Arlington National Cemetery Historic District Arlington, Virginia

Text courtesy of the National Register of Historic Places, a program of the National Parks Service. Minor transcription errors or changes in formatting may have occurred; please see the Nomination Form PDF for official text. Some information may have become outdated since the property was nominated for the Register.

As the final resting place of military veterans, from the well known to the unknown and materialized in the rows of white headstones, ANC is nationally significant as the country's premier national cemetery and as a testament to the measures taken to honor and respect those who have played a role in our country's history. With a period of significance from 1864 to the present, ANC retains its integrity and meets National Register Criteria A, B, and C, and Criteria Considerations D, F, and Gat a national level. The Criteria A and B periods of significance of ANC begin in 1864 and continue to the present day. The year 1864 marks the year the U.S. Army began to utilize the estate as a cemetery. Recent additions to the cemetery in terms of land development as well as monuments and memorials are significant despite their age of less than 50 years. The Department of Defense continues to use the cemetery for burials for war veterans, and it continues to commemorate significant national events by the construction of memorials. The period of significance therefore extends to the present day as ANC continues to develop as a national cemetery and as a symbol for those who have fought for the freedoms of United States citizens. The Criterion C period of significance begins in 1864 and ends in 1966 with the massive expansion east of present-day Eisenhower Drive and is directly attributed to the picturesque planning and design of the cemetery under the direction of Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs as well as the Beaux Arts influences of the 1920s and 1930s at the hands of the Commission of Fine Arts. The design of the area to the east of Eisenhower Drive after 1966 is based upon maximizing the number of burials rather than extending the rural/picturesque aspects of Meigs' original design and therefore the period of significance ends in 1966 for the rural/picturesque design under Criterion C. The nomination for Arlington House (a contributing component to the ANC Historic District) has two associated archeological sites that are contributing under Criterion D.