The Aurora Highlands Historic District is a national

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal protection from c ...

located at

Arlington County, Virginia Arlington County is a County (United States), county in the Virginia, Commonwealth of Virginia. The county is situated in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from the Washington, D.C., District of Co ...

. It contains 624 contributing buildings, 2 contributing sites, and 1 contributing structure in a residential neighborhood in South Arlington. Aurora Highlands was formed by the integration of three subdivisions platted between 1896 and 1930, with improvements in the form of modest single-family residences. The district is characterized by single family dwellings with a number of twin dwellings and duplexes, three churches, a rectory, two schools, two landscaped parks, and commercial buildings. The oldest dwelling is associated with “Sunnydale Farm” and is a

Greek Revival The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but ...

-style dwelling built about 1870. The predominant architectural style represented is

Colonial Revival The Colonial Revival architectural style seeks to revive elements of American colonial architecture. The beginnings of the Colonial Revival style are often attributed to the Centennial Exhibition of 1876, which reawakened Americans to the archi ...

. an
''Accompanying four photos''
an
''Accompanying map''
In the early 1970s, spillover commuter parking in Aurora Highlands by workers at the adjacent Crystal City complex led the county to establish the first

residential zoned parking Residential zoned parking is a local government practice of designating certain on-street automobile parking spaces for the exclusive use of nearby residents. It is a tool for addressing overspill parking from neighboring population centers (such ...

in the U.S. with the goal of reducing

air pollution Air pollution is the contamination of air due to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that are harmful to the health of humans and other living beings, or cause damage to the climate or to materials. There are many different types ...

and protecting the neighborhood character as well as its

quality of life Quality of life (QOL) is defined by the World Health Organization as "an individual's perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards ...

. A lawsuit was filed to block it as a violation of the

Equal Protection Clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

of the Fourteenth Amendment. The plaintiffs prevailed in trial court and then on appeal to the

Virginia Supreme Court The Supreme Court of Virginia is the highest court in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It primarily hears direct appeals in civil cases from the trial-level city and county circuit courts, as well as the criminal law, family law and administrative ...

, which

held Held may refer to: Places * Held Glacier People Arts and media * Adolph Held (1885–1969), U.S. newspaper editor, banker, labor activist *Al Held (1928–2005), U.S. abstract expressionist painter. *Alexander Held (born 1958), German television ...

it unconstitutional since it granted residents of the permit zone greater rights over the public streets than their neighbors outside of it. The county appealed to the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, which reversed the lower courts in ''

Arlington County Board v. Richards ''Arlington County Board v. Richards'', List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 434, 434 United States Reports, U.S. 5 (1977), is a United States Supreme Court decision on the application of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth ...

'', holding that discrimination based on residency alone was not unconstitutional if it rationally furthered a legitimate state interest such as those embraced by the ordinance. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2005.

References

External links

{{National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Neighborhoods in Arlington County, Virginia Unincorporated communities in Virginia Washington metropolitan area Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia Greek Revival houses in Virginia Colonial Revival architecture in Virginia Historic districts in Arlington County, Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Arlington County, Virginia Houses in Arlington County, Virginia Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Virginia

See also

References

External links