Forest Hills Connection || News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood
Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield
by Ann Kessler A 1907 Baist real estate atlas shows very little development in what would become Forest Hills. Sure, there were land owners with acres of land, and some roads and streets had been cut through or were marked to be built, but few actual buildings or houses were shown. One prominent building that […]
by Ann Kessler In one newspaper article marking his passing in 1941 at the age of 73, Melvin C. Hazen was called “The Boss,” “First Citizen of Washington,” and “one of the city’s most beloved characters.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s particular name for Hazen was “Grand Old Man of the District.” FDR also said that […]
by Ann Kessler President Harry S. Truman loved to walk. He did so almost every morning of his adult life. “I go every morning at 6:30 to 7:00 for a half hour’s real walk usually doing two miles,” Truman once wrote to his mother. And for a few years, his starting point was 4701 Connecticut […]
by Ann Kessler On the Flagship Car Wash at 4432 Connecticut Avenue there’s a sign that says “Since 1941.” It’s off by a decade. The car wash was built in 1931. What else was on this block south of Albemarle Street in the 1930s? 4434 Connecticut The current home of Bread Furst, a one-story brick […]
by Ann Kessler Looking at Connecticut Avenue between Van Ness and Albemarle Streets today, it might be hard to imagine that it was once a destination for drivers seeking gas for their cars. There isn’t even one gas station left. But where there are office buildings and stores and restaurants today, there used to be […]
The first indoor shopping mall in DC was in Van Ness. Lady Bird Johnson carpooled with other Murch parents. Elvis was here. We have neighbor and historian Ann Kessler to thank for these stories and more. (She’s working on something cool right now. Stay tuned.) Here are some of the other DC historians and social […]
Did you know that today’s neighborhood kids flock to the same sledding hills as they did a century ago? And even in the early part of the last century, siblings could be a pain in the neck. But kids in today’s DC don’t spend their winter days caring for livestock or trying (unsuccessfully) to keep […]
At Forest Hills Connection, 2019 was a year of discovery, surprise and delight. Actually, that’s been true every year this publication has been around (a 2018 favorite was learning Lady Bird Johnson was a Murch parent). We get to discover new things about this corner of the District and the people who live and work […]
by Ann Kessler The first people who lived here left their mark here. Archaeologists believe that the first inhabitants of the Washington, DC area arrived around 13,000 years ago. According to a 2008 archaeologists’ report on Rock Creek Park for the National Park Service, these ancient people built villages and left many artifacts along the […]
Who was Fred Rhodes? A federal worker whose long and varied resumé included the Manhattan Project and the Nixon administration, and later in life, a Baptist minister. But a century ago, he was just a kid in Forest Hills, and the Soapstone Valley was his playground. Thanks to the Historical Society of Washington and Ann […]
