West Arlington  

 

The community of West Arlington was born in the 1890's, and gets its name from its proximity to the older Village of Arlington. The Village or Arlington, which has long since been absorbed by Baltimore City, stood along Reisterstown Road in today's Park Heights area and never extended west of the Western Maryland Railroad tracks. Until its development as a suburban residential community, West Arlington remained farmland.

 

West Arlington's most distinctive landmark, the old octagonal water tower still standing on the corner of Ridgewood Avenue and Granada Avenue (4025 Ridgewood Avenue) was built during the years 1897-1899 to provide water exclusively to this community. Situated 400 feet above sea level, West Arlington was also higher than existing reservoirs, and needed a tower to provide the necessary height for gravity-induced water pressure.

 

West Arlington was originally settled in the early 18th century. The earliest land grants in what is today West Arlington were patented in 1701. In that year, William Panley received a 400 acre parcel, that he named "Pay My Debts'' and which included the western third of today's West Arlington.  Also in that year, Thomas Fletcher - received a 100 acre parcel called "Five Mile End," which included the eastern third of West Arlington. By the 1740's these two tracts had been resurveyed by new owners and adjoining unclaimed land appropriated, and a third new tract patented, which together included all.

 

Buck enlarged Pay My Debts by 150 acres and renamed the tract "Paying Debts," and in 1747 Charles Carroll,  Esq. acquired Five Mile End, which he renamed "Constitution Hill." Also, in 1947, Benjamin Tasker patented a tract situated between these two, called "Peace and Good Neighborhood."

 

By the mid-19th century most of West Arlington was part of a Mr. Griffith's Belvieu farm, the name of which lives on in today's Belvieu Avenue. This 267 acres property passed into the hands of the Wilhelm family, who ran it as a dairy farm until 1890, when it was  purchased by a development company. West Arlington was the brainchild of George E. Webb, a Baltimore streetcar and real estate entrepreneur who was later active in the development of the Mt. Washington and Glen communities.

 

In 1900 the first streetcar link to West Arlington was opened - a loop line running to Park Heights Avenue where a connection could be made to downtown Baltimore City. In 1903, a regular, if circuitous, through-line was established serving West Arlington that ran from Gwynn Oak Junction in Howard Park, via Belvieu Avenue, across Park Heights and Mt. Washington to Falls Road, and then downtown. This line continued until 1924, by which time transit service to the area had been augmented by the more direct  Garrison Avenue line.

 

By 1903 there were already enough residents in West Arlington to form the West  Arlington Improvement.  Arlington population was estimated to be around 1,000. Social clubs were inaugurated and churches founded in West Arlington during the early 1900's.

 

Patrick Flanigan was undoubtedly early West Arlington's greatest resident promoter. A sewer and road contractor, Flanigan from East Baltimore moved to a sparsely settled West Arlington in 1898. So taken was he with his new community that he tirelessly boosted the area to his many business associates  and friends. Through his contracting company Flanigan contributed to the physical development of West Arlington by building its sewers.

 

Originally, West Arlington's southeast quarter, comprising the area approximately south of Groveland Avenue and east of Eldorado Avenue was the only portion of the community within the  Baltimore City  limits; the rest of West Arlington was hexed to the City in 1918. The southeast quarter was also the first portion of West Arlington to be developed.

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Houses built during West Arlington's first twenty years are largely clapboard or cedar shingled-covered wood frame detached dwellings on large individual lots. In the 1930's and 1940's a small number of detached brick houses were built. Residential development in West Arlington was complete by 1960. The last development of note occurred in the northwestern portion of West Arlington where detached houses were offered for sale in 1957.

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