street and Fairfax Drive ( Virginia State Route 237). Ballston is named after the Ball family, one of whose family cemeteries lies in the neighborhood at N. ![]()
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