by Ann Kessler There’s only one sign in Forest Hills that gives any indication of the neighborhood’s past role in Civil War history, and that’s at the Peruvian ambassador’s residence at 3001 Garrison Street NW. The left stone pillar of the entrance gates reads “Battery Terrill.” Inside the Peruvian compound are the remains of Battery […]
Neighborhood in the News: Black basketball’s founding father; bowling and polar bears in Van Ness; waterpark what-if
Honoring a DC sports and civil rights pioneer: If UDC has anything to say about it, more people will know E.B. Henderson’s name. And we should. Well over a century ago, Henderson, a graduate of a UDC predecessor, introduced the game of basketball to Black youth in segregated DC, and made history through his efforts […]
Chevy Chase’s American City Diner: A brief history, what’s next, and one family’s fond memories
by Marlene Berlin In 1988, Jeffrey Gildenhorn opened a 1940s-style diner at Connecticut Avenue and Morrison Street. For 30 years, the retro American City Diner served up regular diner fare: fried egg sandwiches, meatloaf, pancakes, milkshakes. Younger kids enjoyed the a model train inside and the coin-operated rides outside. The cheap food made it a popular […]
The defector, the no-good teenagers, the goose attacker and more people of the neighborhood’s past
Our neighborhood’s history has more than its fair share of notable residents, including two U.S. presidents, a Cold War defector, and a college president who broke racial barriers. And there have been residents notable more for behavior that we’ll describe as… colorful. The latter includes: The real estate developer who wanted to build a bomb […]
The Forest Hills freeway and other never-built development plans
If mid-century traffic planners had their way, Northwest DC would have been the land of the freeway. In a 1946 book, an influential architect predicted that upper Connecticut Avenue would be a freeway within 20 years. Greater Greater Washington reports Louis Justement believed that the avenue’s apartment high-rises would be demolished and replaced with towers […]
They paid $19,000 for their 4-bedroom Forest Hills home. The year? 1942. The buyers? LBJ and his future First Lady.
by Ann Kessler Around this time 80 years ago, Forest Hills got new neighbors: a congressman from Texas and his wife. That congressman would go on to serve in the Senate, then as vice president, and then as president of the United States. Lyndon Baines and Lady Bird Johnson moved into their home on 30th […]
A quarter-century ago, a letter to the Post launched efforts to restore the 200-year-old Peirce Mill
by Steve Dryden Reading a letter in The Washington Post about Peirce Mill led to a new chapter in my life that I could have hardly predicted. As a native Virginian, I had always loved local history, and in particular, the old stone buildings I saw during camping trips in the Shenandoah Valley. Running water […]
From Piggly Wiggly to the Van Ness Safeway to Wegmans: Holiday food shopping past and present
Where are you buying the food for your holiday table? Bread Furst, I’m Eddie Cano, Muchas Gracias and Little Red Fox were among the local businesses taking pre-orders for heat-and-eat Thanksgiving dishes and desserts, and they’ll have special offerings for the December holidays, too. This year, Wegmans joined Giant Food, Whole Foods and the Chevy […]
In memory: Ann Kessler, a longtime chronicler of the people and places of old Forest Hills
It was always a delight to be notified of an email from Ann Kessler, who died on August 19th after a long battle with leukemia. It meant that that this dogged and creative chronicler of our neighborhood’s history had dug up something new and fascinating about the people who used to live here, and the […]
The queen, the heiress, and the lost treasure
We don’t know of any royal visits to this neighborhood, by Queen Elizabeth II or any other monarch (and we hope you will tell us if you do). But Forest Hills did have a wealthy cereal heiress who rubbed shoulders with the royals. In 1953, two years before Marjorie Merriweather Post purchased the Hillwood estate […]