REEVESLAND

 

History

 

Following the end of the Civil War, William Torreyson started a dairy farm that eventually included some 160 acres of rolling terrain in Arlington County, VA, several miles west of Washington DC and the Potomac River. His daughter Lucy married George Reeves.  By the late 1890, Lucy and George and their two children helped to run the dairy farm and moved into a four-room farmhouse on the property overlooking  the Four Mile Run.  An existing tenant house was attached to the new house and converted into a kitchen.   The Reeves' youngest son, Nelson, was born in the farmhouse in 1900.

 

Nelson Reeves and his father formed a partnership to run the dairy farm in 1924.  Nelson lived on the farm in another house until 1949 when his parents died and he moved into the original farmhouse with his wife, Louise, and his first two children, Ron and Marcia.  A third child, Cheryl, was born later. It was Louise who named the farm Reevesland.

 

In 1955, Nelson Reeves retired as a dairy farmer, selling most of his land but continuing to live on the  2.48 acres surrounding his 19th century farmhouse in what is now known as the Boulevard Manor neighborhood.  For the next almost half century until his death in 2000, Mr. Reeves had a wonderful, important second “career”:  he taught several generations of his neighbors, adults and children alike, about the joys of gardening, respect for the land, and the importance of building relationships and community.  His large, fertile vegetable garden was not only a source of food that he shared with others, but was also his classroom.  He was a generous, inspiring educator who created a “Reevesland Learning Center” in practice if not in name.

 

In 2001, the Reevesland property was purchased by Arlington County from Nelson Reeves’ heirs.

 

In 2004, at the urging of Reevesland neighbors, the property including the farmhouse and other buildings, were designated as a local historic district.

 

BUILDIING ON THE REEVES LEGACY

 

The Reevesland Learning Garden  

 

From 2001 to 2011, the Reevesland farmhouse and acreage, including what used to be Mr. Reeves’ large vegetable garden, were idle, the farmhouse boarded up and slowly deteriorating.  In 2011, the Reevesland Learning Center, a newly formed, community-based nonprofit, with the support of three civic associations, the three adult Reeves children, and hundreds of Arlington residents, received Arlington County approval to establish the Reevesland Learning Garden on the site of Nelson Reeves’ vegetable garden. 

 

The Center has been a huge success, managing a large cluster of raised growing beds on the Reevesland property where Nelson Reeves maintained his iconic vegetable garden for more than half a century. At the Reevesland Learning Garden, several thousand Arlington students, teachers and families have planted and cared for  vegetables, herbs, and grain crops for curriculum-based learning in math, science and language arts.  Starting with Ashlawn Elementary School, the Center’s timely educational work and methodology is expanding to other Arlington schools. A next logical step is the rehabilitation of the farmhouse where the Reevesland Learning Center can continue to bring together more Arlington students, teachers and adults for more extensive agricultural-based programs that explore healthy cooking and an understanding of the importance of local foods and stewardshiop of a healthy environment to support those endeavors.

 

Reevesland farmhouse

 

The Arlington County-owned farmhouse has been boarded up and neglected for 14 years. More than 600 Arlington residents and four civic associations have sent letters to the Arlington County Board urging the County to work with the leaders of the Reevesland Learning Center and to rehabilitate the vacant farmhouse so it can be used as a learning center for Arlington children, teachers and adults to promote growing food, wellness and sustainability.  The adaptive reuse of the farmhouse is also supported by the Arlington Historical Society.  In Arlington County and throughout the country, there is a heightened understanding about the importance of growing food locally and educating individuals, families and especially children about eating fresh, healthy food and related practices. The national epidemic of childhood obesity and other diet-related illnesses underscores the urgency of this work.