Chevy Chase () is a 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 ...

It borders

Chevy Chase, Maryland Chevy Chase () is the colloquial name of an area that includes a town, several incorporated villages, and an unincorporated census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland; and one adjoining neighborhood in northwest Washington, D ...

Geography

The neighborhood is generally agreed to be bounded by

Rock Creek Park Rock Creek Park is a large urban park that bisects the Northwest, Washington, D.C., Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Created by Act of Congress in 1890, the park comprises 1,754 acres (2.74 mi2, 7.10 km2), generally along Rock Cr ...

on the east, Western Avenue (which divides D.C. and Maryland) and Tennyson Street on the north, and, to the west, Reno Road and the

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 ...

neighborhood. Opinions differ on the southern boundary, where Chevy Chase meets Forest Hills, but many residents consider it to be Broad Branch Road between 32nd and 27th streets. The main roads leading in and out of Chevy Chase, D.C. are

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 ...

, Nebraska Avenue, Reno Road, Military Road and Western Avenue. The area is served by the M4, L2, L8, E2, and E4 Metrobus lines. Chevy Chase is within walking distance of three Red Line stations: Van Ness-UDC, Tenleytown-AU, and

. The public schools that serve Chevy Chase are Lafayette Elementary, Ben W. Murch Elementary, Alice Deal Middle School, and

Jackson-Reed High School Jackson-Reed High School (formerly known as Woodrow Wilson High School) is a public high school in Washington, D.C. It serves grades 9 through 12 as part of the District of Columbia Public Schools. The school sits in the Tenleytown neighborhood, ...

History

In the late 1880s, then-Representative 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 to buy up farmland in northwest Washington, D.C., and 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 ...

, to develop 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 ...

. (See

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 ...

.) They founded the Chevy Chase Land Company in 1890, and its eventual holdings are now known as this neighborhood and

. Chevy Chase D.C. was developed beginning in the early 1900s after construction was completed on the

Chevy Chase Line The Capital Traction Company was the smaller of the two major street railway companies in Washington, D.C., in the early 20th century. It was formed in 1895 when the Rock Creek Railway acquired the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company. The ...

, a streetcar line stretching to and beyond the northwestern boundary of the District of Columbia, thereby linking the area to downtown. Over succeeding decades, the formerly remote area was transformed from farmland and woods to middle-class housing. Chevy Chase D.C. includes many

kit houses Kit may refer to: People and fictional characters * Kit (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname * Kit (surname), a list of people Places * Kit, Iran, a village in Mazandaran Province * Kit Hill, Co ...

, including

Sears Catalog Home Sears Modern Homes were houses sold primarily through mail order catalog by Sears, Roebuck and Co., an American retailer. From 1908 to 1942, Sears sold more than 70,000 of these houses in North America. Sears Modern Homes were purchased prima ...

s and others, a popular housing option in the early twentieth century that allowed individuals of modest means to order by mail the materials and instructions for a home and build it themselves. The neighborhood's major commercial road is

NW. The street is home to commercial establishments, apartments, a community center, and a regional branch of the D.C. Public Library. Unlike many urban neighborhoods that have lost local businesses to large chains and suburban malls, the small, generally locally owned businesses along

remain and are well patronized by the local population. These businesses include Magruder's Supermarket, established in 1875; and the Avalon Theatre, which opened in 1923 as a silent film house and ran until the theater underwent renovations in 2003. The Avalon thereafter reopened as a non-profit movie theater. The area's parks include

, Lafayette-Pointer Park, and Livingston Park.

Electoral boundaries redrawn

Until 2002, the entire neighborhood was located in Ward 3. After the 2000 census revealed an increase in population in Ward 3 and a decrease in population in Ward 4, the

Council of the District of Columbia The Council of the District of Columbia (or simply D.C. Council) is the legislative branch of the government of the District of Columbia. As permitted in the United States Constitution, the district is not part of any U.S. state and is overseen ...

voted to reassign the portion of the neighborhood east of Broad Branch Road to Ward 4 as of January 1, 2002. Many residents were upset at the decision. The Chevy Chase Civic Association sued to prevent the redistricting on the grounds that it would reduce African American voting strength in Ward 3 and would result in unconstitutional and racially motivated

gerrymandering Gerrymandering, ( , originally ) defined in the contexts of Representative democracy, representative electoral systems, is the political manipulation of Boundary delimitation, electoral district boundaries to advantage a Political party, pa ...

. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia upheld the redistricting, as did the U.S. Court of Appeals. After the redistricting, the neighborhood's

Advisory Neighborhood Commission Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs) are bodies of local government in the District of Columbia, the capital city of the United Statesdistrict. The ANC system was created in 1974 through a referendum (73 percent voted "yes") in the District of ...

was called 3/4G. In 2023, the Chevy Chase DC Conservancy (CCDCC) applied to designate the neighborhood a historic district by the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board.

Education

The neighborhood is served by the

District of Columbia Public Schools The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) is the local public school system for Washington, D.C. It is distinct from the District of Columbia Public Charter Schools (DCPCS), which governs public charter schools in the city. Compositi ...

, including Lafayette Elementary, Alice Deal Junior High School, and

. Private schools in Chevy Chase D.C. include St. John's College High School, a private, co-educational Catholic high school; and Blessed Sacrament School, a Catholic elementary school that enrolls some non-parishioners and non-Catholics. The

District of Columbia Public Library The District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) is the public library system for Washington, D.C. The system includes 26 individual libraries including Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, DCPL's central library. History In October 1895, ...

operates the Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library.

References

External links

*
2023 application
for designation as a historic neighborhood by D.C. {{Authority control 1890 establishments in Washington, D.C. Neighborhoods in Northwest (Washington, D.C.)