BETH: Prior to World War II, Fairlington was an agricultural area.

It was mainly a horse farm.

Right after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, there was a huge inflow of people coming to help the war effort.

Housing was really, really in short supply, so the federal government took over 322 acres in South Arlington, and they developed it into 3,500 housing units for people that were either working for the government or the defense department.

This was the largest housing project for the Defense Department.

They decided to call this Fairlington, which is a mixture of both Fairfax and Arlington.

Kenneth Franzheim designed Fairlington in a colonial revival style.

They are small houses, and you were allotted a house based on how many people were in your family.

When families moved here during World War II, there was really nothing developed around here.

There were no houses of worship that were in Fairlington.

The school was finally finished in 1944.

I don't know that it was super easy to live here.

There was a sense of community because they were all living away from families, and they needed to rely on each other.

In the '50s, Fairlington was sold, and it became rental properties.

The condo conversion of 1977 of North Fairlington becomes the largest condo association in the mid-Atlantic.

They were marketing to the young and hip.

"Come to our tennis courts, come see our pools."

The outside of Fairlington absolutely looks like it did in the '40s.

Now, it's on the National Registry of Historic Places.

What you see is what you get.

You can't tear down a building and put up a McMansion, and I think that people buy into Fairlington knowing that not much is gonna change around here.

Fairlington's probably always felt like its own little town from the very beginning, and it... That is definitely something that has continued, whether it be because of these community events, or these community gatherings, like the farmers' market.

It feels like its own kind of self-contained little village.