It is the season for fall festivals in Arlington including Clarendon Days, St. Ann’s Fall Festival and Calloway United Methodist Church Family Fun Days on Saturday, Sept. 28.
The yard outside Calloway on Langston Boulevard is full with the BBQ grill full of burgers and dogs on one side of the church and the moon bounce and crafts for the kids on the other side with the DJ.
Bernard Carpenter flips over a grill full of burgers one by one and adds them to the aluminum foil covered pan with the hot dogs. “I have been a member of this church since I was born. My mother and grandfather were members. In fact, my great great grandfather JJ Carpenter founded and helped build this church right here. He is buried right over there in the yard — along with other historic people who founded Halls Hill.” Halls Hill was a tight knit Black community in Arlington that emerged from a former plantation in 1881. Remnants still remain today in the form of a crumbling wall that was built to segregate the area from a new subdivision in the adjoining white neighborhood.
Alex Mondae comes by with her cotton candy and adds that she has also been a member of the church since she was born, “And I am currently the Treasurer.”
Music signals to passersby on Langston Boulevard that something is happening. Bernard Carpenter’s son, Aaron Carpenter is manning the DJ station for today’s event. “I work with Arlington County DJs although today is a private event.” He says when he was in 7th grade at Williamsburg Middle School his friend said maybe it would be cool to be a DJ. “I was a little shy and I wasn’t too out there but later I took a class offered by Arlington County at the Community Center, and it just stuck.” So after college, he came back and became a DJ. Aaron says he assesses the audience and modifies what he plays. For instance, at today’s event he will play clean hip hop “because of the kids.” Sometimes he mashes up the vocals with different instruments and comes up with a completely different song on the fly. He says he is always surprised at what kind of music people are into.
Rev. DeLishia Davis, who has been lead pastor at Calloway for 8 years, says the church used to have Family Fun Day but this is the first one since Covid. She said they have been planning it for the last three months. “We have been organizing vendors, hiring the DJ, getting the raffle stuff and working on the spiritual side. We reach out to the community and bring the family together that may not be part of the church and invite the relatives of the early leaders of Halls Hill who are buried in the yard surrounding the church to join us.” She says this is part of a celebratory weekend which includes a joint church service on Sunday at Calloway with Rock Spring UCC on Little Falls Road followed by a breakfast. “We have been partners for 54 years.”
Calloway Methodist Church began as a prayer meeting in an Arlington home in 1866, and later the church building was erected on the current site at 5000 Langston Blvd. in 1904.