What Were These Arlington Farms?-- Part 1

The previous post I wrote about Shorpy photo  of a service man buying a Coke for a young woman at Idaho Hall at the Arlington Farms in Arlington, Virginia.  Having a hall at a farm with people just didn't make much sense to me.  Further research was needed.

From Wikipedia.

Arlington Farms was a temporary housing complex for female civil service members built during World War II.  They were built between 1942-1943 by the Federal Works Administration.  The complex got its name because it was located at the former site of the Arlington Experimental Farm on the grounds of the 1,100-acre Curtis-Lee family estate in Arlington County, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C..

The U.S. government began planning for the influx of workers needed to carry on a war even before Pearl Harbor was attacked.  In late 1940, FDR signed a law to move the Experimental Farm to Beltsville, Maryland, to allow for the expansion of the military cantonment at Fort Myer.

Originally the site was considered for the new War department building, but the Pentagon was built elsewhere starting in 1941.

--GreGen