A quiet community in Arlington County has received its day in the spotlight thanks to a recent profile in the Washington Post. Donaldson Run is a small, affluent community in close proximity to Washington, D.C. Located off the main Metro lines, Donaldson Run is a more car-oriented community that manages to still be great for families with commuters. As per the Post, “Donaldson Run in North Arlington is roughly bounded by the Potomac River and Beechwood Circle on the north and east; Vacation Lane, N. 25th Street and N. 26th Street on the south; Vernon Street, Old Dominion Drive on the south and west; and Washington Golf and Country Club on the north and west.”
Donaldson Run is a slice of small-town Americana in the bustling Northern Virginia region, with virtually no crime reported in the last year. The Donaldson Run Civic Association is working hard to preserve the neighborhood’s green spaces. Bill Richardson, the Association’s president, says that maintaining the “high quality of the environment” is a priority. Two tributaries in the area are part of a statewide stream restoration project that intends to prevent erosion and pollution of Chesapeake Bay. Potomac Overlook Regional Park is part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park Authority, and residents are intent on preserving its green spaces. When NOVA Parks proposed developing the park with a zip-line and rock climbing wall, over 200 residents protested and successfully blocked the development.
According to the Post article, forty-two homes have sold in Donaldson Run in the past twelve months. The home prices range from “an estate sale of a condemned three-bedroom, one-bath Colonial for $580,000 to a Colonial with seven bedrooms and seven baths, built in 2009, that sold for $2.365 million.” The Colonial was built on the site of an old 1920s Tudor-style home that was demolished. Ten homes are currently on the market as of March 17th, with prices ranging from a three-bedroom, four-bath rambler on sale for $869,500 to a five-bedroom, five-bath Colonial bearing a sale price of $1.895 million. Most of the houses were built in the time period between 1941 and 1960. While ramblers and colonials make up the majority of the houses, Donaldson Run has a pleasant amount of architectural variety, with farmhouses, townhouses, Cape Cods, and other styles sprinkled in.
Residents go shopping at the Lee Heights shopping center at 4500 Lee Hwy. (Route 29) as well as at the Lee Harrison Shopping Center at 2425 N. Harrison St., Market Common at 2800 Clarendon Blvd., and the Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s in Clarendon. Most of these are closer to the Orange and Silver Line Metro Stations. As the community grows, residents hope that more shopping opportunities will move in.
Schools serving the area are Taylor Elementary, Williamsburg Middle, Yorktown High and Washington Lee High.
If you are looking for a small, cozy neighborhood with close access to all the amenities that Arlington has to offer, Donaldson Run could be a great place for you to live!
