1005 S Quinn St
Arlington, VA, USA

National Register of Historic Places - Harry W. Gray House (000-0515)

Statement of Significant:

Located at 1005 South Quinn Street in Arlington County, Virginia, the Harry W. Gray House was built by Harry W. Gray (c.1851-1913), a former slave on General Robert E. Lee's Arlington House estate. Constructed in 1881 in the fashionable Italianate style, the dwelling represents the monumental shift from slaves to freedmen for African Americans in the years following the Civil War. Gray and his family, also slaves at Arlington House, established themselves at the government-sponsored Freedman's Village on the Arlington House property and the associated rural Arlington Tract, while assimilating into their newfound societal roles. In 1881, Gray and his wife, a freed slave from James Madison's Montpelier plantation, purchased a nine-acre tract in Johnson's Hill just to the south of the Freedman's Village. Incorporating masonry skills learned at Arlington House and at the local brickyards, coupled with an appreciation of the mid-to-late- 19th-century residential architecture he saw in Washington, D.C. while working for the U.S. Patent Office, Harry W. Gray constructed a rare example of the brick rowhouse in Arlington County.

With a period of significance extending from 1881 to 1913, the property, which remained in the Gray family for nearly one hundred years, continues to reflect its original use as a single-family dwelling. The Harry W. Gray House retains sufficient integrity of design, workmanship, materials, location, and feeling despite the tremendous mid-to-late-20th-century growth in Arlington County. The Harry W. Gray House is recognized for its association with the settlement patterns of African Americans following the Civil War and for its architectural merit, reflecting a fashionable mid-to-late-19th-century urban design that was rare in rural Arlington County at the time it was built.