Nauck is a neighborhood in the southern part of Arlington County, Virginia, known locally as Green Valley. It is bordered by Four Mile Run and Shirlington to the south, Douglas Park to the west, I-395 to the east, and Columbia Heights and the Army-Navy Country Club to the north. The southeastern corner of the neighborhood borders the City of Alexandria.
The neighborhood acquired the name of "Nauck" when John D. Nauck, a former Confederate Army soldier who was serving the County as a Justice of the Peace and in other positions, purchased, subdivided and sold 46 acres of farmland from 1874 to 1900 in its area, thus laying the foundation for the neighborhood's development. In 2019, the Nauck Civic Association voted to change its name to the "Green Valley Civic Association" to remove the name of a Confederate from that of an organization which by that time represented what had become a historically black neighborhood. The association next asked the Arlington County Civic Federation to approve its proposed name change, which the Federation did later that year. Although the County government will change its relevant databases and maps to reflect the association's new name, the County Board has not voted to alter the name of the neighborhood itself.
History
In 1719, John Todd and Evan Thomas received a land grant within the area that is now the Nauck neighborhood. Robert Alexander later acquired the land. In 1778, Alexander sold his property to John Parke Custis, whereupon the land became part of Custis' Abingdon estate.
During the mid-1800s, Gustavus Brown Alexander owned much of the area that became Nauck, which at the time was called Green Valley African Americans began to purchase property and settle in the Nauck area during that period. Among the early African American property owners were Levi and Sarah Ann Jones.
In 1859, the Alexandria, Loudoun and Hampshire Railroad began operating to Vienna from a terminal in old town Alexandria. The rail line, which subsequently became branches of the Richmond and Danville Railroad, the Southern Railway, the Washington and Old Dominion Railway and the Washington and Old Dominion Railroad, eventually reached the town of Bluemont at the base of the Blue Ridge Mountains in 1900. The line, which traveled through the valley of Four Mile Run, had stations named Nauck and (later) Cowdon where it crossed Shirlington Road. Although the line carried freight until it closed in 1968, passenger service through Nauck ended in 1932 during the Great Depression.
During the American Civil War, the Union Army constructed Fort Barnard and other fortifications in the area. The army also established there a number of encampments for its troops, as well as a large convalescent camp bordered by a swamp. After the war ended in 1865, Thornton and Selina Gray, an African American couple that had earlier been slaves at Arlington House, purchased a small piece of property in the area in 1867.
During 1874–1875, John D. Nauck, a former Confederate Army soldier who had immigrated from Germany, purchased a parcel of land in the area. Nauck, who held at least one political office in the area, lived on his property and subdivided and sold the remainder.
During the post-war period, the area attracted several African American families residing in Freedman's Village and other locations. In 1876, William Augustus Rowe, an African American who lived in Freedman's Village and was elected to a number of political positions, was among those who purchased property in the area during that period. In 1885, a “Map of the Town of Nauck, Alexandria County, Virginia" that resulted from an earlier land survey was recorded.
Nauck grew slowly during the late nineteenth century. In 1874, a congregation initially organized in Freedman’s Village purchased land in the area on which to relocate a building containing an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, the Little Zion Church. The church's building housed a public school that was later known as the Kemper School. In 1885, the Alexandria County school board built a one-room school nearby. The board constructed a new two-story brick school in 1893 at South Lincoln Street. The board later replaced that building with a larger facility that now contains the Drew Model Elementary School.