In 1742, a man named John Ball received 166 acres from Lord Fairfax and became one of Arlington's first settlers. Nearly three centuries later, his final resting place sits wedged between an auto mechanic shop and a residential development, fenced off from any direct road access—yet somehow thriving.
The Old Ball Family Burial Ground holds more than just graves. John Ball's grandson fought in the Revolutionary War. Another descendant fought in the Civil War. Both are buried here, their stones marking the ground alongside relatives whose names are carved into a large tombstone near the cemetery's only tree. Some headstones look relatively new. Others have weathered centuries.
What makes this place remarkable isn't just the history compressed into its small plot, but how it survives at all.
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Start Your News DetoxA cemetery nobody legally owns
When a residential development installed a road along the cemetery's eastern side in 2023, they fenced it off—no direct access, no clear path. The land was deeded to John Ball's heirs generations ago, but Arlington County has no idea who they are anymore. Without legal ownership traceable to living descendants, the county cannot officially maintain or preserve the ground. By all logic, it should be overgrown and crumbling.
Instead, an unknown person keeps it tended. Grass is cut. Stones are visible. The cemetery is cared for by someone who simply decided it mattered.
It's a small act that says something about how communities hold their own history when institutions can't. Not through formal preservation programs or government funding, but through quiet, persistent care from someone who noticed what was being lost.
There's also a small historical footnote worth noting: George Washington's great-grandfather was named William Ball, but historians believe the Washington family and the Ball family who settled Arlington had no relation. Still, Washington's land bordered Moses Ball's property—John Ball's son—and Washington surveyed land with Moses multiple times, referring to him as cousin in his own diaries. Two families, separate lineages, but connected enough to note it down.
The cemetery remains one of Arlington's oldest family burial grounds, accessible but hidden, preserved by nobody and everybody at once.
