Lyon Park Historic District was originally part of the growing community of Clarendon before it eventually became a separate community after 1919, when developer Frank Lyon subdivided a 300-acre tract into 1,200 building lots. After the success of the first phase of development, Lyon continued expanding Lyon Park to the east, south, and west, with the final portion platted in 1951. The growth of this middle-class suburban community was primarily tied to the arrival of commuter railways and streetcar lines that provided convenient daily access to Washington, D.C. The Lyon Park Historic District occupies approximately 284 acres and contains 1,171 historic structures. Designed by engineer and landscape architect William Sunderman, the neighborhood’s streets are laid out in a grid pattern, with intermittent curvilinear streets near its core. The community is defined by a variety of architectural forms and styles, including the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, Bungalow-Craftsman, Cape Cod, American Foursquare, and pre-fabricated kit houses. The structures range in date of construction from the 1890s to infill housing built at the turn of the 21st century. Lyon Park contains Arlington County’s greatest concentration of Colonial Revival buildings dating from World War I to World War II and also includes two churches, a community house, park, and a commercial center.

Within each of the planned communities of Arlington County, smaller roads and streets that extended from the major routes into the neighborhoods were adapted for commercial use. This is particularly evident along Washington Boulevard and North Pershing Drive in Lyon Park. A 2008 amendment to the Lyon Park Historic District nomination clarified the contributing status of a commercial building along Pershing Drive.
[VLR Approved: 7/17/2007; NRHP Approved: 4/23/2008]