Al’s Motors is located at the corner of Wilson Boulevard and North Pollard Street in the Ballston area of Arlington. Designed by architect J. Raymond Mims and constructed in 1948, it is a fine example of the Streamline Moderne style, with its rounded glass curtain walls and metal cornice, glass block sidelights and transom, and horizontal string courses and banding. Owned and operated by Al and Bertha Wasserman, who ventured into the automobile business in the early 1920s, the building housed a Chrysler-Plymouth automobile dealership and service garage for 53 years. In 1968, the building was enlarged at the rear by the construction of a one-story paint shop. Al’s Motors was the oldest Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Northern Virginia at the time of its closing in April 2001. After listing, the Al’s Motors building was rehabilitated using state and federal preservation tax credits, and repurposed for use as a health club.
Many properties listed in the registers are private dwellings and are not open to the public, however many are visible from the public right-of-way. Please be respectful of owner privacy.
Abbreviations:
VLR: Virginia Landmarks Register
NPS: National Park Service
NRHP: National Register of Historic Places
NHL: National Historic Landmark
Programs
DHR has secured permanent legal protection for over 700 historic places - including 15,000 acres of battlefield lands
DHR has erected 2,532 highway markers in every county and city across Virginia
DHR has registered more than 3,317 individual resources and 613 historic districts
DHR has engaged over 450 students in 3 highway marker contests
DHR has stimulated more than $4.2 billion dollars in private investments related to historic tax credit incentives, revitalizing communities of all sizes throughout Virginia