Takoma
Park and Takoma
DC are located on high rolling land just east of the
northernmost corner of the District of Columbia. A broad ridge
runs through the area, descending steeply on the east through a varied
landscape into the picturesque valley of Sligo Creek, a tributary of the
Northwest Branch of the Anacostia River. To the west
the land drains to nearby Rock Creek and the Potomac River at Georgetown. This land
abounds with healthful springs, and is historically known for its pure water
and clean air.
Native American artifacts
have been found near the springs and in the Sligo Creek valley, and an “Indian
field” is noted as a landmark in the 1687 survey of the 1776-acre Girles
Portion, the earliest land grant here.
Legend has it that Chief Powhatan -- (1550?-1618), father of the Indian
princess Pocahontas-- returning wounded to Virginia from a battle in the north,
paused here to convalesce at the springs.
A number of early
cross-country roads connected the Takoma area with the rest of Washington. Andrew Ellicott’s 1794 topographical map of the Territory of Columbia shows the Rock
Creek Road
from Georgetown at P Street to Rockville curving along the high ground east of Rock
Creek. In 1818-20, the Seventh Street
Turnpike Road, now Georgia
Avenue, was
built following this high ground into the District. It was the main market road of the District,
linking the rich Maryland farmland with the Northern Liberties, O Street, and Central Markets along 7th Street, N. W. The Girles
Portion road, now Piney
Branch Road,
connected what is now the Takoma Park
area to the 7th
Street
Road.
The Girles Portion was among
those vast Maryland tracts that the distinguished and prosperous Carroll
family owned and managed as farmland, using the labor of African slaves. When the District of Columbia was laid out in 1791-92, the boundary cut through
this and other similar properties in what is now the upper Rock Creek Park, Takoma Park,
and Silver Spring area of Washington and Maryland.
Boundary stones were placed
at one-mile intervals around the District of Columbia, with the northernmost stone located just west of the
present 16th
Street,
approximately on an axis with the White House and Washington Monument. The stones,
crafted of Aquia Creek sandstone, are numbered clockwise, corner-to-corner of
the ten-mile square. The N.E. 1 stone
was placed in The Girles Portion tract of Charles Carroll of Bellevue, near the Silver Spring. It is missing, and its position marked by a
plaque in the sidewalk at 7847 Eastern Avenue. The N.E. 2
stone, now included in the Takoma Park (DC) Historic District at Maple Avenue, was placed just beyond the eastern boundary of The
Girles Portion in Robert Beall of James’ 1772 patent, Robert’s Choice.
Charles Carroll of Bellevue owned the Girles Portion at the time the Federal City was laid out.
His brother, Daniel Carroll of Duddington, owned the largest tract of
land within the proposed Federal City, including the Mall and Capitol Hill. In 1811 the Carroll brothers entered into a
partnership with Elie Williams under the name of Williams and Carrolls “to furnish
in equal proportion money to be used in manufacturing paper, erecting mills,
distilling grain into spirits, raising, buying and selling live stock; for the
purposes of said business to buying situations for the necessary mills,
woodlands to supply the same with fuel.”
The Carroll brothers
purchased 414 acres of land bordering Sligo Creek near Bellevue’s The Girles Portion tract in what would become Takoma Park. Here they
built a mill described as a “brick distillery and adjacent grist mill with brick
dwelling.” They also purchased the paper
mill on Rock Creek near Bellevue’s
Georgetown residence at 2715 Q Street. Although their business failed in 1815, the Sligo
Creek mill buildings survived and later became part of Takoma Park. Bellevue was socially prominent and a friend of Dolley
Madison, assisting her in her flight from the burning city in 1814.
MID-19th CENTURY
HISTORY
Before the Civil War, the
general area that would become Takoma Park was increasingly developed as small farms and country
estates. One of the most notable of
these was the Silver Spring farm of Francis Preston Blair, a member of the “Kitchen
Cabinet” of President Andrew Jackson. He
came to Washington from Kentucky in 1830 as editor of the Globe, a pro-Jackson newspaper. Blair made his home at 1651 Pennsylvania Avenue across from the White House, and in 1835 acquired a
large country property located near the Silver Spring. With later
additions, this was known as Falkland Manor. It included part of the Girles
Portion and other originally Carroll lands, extending into what is today Takoma Park, MD, and Takoma,
DC.
After the defeat of President
Van Buren, and his removal as editor of the Globe,
Blair gave his Pennsylvania
Avenue house
to his son Montgomery and lived at his Silver Spring estate. Surrounded by his family, he entertained
political friends from both the north and south, farmed the land, and developed
extensive gardens and riding trails in what is now Takoma Park.
In 1860 Blair served as
delegate-at-large from Maryland
to the convention that nominated Abraham Lincoln.
Blair’s son Montgomery served in Lincoln’s cabinet as Postmaster General. His son, General Francis Preston Blair, Jr.,
served under General Grant. His daughter
Elizabeth married Admiral Samuel Phillips Lee, who fought under Farragut in the
New Orleans blockade. Lee
was a third cousin of Robert E. Lee and the Blairs were close friends of
Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his wife. As the Confederate defeat appeared imminent, Lincoln sent Blair to Richmond on a diplomatic mission to arrange an end of
hostilities.
Elizabeth Blair Lee, in her Wartime Washington letters to her
husband, poignantly describes wartime life along the strategically located
Seventh Street Road (now Georgia Avenue), just beyond the defenses of Washington. The 10th
Massachusetts Regiment was stationed within DC on the estate of Thomas
Carberry, mayor of Washington (1822) and president of the Metropolis Bank. Fort Stevens was located on the west side of the road, and Fort Slocum to the southeast near the left fork of the Rock Creek Church Road.
On June 27, 1863, Confederate Colonel J. E. B. Stuart crossed the Potomac near Seneca and encamped at Rockville before turning north to Gettysburg. Scouting parties
came into the area that later became Takoma Park. The following
year, near the end of the Civil War, a pivotal battle occurred at Fort Stevens, when the Confederates, led by Confederate General
Jubal Early, attempted to invade the nation's capital. Following the battle at Monocacy, Early and
his troops advanced along the Seventh Street Road to attack the city.
On July 11, 1864 the confederates set up headquarters at Blair’s Silver Spring home, burning his son Montgomery’s home. The following day Early’s troops fanned out
along the ridge in and around the future Takoma
DC neighborhood.
Meanwhile, spectators, including President Abraham Lincoln, arrived, and
the meager federal troops at Fort Stevens were bolstered by reinforcements from General Grant.
On July 12, the armies fought, and by the end of the day the Confederates fled
in a cloud of dust. Not only was the
battle notable for stopping Early's raid on Washington, but it was also became
known as the only military action in which a President of the United States
came under direct fire from an enemy force.
With a combined total
casualty figure of over 900 killed or wounded during the conflict, 41 Union soldiers who fought and died in Fort Steven's defense were interred in a specially created cemetery
dedicated by Abraham Lincoln, Battleground National Cemetery. Located at 6625 Georgia Avenue, NW, a few blocks north of Fort Stevens, it is now administered by the National Park Service
and, at one acre in size, it is one of the smallest national cemeteries.
LOCATION! LOCATION! LOCATION!
The garden suburb of Takoma Park flourished after the Civil War, as urban populations
boomed and a concern for healthful living, the natural environment, and the
picturesque landscape aesthetic was popularized. Then, as now, efficient transportation
linking suburb and city was essential to the viability of these new
communities.
In Washington the development
of suburban housing [Uniontown (1854), Mount Pleasant (1865), Le Droit Park
(1873)] was at first confined to locations close to the city along
existing market roads and downtown streetcar lines. The Metropolitan Branch of the Baltimore and
Ohio Railroad was chartered in 1865 and completed through Silver Spring into the District of Columbia in 1873. The
B&O promoted its new line by offering concessions to encourage development
of commuting towns to allow suburban residents easy access to jobs in Washington. Takoma Park was the first such community developed in the District of Columbia.
Real estate developer
Benjamin Franklin Gilbert came to Washington from New York during the Civil War. He worked with Alexander Robey
("Boss) Shepherd, who dominated the rebuilding of the District in the
1870s. Gilbert's projects included a row
of houses on the north side of K Street between 9th and 10th Streets, N.W. and Grant Place between G, H, 9th and 10th Streets, N. W. Losing heavily in the Panic of 1873, he
retreated to New
Jersey to
rebuild his fortunes.
When Gilbert returned in
1883, he found a rapidly expanding federal work force in Washington DC. But the
development of needed new residential sites was frustrated by incomplete plans
to extend the city streets and services beyond Florida Avenue. Gilbert
finessed this problem by purchasing, for $6,500, lots 2 and 3 of the G. C.
Grammar Estate with access to commuter rail transportation. Grammar had purchased a pentagonal 213-acre
site here, part of Robert’s Choice, in 1828.
The District of Columbia boundary ran diagonally through it with the N. E. 2
boundary stone on Maple
Avenue
approximately in the center of the property.
The land included Spring No. 1, or Little Spring, located on the west
side of the railroad tracks between Spring Place and Bull Place in Takoma,
DC.
Gilbert began cautiously by
subdividing the parcel into 15 blocks with 266 lots with a 50' frontage and
depth of 200' to 300.' Streets were 40'
to 50' wide with 12' on either side for parking and sidewalks. Houses were to be set back 40' from the
sidewalk. With plat in hand he
approached friends and acquaintances, selling these 10,000 to 25,000 sq. ft.
lots with flexible terms. A marketing
brochure claimed that the subdivision was 350' above the elevation of the
Capitol and extolled the healthful qualities of the site “clean air, pure
water, and no mosquitoes.”
Gilbert recruited builders to
live in the community and erect houses.
Several houses were under construction in 1884. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Isaac I. Thomas at 201 Tulip Avenue in Takoma Park, MD, was the first to be completed. In 1884 Mr. Thomas also opened a store on
Oak (now Cedar) Street in Takoma DC near the railroad tracks. Most of the early houses were expansive frame
Stick, Shingle, and Queen Anne-style residences with wrap-around porches, open
galleries, towers, complex rooflines, and much fine gingerbread and shingle
detail.
In 1886 the Takoma Park railroad station was built on Cedar Street in DC. It was
designed by Baldwin and Pennington, architects for all the stations along
the Metropolitan Branch.
Gilbert’s 1886 brochure
advertised water from the Takoma Park
springs “on draught at the Drug Store of Harry Standiford, southwest corner of
9th and F Streets.” He claimed 150
residents, with more waiting to move in when their houses were completed. He extolled the gardening skills of the new
residents, recommending: “For the
banker, the lawyer, the merchant and the clerk, no better, cheaper or more
wholesome relief from the daily cares, toils and vexations of business can be
found than that afforded by becoming a resident of TAKOMA PARK. The benefits and profits derived from morning
and evening hours of “fixing up” about the new home” were stressed. Terms could
be arranged so a government clerk could afford a site for less than his current
rent.
On June 15, 1889, The Evening
Star reported that Takoma
Park (meaning
both Maryland and DC) had expanded to include over 1000 acres with “fifteen
miles of streets and avenues, gravel-laid and smooth, shaded by trees and
brightened by nature’s prettiest flowers.”
There was electricity in the houses and streets and a hotel and
extension of the Brightwood Street Railroad were contemplated. Nineteen trains stopped at the new Takoma Park station on weekdays.
GROWING PAINS
In 1890 Takoma Park, MD, was incorporated as a town by the Maryland General
Assembly with an elected mayor and council.
Although Takoma
Park, MD, and Takoma
DC were divided by the Maryland-District line and
governed by different laws, both sides were unified by their shared community
identity. B.F.Gilbert, who was elected
the first mayor of Takoma
Park, had
considered multiple jurisdictions as an advantage, securing all possible
legislative advantages for the new town.
In 1892 William Watkins, a
coal merchant, opened the 30-room Watkins Hotel at 4th and Cedar Streets, N. W.
in Takoma DC. Around the same time, Gilbert began construction of the 160-room
North Takoma Hotel on the site of the present Montgomery College in Takoma
Park, MD; a sprawling four-story frame building with an entrance tower, varied
gable ends and dormers, landscaped grounds, an extensive wrap-around porch, the
hotel had its own railroad station. The
Panic of 1893 found Gilbert over-extended in Takoma Park real estate, a financial calamity from which he never
recovered. On December 29,
1893, fire in the commercial
area near the train station destroyed the Watkins Hotel, Favorite’s Store, and
Birch’s Store and Hall.
The Takoma Park Volunteer
Fire Department was soon organized to serve both Maryland and District jurisdictions. A Howe Model 4 hand pumper was purchased,
followed by a ladder truck in 1896.
Takoma Hall was constructed on the site of the burned Watkins Hotel by
Takoma Lodge No. 24, I.O.O.F. It served
also at times as a town meeting hall, school, and church. The Takoma Club was organized in the adjacent
brick building in 1899, providing recreational activities such as bowling and
billiards and a library of 1200 volumes.
Publication of the Favorite
news sheet began in January, 1892, followed by the Takoma Park Tidings in 1896.
Gilbert had sold Springs
Number 1 and 2 in 1891 to the Takoma Park Springs Company with the stipulation
that these properties remain in public use.
In 1898, after a court fight to keep the springs open, the community began
construction of an independent water and sewage system.
The Brightwood Electric
Railway had begun service into downtown Washington along Georgia Avenue and, in 1893, it ran a streetcar spur to 4th and
Butternut Streets, N. W. In 1898 the
Baltimore and Washington Transit Company extended this line to Heather and Elm
Avenues in Prince Georges County. The Capital
Traction ran its 14th
Street line
to Kennedy
Street, with
a spur to 3rd
Street and
up to Aspen, over to Laurel Street and Eastern Avenue. The routes
made it easier for more people to live in these areas and commute to their jobs
in downtown DC.
The original train crossing
on Cedar Street was at grade, which resulted in an increasing number
of accidents as automobile traffic increased.
In 1912, an underpass was constructed, which lowered the street level on
both sides of the tracks. Later, many of the stately homes that once flanked
Cedar and Carroll on the east side of the tracks were demolished or their
fronts radically altered, with new storefronts abutting the street.
CITIZEN ACTIVISM AND
INSTITUTIONAL GROWTH
From the start, citizens of Takoma Park, MD, and Takoma
DC took an active role in shaping their
neighborhoods. With no public schools
yet available in the community, a small private school and kindergarten was started
in 1885 by Margaret McKelden in her home at 6917 Maple Street.
The Takoma Park Citizens
Association was organized in 1888 at gatherings in the railroad station at Cedar street while community residents waited for the morning
trains to take them into Washington. It was one of the first organizations in the
District and nearby Maryland to admit women as members along with the men. As Walter Irey, its president in 1935, wrote
in The Takoma Enterprise, the
Association was also unique in its inter-state character. He noted that members
often had "strong differences of opinion," such as when they
successfully eliminated the grade crossing near the train station, in the
interests of school children and others who passed that way.
In 1901, the members of the
association convinced the District government to build a classical style
elementary school on Piney Branch Road and Cedar Street. Both DC and Maryland students attended the school until the early
1950's. Irey noted that the Association
had a "lion's share" in getting the DC Board of Education to acquire
the land for the Northern Senior High School (later named Coolidge High
School), and in 1935, the association lobbied Congress for appropriations to
fund the high school and provide for an addition to Paul Junior High
School. And they inaugurated the
movement for free textbooks for high school children in DC.
Concerned about having
sufficient recreational facilities and parkland, the Association also convinced
District officials to acquire and develop land for a new park on two squares
bounded by Third, Fifth, Van Buren and Whittier streets. They later
successfully lobbied for additional land for the Takoma Recreation Center with baseball fields, tennis courts and swimming
pools.
One of the Association's
members, Angus A. Lamond, convinced his friend Andrew Carnegie to donate
$40,000 to construct the Takoma Park Library at Fifth and Cedar Streets
NW. Another member of the Association
persuaded the Congressional committees to agree to the acceptance of Carnegie's
gift and to appropriate funds for the maintenance of the building, books and
personnel. Constructed in 1911, it was
the first branch library in the District of Columbia.
The sense of a united
community continued through shared institutions, services, and organizations.
The Takoma Park Historical Society was founded in 1912, followed in 1913 by the
Takoma Park Civic Study Club, renamed in 1928 the Takoma Park Women’s
Club. In 1916 the Takoma Horticultural
Club was organized to promote community beautification. Its membership included many U. S. Department
of Agriculture scientists who lived in Takoma.
The group offered lectures on horticultural subjects, held flower shows,
promoted cooperative purchase of plants and seeds, and planted trees and shrubs
throughout the community.
In 1923, the Takoma Theatre
Corporation was formed and later the Takoma Theatre opened at 4th &
Butternut Streets, N. W. It was a movie
theatre, the first by architect John Jacob Zink, who went on to design the
Senator Theater in Baltimore, the Uptown Theatre in Cleveland Park, and many others.
Jurisdictional differences
gradually became more pronounced during the twentieth century. The Community League of Takoma Park, Maryland,
was organized in 1922 and in 1924 the Citizens Association of Takoma Park, D.
C. was organized. As this change in
focus progressed, however, the community retained its historical identity, both
jurisdictions celebrating their 50th anniversary together in 1933, their 75th
anniversary in 1958, and their 100th anniversary in 1983.
Many organizations remain
cross-jurisdictional. The Takoma Horticultural Club continues to be active in
both DC and Maryland. In 1978, the
first Takoma Park Folk Festival was held in Maryland, and its first revenues were donated to a community
group trying to revive the Takoma Theatre in DC. In 1979, Historic Takoma, Inc., was formed to
serve as an advocacy and educational preservation organization, with members in
both Takoma DC and Takoma
Park. And in 1981, the Takoma Park-Silver Spring
(TPSS) Food Cooperative opened, a joint effort of Maryland and DC residents.
On the Maryland side of the line, jurisdictional issues created
tension and confusion for city residents split between Montgomery County and Prince George’s County.
After years of petitions, and defeated ballot measures to place all of Takoma Park, MD within a single jurisdiction, state legislation
allowed Montgomery County, following a vote by all citizens involved, to absorb
the Prince George’s portion of the City, in 1997.
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS
Churches also played at
important role in Takoma
Park life from
the beginning. They were a center of social life in the new community,
sponsoring plays, musicals, concerts, and other entertainments.
The first Church in Takoma Park was the Union Chapel, constructed in 1888 at the corner of Maple and Tulip Avenue. It was sold
to the newly organized Takoma Park Presbyterian Church in 1893, who built a new
edifice next to it in 1923. (The original Union Chapel was demolished in 1950
to make room for construction of an educational wing for the church.)
In October 1887, the Rev. James O. Dorsey settled in Takoma Park, and
by 1888, Mrs. Laura S. Thorton gave local Episcopalians land on the northwest
corner of Piney Branch Road and Dahlia Street in Takoma DC to build a church.
The first Trinity Church, a wood chapel painted red with a
distinctive open bell tower, was completed in 1893 at a cost of $1,500 by
George Parkings. Beginning in 1936, Philip H. Frohman, the architect of
National Cathedral, began a campus of rubble-stone buildings consisting of the
church, rectory, and Sunday school. Trinity's 60-foot-tall entrance tower
was the gift of parishioner Catherine Vassar Johnson and its interior fitments
were commissioned from leading national ecclesiastical decorators.
In 1903 the Seventh Day
Adventists initiated the process of buying land and moving their headquarters
from Battle Creek Michigan to Takoma Park. They designed
an organizational campus that included the Washington Training College and Sanitarium in Montgomery County and a headquarters building and publishing plant on Eastern Avenue in DC. The church in Takoma Park was organized in 1904, in Takoma Hall, at 317 Cedar Street. The first
permanent church, built at Carroll and
Willow Avenues, was dedicated on in 1913.
An even more substantial church was constructed in 1953; the architect was Rnald A. Senseman,
the builder was Herbert H. Hubbard.
Like B.F. Gilbert, who
encouraged them to come to Takoma, the
Adventists appreciated the political advantages of dual jurisdiction, combining
the bucolic splendors of the Sligo stream valley with an official address in the nation’s
capital. The Washington Training College evolved into the Washington Missionary College and the present Columbia Union College. The Washington Sanitarium, became the present Washington Adventist Hospital.
The Adventists had a profound
influence on the community for more than eight decades. Because they observe their
Sabbath on Saturdays and because they dominated the Takoma Park City Council,
businesses in Takoma
Park were closed
on Saturdays. Because of their adherence to healthy, meatless foods, many
vegetarian stores and restaurants were established in Takoma Park, and sales of alcohol were not allowed. The General Conference moved its headquarters
to a new complex in northern Silver Spring, MD in 1989 and the Review and Harold Publishing Company
to Hagerstown, MD in 1994. The hospital remains, however, in Takoma Park, MD.
In June 1919, the Takoma Park Baptist Church was organized at the home of Georgie R. Frazer, 664 Highland Avenue, near the elementary school in Takoma,
DC. For two years the congregation of 34
members met at his home. On November 15,
1921, William Earl La Rue
from Rochester, New
York, began his
long pastorate. The parsonage was
erected in 1922, and its rubble-stone church at Piney Branch Road and Aspen in
DC, designed by Washington architect Appleton P. Clark, Jr., dedicated on
April 13, 1924.
COMMERCIAL FACILITIES
The first businesses in
Takoma were clustered around the railroad station on Cedar Street in Takoma,
DC. In 1884,
Issac Thomas opened the first store, which provided groceries and other
necessities. He sold the store in 1886 to George Favorite, who established
telephone-telegraph communication facilities inside the post office. Other
shops were built along Cedar, including Burrow's Drug Store and Warren's Stationery Store.
The other major shopping
street in Takoma, DC, was Fourth Street NW, between Butternut and Cedar. The developer of most of this area was H. L.
Thornton, a successful real estate developer who lived at 500 Butternut Street NW. Thornton was built many houses in Takoma Park. Between 1916 and 1926, he also built ten stores on
the West side of Fourth in the 6900 block and around the corner on
Butternut. The Thornton family still owns these stores. In 1919, a laundry was built at 802 Blair Road, between Aspen and Butternut, and in 1921 the Takoma Park Ice and
Ice Cream Company constructed an ice plant at 326 Cedar. The Takoma Theatre, built in 1923, in
addition to showing movies had a store in it featuring cigars, sodas, ice cream
and candies.
The 1935 issue of The Takoma Enterprise contains
advertisements for a variety of businesses in Takoma. Along Fourth Street there was a contracting and building company at 6900,
The Pioneer Press (publisher of The
Takoma Enterprise) at 6908, a tailor at 6910, and a restaurant (the
"Park Inn Lunch) at 6916. Along
Cedar Street there was a sheet metal works at 302, a bowling alley at 317, and
Feldman's department store at 335-337, the Youngblood hardware store at 341,
and the Mattingly Brothers Pharmacists, with no address-- but Mattingly's
Drugstore was located on Cedar Street across from the train station. It burned
down in 1977.
GROWING AND CHANGING
In the first quarter of the
20th century, Takoma
Park continued
to grow on both sides of the District line, as the last of the country estate
properties were subdivided and developed.
The early picturesque villas with wrap-around porches, towers, and
richly carved interior woodwork were followed by Arts and Crafts, Bungalow, and
then Classical and Colonial Revival style residences. Porches and balconies
gradually assumed a classical appearance with columns and balustrades. Pebble-dash stucco, white-painted clapboard,
and brick replaced earth-toned shingles, patterned siding, and colored glass.
In 1908, the Watkins was the
first apartment house built in Takoma, a stout, red-brick, three-story building
with six large apartments. It was built by William Watkins to house his six
daughters. A number of garden apartments
were later built around Takoma, such as the Art Deco-style Whittier Gardens, clustered near Blair Road on Aspen and Whittier Streets NW. Built in 1939, they were
designed by George T. Santmyers.
Symmetry and proportion,
hipped and flat roofs also made their appearance on single-family homes. Simple chestnut and oak moldings replaced
intricately carved mahogany and walnut in the interiors. Although newly subdivided lots were smaller,
the characteristic interest in landscape and gardens remained. The new style was followed in the
institutional and commercial buildings built in the 20th century. In the 1940s
many of the old homes were subdivided into apartments to accommodate World War
II-related population growth.
In the 1950's, as schools
became desegregated and neighborhoods more integrated, many white residents began
moving out of the District. Unscrupulous
real estate agents used a practice known as "block busting" to
frightened white owners into selling homes for low prices, which the agents
resold at significantly higher prices to incoming Blacks. In 1958 an organization, Neighbors Inc, was
formed by residents of both races to foster stable, integrated
neighborhoods. Members included
residents of Takoma, Manor Park, Brightwood and Shepherd Park. They held social functions to get to know each
other. They gained national attention as they fought successfully to get
newspapers to stop using racial designations in classified advertising. And
they helped to get DC's housing law changed to eliminate the discriminatory
practices of the major real estate firms.
Starting in 1964 the entire
community joined together to fight the proposed ten-lane North Central Freeway
project. It would have cut a huge swath,
taking hundreds of homes and displacing thousands of residents in Takoma Park, MD, Takoma DC, Brookland, and Michigan Park. People living
along its path formed a coalition with national and local groups. Their
rallying cry was, "No White men's roads through Black men's
homes." Their unwavering
no-compromise opposition was finally successful in 1970. Funds for the freeway were diverted into
construction of the Red Line of the Metrorail.
Planning for the Metrorail
raised new concerns. The original plan
for the Takoma Station, to be located in DC, called for the area around the
Metro station to be rezoned for high-density residential and commercial
development. It called for widening
streets to handle more traffic and for construction of a 500-car parking lot.
Area residents worked together again to oppose these drastic changes.
A new organization, Plan
Takoma, helped develop alternatives, including a public park and buffer area,
retention of residential and low-density commercial zoning, a limit on parking
to 100 non-rush hour spaces, and no change in the width of the streets. In
1977, before the Metrorail Station opened, Plan Takoma was reactivated, leading
to additional planning around the station.
By the time the station opened in 1978, the community welcomed its
arrival, bringing Takoma full circle to its origins as a rail commuting
town.
Over the years, many of the
fine old homes and buildings in Takoma were lost, some destroyed from natural
causes, others razed for new developments.
One of the most devastating losses occurred on August 17, 1967, when fire destroyed the Takoma Park railroad station, the most beloved symbol of Takoma's
historic heritage.
The Cady-Lee Mansion at 7064 Eastern Avenue (Southeast corner at the intersection of Piney Branch Road) was saved from the fate of its neighbors that were
lost for construction of modern apartment buildings in the early 1970's. Citizens successfully rallied to save this
magnificent house, built in 1887 and designed by noted architect Leon
Dessez. It was subsequently designated
on the District's Inventory of Historic Sites in 1974 and on the National Register
of Historic Places in 1975. Adjacent
Takoma Park Historic Districts were created and listed on the National Register
of Historic Places in both Washington, DC (1983) and Maryland (1973).
Takoma DC today retains its
historical character, rich in cultural diversity, social and civic activism,
small businesses, tree lined streets, sidewalks and parks, and variety of
housing from small and moderately-sized bungalows to stately homes, big
four-square houses, and art deco apartments.
Attracted by the unique ambiance, families of economically, racially,
and ethnically diverse backgrounds have made their home in Takoma -- an active
community with its small-town charm intact, nestled in the northwest corner of
the nation's capital.
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