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Arlington Farms was a temporary housing complex for female civil servants and service members during World War II. Built in 1942-1943 by the United States Government's Federal Works Agency (FWA), Arlington Farms was located on the former site of the United States Department of Agriculture's Arlington Experimental Farm on the grounds of the historic 1,100-acre Custis-Lee family estate in Arlington County, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C. ==Construction== The federal government began planning for an influx of wartime workers years before the United States officially entered World War II. In late 1940, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a law to move the Department of Agriculture's Experimental Farm from Arlington, adjacent to Arlington National Cemetery, to its current location in Beltsville, Maryland to allow for an expansion of the military cantonment at Fort Myer. The Arlington Farms land was originally considered for the new War Department building. However, when construction of the Pentagon began in 1941, it was on the nearby site of the old Washington-Hoover Airport. In April, 1942, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission selected numerous sites around the city for construction of temporary war housing. In addition to plans in West Potomac Park, near the Lincoln Memorial, on Capitol Hill, near present-day RFK Stadium, and in Suitland, Maryland, some 7,000 units were slated for Arlington Farms, just over the Arlington Memorial Bridge. Five months later, the FWA, one of the forerunners of the General Services Administration (GSA), awarded $4 million in contracts for the construction of dormitories at Arlington Farms. The contractors were Philadelphia's John McShain, Inc., and two Virginia-based companies, Doyle & Russell and the Wise Contracting Company. The three firms were also partnered on the nearby Pentagon construction. John McShain's company was the most prominent in Washington at the time. Besides the Pentagon (1943), they were the primary contractor on National Airport (1941) and the Jefferson Memorial (1943). Construction began almost immediately and on March 1, 1943, the first occupants of Arlington Farms moved into their wartime homes. First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt played a role in the design and construction of the residential housing project. She toured the facilities when they first opened and presided over the formal dedication on October 15, 1943. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「Arlington Farms」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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