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LEEWAY OVERLEE CIVIC ASSOCIATION
Notice of General Membership Meeting:
HYBRID: ZOOM & IN-PERSON:
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
GENERAL MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT
Topic: “Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington” (including Leeway Overlee) –
Stumbling Stones
Join us for Leeway Overlee’s first meeting of 2026!
Speaker: Tim Aiken, Arlington Historical Society
Date: Wednesday, January 21
Time: 5:45 – 8:00 PM
Location: Longfellow Room, Westover Library
Leeway Overlee is working with the Arlington Historical Society (AHS) to participate in Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington, a joint project between AHS and the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington (BHMA). The project installs six-inch bronze plaques or “stumbling stones” on sidewalks close to where enslaved people lived. These plaques are being designed and fabricated by Arlington Tech High School students who are learning about high-tech engraving and about the local history of slavery.
Through careful research, the Memorializing the Enslaved in Arlington project has identified where many enslaved people lived, including at least two who lived in what is now Leeway Overlee. During the 18th & 19th centuries, several thousand enslaved people were forced to live and work in Arlington. The project aims to learn more about the lives of these people and share their stories which will enable us to confront a difficult history and honor our shared humanity through:
• Revealing the mostly unknown history of the county’s enslaved population and chronicle their lives
• Providing names, when possible, for enslaved individuals to honor their memory and ensure they are not forgotten
• Marking the locations in Arlington where slavery occurred with plaques or stumbling stones.
Source documents for this project include:
• Probate – wills, accounts and inventories
• Court records
• Manumissions
• Newspapers
• Diaries
• Letters
• US Census
• Maps
• Photographs/illustrations
• Tax records
• Deeds/Land Records
• Vital records – birth, death, marriage
• Grave sites.
LANGSTON ARTS CENTER STUDIOS AND PARK / FORMER LEE CENTER UPDATES
For the purposes of this discussion, the building and park will be referred to as Lee Center.
As of this writing on January 7, 2026, Arlington County is working not to demolish the building which formerly hosted the LAC Studios and Lee Community Center.
Step One: Evaluate the Building and Park: Completed
In 2025, Arlington County commissioned an architectural firm to perform a study of the former Lee Center building and park to determine their conditions. Please refer to the Lee Center Study on the Arlington County web site: open the County web site and enter “Lee Center Study” in the search box near the top of the page (link is also below). The study results are presented in three sections; links to each are on the opening page of the study discussion. Public engagement will strongly influence final uses of the building.
The study’s analysis of the park is especially interesting: of 91 trees, the study determined that 23 trees should be replaced. (Volume One, page B04)
Step Two: Public Engagement: the next phase in determining the future of Lee Center.
Langston Boulevard Alliance (LBA) is partnering with Arlington County’s Department of Environmental Services (DES) to manage the public engagement phase to evaluate future community uses of the building and park and the configuration of both to best provide those uses to the community. LBA created a Community Centers Committee to assess community centers in the Langston Boulevard corridor (Langston Brown, Dawson Terrace, and Lee Center). Langston Brown is fully functional and provides a variety of Arlington Parks and Recreation programs. Dawson Terrace is closed except for one class; rooms can be reserved in advance for meetings. And Lee Center is closed. Jean Henceroth, the President of Leeway Overlee, chairs this committee.
The Leeway Overlee CA Executive Committee welcomes LBA leading this phase of the project; it has resources which our civic association lacks.
Please stay tuned and participate in any future surveys or studies about the project to ensure your voice is heard regarding the future of Lee Center. It starts with the survey referenced below.
Arlington reviews its long-term capital budget (Capital Improvement Plan or CIP) every two years at which time new items for funding are added and others are modified. Two years ago, the county allocated $15+ million for future renovations to Lee Center. The County Board and staff will review the CIP again this spring: the funds allocated for Lee Center renovations could be moved sooner, pushed out farther into the future, the amount reduced or increased.
Lee Center Project and the 2025 Arlington County Community Interest and Opinion Survey
Langston Art Center Studios (LAC) was a long-standing creative hub on Langston Boulevard, located in the former historic school building known as Lee Center. For decades, it provided affordable studio space for working artists and welcomed the community through classes, workshops, and public programming. Arlington moved the art studios to its consolidated arts center at 3700 S. Four Mile Run and closed the former Lee Center in July 2025. The Parks and Recreation programs (principally 55+ programs) had been moved out of the building in 2020.
With closure of the building in mid-2025, community engagement is more important than ever to determine its future viability and use. We encourage you to explore the Lee Center's project page and complete the 2025 Arlington County Community Interest and Opinion Survey to help support and expand shared cultural and green spaces along the corridor. Learn more about LAC Studios’ rich history via the People and Places link and its interviews with artist David Carlson and the Leeway Overlee Civic Association President Jean Henceroth. (The below links can be found in the Langston Boulevard Alliance January 2026 newsletter as well as on the Leeway Overlee Facebook page).
ANY QUESTIONS? CONTACT A MEMBER OF THE LOCA EXEC COMMITTEE
President: Jean Henceroth (president@leewayoverlee.org)
Vice President: Karen Guevara (vicepresident@leewayoverlee.org)
Secretary: Ladd Connell (secretary@leewayoverlee.org)
Treasurer: Jennifer Michener (treasurer@leewayoverlee.org)
ArNAC Rep. Rob Swennes ArNAC@LeewayOverlee.org
Are you willing to switch from paper to electronic documents?
LOCA’s primary expense is printing this newsletter which is distributed 3-4 times annually by volunteers walking door to door.
To reduce newsletter printing costs and paper usage, the LOCA Executive Committee is considering sending via email the Newsletter, Notices of Meetings, etc. If you would like to receive these electronically, please send an email including your name, street address and phone number to: president@leewayoverlee.org. Both the Notices of Membership Meetings and the Newsletter will continue to be available on our web site and Facebook page.
LEE COMMUNITY CENTER / LAC STUDIOS / LEE COMMUNITY PARK
(located between Langston Boulevard / 24th Street North and North Lexington / North Kentucky Streets)
Did you know that this property and its facilities have been a vital and publicly available gathering place and park within the Leeway Overlee community as one of Arlington's earliest public schools (1926), Lee Community and Senior Center, then the LAC Studios?
Did you know that County planners are proposing to repurpose the Lee Center block by removing almost a century's worth of athletics on that property, which is the ONLY PUBLIC PARK WITH OUR CIVIC ASSOCIATION?
Are you willing to abandon these historic limited public recreational options within our neighborhood?
Most importantly, it has been used for almost 100 years for children's recreation. This was true when the original elementary school was opened in 1926. It remained true when Arlington Public Schools (APS) closed the school in 1971 and transferred the property to Arlington County. It was true when the former school building housed the Lee Center Children's Cooperative. Today it continues to be true with its playground equipment, softball diamond, basketball court, and open green space providing neighborhood children with multiple recreational opportunities.
The Executive Committee of Leeway Overlee Civic Association requested Arlington County preserve The Lee Community Center Park "as is" with no new construction on the site. IF YOU SUPPORT THIS, PLEASE TELL THE COUNTY BOARD and send it in writing to the County Board and Planning Commissioners -- they count the number of letters received regarding issues (a LOCA Executive Committee letter to the County is available below and on the LOCA Facebook page; you can print it and add your signature and your printed name, scan it, and email it to the County Board via its web site).
Please refer to pp 28-32, 61 the Langston Boulevard Area Plan Draft 1: June 2023 detailing the county's plans: www.arlingtonva.us/files/sharedassets/public/projects/documents/plan-langston-blvd/draft-langstonboulevard-area-plan.pdf
Date: September 13, 2023
To: Residents of Leeway Overlee Civic Association (LOCA)
From: Jean Henceroth, President
Leeway Overlee Civic Association
RE: Langston Boulevard Area Plan, Draft 1: June 2023 ("the Plan") and
LEE PARK AND FORMER LEE COMMUNITY CENTER/LAC STUDIOS
Hello Neighbor,
Today I'm writing to ask you to send an email or letter (via email) to the Arlington County Board regarding the future of Lee Park and the former Lee Community Center / LAC Studios, both of which are threatened by the current version of Langston Boulevard Area Plan ("the Plan"). Although not yet approved by the County Board, the Plan refers to the former Lee Community Center as demolished, with the probability that a building replacing it could be 5 stories high and its footprint could take half of the park. Its purpose had not yet been determined but it probably would not be a community center.
If you support saving our park, please use the attached sample letter or email to write to the County Board. The County Board considers the volume of letters or emails received regarding a specific community issue when voting on it -- YOUR LETTER COULD HELP SAVE OUR PARK!
The LOCA Executive Committee is determined the park and any structure built therein be committed to serving our community and wrote a letter on August 31, 2023, to the County requesting:
"Arlington County conduct a public evaluation with public input to determine the short- and long-term uses of the former Lee Community Center (now LAC Studios) and the Lee Community Center Park (located between Langston Boulevard / 24th Street North and North Lexington / North Kentucky Streets) to commence no later than early 2024."
HOW TO SEND A LETTER OR EMAIL:
A Word copy of this letter is provided for your use, either to send in a traditional letter format or as an email. Please:
remove the red writing in the document
add your name
email to the County Board at the following address: Countyboard@arlingtonva.us
THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!
Link to Traditional Letter (to be mailed via USPS): document for mailing
Link to Electronic (to be copied and pasted into an email and then emailed): document for emailing
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