According to Heritage Alliance Chairman Laura Bobeczko, "this list was first compiled in 2001 by the organization's Board of Directors in order to increase public awareness of these disparate historic resources. For this reason, a wide range of individual properties and building types has been included in this list, and each of the five endangered properties has a unique history and faces different threats."

Fort Ethan Allen, a County-designated historic district since 1978, is threatened by the inappropriate placement of a dog exercise area in the center of the fort. The main threat to the County's important collection of low-rise garden apartment complexes is loss by demolition for higher-density redevelopment. Local public school buildings are threatened by a number of factors including declining school populations and new educational technologies that render them redundant or obsolete, as well as by gradual and often insensitive additions that do not mesh with the spirit and fabric of the original buildings. Low-scale commercial buildings along the Wilson Boulevard corridor, particularly in Virginia Square and Clarendon, are also threatened by higher-density redevelopment. In numerous communities throughout the county, historic residential neighborhood scale and character are threatened by inappropriate infill development, by the building of substantially larger homes on modest lots, and by the subdivision of larger lots to accommodate new construction. For more information on this year's Most Endangered Historic Places, click HERE.

The following are updates on several properties from the 2001 "Arlington's Most Endangered List:" The owner of the Glebe House, the National Genealogical Society, no longer wants to sell the property. Unfortunately, they closed their research library and sold their outstanding genealogical collection to an out-of-town historical society so that they could remain in their cramped quarters at the Glebe House. Lustron houses throughout the nation remain threatened because of their modest size often located on large lots. Plans are now in the works to remove the collection of 60 Lustron houses at Quantico Marine Base in Prince William County within the next several years. This spring, the Planning Commission and the County Board approved the redevelopment plans for Columbia Pike. Historic preservation issues were part of these plans, and it is the desire of the Heritage Alliance that significant local landmarks along the Pike be retained.