See note below in the Rosslyn Forum (scroll on down) concerning Wilson School.

Community input is solicited concerning the desirability of Redevelopment versus Maintaining the building and restoring the playfields.

Laying out a decent part in the area would have a much better chance to be used by people than the anemic park at the gateway. By all means create it, in addition to the existing playground.
V. Mastny

I've received about a half dozen responses to the call for comment on the Wilson School plans. Here's one of the best.
Mark Antell

I would most definitely ask for the green space, the playing fields.
When I moved here (N. 19th St.) eleven years ago, I found great pleasure in noting how well, how constantly, and how variedly those fields were being used by local residents. It was very sad to see the trailers put down there, but I assumed it was because the population of the school had grown.

If the school is not to be used as a school anymore, then most definitely the trailers must go and the space restored for community
exercise actiities. And the playground most definitely must be retained.

The building itself looks as though it might almost qualify for Historic Recognition.
The total frame of the building could be saved even if the innards were totally gutted and refitted for offrices or stores. So very little
of "old Rosslyn" and these areas just "up the hill" from it have been preserved. While it is so much easier for folks to raze an old building and start from scrach with yet another generic modern structure, it is a great pity that the architecture and mood of the old buildings that gave this area such character in the past are so
blithely dismissed by all the current building craze.

At the least, if the school is razed and replaced by another generic blob, the green space behind it must be preserved for neighborhood use. Arlington desperately needs to keep as many of the rapidly-vanishing open areas as possible so that residents feel they have places near where they live to go and elax, play games, and breathe some fresh air. We must remember -- such places as those playing fields behind this school serve to keep our extremely vulnerable young people occupied with healthy outlets for their energies. The more varied the offerings of the area to those young people in their free hours, the less they can be tempted into unsavory activities and interests. And we need to thnk of our young people. They are our future assets, far more than another business.

MGWhitman