Chevy Chase () is the name of both a town and an unincorporated

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the count ...

(

Chevy Chase (CDP), Maryland Chevy Chase () is a census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 10,176 at the 2020 census. Geography Chevy Chase is located at (38.98926, −77.076198). There is also an unincorporated are ...

) that straddle the northwest border of

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

and Montgomery County,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, United States. Several settlements in the same area of Montgomery County and one neighborhood of Washington include ''Chevy Chase'' in their names. These villages, the town, and the CDP share a common history and together form a larger community colloquially referred to as Chevy Chase. Primarily a residential suburb, Chevy Chase adjoins

Friendship Heights Friendship Heights is an urban commercial and residential neighborhood in northwest Washington, D.C. and southern Montgomery County, Maryland. Though its borders are not clearly defined, Friendship Heights consists roughly of the neighborhoods ...

, a popular shopping district. It is the home of the Chevy Chase Club and

Columbia Country Club The Columbia Country Club, located in Chevy Chase, Maryland, is the successor of the Columbia Golf Club, which was organized on September 29, 1898 by nine men. Originally there were twenty members. The golf course, which opened in 1911, was desig ...

, private clubs whose members include many prominent politicians and Washingtonians. Chevy Chase was noted as "the most educated town in America" in a study conducted by the Stanford Graduate School of Education, with 93.5 percent of adult residents having at least a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

. The name ''Chevy Chase'' is derived from ''Cheivy Chace'', the name of the land patented to Colonel Joseph Belt from

Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore Charles Calvert, 5th Baron Baltimore, (29 September 1699 – 24 April 1751) was a British nobleman and Proprietary Governor of the Province of Maryland. He inherited the title to Maryland aged just fifteen, on the death of his father and gra ...

, on July 10, 1725. It has historic associations with a 1388 '' chevauchée'', a French word describing a border raid, fought by Lord Percy of England and Earl Douglas of

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

over hunting grounds, or a " chace", in the

Cheviot Hills The Cheviot Hills (), or sometimes The Cheviots, are a range of uplands straddling the Anglo-Scottish border between Northumberland and the Scottish Borders. The English section is within the Northumberland National Park. The range includes T ...

Northumberland Northumberland () is a county in Northern England, one of two counties in England which border with Scotland. Notable landmarks in the county include Alnwick Castle, Bamburgh Castle, Hadrian's Wall and Hexham Abbey. It is bordered by land ...

and Otterburn. The battle was memorialized in "

The Ballad of Chevy Chase "The Ballad of Chevy Chase" is an English ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad 162 ( Roud 223Sehere/ref>). There are two extant ballads under this title, both of which narrate the same story. As ballads existed within oral tradition before being wr ...

History

19th century

In the 1880s, Senator Francis G. Newlands of

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a state in the Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the 7th-most extensive, ...

and his partners began acquiring farmland in this unincorporated area of Maryland and just inside the District of Columbia, for the purpose of developing a residential streetcar suburb for

, during the expansion of the

Washington streetcars Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962. The first streetcars in Washington, D.C., were drawn by horses and carried people short distances on flat terrain; but the introduction of cleane ...

system. Newlands and his partners founded

The Chevy Chase Land Company The Chevy Chase Land Company is a real estate holding and development company based in suburban Washington, D.C. Founded in 1890 by Francis G. Newlands to develop all-white residential suburbs, it continues to operate today as a privately hel ...

in 1890, and its holdings of more than eventually extended along the present-day

Connecticut Avenue Connecticut Avenue is a major thoroughfare in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., and suburban Montgomery County, Maryland. It is one of the diagonal avenues radiating from the White House, and the segment south of Florida Avenue was on ...

from

Florida Avenue Florida Avenue is a major street in Washington, D.C. It was originally named Boundary Street, because it formed the northern boundary of the Federal City under the 1791 L'Enfant Plan. With the growth of the city beyond its original borders, Bound ...

north to Jones Bridge Road. Newlands, an avowed

white supremacist White supremacy or white supremacism is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races and thus should dominate them. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White s ...

, and his development company took steps to ensure that residents of its new suburbs would be wealthy and white; for example, "requiring, in the deed to the land, that only a single-family detached house costing a large amount of money could be constructed. The Chevy Chase Land Company did not include explicit bars against non-white people, known as racial covenants, but the mandated cost of the house made it impractical for all but the wealthiest non-white people to buy the land." Houses were required to cost $5,000 and up on

and $3,000 and up on side streets. The company banned commerce from the residential neighborhoods. Leon E. Dessez was Chevy Chase's first resident. He and

Lindley Johnson Lindley Johnson (January 18, 1854February 27, 1937) was a noted Philadelphia architect. Johnson was born in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and attended Germantown Academy before graduating from the University of Pennsylv ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

designed the first four houses in the area. Toward the northern end of its holdings, the Land Company formed a manmade lake, called Chevy Chase Lake, to produce hydroelectric power for its streetcars, and provide a venue for boating, swimming, and other activities. The streetcar soon became vital to the community; it connected workers to the city, and even ran errands for residents. Part of the original Cheivy Chace patent had been sold to Abraham Bradley, who built an estate known as the Bradley Farm. In 1892, Newlands and other members of the

Metropolitan Club The Metropolitan Club of New York is a private social club on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded as a gentlemen's club in 1891 for men only, but it was one of the first major clubs in New York to admit women, t ...

of Washington, D.C., founded a hunt club called Chevy Chase Hunt, which would later become Chevy Chase Club. In 1894, the club located itself on the former Bradley Farm property under a lease from its owners. The club introduced a six-hole golf course to its members in 1895, and purchased the 9.36-acre Bradley Farm tract in 1897.

20th century

In 1906, the Chevy Chase Land Company blocked a proposed subdivision called Belmont after they learned its Black developers aimed to sell house lots to other African Americans. In subsequent litigation, the company and its affiliates argued that those developers had committed fraud by proposing "to sell lots...to negroes." By the 1920s, restrictive covenants were added to Chevy Chase real estate deeds. Some prohibited both the sale or rental of homes to "a Negro or one of the African race." Others prohibited sales or rentals to "any persons of the Semetic 'sic''.html"_;"title="sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html"_;"title="'sic">'sic''race",_i.e._the_exclusion_of_Jews.html" ;"title="sic">'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''race", i.e. the exclusion of Jews">sic">'sic''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''race", i.e. the exclusion of Jews. By World War II, such restrictive language had largely disappeared from real estate transactions, and all were voided by the 1948 Supreme Court decision in ''Shelley v. Kraemer''. Lea M. Bouligny founded the Chevy Chase College and Seminary for Young Ladies at the Chevy Chase Inn, located at 7100 Connecticut Avenue). The name was changed to Chevy Chase Junior College in 1927. The National 4-H Club Foundation purchased the property in 1951, turning it into the group's Youth Conference Center. For decades, the center hosted the National 4-H Conference, an event for 4-Hers throughout the nation to attend, and the annual

National Science Bowl The National Science Bowl (NSB) is a high school and middle school science knowledge competition, using a quiz bowl format, held in the United States. A buzzer system similar to those seen on popular television game shows is used to signal an an ...

in late April or early May.

21st century

The National 4-H Club Foundation sold the center in 2021 for $40 million; as of 2022, it is to be replaced by a senior living development.

Subdivisions

* Census-designated place of

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor and writer. He became a key cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'', where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment became a staple of the ...

* Incorporated town of

* Chevy Chase (Washington, D.C.)

Villages

Chevy Chase Village, Maryland Chevy Chase Village is an incorporated municipality in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, bordering Washington, D.C. It is made up of sections 1, 1a, and 2 of Chevy Chase, as originally designated by The Chevy Chase Land Company. The po ...

Chevy Chase Section Three, Maryland Chevy Chase Section Three is a village in Montgomery County, Maryland. It was organized as a Special Tax District in 1916 and incorporated as a village in 1982. The population was 760 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is part of a ...

Chevy Chase Section Five, Maryland Chevy Chase Section Five is an incorporated village in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. The population was 672 at the 2020 census. It is part of a larger community, colloquially referred to as Chevy Chase, that includes several adj ...

Martin's Additions, Maryland Martin's Additions is a village in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It was established as a Special Tax District in 1916 and incorporated as a village in 1985. The population was 946 at the 2020 Census. The town is part of a larger c ...

North Chevy Chase, Maryland North Chevy Chase is a village in Montgomery County, Maryland, Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. It was established as a Special Tax District in 1924 and incorporated as a village in 1996.Linda M. Burrell et al., eds. ''Maryland's 157: Th ...

In addition to the Maryland villages listed above, the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

uses Chevy Chase for some postal addresses that lie outside historical Chevy Chase: in

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, the Village of Friendship Heights, and the Rock Creek Forest area, east of Jones Mill Road and Beach Drive and west of Grubb Road.

Education

Chevy Chase is served by the Montgomery County Public Schools. Residents of Chevy Chase are zoned to either Chevy Chase or North Chevy Chase Elementary School, which feed into Silver Creek Middle School and

Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) is a public high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is named for two of the towns it serves; it also serves Kensington and Silver Spring. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda. In May ...

. Private schools in Chevy Chase include Concord Hill School,

Oneness-Family School Oneness-Family School is an Independent school, independent, coeducational day school whose lower-school campus is in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and its upper-school campus is in Kensington, Maryland. It offers a Montessori education for students Pre ...

, and Blessed Sacrament School.

Retail

Notable people

Current residents

* Ann Brashares - author *

Tony Kornheiser Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (; born July 13, 1948) is an American television sports talk show host and former sportswriter and columnist. Kornheiser is best known for his endeavors in three forms of media: as a writer for ''The Washington Post'' fro ...

- television host, currently

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

employee presenter *

Brett Kavanaugh Brett Michael Kavanaugh ( ; born February 12, 1965) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President Donald Trump on July 9, 2018, and has served since ...

- associate justice, United States Supreme Court * Marvin Kalb - journalist *

Ted Lerner Theodore N. Lerner (born October 15, 1925) is an American real estate developer, and former managing principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team. He is the founder of the real estate company Lerner Enterprises, the largest private ...

- owner of

Lerner Enterprises Lerner Enterprises is a company owned by Ted Lerner and his family that develops and invests in real estate in the Washington metropolitan area. The company has developed more than 20 million square feet of real estate. History The company was f ...

and the

Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...

* Chris Matthews - commentator * Krzysztof Pietroszek - professor and filmmaker *

Jerome Powell Jerome Hayden "Jay" Powell (born February 4, 1953) is an American attorney and investment banker who has served as the 16th chair of the Federal Reserve since 2018. After earning a degree in politics from Princeton University in 1975 and a ...

- current

Chairman of the Federal Reserve The chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System is the head of the Federal Reserve, and is the active executive officer of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. The chair shall preside at the meetings of the Boa ...

John Roberts John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American lawyer and jurist who has served as the 17th chief justice of the United States since 2005. Roberts has authored the majority opinion in several landmark cases, including '' Nat ...

- Chief Justice of the United States *

Mark Shields Mark Stephen Shields (May 25, 1937 – June 18, 2022) was an American political columnist, advisor, and commentator. He worked in leadership positions for many Democratic candidates' electoral campaigns. Shields provided weekly political anal ...

- political columnist *

George Will George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian-conservative political commentator and author. He writes regular columns for ''The Washington Post'' and provides commentary for NBC News and MSNBC. Gold, Hadas (May 8, 2017)." ...

- conservative commentator * A. B. Stoddard - political commentator and editor of RealClearPolitics *

Howard Kurtz Howard Alan Kurtz (; born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author best known for his coverage of the media. Kurtz is the host of Fox News's '' Media Buzz'' program, the successor to ''Fox News Watch''. He is the former media writer f ...

- host of

Fox News The Fox News Channel, abbreviated FNC, commonly known as Fox News, and stylized in all caps, is an American multinational conservative cable news television channel based in New York City. It is owned by Fox News Media, which itself is owne ...

program

Media Buzz ''Media Buzz'' (stylized #media''buzz'') is an hour-long news media criticism program hosted by Howard Kurtz. The show airs live on Sunday mornings at 11:00 AM and generally discusses politics and pop culture issues from a moderate perspective. Th ...

* Collin Martin - soccer player

Former residents

Yosef Alon Yosef (Joe) Alon (Hebrew: יוסף (ג'ו) אלון), born Josef Plaček, also known as Joe Alon (July 25, 1929July 1, 1973), was an Israeli Air Force officer and military attache to the U.S. who was mysteriously shot and killed in the driveway o ...

Jamshid Amouzegar Jamshid Amouzegar ( fa, جمشید آموزگار‎; 25 June 1923 – 27 September 2016) was an Iranian economist and politician who was prime minister of Iran from 7 August 1977 to 27 August 1978 when he resigned. Prior to that, he served as ...

, former prime minister of Iran. *

Tom Braden Thomas Wardell Braden (February 22, 1917 – April 3, 2009) was an American CIA official, journalist (best remembered as the author of ''Eight Is Enough'', which spawned a television program), and co-host of the CNN show ''Crossfire''. Inte ...

- journalist and author *

David Brinkley David McClure Brinkley (July 10, 1920 – June 11, 2003) was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997. From 1956 through 1970, he co-anchored NBC's top-rated nightly news program, '' The Huntley–Brinkl ...

- journalist *

John Charles Daly John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly (February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991) was an American journalist, host, radio and television personality, ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show host, best known for his work on the CBS panel game show ...

- radio and television personality *

Bill Guckeyson John William Guckeyson (; July 7, 1915 – May 21, 1944) was an American athlete and military aviator. He was the first University of Maryland football player selected in the NFL Draft. Guckeyson was killed in combat as a fighter pilot during th ...

- athlete and military aviator *

Ed Henry Edward Michael Henry Jr. (born July 20, 1971) is an American journalist. Henry was the co-host of ''America's Newsroom'' on the Fox News Channel, along with Sandra Smith. On June 20, 2011, he left CNN, to become the Fox News White House Corresp ...

- White House correspondent for

Richard Helms Richard McGarrah Helms (March 30, 1913 – October 23, 2002) was an American government official and diplomat who served as Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) from 1966 to 1973. Helms began intelligence work with the Office of Strategic Ser ...

- former director of the

Central Intelligence Agency The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...

Genevieve Hughes Genevieve Hughes Houghton ("HOW-ton"; 1932–2012) is known as one of three women participants in the original 13-person Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) Freedom Rides. Biography Hughes grew up in the upper-middle-class suburban community of ...

- one of the 13 original Freedom Riders *

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

- vice president of the United States under Lyndon Johnson *

Gayle King Gayle King (born December 28, 1954) is an American television personality, author and broadcast journalist for CBS News, co-hosting its flagship morning program, '' CBS Mornings'', and before that its predecessor ''CBS This Morning''. She is ...

- co-anchor of ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987, to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012, to September 6, 2021. The program was aired from Monday through Saturday. ...

'' and an editor-at-large for ''

O, The Oprah Magazine ''O, The Oprah Magazine'', also known simply as ''O'', is an American monthly magazine founded by talk show host Oprah Winfrey and Hearst Communications. Overview It was first published on April 19, 2000. , its average paid circulation was ...

'' *

Anthony McAuliffe Anthony Clement "Nuts" McAuliffe (July 2, 1898 – August 10, 1975) was a senior United States Army officer who earned fame as the acting commander of the 101st Airborne Division defending Bastogne, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge in Wor ...

- US general known for his defense of

Bastogne Bastogne (; nl, Bastenaken, ; german: Bastnach/Bastenach; lb, Baaschtnech) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Luxembourg in the Ardennes, Belgium. The municipality consists of the following districts: Bastogn ...

during World War II * Sandra Day O'Connor - United States Supreme Court Justice; lived in Chevy Chase until 2005 *

Hilary Rhoda Hilary Hollis Rhoda (born April 6, 1987) is an American model. She is perhaps best known for her work with the brand Estée Lauder and her 2009, 2010 and 2011 appearances in the ''Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue''. Early life Rhoda was born ...

- model *

Nancy Grace Roman Nancy Grace Roman (May 16, 1925 – December 25, 2018) was an American astronomer who made important contributions to stellar classification and motions. The first female executive at NASA, Roman served as NASA's first Chief of Astronomy through ...

- NASA's first female executive and, as Chief of Astronomy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the founder of its space astronomy program and "Mother of Hubble". *

Peter Rosenberg Peter Elliot Rosenberg (born July 23, 1979)Chris Richards''Washington Post'', May 31, 2013. is an American radio disc jockey, television show host, and professional wrestling personality, who is signed to WWE where he is a one-time WWE 24/7 C ...

- radio disc jockey, television host, and podcaster *

Danny Rubin Danny Rubin (born 1957) is an American screenwriter and playwright. He wrote the original story, and then co-wrote with Harold Ramis the screenplay for the comedy film ''Groundhog Day'' (1993), for which the two received a BAFTA Award for Best ...

- American-Israeli basketball player for Bnei Herzliya of the Israeli Basketball Premier League *

Karl Truesdell Karl Truesdell (August 27, 1882 – July 16, 1955) was a career officer in the United States Army who attained the rank of major general and was a veteran of both World War I and World War II. He was most notable for his leadership assignments as ...

, U.S. Army major general

References

External links

History of the Chevy Chase Land Company

Chevy Chase Historical Society

The Greater Bethesda-Chevy Chase Chamber of Commerce
{{Montgomery County, Maryland 1890 establishments in Maryland Sundown towns in Maryland Upper class culture in Maryland