Dark Star Park Day

Created in 1979 on 2/3 of an acre of land, Dark Star Park is Arlington's first major commissioned art project. It was created by artist Nancy Holt on the former site of a gas station and warehouse. The park provides a lovely place to walk and sit that is just steps away from a busy commercial area. View other public art in Rosslyn. 

Holt is famous for her public sculptures, installation art and land art. The art forms she created for Dark Star Park include five spheres, two pools, four steel poles, a stairway, a large tunnel to walk through and a smaller tunnel to look through. There are also many plantings.

One section of the park contains spheres and poles with shadow-images inset in the ground. The spheres are said to resemble fallen, extinguished stars. Each year on August 1, the actual shadows align with the shadow-images at 9:32 a.m. this is also the date in 1860 when William Henry Ross acquired the land that became Rosslyn.

For the past 28 years, the Rosslyn BID has sponsored Dark Star Park Day on the morning of August 1 to commemorate the alignment.

Artist: Nancy Holt
Gunite (mixture of cement and sand), stone masonry, asphalt, steel, water, earth, grass, winter creeper, crown vetch, willow oak.

 Some photos provided by Den Holliden.