The Ghosts of Van Ness’s Past: Semi-hidden relics of our neighborhood’s history

Our history is everywhere. Scattered throughout Forest Hills, North Cleveland Park and Van Ness are relics and reminders of a distant (and sometimes not-so-distant) past. You just have to know where to look… and what you’re looking at.

The earthen mounds on Peruvian government property: Visible to the public only when the Peruvian ambassador’s residence is opened (infrequently) for tours, the mounds were constructed to help defend against Confederate army incursions.

What remains of Battery Terrill, now the grounds of the Peruvian ambassador’s residence at 3001 Garrison Street NW. (photo by Gary Thompson, who wrote more about the history of the site here.)

A sign on the post at the driveway entrance hints at the history within.

Grant and Gates Roads: Grant Road doesn’t follow the DC street naming conventions or, for that matter, the street grid. There’s a good reason for that. It started as a country road, and was in use many years before its name first appeared on maps in 1870. The remaining segments start in Tenleytown and end in Rock Creek Park.

The 3000 block of Grant Road in Forest Hills, as viewed from 30th Street NW. (photo by Ann Kessler)

A little to the south of one Grant Road segment is Gates Road, today an extension of Chesapeake Street east of Forest Hills Park. Gates Road dates back to the late 1800s, and is named for the family that once farmed there.

The “gate to nowhere” on Connecticut Avenue: That gate and the tall metal fence between Van Ness and Tilden Streets are remnants of the U.S. Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Standards & Technology in Gaithersburg).

The gate to nowhere and a commemorative plaque, added in 2017 to honor the Bureau of Standards scientists who pioneered the atomic clock.

The federal agency’s first research facilities opened in the early 1900s, and eventually its offices and laboratories spread over several acres, encompassing the former Intelsat headquarters, the many embassies of the International Chancery Center, and the University of the District of Columbia. Read more about the bureau’s “Lost Hilltop Home” in the Streets of Washington blog.

The bank at 4340 Connecticut Avenue: The five-story red brick building wasn’t always the home of UDC’s law school, and a sign in the alley between the building and Golds Gym hints at its first purpose: to serve as the headquarters of National Bank of Washington.

Bank customers could conduct business from their cars.

4340 Connecticut was constructed in 1976 at the site of a former Hot Shoppe. After National Bank of Washington failed in 1990, the DC government purchased the building for UDC. The David A. Clarke School of Law has been there since 2011.

Waiting for the N8? You’re going to be late: And the same goes for you, L2. The maps in the bus bay behind 4250 Connecticut Avenue have been dated for years, but last summer they became true relics of our transit past.

In late June, WMATA rolled out new routes and names for all of its bus lines.