Resting quietly between Cleveland Park and Chevy Chase and bordered by Rock Creek Park to the east is the quaint neighborhood of Forest Hills. Those of us who grew up in the era of the Metro are probably more likely to think about this neighborhood as Van Ness/UDC. The station takes its name from Van Ness Street, the main cross street in the neighborhood, and the University of the District of Columbia. Since the northern border of the neighborhood is considered to be Nebraska Avenue, I grew up right across the street from Forest Hills.
Once home to a Native American soapstone quarry, Forest Hills has quite an interesting history. In 1763, long before the creation of Washington D.C., Col. Samuel Beale was granted a tract of land by Lord Baltimore and named the area Azadia. Much of this tract would later be purchased by Isaac Pierce who would build his namesake mill along Rock Creek. In 1814, Revolutionary War veteran and retired land surveyor John Adlum bought a 200 acre tract of land in the area to start a vineyard. He named his estate Springland Farm and went on to become one of the first commercial producers of wine in the country (Adlum is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in Georgetown). During the Civil War, Forest Hills was the site of Fort Kearny – one of the ring of forts protecting the Capital City.
In 1901, part of this old vineyard was purchased to build the first permanent home of the National Bureau of Standards. At the time, the area was quite rural, and access to the newly acquired property was via an old dirt path from Pierce Mill. The campus of the Bureau would grow to include 89 buildings, and the neighborhood would grow up around it, at some point taking on the name Forest Hills. The Bureau of Standards would occupy this campus and be a major neighborhood employer until moving out to Maryland in the 1970s. Sadly, not one of the historic buildings that made up the campus remains today which is why you’ll see mostly ultra-modern buildings on the land where the Bureau once stood. The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) was established on the site in 1977, and several embassies were also built nearby, including the beautiful embassies of Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. A small park, International Park, commemorates the old Bureau with a Greek Statue and an apple tree descended from the one which inspired Isaac Newton’s ideas on gravity. You can also see the old stone gate which remains on Connecticut Avenue. Following Van Ness east of Connecticut Avenue, you’ll come to the old Dunbarton College campus which is now home to Howard University’s Schools of Law and Divinity. It’s also where neighborhood kids have been sledding for generations.
It’s interesting to look at some of the businesses that have come and gone in the neighborhood through the years. Although there isn’t a single gas station there now, the commercial strip along Connecticut Avenue near Van Ness was once referred to as “Gasoline Alley” since SIX gas stations occupied the block in the 1930s. In 1931, a Tom Thumb Miniature Golf course was located in the neighborhood, and the landmark Flagship Car Wash opened its doors (despite the sign saying 1941). You could once find a bowling alley and skating rink (the Ice Palace) in Forest Hills too. In 1967, Van Ness Center became one of the first indoor malls in the city, and included a Hot Shoppes Restaurant, a local favorite.
Forest Hills has had its share of celebrity residents including Harry Truman when he was serving as Vice President, Lyndon and Lady Bird Johnson during his congressional years (their daughter went to Murch Elementary), and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Post cereal heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post owned a massive estate called Hillwood in the neighborhood, now a local museum. Marilyn Monroe lived in Forest Hills for a week in 1957 while her husband Arthur Miller testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and a young Elvis Presley visited Forest Hills in 1956 for an interview at WMAL-TV.
A Hidden Memory of Dowd’s Radio and Electric Co.
Today, Forest Hills remains a pleasant, tree-lined residential neighborhood and a great place to live. There have been some wonderful improvements on the UDC campus in recent years and it’s been an enjoyable place to walk during this pandemic. I really love the old staircase off of Tilden Street that leads up to the small but beautiful International Park. I hope you enjoy these photos from Forest Hills. I have purposefully left out the part of the neighborhood that butts up into Chevy Chase for a later post, so be sure you subscribe below so you don’t miss out.
This post owes heavily to the research of Ann Kessler for the Forest Hills Citizens Association which has a ton of fascinating history on their website (HERE). D.C. Quarantine Quarters is a series of photo essays from around my hometown, Washington D.C, in the time of our quarantine here due to Covid 19 in 2020. Washington D.C. is itself divided into four quadrants or quarters, and people from the city strongly identify with which quadrant they grew up in. As a visual storyteller, my normal photo essays are long, but this series aims to be more succinct and include only about 25 photos in each post, hence “quarters”. I hope you enjoy these photos of my hometown neighborhoods. Click on any photo to enlarge it. All photos are available for purchase and licensing, please contact me at the link below for more information.