Glen Echo Park is an arts and cultural center in
Glen Echo, Maryland
Glen Echo is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, that was chartered in 1904. The population was 255 at the 2010 census.
History
Glen Echo derives its name from the name of the lots developed by Edward, and Edwin Baltzley,
*
*
* ...
, a suburb 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, ...
Located about northwest of the city's downtown area, the park's site was initially developed in 1891 as a National
Chautauqua Assembly.
Following the foreclosure and sale of the Chautauqua grounds in 1903, leisure facilities were developed there to serve the city's growing population. In 1911, the site was expanded to become the privately owned Glen Echo Amusement Park, a popular facility that operated until 1968.
The
National Park Service
The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
(NPS) now operates the park, which serves the Washington area as a regional cultural resource when offering classes, workshops and performances in the visual and performing arts. The park is known for its
Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
architecture, an antique
Dentzel carousel and its historic Spanish
Ballroom
A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called balls. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially historic man ...
, as well as for its children's theater and social dance programs. Visitors also come to the park to participate in its festivals and events, which include the Washington
Folk Festival and a Family Day.
The NPS maintains a visitors center and conducts park history tours. More than 350,000 people attend events and participate in instructional activities at the park during each year.
History
Chautauqua
Edwin and Edward Baltzley, writers,
inventors,
[
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
] industrialists, and real estate developers,
hoped to build upon the banks of the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () drains the Mid-Atlantic United States, flowing from the Potomac Highlands into Chesapeake Bay. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map. Retrieved Augus ...
a suburban community free of the urban pollution of late-nineteenth century Washington. In order to compete with other suburban developments, the Baltzley twins
planned a series of opulent attractions for their would-be community.
On February 24, 1891, the Baltzley twins incorporated the National
Chautauqua of Glen Echo, the 53rd such assembly, and immediately set to building a stone citadel of culture to complement their real estate and resort enterprises. Opened on June 16, 1891,
their arts and culture program included lectures and concerts in a 6,000-seat amphitheater;
[ special classes in Bible studies, Greek, and Hebrew; physical training regimens; and university extension courses. Hundreds flocked to the site to picnic, attend lectures on American history by Jane Meade Welch, courses on ancient Egypt by Lysander Dickerman, and concerts by John Philip Sousa and his band. ]Clara Barton
Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was an American nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent clerk. Since nursing education was not then very ...
, encouraged by the Baltzleys, not only located her home and the American Red Cross
The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...
headquarters at Glen Echo, but she presided over the Women's Executive Committee for the Chautauqua itself. The inaugural season's success warranted an extension well into August.
Failure
By the spring of 1892 the various Baltzley enterprises were gravely in debt. On April 7, 1892, the Glen Echo Sand and Building Company, a Baltzley subsidiary, borrowed a large sum of money giving the Chautauqua site as collateral. This was one of many Baltzley mortgages on the site. The financial difficulties spread to the Glen Echo Railroad Company, yet another Baltzley enterprise, which, because of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
, colors =
, anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day)
, battles =
, battles_label = Wars
, website =
, commander1 = ...
and the adjacent Washington Aqueduct system, had failed to bring the much anticipated street car service to the Chautauqua site and Glen Echo Village.
Compounding their overextended credit, the Baltzley brothers found themselves the victim of common rumor. At the beginning of the 1892 season, rumor had spread throughout Washington that Glen Echo was rampant with malaria. Regardless of the validity of these accusations, when combined with the brother's precarious finances, the Chautauqua site fell into disuse.
Amusement park
In 1897, the Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company completed an electric streetcar
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
line that traveled from a car barn in Georgetown, passed the former Chautauqua site and terminated in Cabin John.[(1) ]
(2)
(3) After changing its name to become the Washington Railway and Electric Company (WR&E) in 1902,[ the railroad constructed a trolley park (a type of ]amusement park
An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, as well as other events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central ...
) at the Chautauqua site. Named "Glen Echo Park", the facility became one of the larger establishments of its type in the Washington area. The park remained popular well into the late 1940s.
Beginning in 1940, the Capital Transit Company
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 clea ...
(the successor to the WR&E) built a number of Streamline Moderne structures within its facility.[ By the mid-1950s, however, attendance began to decline due to the growing popularity of larger regional theme parks, such as ]Disneyland
Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park in Anaheim, California. Opened in 1955, it was the first theme park opened by The Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney. Disney in ...
, and also because of the proliferation of new retail products that children of the baby boom generation
Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the Western demographic cohort following the Silent Generation and preceding Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964, during the mid-20th century baby boom. The ...
could use during their leisure time. On January 3, 1960, the D.C. Transit System, Inc. (the successor to Capital Transit) closed the trolley line that had connected Georgetown to the park (see: Abandonment of streetcars in Washington, D.C.).
Segregation and integration at the amusement park
Like many public facilities in and around the Washington area, Glen Echo Park was restricted to whites for 63 out of the first 70 years of its history. On June 30, 1960, to draw attention to the park's racial segregation
Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...
, a "D.C. Non-Violent Action Group", which students from the historically black
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of primarily serving the African-American community. ...
Howard University led, organized an eleven-week civil rights campaign against the park's policies.
The campaign began with a sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
protest on the carousel during which five African-American
African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...
students were arrested for trespassing.[ Members of the ]liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and m ...
, politically connected and largely Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
Bannockburn community near the park then joined the students in protesting and picketing for change. As a result, the park opened its doors to all races for the 1961 season.
Four years later, the Supreme Court
A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
considered the student's arrests in ''Griffin v. Maryland
''Griffin v. Maryland'', 378 U.S. 130 (1964), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the convictions of five African Americans who were arrested during a protest of a privately owned amusement park by a park employee ...
''. The court reversed the convictions on the grounds that the state of Maryland had unconstitutionally used its police power to help a private business enforce its racial exclusionary policy.[
]
Amusement park closure
On Easter Monday, 1966, the park's roller coaster closed early after a cigarette thrown from a coaster car damaged its tracks.[ When park officials did not explain the reason for the closure, African Americans visiting from Washington became disruptive. As tensions flared, the park closed for the day, resulting in a mass exodus of approximately 6,000 customers.]
Reports of slashed seats on the first bus returning to the city then prompted D.C. Transit to stop bus service to Glen Echo, stranding hundreds of people at the park. Vandalism occurred during long nighttime walks back to the city, adding to tensions in the communities surrounding the park.[
Although the park's popularity had declined severely before this incident, newspaper coverage of the event further discouraged potential customers and dealt a blow from which the park could not recover. Attendance at the park fell when former patrons afraid of recurrences avoided the park. The park also developed a reputation of being a haven for teenage gangs.][
In 1968, the ]U.S. Department of the Interior
The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...
and the National Capital Planning Commission asked the General Services Administration
The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. gover ...
(GSA) to try to acquire the Glen Echo Property by means of a swap, to include the land and all permanent structures. In April 1969, the park's owners announced that they would not open the park during that year. They sold most of the rides and other amusements during the next two years.
Acquisition and management by National Park Service
The GSA officially acquired the title to Glen Echo Park on April 1, 1970. Two months later, the NPS took over administration of the park. The Glen Echo tract and title was officially transferred to the NPS on March 5, 1976. Of the approximately that originally came with the title, a portion () became a part of the Clara Barton National Historic Site
The Clara Barton National Historic Site, which includes the Clara Barton House, was established in 1974 to interpret the life of Clara Barton (1821–1912), an American pioneer teacher, nurse, and humanitarian who was the founder of the American ...
while the remainder ( became part of the lands of the George Washington Memorial Parkway. After a year of clean-up operations and planning, on June 20, 1971, the National Park Service opened the park to the public for the first of a series of consecutive summer Sunday afternoon events.[
]
Dentzel carousel
The 1921 Dentzel menagerie carousel
A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...
is the only park ride that remains from the former Glen Echo Amusement Park. The ride features 38 horses, four rabbits, four ostriches, a lion, a tiger, a giraffe, and a prancing deer. A Wurlitzer
The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...
style 165 Band Organ provides the carousel's music; it was built in 1925 and replaced a Wurlitzer style 153 band organ at the park in 1926.
In its heyday the carousel sported an operating brass ring, in which riders could reach out and pull a ring out of a holder next to the carousel. Grabbing a brass ring would win the lucky rider a free ride. The brass ring arm is still visible today, although it no longer operates.
The face of the carousel had changed greatly since 1921, with the animals, rounding boards, inner drum panels, and band organ receiving several new coats of paint over the years. An installation photograph from 1921, as compared to the carousel in 1983, showed an original design of the body and tack on the Indian horse that was very different from the present-day animal. Chipping away at the horse's paint revealed several strata of differently colored and styled paint jobs spanning the past sixty years, with the original 1921 paint at the bottom.
The carousel was restored by specialist Rosa Ragan, who has restored several other carousels in the United States. She restored the Indian horse by removing the park paint, exposing as much of the original paint as possible, and filling in the gaps in the original paint, a process called inpainting, before covering the horse in a protective varnish. This process, however, exposed the original paint to damage from riders, thus rendering the horse unrideable.
In order to restore each animal without risking damage to the original paint, Ragan developed a new process of uncovering the original paint job, recording the colors and design, and then covering the original paint with a reversible varnish before giving the animal a white base coat and repainting it in the original colors. However, Ragan did leave a small window of original paint exposed on each animal for riders to find.
These glimpses of the original 1921 paint are called "windows to the past" and can be found on the plain side (the inward-facing side) of each animal. Ragan's 20-year restoration of the carousel completely overhauled the animals, the band organ, and the rounding boards and drum panels, returning the carousel to its original beauty and splendor.
The carousel was in a scene in the 1989 comedy Chances Are starring Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of ...
and Cybill Shepherd. The carousel was individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...
in 1980.
Arts and cultural center
Management by Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture
Talks began of forming a formal partnership between the NPS and the government of Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is the most populous county in the state of Maryland. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat and largest municipality is Rockville, although the census-design ...
. A final management plan was proposed and accepted by February 2001. By establishing this formal partnership, enough funds became available to begin the necessary work on all the structures within the park. A non-profit partnership was formed, the ''Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture'', which would take over administration of the arts programming while the National Park Service would continue to oversee, manage, maintain, preserve, and protect the park's resources.[
Each year, more than 350,000 people visit the park. The partnership's mission is to present artistic, cultural, and educational offerings at the Park and to promote the Park as a destination for the region's population.]
The partnership manages the park's arts programs and facilities, including its historic buildings. In collaboration with Montgomery County and the NPS, the partnership works with resident artists and organizations to develop arts programming, operates the Dentzel carousel and the Spanish Ballroom, presents a social dance program, produces festivals and special events, conducts fundraising and marketing, and manages and maintains all facilities.[
From 2003 to 2010, extensive renovations of the Park's facilities took place under the direction of the county and the NPS with input from the partnership and resident organizations. Federal, state, and county resources as well as private donations funded these renovations. The renovations included the Spanish Ballroom, the Dentzel Carousel, the Puppet Co. Playhouse, the Arcade building, the Yellow Barn, Adventure Theatre, the Candy Corner, the Chautauqua Tower, the Ballroom Annex, and the Caretaker's Cottage.
]
Resident arts programs
Glen Echo Park is home to thirteen resident artists and arts organizations. The resident artists and organizations offer classes, concerts, exhibitions, open studios hours, workshops, and lectures. Resident programs and artists include: Adventure Theatre MTC, Art Glass Center at Glen Echo, Glen Echo Glassworks, Glen Echo Pottery, J. Jordan Bruns, Photoworks, Playgroup in the Park, the Puppet Co., SilverWorks, Glen Echo Park Aquarium, Washington Conservatory of Music, Yellow Barn Studio & Gallery, and Young Creative Spirit.
Special events and concerts
The park hosts several family festivals and special events throughout the year, including Family Day (when the carousel opens for the season), Then & Wow, Labor Day Art Show, Irish Music and Dance Showcase, Washington Folk Festival, Fall Frolic, Contrastock, an extensively-decorated Halloween dance, inaugural balls, and Winter's Eve. From June through August, the Glen Echo Park Partnership presents a free summer concert series each Thursday night in the Bumper Car Pavilion.
Social dancing
Glen Echo Park offers a broad array of social dance events and classes as part of its standard programs. There are regular dances and classes in waltz
The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position.
History
There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...
, swing
Swing or swinging may refer to:
Apparatus
* Swing (seat), a hanging seat that swings back and forth
* Pendulum, an object that swings
* Russian swing, a swing-like circus apparatus
* Sex swing, a type of harness for sexual intercourse
* Swing rid ...
, contra, and salsa
Salsa most often refers to:
* Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments
* Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music
* Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music
Salsa or SALSA may also refer to:
A ...
. Dances take place in the historic Spanish Ballroom, the Bumper Car Pavilion, and the recently renovated, climate-controlled Ballroom Annex (''The Back Room)''.
Approximately 60,000 people attend Glen Echo Park's dances each year. A $19 million renovation of the Spanish Ballroom in 2003 returned it to its original splendor, giving it continued prominence as one of the premiere sites for dancing in the Washington DC area.
The 18-month renovation was preceded by a National Park Service led, volunteer-labor makeover of the deteriorating Bumper Car Pavilion, converting it into an all-weather dance pavilion & band shell, for uninterrupted dancing through the renovation. Currently, it remains in use as an alternative dance venue and for private events, such as wedding receptions.
All social dances are open to the public, for all ages, with no prior experience or partner required. All dances offer an introductory lesson before the dance begins and most include live music. Alcohol is prohibited on park grounds, and smoking is prohibited in all buildings.
PCC streetcar
In 2005, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transport Authority (SEPTA) donated to the NPS a streamlined 1947 PCC streetcar
The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...
that had earlier served Philadelphia. The NPS installed the historic trolley on tracks laid in front of the entrance to Glen Echo Park, with plans to restore it at a cost of about $100,000. However, the streetcar deteriorated when no funds became available for the restoration. The streetcar left Glen Echo in 2012 after the GSA sold it, but its tracks remained in place.
Incidents at Glen Echo Park
* June 23, 1918: The first fatality at the amusement park occurred when Joseph J. Hamel, a 43 year old stone cutter from Washington, fell from a roller-coaster (known as ''Gravity Railway'') car while sitting on an armrest, due to overcrowding. Hamel was rushed to Georgetown Hospital but died the next day.
* May 5, 1989, during a Friday night contra dance, the rain-swollen Minnehaha Creek overflowed its banks, and an estimated 25 vehicles were swept from the main parking lot toward the Potomac River, some of them actually ending up in the river. More than 50 vehicles were destroyed.
Images
Pictures of Glen Echo Park are available on Wikimedia Commons
Wikimedia Commons (or simply Commons) is a media repository of free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation.
Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used across all of the Wikimedia projects in ...
.
File:Glen Echo Park, entrance (21616175172).jpg, A PCC streetcar
The PCC (Presidents' Conference Committee) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful in its native country, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the ...
at the renovated Streamline Moderne
Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In industrial design ...
entrance to Glen Echo Park (June 2006)
File:Glen_Echo_Park_(6929279761).jpg, The renovated Streamline Moderne Popcorn Gallery, Visitors Center and Arcade (February 2012)
File:GlenEchoArcade2006.JPG, The renovated Streamline Moderne Arcade (June 2006)
Image:GlenEchoCuddleUp.JPG, The renovated Streamline Moderne Cuddle Up (May 2006)
Image:Crystal pool.jpg, The Streamline Moderne entrance to the Crystal Pool before renovation (August 2007)
Image:Crystal Pool Entrance.jpg, The renovated Streamline Moderne entrance to the Crystal Pool (June 2012)
Image:GlenEcho_BumperCarPavilion.JPG, The renovated Bumper Car Pavilion (May 2006)
Image:Chautauqua Tower Sep 11.jpg, The renovated Chautauqua Tower (September 2011)
File:Glen Echo Park (6929277155).jpg, The renovated Spanish Ballroom (February 2012)
Image:Glen-echo-stream.jpg, Minnehaha Branch (April 2009)
See also
*Chautauqua Tower
Glen Echo Park is an arts and cultural center in Glen Echo, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Located about northwest of the city's downtown area, the park's site was initially developed in 1891 as a National Chautauqua Assembly.
Following ...
Footnotes
References
External links
*
Glen Echo Park, from the National Park Service
* Cook, Richard A. (1997). ttps://glenecho-cabinjohn.com/GE-01.html A History of Glen Echo, Maryland
Glen Echo Town
Glen Echo Park
*, including 2003 photo — Maryland Historical Trust
*, including 2003 photo — Maryland Historical Trust
Guide to the Glen Echo Chautauqua and Glen Echo Park Company records, 1889-1953
— George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, preside ...
The following are filed under 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, Montgomery County, MD:
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
{{authority control
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
Queen Anne architecture in Maryland
Amusement parks in Maryland
Shingle Style architecture in Maryland
Tourist attractions in Montgomery County, Maryland
Defunct amusement parks in the United States
National Park Service areas in Maryland
Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Maryland
Arts centers in Maryland
Parks in Montgomery County, Maryland
Historic American Buildings Survey in Maryland
Historic American Engineering Record in Maryland
Historic American Landscapes Survey in Maryland
National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Maryland
Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland
Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in the United States