By O.K. Carter, Landmark Preservation Commission
Arlington is on the cusp of surpassing a population of 400,000, making it one of the 50 most populous cities in the country, but it hasn’t always been a fast grower. In 1940, as the nation neared entry into World War II, the official census population was 4,470.
After the war, as former military men returned to civilian duty, Arlington seemed to boom – so much so that even conservative estimates put it at more than 10,000. The local Arlington Citizen-Journal even conducted a contest to see who could guess the closest. The majority of those participating guessed it at between 10,000 and 12,000.
But that level of optimism proved to be, well, overly optimistic.
The official tally: 7,961. The winner, incidentally, was Pamela Jean Ross, whose guess was only slightly off, undercounting by 65.
Mayor B.C. Barnes nevertheless noted that the town’s population had increased by a smidge more than 78% in a decade. Not bad at all.
“We can be proud of our city’s growth in the past 10 years as it has been solid and substantial,” Barnes said. “My prediction is that the next ten years will see our population soar to the 14,000 mark.”
Barnes also missed that guesstimate. A lot. By 1960, by which time Tom Vandergriff was mayor, Arlington’s population zoomed almost six-fold to 44,775 and the city had evolved into one of the fastest growing municipalities in the country.
This article was written by Arlington author and historian O.K. Carter, who served on the Landmark Preservation Commission.
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