Chevy Chase () is the colloquial name of an area that includes a
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
, several
incorporated villages, 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 counte ...
in southern
Montgomery County, Maryland
Montgomery County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, Maryland ...
; and one adjoining neighborhood in northwest
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
Most of these derive from a late-19th-century effort to create a new suburb that its developer dubbed Chevy Chase after a
colonial land patent
A land patent is a form of letters patent assigning official ownership of a particular tract of land that has gone through various legally-prescribed processes like surveying and documentation, followed by the letter's signing, sealing, and publi ...
.
Primarily residential, 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, private clubs whose members include many prominent politicians and Washingtonians.
The name 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 politician and colonial administrator who served as the proprietary governor of the Province of Maryland. He inherited the title to Maryland aged just f ...
, on July 10, 1725. It has historic associations with a 1388 ''
chevauchée
A ''chevauchée'' (, "promenade" or "horse charge", depending on context) was a raiding method of medieval warfare for weakening the enemy, primarily by burning and pillaging enemy territory in order to reduce the productivity of a region, in ...
'', 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. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
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 ...
of
Northumberland
Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...
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 wri ...
".
Elements
The area known as Chevy Chase includes several entities in southern
Montgomery County:
* The
Town of Chevy Chase, an incorporated
town
A town is a type of a human settlement, generally larger than a village but smaller than a city.
The criteria for distinguishing a town vary globally, often depending on factors such as population size, economic character, administrative stat ...
*
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...
, a census-designated place
* The
incorporated villages of:
**
Chevy Chase Village
**
Chevy Chase Section Three
**
Chevy Chase Section Five
**
Martin's Additions
**
North Chevy Chase
It also includes the neighborhood of
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...
in
northwest Washington, D.C.
The
United States Postal Service
The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or simply the Postal Service, is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the executive branch of the federal governmen ...
also uses "Chevy Chase" for some postal addresses that lie outside these areas: the town of
Somerset
Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, the
Village of Friendship Heights, and the part of the
Rock Creek Forest neighborhood that lies east of Jones Mill Road and Beach Drive and west of Grubb Road.
History
19th century
In the 1880s, Senator
Francis G. Newlands of
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...
and his partners began acquiring farmland in unincorporated areas of Maryland and just inside the District of Columbia, for the purpose of developing a residential
streetcar suburb
A streetcar suburb is a residential community whose growth and development was strongly shaped by the use of streetcar lines as a primary means of transportation. Such suburbs developed in the United States in the years before the automobile, when ...
for
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
, 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 Horsecar, horse-drawn and carried people short distances on flat terrain. After brief experiment ...
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.
The company was founded in 1890 by Francis G. Newlands and William M. Stewart, who sought to develop all-white residential suburb ...
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 wa ...
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, B ...
north to Jones Bridge Road.
Newlands, an avowed
white supremacist
White supremacy is the belief that white people are superior to those of other races. The belief favors the maintenance and defense of any power and privilege held by white people. White supremacy has roots in the now-discredited doctrine ...
, 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
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 wa ...
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 of
Philadelphia
Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...
designed the first four houses in the area.
Toward the northern end of its holdings, the Land Company dammed
Coquelin Run
Coquelin Run is a tributary of Rock Creek in Montgomery County, Maryland. It rises in the Town of Chevy Chase, runs for about two miles while draining an area of 1,095 acres (1.71 square miles), and debouches in Rock Creek in unincorporated C ...
, a stream that crossed its land, to create the manmade
Chevy Chase Lake
Chevy Chase Lake was a trolley park in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, that operated from 1894 until about 1936. It was created by the Chevy Chase Land Company, which sought to draw residents of Washington, D.C., to its nascent suburb of C ...
. The body of water furnished water to the coal-fired generators that powered the streetcars of the Land Company's
Rock Creek Railway
The Rock Creek Railway, which operated independently from 1890 to 1895, was one of the first Streetcars in Washington, D.C., electric streetcar companies in Washington, D.C., and the first to extend into Streetcars in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, ...
. The streetcar soon became vital to the community; it connected workers to the city, and even ran errands for residents.
The lake was also the centerpiece of the Land Company's Chevy Chase Lake
trolley park
In the United States, trolley parks, which started in the 19th century, were picnic and recreation areas along or at the ends of streetcar lines in most of the larger cities. These were precursors to amusement parks. Trolley parks were often cre ...
, a venue for boating, swimming, and other activities meant to draw city dwellers to the new suburb. Similar considerations led the Land Company to build a hotel at 7100 Connecticut Avenue; it opened it in 1894 as the Chevy Chase Spring Hotel and was later renamed the Chevy Chase Inn. "The hotel failed to attract sufficient patrons, especially during the winter months," wrote the Chevy Chase Historical Society, and in 1895, the Land Company leased the property for a year to the Young Ladies Seminary.
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 Metropolitan Club may refer to:
*Metropolitan Club (New York City), a private social club in Manhattan, New York, United States
* Metropolitan Club (San Francisco), a women's club in San Francisco, California, United States
* Metropolitan Club (Was ...
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 covenant
A covenant, in its most general and covenant (historical), historical sense, is a solemn promise to engage in or refrain from a specified action. Under historical English common law, a covenant was distinguished from an ordinary contract by the ...
s 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''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''race"—i.e., Jews">sic">'sic<_a>''.html" ;"title="sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''">sic.html" ;"title="'sic">'sic''race"—i.e., 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''.
In 1964, Arthur Krock wrote an article for ''The New York Times'' alleging that the Chevy Chase Country Club barred "Negroes" and "one ethnic group of Caucasians" from membership. In response, Club president Randall H. Hagnar denied that the club excluded Black or Jewish people; he said that no members were African-Americans but that several were Jewish.
In 1903, Lea M. Bouligny bought the old Chevy Chase Inn and founded the
Chevy Chase College and Seminary.
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.
Education
Chevy Chase is served by the
Montgomery County Public Schools. Residents of Chevy Chase are zoned to Somerset,
Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...
or North Chevy Chase Elementary School, which feed into Silver Creek Middle School, Westland Middle School and
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) is a State school, public Secondary school, high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda, Maryland, Bethesda.
Part of the Montgomery County Public Schools ...
. Private schools in Chevy Chase include Concord Hill School,
Oneness-Family School
Oneness-Family School is an 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 age 2 through grade 1 ...
, and Blessed Sacrament School.
Rochambeau French International School
Rochambeau The French International School of Washington DC is a private French international school in Montgomery County, Maryland, near Washington, D.C. It maintains its administrative headquarters and its secondary campus in Bethesda, and a j ...
formerly had a campus in Chevy Chase.
Retail
Notable people
Current residents
*
Ann Brashares
Ann Brashares (born July 30, 1967) is an American Young adult fiction, young adult novelist. She is best known as the author of ''The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants'' series.
Life and career
Brashares was born in Alexandria, Virginia, and gr ...
– author
[
* John Carlson – professional ice hockey player
* ]Pati Jinich
Patricia Jinich ( born Patricia Drijanski, March 30, 1972) is a Mexican-American chef, TV personality, cookbook author, educator, and food writer. She is best known for her James Beard Award-winningJames Beard Foundation"The 2018 James Beard Medi ...
- chef, host of ''Pati's Mexican Table'' on PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...
* Marvin Kalb
Marvin Leonard Kalb (born June 9, 1930) is an American journalist. He was the founding director of the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy and Edward R. Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy from 1987 to 1999. The Sh ...
– journalist[
* ]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 Oct ...
– associate justice, United States Supreme Court
* Tony Kornheiser
Anthony Irwin Kornheiser (; born July 13, 1948) is an American television sports talk show host and former Sports journalism, sportswriter and columnist. Kornheiser is best known for his endeavors in three forms of media: as a writer for ''The Wa ...
– television host, currently ESPN
ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...
employee presenter
* Howard Kurtz
Howard Alan Kurtz (; born August 1, 1953) is an American journalist and author and host of '' Media Buzz'' on Fox News.
He is the former media writer for ''The Washington Post'' and the former Washington bureau chief for ''The Daily Beast''. He h ...
– host of Fox News
The Fox News Channel (FNC), commonly known as Fox News, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conservatism in the United States, conservative List of news television channels, news and political commentary Television stati ...
program Media Buzz
* Collin Martin – soccer player
* Chris Matthews
Christopher John Matthews (born December 17, 1945) is an American political commentator, retired talk show host, and author. Matthews hosted his weeknight hour-long talk show, ''Hardball with Chris Matthews'', on America's Talking and later on M ...
– commentator
* Jerome Powell
Jerome Hayden "Jay" Powell (born February 4, 1953) is an American investment banker and lawyer who has been the 16th chair of the Federal Reserve since 2018.
A native of Washington, D.C., Powell graduated from Princeton University and from th ...
– 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 chairman presides at meetings of the Board.
...
* John Roberts
John Glover Roberts Jr. (born January 27, 1955) is an American jurist serving since 2005 as the 17th chief justice of the United States. He has been described as having a Moderate conservatism, moderate conservative judicial philosophy, thoug ...
– Chief Justice of the United States
The chief justice of the United States is the chief judge of the Supreme Court of the United States and is the highest-ranking officer of the U.S. federal judiciary. Appointments Clause, Article II, Section 2, Clause 2 of the U.S. Constitution g ...
* A. B. Stoddard
Alexandra Brandon Stoddard is a writer at large at The Bulwark and an associate editor and columnist at RealClearPolitics. Previously, she worked as an associate editor and columnist for '' The Hill'' newspaper. She has been quoted by other news ...
– political commentator and editor of RealClearPolitics
RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator. It was founded in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. It features selected polit ...
* George Will
George Frederick Will (born May 4, 1941) is an American libertarian conservative writer and political commentator. He writes columns for ''The Washington Post'' on a regular basis and provides commentary for '' NewsNation''. In 1986, ''The Wall ...
– conservative commentator[
* Portia Wu – lawyer]
Former residents
* Yosef Alon – Israeli Air Force
The Israeli Air Force (IAF; , commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial and space warfare branch of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It was founded on May 28, 1948, shortly after the Israeli Declaration of Indep ...
officer
* Jamshid Amouzegar
Jamshid Amouzegar (; 25 June 1923 – 27 September 2016) was an Iranian economist, politician, and the prime minister of Iran from 7 August 1977 until his resignation on 27 August 1978. Prior to that, he served as the minister of interior a ...
– former prime minister of Iran
* Tom Braden – 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–Brinkle ...
– journalist[
* ]John Charles Daly
John Charles Patrick Croghan Daly (February 20, 1914 – February 24, 1991) was an American journalist, host, CBS radio and television personality, ABC News (United States), ABC News executive, TV anchor, and game show host, best known for his wor ...
– media personality
* Mark Ein
Mark David Ein (born December 31, 1964) is an American venture capitalist and sports entrepreneur. He owns the ''Washington City Paper'' and is a limited partner of the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL). Ein earned a de ...
– venture capitalist
* 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, College Park, University of Maryland football player selected in the NFL Draft. Guckeyson was killed ...
– athlete and military aviator
* Josh Harris – investor and sports team owner
* 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 ...
– journalist
* 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; ) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with advancing national security through collecting and analyzing intelligence from around the world and ...
* Genevieve Hughes – one of the 13 original Freedom Riders
Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the Racial segregation in the United States, segregated Southern United States, Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of t ...
* Hubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American politician who served from 1965 to 1969 as the 38th vice president of the United States. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Minnesota from 19 ...
– 38th vice president of the United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
* 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 ...
– television anchor
* Ernest W. Lefever - conservative political figure
* Ted Lerner
Theodore Nathan Lerner (October 15, 1925 – February 12, 2023) was an American real estate developer and managing principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team. He was the founder of Lerner Enterprises, the largest private landowne ...
– owner of Lerner Enterprises
Lerner Enterprises is a company owned by the Lerner 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 founded i ...
and the Washington Nationals
The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C. The Nationals compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) East Division. They play their home games at Na ...
* Clarice Lispector
Clarice Lispector (, born Chaya Pinkhasivna Lispector (; ) December 10, 1920December 9, 1977) was a Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her distinctive and innovative works delve into diverse narrative forms, weaving them ...
- Brazilian writer and diplomat's wife
* Anthony McAuliffe
General Anthony Clement "Nuts" McAuliffe (2 July 1898 – 10 August 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 ...
– US general
* Sandra Day O'Connor
Sandra Day O'Connor (March 26, 1930 – December 1, 2023) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1981 to 2006. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan, O' ...
– United States Supreme Court Justice[
* Hilary Rhoda – model
* Nancy Grace Roman – former NASA executive
* ]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. He is a co-host of two New York City radio programs: '' E ...
– media personality
* Danny Rubin – basketball player
* 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[
* Karl Truesdell – US Army major general]
See also
* List of sundown towns in the United States
A sundown town is a municipality or neighborhood within the United States that practices or once practiced a form of racial segregation characterized by intimidation, hostility, or violence among White people directed toward non-Whites, especial ...
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