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Maywood Historic District

Location

Roughly bounded by Lorcom Lane to the north, Interstate 66 to the east, Langston Boulevard to the south and North Nelson Street to the west.

About

Date: Built 1909-1941

Historic Designation:

Local Historic District: July 7, 1990
National Register of Historic Places: May 22, 2003

The Maywood Historic District is one of Arlington’s oldest residential districts. A variety of architectural styles and homes with front porches and gable roofs, mature trees and abundant landscaping all contribute to the neighborhood’s character. Located on a plateau, with steep drop-offs along three sides, Maywood is set on about 46 acres with nearly 300 buildings that reflect the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman and Tudor Revival architectural styles.

Much of Maywood was platted between 1909 and 1913 by Hugh A. Thrift of the Conservative Realty Company, who had acquired 73 acres of land for new development. The neighborhood also contains buildings constructed in every decade of the 20th century and several built during the 21st century.

Timeline of Notable Construction

The oldest buildings date to the 1900s and 1910s and are primarily Queen Anne and Colonial Revival four-squares, cottages and two-story gable-front houses.
The Craftsman-style four-square and bungalow became more prominent in the late 1910s and 1920s.
During the 1930s, the infill housing constructed was largely of the Tudor Revival and Colonial Revival styles and display the cottage and Cape Cod forms.
Several homes have been identified as prefabricated mail-order houses from such companies as Sears, Roebuck & Company, and Aladdin.

Architectural Features

Queen Anne-style buildings are numerous in Maywood. These homes exhibit such architectural elements as complex gable roofs with dormers, three-faceted bay windows, wrap-around porches, porches with turned posts, diamond-shaped wood shingles in the gable ends, scroll-sawn brackets, pressed-metal shingles on the roof, diamond-shaped windows or window panes and a mixture of cladding materials such as lapped wood siding and irregular wood shingles. Some unique examples of Queen Anne-style homes in Maywood include:

3322 23rd St. N. (c. 1916), a two-and-a-half-story house with a one-story, full-width front porch with turned posts. Unlike other Queen Anne-style houses in Maywood, the long end of the hipped roof, rather than the short end is parallel to the street. This house also has a low projecting gable flush with the facade of the building.
3214 23rd St. N. (c.1927),a one-and-a-half-story, front-gable dwelling with a three-bay porch with square wood piers. The porch is seen on other Colonial Revival- and Craftsman-style dwellings in Maywood, but there is no other Queen Anne example. The gable roof has a steep pitch and extending into the front porch is a three-faceted bay window.
3616 21st Ave. N. (c.1923), a one-and-a-half-story Queen Anne dwelling with a side-gable roof, two hip-roof dormers on the front elevation, and a one-story, three-bay, full-width front porch with turned posts. The dwelling is reminiscent of rural vernacular dwellings constructed throughout the United States during the late Victorian era.

Colonial Revival-style homes have less flamboyant exterior decoration and a more reserved approach identified by finishing of single cladding material, primarily narrow lapped weatherboard, and a wood cornice with an unornamented frieze. Porches have Tuscan wood columns and windows are double-hung wood sash. There are numerous examples of the four-square in Colonial Revival style, and the bungalow in this style is also common Maywood. The home at 2318 N. Jackson St. is an excellent example of the bungalow.

Beginning in the 1930s, the Colonial Revival Cape Cod became a popular house design. The one-and-a-half-story, side-gable, three-bay house, most frequently executed in weatherboard or brick veneer, generally exhibited such features as small front-gable dormers, porticos over the central entry, Neoclassical side-porches and 6/6 windows. All three examples of Colonial Revival-style Cape Cod dwellings in the historic district date to the 1930s. These buildings are located at 3421 21st Ave. N. (c.1932), 3327 22nd St. N. (c.1937), and 3606 21st Ave. N. (c.1939).

The Craftsman-style bungalow became prominent in Maywood during the 1920s. These homes exhibit elements such as wide overhanging eaves with exposed cut or scroll-sawn rafter tails, triangular knee-braces or exposed roof beams in the gable ends, and battered square posts supporting the roof of the porch. They are clad in wood shingles or a combination of weatherboard and shingles, and have exterior end chimneys shouldered on one or both sides. In Maywood, Craftsman-style bungalows are one of three variations: one-and-a-half-story side-gable with dormer, one-story side gable with no dormer or front-gable.

The Tudor Revival cottages are asymmetrical, with irregular, compound gable-roofs. They exhibit such features as projecting bays with front-gables, off-center round-arched entries, and rough stone surrounds. Examples of Tudor Revival-style buildings in Maywood include: 2817 23rd St. N. (c.1928), 3304 23rd St. N. (c.1935), 2311 through 2317 N. Kenmore St. (c.1937) and 2209 N. Lincoln St. (c.1938).

Maywood also features a number of mail-order, prefabricated houses. Five possible Sears, Roebuck & Company houses have been identified in Maywood, dating from 1916 to 1938, and one additional house that may be from the Aladdin Company. The documented Sears, Roebuck & Company catalogue houses include: 2325 N. Jackson St. (c.1916); 3309 22nd St. N. (c. 1930); 3421 21st Ave. N. (c. 1932); 3304 23rd St. N. (c.1935) and 2209 N. Lincoln St. (c.1938).