For more information about the Cultural Heritage Project:
Berkon, Eliza. 2018. (2018, January 2). “Revisit the loss of Clarendon’s ‘Little Saigon.’” Northern Virginia Magazine, January 2.
“Graduate Students’ Studio Project on Arlington’s Vietnamese Community Spurs May 9 Celebration.” 2015. Virginia Tech Daily, May 4.
“Virginia Tech’s Studio Class Shares Oral History of Vietnamese Immigrants in Arlington’s ‘Little Saigon’ Neighborhood.” 2017. Virginia Tech Highlight, September 25.
For further reading about Little Saigon
Berkon, Eliza. 2020. “Eden Center watches doors close one-by-one during the pandemic.” NPR WAMU 88.5, April 29.
Jones, Mark. “Arlington’s Little Saigon.” 2014.
This article on WETA’s Local History Blog reviews the development and transformation of Little Saigon. A video is embedded in the article that contains an interview with historic preservationist, Kim O’Connell, as well Richard Nguyen, the General Manager of Nam Viet Restaurant. http://blogs.weta.org/boundarystones/2014/05/08/arlingtons-little-saigon
Maraist, Zoey. 2017. “Remembering Clarendon’s Little Saigon.” Catholic Herald, October 18.
O’Connell, Kim. 2009. “Looking for Little Saigon.”
This online article provides a review of the development and transformation of Little Saigon in Clarendon from the perspective of the daughter of an immigrant resident, as well as professional in historic preservation. Photographs are provided, and the author speaks of interest in the community to commemorate Little Saigon.
http://blog.preservationnation.org/2009/05/28/looking-for-little-saigon/#.VD0CH9R4r6M
O’Connell, Kim. 2009. “Vietnamese Community Seeks to Remember Little Saigon.”
This Washington Business Journal article discusses the Vietnamese cultural development and decline of Little Saigon in Clarendon, and efforts of Vietnamese community leaders in commemorating the Vietnamese history with a historical marker, public event, or by some other means. The article discusses macro immigration trends prior to development of Little Saigon, as well as the growth of the Eden Center as a cultural center in the years following the relocation of cultural activity from Little Saigon.
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2009/08/17/tidbits9.html?page=all
O’Connell, Kim A. 2003. “Catching Fish With Two Hands: Preserving Vietnamese Heritage in Virginia’s Little Saigon: A Cultural Heritage Assessment for the Vietnamese Community in the Clarendon Neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia (1975-1980).” Thesis, Goucher College, December 12, 2003.
This thesis is a cultural heritage assessment for the Vietnamese community in the Clarendon neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia during the neighborhood’s peak as Little Saigon during 1975-1980. The author explores macro immigration trends, cultural and economic development in Little Saigon, and Vietnamese activity in Northern Virginia since the 1980s. The thesis contains first-hand interviews with community members, and recommendations are provided to best preserve Clarendon’s important role in the Vietnamese refugee experience in America.
Wood, Joseph. 1997. “Vietnamese Place Making in Northern Virginia.” Geographical Review. 87 (1): 58-72.
This scholarly journal article provides a history of Vietnamese immigration to Northern Virginia beginning in 1975 with the fall of Saigon. Immigration and employment trends are examined to provide an overview of the two dominant concentrations of Vietnamese cultural activity in Northern Virginia; first of Little Saigon in Clarendon, Virginia; and the following movement of Eden Center in Falls Church.
Wood Vietnamese Placemaking in N. Virginia
Please also see the resources at the end of our History page.
Echoes of Little Saigon 