Slate roofs in Arlington: what the historic papers say, and what they leave out

How to read the Buckingham roof rule

The county's 1993 Buckingham guidelines are the one Arlington document in this set that tells an owner what to do about slate. They were issued by the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board in June 1993, and they describe Buckingham's apartment buildings as brick buildings with slate-roofed hip and gable roof forms, plus one-story flat-roofed service units. Here is the roof entry, taken one question at a time.

What exactly does the entry say?

Four things, plus a cross-reference to the porch roof guidelines. Retain the existing roof forms. "Repair and replacement of original slate is preferred." Any substitute roof material should be of a similar color (hue and intensity), shape and size as the original slate. And a pointer to Appendix D for an acceptable roof material. A separate line covers dormer ventilators: keep the eyebrow and shed-roofed dormers, and copper roofing on them is preferred for repair and replacement.

Is "preferred" the same as "required"?

The roof entry uses "preferred" and gives no definition. Elsewhere the guidelines list desirable renovation actions "in order of preference": repair or replace the original feature with the same feature, return the feature to its original condition, then replace it with a substitute similar in style, size, color, design and material. The binding part is elsewhere in the guidelines: a Certificate of Appropriateness is needed for repair or replacement of roofs with different materials or a different design, and is not needed for repair and ordinary maintenance "using the same materials of the same design." How the Board treats a particular slate-to-substitute request is not described in the roof entry, so that question goes to the county.

What does Appendix D add?

Under Roofing, Appendix D lists a single product: a fiberglass Class A asphalt roof shingle, named in the 1993 text by manufacturer and product line. The appendix then qualifies itself. It calls the list a suggestion, says owners may propose others (the main text adds that the materials are examples and not the only acceptable substitutes), and says work using the listed materials still needs a Certificate of Appropriateness when it changes the design, materials, color, size or siting of the existing structure. So the listing is an example of a similar-looking material, not a stamp of approval for a given job.

What about an emergency leak?

The guidelines address it directly. Most emergency repairs fall under ordinary maintenance, which the Zoning Ordinance permits using the same material and design without a Certificate of Appropriateness. If an emergency repair would change the design, material, size or siting, the guidelines say a county building inspector certifies that public safety is jeopardized. That is a path for the owner to ask the county about, not a shortcut to assume.

Does this rule reach other buildings?

No. It is the Buckingham document. The county says its Board decides requests on either the individual district's design guidelines or the U.S. Secretary of the Interior's Standards, and that the Zoning Ordinance uses the Standards where a district has no approved guidelines. The county's list links design guidelines for Buckingham Villages and Cambridge Courts, and a window replacement guideline for Colonial Village. Roof treatment elsewhere is a question for the county, not something to borrow from Buckingham.

What the document says and what it does not say

This table keeps the text and the silences side by side. The left column is from the 1993 PDF. The right column lists what the same pages do not settle.

Source: Buckingham Historic District Guidelines, Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board, June 1993 (chapter on architectural features, Appendix D). Archived copy of the county PDF.

What other nominations record, building by building

These are descriptions from National Register nominations on the Virginia Department of Historic Resources site. They record what the writers saw. None of them is a roof specification, and only Colonial Village on this list is also a local historic district.

1. 1935 to 1940, Colonial Village. Built in four phases. The nomination describes a false gambrel green slate roof with four gable dormers on a first-phase building type, and a black slate roof on a second-phase type. The color is part of the record; so is the fact that those buildings have flat-roofed wings beside the slate.
2. About 1936, Community Apartments, North Pershing Drive. A two-story Colonial Revival multiple dwelling in the Lyon Park nomination, with a hipped roof covered with slate tiles.
3. 1937 to 1938, Glebewood Village. The 2004 nomination counts 105 contributing buildings and describes many side-gable dwellings covered with slate shingles. It also records, among alterations to a few structures, replacing the slate with asphalt shingles. It does not count how many.
4. 1939, Arlington Village. 656 apartment units with three roof types: 421 flat, 109 gambrel and 126 gable. The gable and gambrel roofs are clad with slate shingles. Alterations listed include new tar roofs for the flat-roof units, and the complex became cooperatives and condominiums in 1979. The nomination does not document the current roofs.
5. 1942 to 1944, Fairlington. The 1999 nomination counts 1,024 contributing buildings and says most roofs are slate, with gabled and hipped roofs predominating.
6. 1948, Calvert Manor. A three-story walk-up with a flat roof behind a low parapet. Only the peaked roof over the south-wing stair hall is sheathed with slate tiles, capped with a copper finial.
7. Houses and doubles. The Ashton Heights nomination lists slate among its roof materials, alongside asphalt, asbestos and terra cotta, and describes slate-tile-clad entry hoods on a two-story twin dwelling at 3719 6th Road North. Slate here is a detail on part of a building, not the whole roof.

Several of these buildings, among them Colonial Village, Arlington Village and Calvert Manor, pair slate with flat roofs, so the question for an owner can be two questions: what to do about the slate, and what the flat sections need. The flat roof page covers those systems. A sibling guide to Columbia Pike garden apartment roofs goes further into Arlington Village, and another covers 1940s subdivision roofs.

What the federal roofing brief adds about slate

The National Park Service's Preservation Brief 4, Roofing for Historic Buildings, is a national guide and not an Arlington rule, but it speaks to the details the local papers leave out.

Compare the brief's wording on color and scale with the Buckingham entry's "hue and intensity, shape and size." They point the same way, but only the Buckingham text is a local rule, and only for Buckingham.

Questions to settle before any quote

• Is the building on the county's local historic district list, or only on the National Register? The first brings review; the second is honorific. The Arlington hub explains the difference.
• If it is a local district, which guidelines apply, and does the roof entry resemble Buckingham's or differ from it?
• Is the work repair with the same materials of the same design, or a change of material? Ask Historic Preservation in writing, and keep the answer with the association records.
• Which parts of the roof are slate, which are flat, and who owns each decision: the association, the co-op board or an individual owner?
• If a substitute is proposed, what sample, color and size information will the county want to see?
• Who will supervise slate detailing, flashing and dormer work on site?

For permits, the county's Permit Arlington Center prints 703-228-3800. For exact answers about your address, ask the county, your association and your engineer. Book a phone consultation to talk through the roof side. See also our roofing materials, roof replacement, composite roofing and services pages.