"A modest, four-page flyer, circa 1940, offering for sale 450 Arlington Forest homes was circulating among customers at the Forest barber shop a few days ago.

The price for the new detached "air-conditioned" homes, built by Meadowbrook, Inc., Monroe Warren, president, was $5990, with a 4 1/2% FHA loan of $5400. ("Air-conditioned" in those days referred to air circulation by the heating unit blower, not to air cooling.) A cash payment of $590 would seal the deal with settlement costs of only $60. "Total cash required to move in" was $650. Monthly payment on a 20-year plan would be $43.10 but you could stretch payments over 25 years and pay only $38.98 a month, including estimated taxes and insurance of $5.25 and $3.70. Corner and oversize lots were higher, of course.

The houses, said the brochure, could be reached by a 10-cent bus ride and fronted on newly paved streets, with sewer, water, curbs, gutters, sidewalks, gas, and electricity all included in the price ("no assessments.") "Carefully built by skilled mechanics," the houses "present an atmosphere of charm and character rarely found in other than the most exclusive developments." Specifications included: waterproof basement of solid concrete; automatic gas hot water storage heater; oil burner; two coats of plaster on perforated rock lath plaster base, with metal reinforcement at corners; complete Celotex insulation; steel casement windows and copper screens; "built-in aerial and ground for your radio"; double flooring on first and second floors, finished with 7/8" Select White Oak; copper water pipes; hose connections front and rear; basement floor drain.

Kitchen specifications included a "beautiful gas range with insulated oven and heat control" (but no refrigerator), custom- built metal cabinets, double drain-board sink with new strainer stopper and swing nozzle mixing faucet, and inlaid linoleum flooring cemented over felt. Bathrooms had black and white tiled walls and floors to match, built-in tub and shower, and chromium- plated fittings. Sunfast shades, colonial hardware throughout, and sodded and landscaped lots completed the picture.

Some of the materials and specifications were necessarily changed for later Arlington Forest houses because of wartime shortages, particularly of copper and chromium. Many of the features were quite an advancement for their time, and some of them, many Forest residents would agree, would look pretty good even now."

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