Origins II
Washington, D.C. Neighborhood Planning Council #2 and #3, Washington, D.C., 1976. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Wraps. Format is approximately 8.5 inches by 10.5 inches. 72 pages, plus covers. Illustrations. Maps. Sources. Name of previous owner on front cover. Includes Introduction; Neighborhood Planning Councils #2 and #3; Belts of Chevy Chase; Mills and Millwrights; The Civil War in Northwest Washington; Where the City Meets the Country: Problems of the Early Suburb; Cleveland Park; Architecture; Entertainment; Memories of the Depression; Piggly Wiggly; Business Development; Broad Branch Market; Lafayette School; Murch School; Episcopal Home for Children; Chevy Chase Park and Shop Center; and The Good Old Days. Origins II is an example of a nationwide return to local history occasioned by the celebration of the Bicentennial. It includes articles written by a group of high school students who discovered for themselves the particular legends, personalities, and events which formed their neighborhoods in northwest Washington, D.C. In the late 1880s, then-Representative Francis G. Newlands of Nevada and his partners began to buy up farmland in northwest Washington, D.C., and southern Montgomery County, Maryland, to develop a residential streetcar suburb. (See Washington streetcars.) They founded the Chevy Chase Land Company in 1890, and its eventual holdings are now known as this neighborhood and Chevy Chase, Maryland. Chevy Chase D.C. was developed beginning in the early 1900s after construction was completed on the Chevy Chase Line, a streetcar line stretching to and beyond the northwestern boundary of the District of Columbia, thereby linking the area to downtown. Over succeeding decades, the formerly remote area was transformed from farmland and woods to middle-class housing. Chevy Chase D.C. includes many "Sears Catalog Homes", a popular housing option in the early twentieth century that allowed individuals of modest means to order by mail the materials and instructions for a home and build it themselves. The neighborhood's major commercial road is Connecticut Avenue NW, which, in addition to commercial establishments, is home to apartments, a community center, and a regional branch of the D.C. Public Library. Unlike many urban neighborhoods that have lost local businesses to large chains and suburban malls, the small, generally locally owned businesses along Connecticut Avenue remain and are well patronized by the local population. These businesses include Magruder's Supermarket, established in 1875; and the Avalon Theatre, which opened in 1923 as a silent film house and ran until the theater underwent renovations in 2003. The Avalon thereafter reopened as a non-profit movie theater. In addition to historical commercial buildings, the area has multiple parks including Rock Creek Park, Lafayette Park and Livingston Park. Condition: Good.
Keywords: Washington, DC, Local History, Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, Broad Branch, Lafayette School, Murch School, Civil War, Millwrights, Neighborhood Planning Council, Suburb, Vincent Brown, Wilson High School, Edith Claude Jarvis
[Book #81905]
Price: $50.00