Crestwood History Presentation for conve

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Clues to Crestwood’s history are hidden in plain sight. Not only in the remains of mills and Civil War fortifications around our area. They are also hidden in the names of streets that aren’t part of the alphabetical progression from Quincy to Decatur. From the streets in red, we ask: who were Blagden and Mathewson, and what was Argyle? We see other roads named after natural features like Piney Branch and Broad Branch creeks, which must have been significant at one time. Today Piney Branch is the name of a long road but a short creek. But Piney Branch creek used to extend very far to the northeast. You can see the evidence in the big gully now occupied by Arkansas Avenue. And the road, just a small portion of which is even near our neighborhood today, used to be the only road in Crestwood. Parts of some roads to our north still run perpendicular to the old Piney Branch Road. It’s also not difficult to imagine, back when Crestwood was all one estate, where the main house would have been built. It would have been at the highest point in the neighborhood—which happens to be the area circled, just northeast of the corner of 18th and Varnum.

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“This place without all question is the most pleasant and healthful place in all this country…It aboundeth with all manner of fish. The Indians in one night commonly will catch thirty sturgeons in a place where the river is not above twelve fathom broad. And as for deer, buffaloes, bears, turkeys, the woods do swarm with them, and the soil is exceedingly fertile.” —Explorer Henry Fleet in 1631, describing the area that would become Washington DC And what about all the wild animals in Crestwood? This used to be their neighborhood. But, in addition to deer, foxes, raccoons and squirrels, centuries ago there were wolves, beavers, bears, turkeys and even bison…and the creeks had prolific runs of shad, herring and other fish.

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17th Century engraving of a Susquehannock Indian based on a description by John Smith. Source: Library of Congress Then people showed up. The Native Americans who lived along the Potomac had plenty of places closer to home where they could hunt game. But they did come to our neighborhood for the fish runs in the spring and for the walnuts in the late summer and fall..

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Source: 1897 Annual Report of the American Ethnology Bureau Arrows denote “The Point” at 18th & Shepherd. At any time of the year they might set up temporary camps on the south end of Crestwood to dig quartzite boulders from our hills to make tools and spear tips. These 1897 maps show quarry sites above Piney Branch creek, many of them just below Crestwood Drive, Quincy Street and The Point at 18th and Shepherd.

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These rude axes made from quartzite boulders were found at Native American village sites along the Potomac River. Source: 1897 Annual Report of the American Ethnology Bureau These are the kinds of tools the Indians made out of the boulders they took from the hillsides. Pieces of what they left behind may still be unearthed down the hill from Crestwood. The Indians didn’t live here, but were attracted by the area’s natural features. That pattern would hold until only about a century ago—as few people lived in Crestwood, but many were drawn to the area by such things as a creek that could turn millwheels; a setting well suited for recreation; paths that led to forts and settlements; and land that could be cleared for crops and cattle—and later for commerce, including a major nursery business, a resort and a racetrack.

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1666 map of the Province of Maryland Site of Washington Potomac River European settlers came to Maryland in 1634, and by the last quarter of the 17th century, many of the newcomers were Scots-Irish who settled in the area now called Washington, but known back then as “New Scotland Hundred.”

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This 1712 map shows home sites of the earliest settlers along Rock Creek. Source: National Park Service The settlers often raised crops the Indians had taught them to grow, like tobacco and corn. The first home sites along Rock Creek were settled early in the 1700s.

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Cover page for the 1722 land patent for “Argile Cowall & Lorn” (one of many spellings). Source: Maryland State Archives The first people to be given title to the land that became Crestwood were Randall Blake and John Bradford. Little is known about Blake – but he received a land patent on December 8, 1722 for a 300-acre parcel he called “Argile Cowall and Lorn” after three places on the west coast of Scotland. There are many different spellings of the name of the parcel.

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DC line This map prepared for the National Park Service shows some of the land patents in the area surrounding Crestwood, including “Argyll Cowal and Lorn” (circled). Among the names that remain with us centuries later are: Mount Pleasant, Chevy Chase, Friendship, Chillum, Whitehaven and Dumbarton. Other names are rather comical – including “Indolence,” just east of today’s Crestwood.

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Statement by John Bradford filed with 1722 land patent. Source: Maryland State Archives The patent certificate shows that the property—let’s just call it Argyle from now on—was carved out of a 500-acre parcel given by Lord Baltimore in 1719 to John Bradford, a member of the Maryland General Assembly and a relative through marriage of the powerful Carroll family.  Nevertheless, the 300 acres transferred to Blake in 1722 still pretty much defines the greater Crestwood area nearly three centuries later. Only a small portion has been lost – some taken as part of Rock Creek Park and a sliver cut off by the construction of 16th Street.

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1720 survey of the parcel that became Crestwood. In the drawing, west is at the top. Source: Maryland State Archives The patent filing includes this 1720 survey of Argile Cowall and Lorn. The surveyor wrote that the tract began at “a hundred white oaks standing on the west side of a branch called the piney branch of Rock Creek.”

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It’s just a guess, but perhaps the surveyor’s drawing would fit like this on a modern map. The Argyle property was eventually sold back to Bradford. For the next century it passed through a number of hands – including families with famous names like Lee and Contee. It’s unclear whether any of them actually lived here.

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Detail from Andrew Ellicott’s 1794 map of the Territory of Washington showing Rock Creek and its many tributaries. Source: National Park Service Crestwood Rock Creek As the 19th century began, most of the land that became the District of Columbia remained forest. Except for the cities of Georgetown and Alexandria, the population consisted of a handful of rich landowners and larger numbers of poor farmers. As this 1794 map suggests, there were few roads into the countryside, but Rock Creek was a dynamic waterway. Its wide mouth allowed ships to sail as far north as P Street, and numerous spring-fed streams flowed into the creek up and down its length.

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Lyons Mill, built in 1780 across Rock Creek from Georgetown’s Oak Hill Cemetery, may have done the most business on the creek. This photo of the mill in ruins appeared in the Washington Times in 1910. The creek was perfect for milling, and a mill was built on the Argyle property just before or just after 1800—so that is when millers began calling our neighborhood home. By the time farmers started working the land this far up Rock Creek, tobacco may no longer have been their crop of choice. But if tobacco farms did exist here, there is the possibility that African slaves also lived here to work the fields. Maps show what seem to have been slave quarters on properties belonging to the Beall family to the southwest of the Argyle estate in 1760.

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View from the Capitol grounds down Pennsylvania Avenue in 1800. Source: Library of Congress When the District of Columbia became the Nation’s Capital in 1800, the race was on to develop Washington City. Beyond the city limits, but still within DC, was Washington County—where our neighborhood was located. County farmers and millers grew confident in the future as they anticipated a growing market in the city and new roads to give them easier access to that market.

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Artist’s rendering of Peirce Mill around 1830, photographed in 2008 from a display at the mill. One family that took advantage of that growth lived right next door to us—the Peirces. Isaac Peirce and his son Abner built Peirce Mill in the 1820s (the inscription on the building says 1829).

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Mill on the Argyle property photographed during the 1860s.Source: Historical Society of Washington DC. Before constructing their own mill, the Peirces were probably responsible for erecting a mill on the Argyle property to replace and modernize the original one. This newer mill is the one whose walls remained standing right up until the start of the 20th century on a site just a short walk up Beach Drive from Broad Branch. The design was nearly identical to Peirce Mill, and it was built from the same blue granite quarried along the banks of the Broad Branch of Rock Creek.

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Peirce Mill in 1897. Source: National Park Service Joshua Peirce, from an unidentified newspaper clipping. Source: National Park Service Isaac’s son Joshua Peirce became a successful nurseryman, and many Washingtonians took carriage rides out to his property near Crestwood to view his flowers, fruit trees and ornamental plants.

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It wasn’t until 1845 that the Argyle estate was sold to someone who would put a lot of money into the property. Russian Count Alexander de Bodisco bought it for $7,500. Bodisco had been the Czar’s Ambassador in Washington since 1838. He made Argyle the site of his country house and constructed other buildings as well. In 1889, the Washington Post recalled he had “built a fine mansion, a conservatory, bowling alley, and numerous barns and outbuildings.”

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Bodisco was buried in Georgetown, beneath this monument at Oak Hill Cemetery. Bodisco was the most popular diplomat in Washington. We don’t know how often he entertained the rich and powerful on the Argyle estate, but he certainly did so regularly at his main house at the Russian legation in Georgetown. That house at 3322 O Street is now the home of Senator John Kerry.

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One telling of the Bodisco scandal, from the Washington Times on December 20, 1903. Bodisco is best remembered today for a scandal. After a Christmas party he hosted for his nephews, he became obsessed with a teenage girl from Georgetown—and by some accounts began escorting her to and from school each day, carrying her books.

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This photo, from the book Early Days of Washington by Sally Somervell Mackall (1899), shows a portrait of Harriet Bodisco. The picture was most likely taken in her parents’ house, and the portrait may show her dressed in the finery she wore to meet Russia’s royal family. Six months later, the 53-year-old Bodisco married the 16-year-old Harriet Beall Williams in a wedding attended by President Martin Van Buren, Daniel Webster and future President James Buchanan. Henry Clay gave away the bride. Many people called the match “Beauty and the Beast” – but it seemed to be a happy marriage, which lasted more than 13 years before Count Bodisco died.

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Just months earlier, in 1853, he had sold the Argyle property to a Washington lumber merchant and landowner for $25,000—more than three times what he had paid for it—indicating just how much Bodisco had developed the property that would become Crestwood.

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Source: Thomas Blagden’s great great grandson, Allen Blagden of Salisbury, Connecticut The new owner was Thomas Blagden, whose portrait is shown here. One of his most prized properties had been a farm on a wooded bluff in Anacostia. From there he could look down upon the still-unfinished Capitol building where his father George had worked as chief stonecutter before dying in a construction accident on the Capitol grounds.

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Source: Footprints and Waymarks for the Help of the Christian Traveller by Joseph Walton (1894). Social reformer Dorothea Dix considered the Anacostia farm the best possible site for a federal mental hospital. While Blagden was willing to sell the property to the federal government for $40,000, Congress only appropriated $25,000. Dix met with Blagden in 1852. As this letter he wrote her that day indicates, she persuaded him to sell for the lower price. The farm became the site of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. And the sale gave Blagden exactly the amount of money he needed to buy the Argyle property – another farm on a wooded bluff with a view into Washington City.

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Source: Allen Blagden Blagden’s wife Emily, seen in this portrait, died before they could enjoy the Argyle estate. Thomas then married her sister, Laura.

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Detail from the first room Brumidi decorated at the U.S. Capitol.Source: Library of Congress When Italian artist Constantino Brumidi first arrived in Washington to paint frescoes like these throughout the Capitol Building, Blagden gave him a place to stay.

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Source: Allen Blagden The family still owns this painting they attribute to Brumidi of Blagden’s young son, also named Thomas. They say the image was used as a model for various cherubs in Brumidi’s frescoes at the Capitol.

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Section of an 1867 map shows the structures on the Blagden estate.Source: Historical Society of Washington DC Argyle mill complex Blagden estate buildings Broad Branch creek Rock Creek Peirce Mill Piney Branch Road Blagden expanded the Argyle milling business. Just before the start of the Civil War, the complex included a flourmill, a fertilizer mill, a miller’s cottage and two outbuildings. He also did some farming on about 100 acres of the estate. Census data show he raised potatoes; owned six horses, four asses or mules, and 20 swine; and three milk cows produced more than 100 pounds of butter a year.

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Source: DC Library Washingtonia Collection toll road Piney Branch Road N Piney Branch creek = approximate location of today’s Crestwood Piney Branch Road was the major route through our neighborhood (which is approximated by the green-shaded triangle on this 1873 map). The road was a narrow, hilly country lane named after Piney Branch creek (and look how long that creek once was!). But the road allowed you to go north out of the city without paying the tolls required along what we now call Georgia Avenue. Piney Branch Road extended Fourteenth Street Road out of Mount Pleasant. In fact, some people called the entire route Fourteenth Street Road—which we should not confuse with today’s 14th Street.

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To understand the route of Piney Branch Road, a modern map is superimposed on a 1909 map (on which the old street still appeared). The road crossed Piney Branch creek and came up the hill along what is still a city-owned right-of-way behind the Crestwood Apartments. For a couple of blocks it followed today’s 17th Street –then turned to the northeast, crossing today’s 16th Street just above Webster. Then, for part of the way north to Brightwood, Piney Branch Road still exists.

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The Third Massachusetts Regiment Heavy Artillery at Fort Stevens. Source: Library of Congress The Civil War transformed the area surrounding Crestwood. By 1862, Army engineers had constructed Military Road and built a ring of 48 forts encircling the city—including nearby Fort Stevens. The forest was cut down around the forts, creating a clearing 15 miles long and half a mile wide that was strewn with felled trees that could serve as a barricade to Confederate troops.

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Source: Library of Congress Fort Stevens = Argyle estate The Argyle estate was far enough away to retain its forests. But soldiers did patrol our area, and defensive batteries were constructed as close to the neighborhood as Battery Sill. As the Union army scrambled to get troops in position to defend the city from a Confederate assault in July 1864, soldiers passed through today’s Crestwood and may have camped here.

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“Arriving by the Fourteenth street road, their carriage stopped and they alighted about 100 feet from the Brightwood Hotel and crossed the Seventh street road in the rear of the fort…The officer from the fort appeared anxious to have them move…on account of several shots having struck but a short distance from where they were standing.” Source: Alphabetical List of Battles, 1754-1900 by Newton Allen Strait (1900) When the Battle of Fort Stevens broke out on July 12, its most famous incident involved President Lincoln. He visited the fort and became the only sitting U.S. president to come under enemy fire. This account of the trip shows that Lincoln passed through Crestwood on his way to the fort.

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On April 16, 1862, Lincoln had signed an act of Congress freeing the 3,100 African slaves in DC. The Peirce family had owned many slaves; this picture in the Washington Times in 1903 may even show the former slave quarters. But it’s not clear whether there were slaves on the Argyle estate that became Crestwood.

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Source: DC.gov website The DC emancipation law allowed slave owners to be compensated for their loss of so-called “property.” Among the claims in the Peirce family was this application by Pierce Shoemaker for compensation for 20 slaves. We also see that Thomas Blagden filed for compensation for three slaves. But we don’t know whether they ever lived on the Argyle estate, and there is some evidence that at least one of them had not belonged to Blagden.

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Rock Creek Piney Branch Road Blagden died in 1870, and that year’s Census showed that widow Laura Blagden had property worth half a million dollars and personal effects valued at $15,000. On this 1875 map, you can see Rock Creek Piney Branch Road, the mill complex—and 15 estate buildings in the middle of the area that is Crestwood today. These buildings included the mansion house, carriage house, farmhouse, barn, icehouse, gardener’s house, grapery and “bowling saloon.”

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Blagden family vault at Congressional Cemetery in Southeast DC Thomas Blagden died without a will. The resulting family squabbles led to the partition of the Argyle property into about 40 lots owned by various relatives. His widow lived in the manor house until her death in 1908. She willed her entire estate to her son, the younger Thomas Blagden. Meanwhile, daughter Harriet married Brooklyn doctor Arthur Mathewson. That’s how Mathewsons came to own property in Crestwood (leading eventually to the naming of Mathewson Drive).

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Ruins of the Blagden flour mill. Supports for the bridge at right are intact today along Rock Creek. Source: Historical Society of Washington DC Unfortunately for the family, at the time of Thomas Blagden’s death, the Argyle mill complex was becoming outdated. The mill ceased operations in the 1880s and was severely damaged in the aftermath of the storms that caused the 1889 Johnstown flood.

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The Washington Post of January 19, 1899 recalls the Blagden Deer Park Source: Adirondack Museum The growth of Washington had emptied the forest of many of the animals that once lived here. The younger Thomas Blagden (shown above) became famous for reintroducing deer. He established his “Blagden Deer Park” on the Argyle property in 1874. He eventually fenced off about 20 or 30 acres for the deer, which he would breed, sell to rich estate owners for their own game parks, and kill for meat and trophies. It was considered quite a novelty to come to our neighborhood to take a look at the deer.

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Topographical map of DC’s northwest suburbs in Washington County, 1866-67. Source: Library of Congress Rock Creek Georgetown “Washington City” Mt. Pleasant The future Crestwood Washington’s population, which ballooned during the Civil War, kept growing afterward–making Washington County an attractive place for home sites. With new roads and the rise of the electric streetcar, commuter communities blossomed in the northwest suburbs, beginning with Mt. Pleasant Village in 1865.

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Brightwood had long been on the map because of its location at the intersection of Military Road, Piney Branch Road and what we now call Georgia Avenue. Petworth was subdivided in 1887, followed by Chevy Chase in 1890, Brightwood Park in 1891 and Cleveland Park in 1894—with development soon to follow. However, home building on the Argyle estate—that big empty space in the middle of this 1895 map—would have to wait until there was a bridge across Piney Branch valley that could carry a major road into our area.

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Source: Washington Post 11/25/1883 Rock Creek Park was established by Congress in 1890 after considerable debate. As this story from the Washington Post of November 25, 1883 explains, one alternative plan for the valley had been to build a dam above Georgetown to create a reservoir four miles long. Under that plan, perhaps some of us in Crestwood would have had waterfront property! Instead, the Blagden and Peirce families yielded significant portions of their estates to help create the Park. Thomas Blagden ceded nearly 39 acres and the Mathewsons lost four.

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This engraving – from the August 18, 1889 Washington Post – shows the Crystal Spring area of Rock Creek. One of the most attractive sections of the new Park was just north of present-day Crestwood. Crystal Spring was a popular picnic spot as far back as the mid 1800s. The spring itself was located on the west side of today’s Sixteenth Street near Kennedy Street.

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Source: Library of Congress A resort complex was constructed on the site on Peirce family land just west of where the tennis stadium is today. However, the Crystal Spring resort (by the green arrow on this 1867 map) was not successful. The National Park Service says it “reverted to woodland by 1884.” Directly north of the resort — and also off Piney Branch Road — was another attraction that brought people through our neighborhood during the last half of the 19th Century and even into the early 1900s. A racetrack.

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Horses trot to the finish of a 1904 race at the Brightwood Driving Park. Source: Historical Society of Washington DC 1905 Washington Times ad The Piney Branch Trotting Course, later called the Brightwood Driving Park, was established in the 1840s or 50s and became famous for harness racing. President Grant was a frequent visitor. The track also hosted bicycle races and occasional baseball games.

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Later, it was the site of the earliest automobile races in Washington. The Washington Times published this spread on a day of auto races at Brightwood Driving Park in 1903.

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Racehorses in front of the Brightwood Park House hotel in the 1880s or 90s. Source: Historical Society of Washington DC Visitors could take a room next door at the Brightwood Park House hotel – whose address today would be in the 5300 block of Colorado Avenue.

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Piney Branch Rd Peirce Mill Rd Broad Branch Rd Blagden Mill Rd N By the 1870s, the Blagden family holdings appeared on Washington real estate maps as the “Blagden Sub-division.” Even as non-relatives began to own more of the property, there seemed to be little interest in developing the area. The subdivision was still too hard to reach by Piney Branch Road – or the other privately built roads nearby. There was Peirce Mill Road, constructed in 1831 to bring business to the mill. It extended west to the Rockville and Georgetown Pike, and to the east crossed Rock Creek about where Tilden Street does today. Joshua Peirce’s Road, laid out in 1831, became Klingle Road. Broad Branch Road was built in 1839 and was a significant thoroughfare leading to the Chevy Chase estate at the intersection with Brookville Road. Blagden Mill Road was laid out in 1857.

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Source: DC Library Washingtonia collection Much of the old Blagden Mill Road is duplicated today by Colorado Avenue (as is part of the old Piney Branch Road). But a bit of Blagden Mill Road remained on city maps into the 1950s (including this 1954 map), and today you can still make out the trace of the steepest section of the road in the woods north of Colorado Avenue near Blagden Terrace heading down the hill to the site of the mill.

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Lansing Hoskins Beach Beach Drive was built with public funds and finished in 1900. It was named “The Beach Driveway” in 1901 in honor of the man who built it. Army engineer Lansing H. Beach was the second superintendent of Rock Creek Park (and eventually became secretary of the Park’s Board of Control). He used prison labor in the early years of construction, when Congress was not inclined to appropriate money for the project.

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“Mr. Thomas Blagden...has labored incessantly for the past seven years in the interest of a street extension plan…Mr. Blagden and his family ...have donated a mile of land for Blagden avenue...and also the land for the extension of Sixteenth street. They also stand ready to donate such other streets as the Commissioners or Congress may designate.” In 1899, Thomas Blagden donated land to create the roadway for Blagden Avenue as an entrance to the park and a replacement for what the Board of Control called “old and dangerous” Blagden Mill Road.

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Fording Rock Creek in the 1920s near Blagden Avenue.Source: Historical Society of Washington DC Travelers on Beach Drive had to use this ford to cross Rock Creek at the foot of Blagden Avenue. And do you see that bridge in the background (red arrow)?

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Source: National Archives That bridge is where Broad Branch Road used to cross Broad Branch creek. The graceful Pebble Dash Bridge was built in 1902. It took until the 1950s for the ford and bridge to be replaced with the crossings we use today.

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Source: National Park Service The new roads brought more people to the park on foot, by horse, by bicycle, and later using the newly popular motor vehicle.

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A picnic near Peirce Mill in 1915. Source: Historical Society of Washington DC Even after the main shaft at Peirce Mill broke in 1897—making it the last of Rock Creek valley’s eight DC mills to shut down—the romantic setting continued to attract Washingtonians to our area.

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Sources: left, Library of Congress; right, National Park Service The mill was converted to a teahouse, and an enclosed porch was added on the north side. The teahouse remained in operation until 1934.

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Most of the streets that would be extended into Crestwood got their names on August 15, 1901 when the DC Commissioners released a street plan for more than 100 subdivisions. The system formalized the pattern we see in our neighborhood today: streets going north and south would be numbered, and streets running east and west would be named after famous Americans and arranged in alphabetical order. Many of the names of actual or planned streets had to be changed to conform to this scheme. Philadelphia Street was renamed Quincy. And Richmond, Savannah, Trenton, Utica, Vallejo, Yuma, Zanesville, Albemarle and Brandywine Streets became Shepherd, Taylor, Upshur, Varnum, Webster, Allison, Buchanan, Crittenden and Decatur.

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1844 lithograph of the blast aboard the USS Princeton. Source: US Navy Art Collection Abel P. Upshur The names of some of these “famous Americans” may not be so familiar today. For example, Secretary of State Abel P. Upshur was among the eight people killed in 1844 when a gun exploded on board the USS Princeton while President Tyler, his cabinet and about 200 guests were cruising along the Potomac River to mark the launch of the new steamship.

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Construction of the 16th Street bridge over Piney Branch valley.Source: Historical Society of Washington DC As the 20th century began, work got started on the extension of 16th Street over an ambitious new bridge that would span Piney Branch valley. Thomas Blagden successfully argued for Congressional support in testimony before the Senate District Committee in 1899, and helped get enough property owners to donate land for the road that the project could go forward in 1900.

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1904 brought the first significant real estate deal in our subdivision. Thomas Blagden was offered $17,000 for a sliver of the old Argyle estate that would lie east of 16th Street once the road was completed. Blagden didn’t initiate the sale (yellow oval). But it showed Argyle property owners that the era of development was finally dawning in the neighborhood. Washington Times, April 24, 1904

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Source: DC Library Washingtonia Collection One of the real estate pioneers of Washington County, Fulton Gordon, began in 1905 to advertise lots in one of the largest and densest developments in the subdivision, Mount Pleasant Heights. In the cartoon above, Uncle Sam praises Gordon for “extending Greater Washington.”

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Source: DC Library Washingtonia Collection As shown on this 1919 city map, Mount Pleasant Heights was centered on 17th and 18th Streets between Shepherd and Varnum. Gordon would go on to develop much of DC’s Chevy Chase neighborhood.

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Marketing began in 1907 for another major development in the neighborhood, the “Suburb Deluxe” called Argyle Park. Both Mount Pleasant Heights and Argyle Park had historic names going back to the original land patents. But neither one caught on as a name for the community at large. That would have to wait until the Crestwood name surfaced in the late 1930s.

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1906 Washington Herald article Streetcar pulling into the car barn in 1949 Source: Historical Society of Washington DC Interest in our area was boosted not only by 16th Street, but also by mass transit. The Capital Traction Company extended its streetcar line out 14th Street all the way to Brightwood in 1906 and opened a huge car barn at 14th and Decatur in 1907 (it’s still there). Since homeowners in our neighborhood could walk east on Decatur to 14th to take the trolley, our earliest homes were built in the far northeast corner of the community.

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4832 16th Street – Still a private home 1609 Decatur Street – This home on Bodisco’s former property is now owned by Russia! 4817 Blagden Ave – Now owned by Zion Baptist Church These are the three oldest homes still standing in the neighborhood. According to a database prepared by historian and Crestwood neighbor Brian Kraft, building permits for all three were filed in 1910.

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In this photo from the Washington Post of February 16, 1919, it appears that the automobile coming toward us is heading south on 16th Street. The start of the first World War delayed any boom in Crestwood real estate. This 1919 news photo promoting the post-war phase of Argyle Park shows the landscape west of 16th street and north of the bridge to be nearly empty—except for the old Argyle manor house (green arrow) that still stood near what would become the corner of 18th and Varnum. In the 1920s, the number of building permits in the neighborhood shot up to an average of 33 a year.

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On DC planning maps like this one in 1937, the only thing standing in the southwest corner of Crestwood was The Rocks. Source: DC Library Washingtonia Collection The most distinctive property built in Crestwood during the 1920s was “The Rocks.” The home shares a history with the Hillwood Mansion. Both of these estates overlooking Rock Creek Park were essentially wedding presents from rich widow Daisy Peck Blodgett to her daughters. For Helen Blodgett and her husband Henry Erwin, she built what was called Abremont. When Marjorie Merriweather Post bought it, she renamed it Hillwood.

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Blodgett-Gaillard wedding party. Source: Library of Congress Daisy had “The Rocks” built for younger daughter Mona Blodgett and her husband David St. Pierre Gaillard. The estate is named after the Gaillard family plantation in South Carolina. So it is only coincidence that today the Rockefellers live at The Rocks.

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Source: National Park Service You could see signs of the Great Depression of the 1930s near Crestwood in the number of public works projects in Rock Creek Park. Workers replaced bridges, trails and picnic tables, and construction crews built Piney Branch Parkway and worked on Peirce Mill.

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Within the neighborhood, the Depression failed to block our slow but steady development. Apparently the outstanding buy of 1933 was an 18th Street house for $14,950.

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Source: Historical Society of Washington DC Drawing by John Ostenso Unfortunately, in 1934—in the name of progress—developers tore down the Argyle manor house, which may have been built as far back as the 1840s by Count Bodisco. Neighbor John Ostenso’s research shows that the home was situated mostly on the lot now occupied by 1741 Varnum, with parts of it overlapping into 1737 Varnum and 4301 18th.

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“situated in Washington’s most convenient restricted location…” The neighborhood had attracted sizable populations of Catholics and Jews. But diversity was a dirty word for some Washingtonians, especially those who feared racial integration. So developers frequently used the word “restricted” in their advertising. The “restrictions” could also refer to such things as lot size, housing density and prohibitions against apartments and commercial buildings. But the word often signaled restrictions on who could buy property.

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“No part of the land hereby conveyed shall ever be used, or occupied by, or sold, demised, transferred, conveyed unto, or in trust for, leased, or rented, or given, to Negroes, or any person or persons of Negro blood or extraction, or to any person of the Semitic race, blood or origin, which racial description shall be deemed to include Armenians, Jews, Hebrews, Persians and Syrians, except that this paragraph shall not be held to exclude partial occupancy of the premises by domestic servants of the grantee, his heirs or assigns.” In an attempt to make such exclusions permanent, developers put restrictive covenants into the deeds in quite a few DC communities. For example, realtor W.C. Miller spelled out these prohibitions against selling to African Americans, Jews, Armenians, Persians and Syrians. The Supreme Court ruled against these covenants in 1948, and they were further prohibited by fair housing laws. Still, the old language—while moot—may endure on some Crestwood deeds.

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1938 was a pivotal year for Crestwood. Looking backward, Thomas Blagden died at the age of 85, years after having moved from Washington to the Adirondacks. Looking forward, ground was broken for the Crestwood development that gave our community its name. Washington Post, October 5, 1938

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This picture, published in The Washington Post on June 5, 1938, shows landowner William W. Mathewson wielding a shovel in front of smiling developer Paul Stone and his associate Arthur S. Lord. As the accompanying article reports, “Crestwood at Rock Creek Park…will have space for approximately 300 fine homes and will be rigidly controlled and architecturally restricted.” How rigidly controlled? During the ten years after a sale, the developer approved all designs, purchasers, re-purchasers and tenants.

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1901 map showing an old road plan N In advance of the groundbreaking, the neighborhood’s street grid was finally transformed on planning maps into almost what we see today. As early as 1896, these maps had shown plans for a somewhat different design—with a road circling around the southwest corner of Crestwood. The loops of Crestwood Drive and Argyle-Quincy-18th didn’t appear on city maps until well into the 1930s. Until 1938, the neighborhood plan included a traffic circle (circled in blue) called “Trumbull Circle.” In the old plans, Upshur Street didn’t bend south after coming west from 18th; instead, Taylor was the more major road bisecting Trumbull Circle and continuing west to the park.

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Source: DC Library Washingtonia Collection With this order in 1938, the DC Commissioners got rid of Trumbull Circle and created Mathewson Drive, with Upshur and Taylor Streets taking on today’s configuration. The order also closed a number of minor roadways dating back to the 1800s; a few of these paths may live on today as alleys—including one marked in yellow connecting 18th and Taylor Streets. The name Trumbull would be resurrected in the late 1940s in the form of Trumbull Terrace, the final street to come into existence in Crestwood.

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The “Westinghouse-Paul P. Stone Home of Tomorrow” gave potential buyers their first look at houses in the Crestwood development. The exhibit home at 4220 Argyle Terrace opened October 2, 1938. Sponsored by the Washington Post, it was promoted by the newspaper as “beauty [and] science combined”—with four paragraphs explaining the concept of a dishwasher. The paper also informed readers of another wonder: air conditioning. Instead of being found only in what the story called “pretentious homes,” air conditioning systems, it said, “will soon be found in every home that pretends to be modern.”

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In these early days of the Crestwood development, Paul Stone would build a house, live in it, get an offer on it, then move to a new home he’d built. The opening of the Crestwood development gave new momentum to home construction in the neighborhood, with more than 130 building permits issued from 1938 to 1941.

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Then, in 1941, builder Harry Poretsky prepared to erect a six-story apartment house on the southwest corner of 16th and Shepherd Streets. It seemed the building could be constructed as a matter of right. But Crestwood neighbors worried that it threatened their home values and set a precedent that would allow apartment buildings all the way up 16th Street. The Crestwood Citizens Association was formed in 1941 to oppose the apartment plan.

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Using more than $3,300 donated by members, the Association pressed for action by the DC Zoning Commission and Congress, and participated in two cases that reached the Supreme Court. The battle raged for five years before the apartment plan was approved. In the end, it was late 1949 or early 1950 before construction of the Crestwood Apartments got underway.

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Portion of the minutes from an Association meeting 5/1/1946 Top of a 1958 Association flier Most of the business of the Association turned to familiar day-to-day concerns. For example, Gripe Night in 1946 focused on things like road improvements, traffic and crime. At the January 1942 meeting, Association members sang the new Song of Crestwood, “written by Miss Alberta Walker to the tune of ‘Schooldays.’” It began: “Crestwood, Crestwood, always do your best good…” Early on, the Association also planted a community Christmas tree at 18th and Shepherd Streets.

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In 1948, the Association voted to adopt the azalea as the community flower in a competition with the dogwood and the cherry blossom. The Association got garden shops to offer discounts on azaleas—and, for years, the Crestwood Directory identified the neighborhood as “the azalea community.” Horticulture became such a popular interest that, in January 1954, Association members formed the Crestwood Garden Club—a group that endured for decades.

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The Association participated in the war effort during World War Two. While the group’s borders had been limited to little more than Paul Stone’s Crestwood development, the organization decided to patrol a larger beat; the Crestwood Civil Defense District filled the entire area bounded by Colorado Avenue, 16th Street and the park. The group also collected scrap and sponsored a three-acre “victory garden” on land bordered by 18th, Shepherd and Taylor Streets and Argyle Terrace.

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The end of the war set off another housing boom in the neighborhood. The entire region began using the Crestwood name, causing Paul Stone to promote his development as “authentic Crestwood,” with other developers using terms like “Crestwood Proper.”

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Population by Race, Census Tract 26, 1940-2000 The Association and much of the neighborhood was then all-white. But racial diversity was on the way, spurred by the striking down of restrictive covenants and the integration of DC schools. The demographics of the area began changing in the 1950s and accelerated in the 60s as African Americans purchased more of the community’s homes and “white flight” to the suburbs became a reality.Census figures show how fast the racial shift occurred. In 1950, only a handful of African Americans lived in our area (known by the federal government as Census Tract 26). By 1960, the number of black and white residents had become nearly equal. By 1970, almost two-thirds of Crestwood residents were African American. The black majority reached a peak of more than 71% in 1980 and stood at about 62% in the 2000 Census.

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In the 1950s and 60s, Crestwood residents joined the debate as highway proponents tried to build a four-lane expressway along Rock Creek. This map —from the February 29, 1952 Evening Star—shows one of a number of plans for such a freeway.

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Source: Washington Post May 19, 1957 Map from the 1918 Olmsted Report When a bridge on Park Road became unsafe (point C on the map at left), transportation officials considered building a road—labeled B—between Park Road and Quincy Street. Reviving an old plan from the 1918 Olmsted Report for Rock Creek Park (at right), they also debated the construction of a new bridge high over the creek extending west out of Crestwood.

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The area just above Crestwood was chosen as the site where DC would celebrate its 150th birthday as the Nation’s Capital in 1950. The National Capital Sesquicentennial Commission decided to build an amphitheater where a historic pageant called “Faith of Our Fathers” would be shown each summer.

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Opening night for Faith of Our Fathers The structure was completed in July 1950, and the musical about the life of George Washington debuted in August, then ran for a full season in the summer of 1951. By that time, the Sesquicentennial Amphitheater had been renamed following the death of the Commission’s executive vice chairman, Carter T. Barron. Many Crestwood residents opposed bringing back the pageant in 1952—complaining that productions at Carter Barron created too much noise and traffic, along with clouds of dust from the parking areas.

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“Faith of Our Fathers” was indeed discontinued, but park authorities let the Feld brothers bring the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo to Carter Barron for nine performances in 1952. The Secretary of the Interior then allowed a local group to organize a 12-week program of Broadway musicals in 1953. The Felds returned in 1954 and for several years booked more musicals along with ballet and opera—plus concert performers ranging from Benny Goodman to the National Symphony. This mix of entertainment continued into the 1960s, with Ella Fitzgerald a frequent headliner.

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Even after the 1968 riots, the amphitheater put on a wide variety of shows (although newspaper ads in 1968 and 1969 noted: “good seats as late as show time”). The focus shifted more to R&B and pop stars: Jerry Butler, Johnny Mathis, the Miracles, the Supremes, Stevie Wonder, even several concerts by Bruce Springsteen in July 1975. Eventually the list of performers began to include fewer big names—though there were regular visits by the National Symphony and (until 2009) the Shakespeare Theater.

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The Washington Post June 4, 1980 International politics had an explosive impact on Crestwood in June 1980. A bomb planted in a window flower box detonated about four one morning at the home of Yugoslavia’s charge d’affaires at 1907 Quincy Street. There were no injuries, but the Washington Post reported the blast could be heard miles away and “brought puzzled and badly shaken residents into the streets in bathrobes and drew a crowd of predawn rubberneckers to the corner of Quincy and Argyle.” A group called the “Croatian Freedom Fighters” claimed responsibility.  That same house was abandoned for many years by the Yugoslav government during the 1990s as the country split into several nations—including Croatia. Today we are still waiting for ownership to be transferred to the government of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

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www.crestwood-dc.org crestwoodhistory@gmail.com As this sketch of Crestwood history approaches the present day, there is more to discover. Look for a much longer and more complete history with many more images and maps on the neighborhood website, www.crestwood-dc.org. Reproduction or other use of any part of these history presentations is prohibited without the permission of the author, David Swerdloff. Reproduction of any image is also controlled by the original sources. There is still much more research to be done, so check back for updates. Or provide new information yourself. If you have something to add to the history project, please email to crestwoodhistory@gmail.com.