History

Mentions of Glover Park in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for "Glover Park", "Tunlaw road".

Clips are machine-read text (OCR) from scanned Evening Star pages on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, lightly cleaned (line-break hyphens rejoined, stray symbols removed); misspellings are the scanner's. Newspapers this old are public domain. Each clip links to its page at loc.gov. Clips that mention race, covenants, deed restrictions or slurs are skipped automatically (keyword list: race, races, racial, colored, coloured, negro, negroes, white only, whites only, for whites, white people, white persons, white residents, caucasian, segregation, segregated, covenant, covenants, restricted, restriction, restrictions, plus a list of slurs), because they need an editor's context; legal notices and lists of private individuals are skipped too.

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  Naval Observatory · [between 1916 and 1917]Naval observatory, [Washington, D.C.]
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  Naval Observatory grounds · [between 1910 and 1926]Naval Observatory, [Washington, D.C.], Longitude houses for determining difference in time between Wash. & Paris
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  Washington Cathedral close · [ca. 1922]Peace Cross, Washington Cathedral Close
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  Washington Cathedral · 1923, c1926[Washington Cathedral (unfinished) at night, Washington, D.C.]

Photographs from the Library of Congress (National Photo Company Collection; Postcard filing series; Prints & Photographs Division), each with no known restrictions on publication or in the public domain, per the Library. Titles are the Library's, written when the photos were catalogued; some use the language of their time. Each links to its record.

Beecher Street NW

Honors: Probably Henry Ward Beecher, Brooklyn preacher and abolitionist

Glover Park History's probable namesake is Henry Ward Beecher, whose Brooklyn congregation raised money in 1848 to free Mary and Emily Edmonson, two enslaved Washington sisters condemned to sale after the failed escape on the schooner Pearl, and sent them to Oberlin College.

Source: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Benton Street NW

Honors: Probably Thomas Hart Benton, U.S. senator from Missouri (Glover Park History's best candidate)

Part of the two-syllable alphabet. Some of these names came from an 1872 Board of Public Works list of notable Americans meant to replace L'Enfant's lettered streets; the plan was shelved and names reused later. The board's deliberations went unrecorded, so Glover Park History calls Benton only the likeliest candidate.

Source: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Calvert Street NWc. 1930 (cut through to Tunlaw Road)

Honors: The Calvert family, proprietors of colonial Maryland (which Calvert is not known)

Glover Park History sees no reason to doubt the Calvert family link but cannot say whether Cecil or Leonard Calvert was meant. Residents remembered this stretch as muddy Schneider's Lane, and one recalled houses being trucked away around 1929-30 shortly before Calvert Street was cut through to Tunlaw Road.

Earlier: Schneider's LaneSources: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · Grace Powell Cochran: Let's Look Back (Glover Park History) · Margaret Hunt: Childhood in Glover Park, 1926-1939 (Glover Park History)

Edmunds Street NW

Honors: Probably George Franklin Edmunds, U.S. senator from Vermont

Glover Park History's 'best bet' is Senator George F. Edmunds (1828-1919), a Radical Republican who voted to impeach Andrew Johnson, wrote the Edmunds Act against polygamy and helped draft the Sherman Antitrust Act.

Source: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Fulton Street NW

Honors: Probably Robert Fulton, inventor and engineer

The street along Glover Park's northern edge. Glover Park History says it seems safe to assume it honors Robert Fulton, the inventor, engineer and artist, though no naming record is cited.

Source: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Glover Park1926

Honors: Charles Carroll Glover, president of Riggs Bank

Banker Charles C. Glover bought most of butcher Henry Kengla's estate at auction in 1907 and added more Kengla land in 1911. In 1924 he gave the Foundry Branch valley for a park. Two years later developer Benjamin Gruver began advertising a new subdivision, and the name Glover Park first appeared in print.

Sources: A Brief History of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · Glover Park - Wikipedia

Glover-Archbold Park1924

Honors: Charles Carroll Glover and Anne Archbold, who donated the land

In 1924 Glover gave 77 acres in the Foundry Branch valley; Anne Archbold added 28 at the south end. A 100-foot parkway right-of-way, marked Arizona Avenue, nearly became a four-lane highway after World War II. Archbold and C. Carroll Glover Jr. sued in 1961, and the District finally gave up the corridor in 1967.

Sources: Glover-Archbold Parkway (Glover Park History) · Glover Park - Wikipedia

Hall Place NW1911 (construction began)

Honors: Phillip T. Hall, first pastor of the Mount Pleasant Chapel at 35th and Wisconsin

Hall married the daughter of landowner Henry Weaver, and in 1903 their land became Phillip and Mary Ann Hall's Subdivision. Construction of Hall Place began in 1911; the Hall name was extended to the east-west leg between about 1912 and 1916. A resident interviewed in 1988 said it was named for Mr. Hall, who lived at its foot.

Earlier: Observatory Place (east-west leg, before c. 1912-16)Sources: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · A Brief History of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · Margaret Woodward (Glover Park History; excerpt from a 1988 U.S. Naval Observatory oral history)

Huidekoper Place NW1886-1908 (subdivision era)

Honors: Frederic Wolters Huidekoper, Pennsylvania railroad investor and developer

Glover Park History files this street under Frederic W. Huidekoper, who between 1886 and 1908 laid groundwork for Burleith and southern Glover Park. The short stretch south of W Street is what remains of his Northwest Highlands subdivision, mostly condemned later for Whitehaven Park. Until 1871 Georgetown's northern boundary ran just west of it.

Sources: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · A Brief History of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Manor Place NW1906 (opened); 1940s (Manor Place)

The District decided in 1906 to open 'Minor street' here; a 1911 map shows Manor Street, though assessments still said Minor Street in 1917-18. It became Manor Place in the 1940s, duplicating an older Manor Place near Howard University. Glover Park History notes there never was a manor.

Earlier: Minor Street, Manor StreetSource: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Observatory Place NWc. 1912-16 (name moved)

Honors: Observatory Heights, a 1909 subdivision named for the nearby Naval Observatory

The name first belonged to the east-west leg of today's Hall Place and moved here when Hall Place was extended. Its new location sat in Observatory Heights, a subdivision of Kengla land west of Tunlaw Road begun in 1909 that borrowed the prestige of the nearby Naval Observatory. The subdivision's name was soon forgotten.

Sources: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · A Brief History of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Tunlaw Road NWby 1868 (farm); road laid out c. 1879

Honors: Tunlaw Farm (the name is 'walnut' spelled backward)

Named for Tunlaw Farm, now Wesley Heights; an 1868 newspaper credits Thomas L. Hume with christening it. A resident's memoir says the farm's walnut trees inspired the reversed spelling. In 1879 a freeholders' jury condemned land for a Tunlaw Street from Back Street to High Street as an outlet for the new road, whose lower stretch followed Back Street.

Earlier: Back Street (southern stretch)Sources: The Origins of Tunlaw Road (Glover Park History) · Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · Old Streets of Upper Georgetown (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · Grace Powell Cochran: Let's Look Back (Glover Park History)

Whitehaven Parkway NWc. 1925

Honors: Whitehaven, a colonial land tract named for the English port

Began as West Street in the 1770 addition to Georgetown and became Madison Street in 1818, then went by Y, V and U Street between 1895 and 1925. The District bought land in 1925 for a parkway toward the Whitehaven tract in today's Palisades. After the Three Sisters Bridge died in the early 1970s, the right-of-way became Whitehaven Park.

Earlier: West Street, Madison Street, Y, V and U Street (1895-1925)Sources: Street Names of Glover Park (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher) · Old Streets of Upper Georgetown (Glover Park History, Carlton Fletcher)

Still looking for a reliable source on Davis Place NW, W Place NW, Sutton Place NW, Watson Place NW, Cathedral Avenue NW. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.

• “Toddy” Lyddane: Oral HistoryEugene Thomas “Toddy” Lyddane · 2010 · transcript · remembers the 1910s, 1920s

  Condensed from a 2010 interview for the Citizens Association of Georgetown oral history project. Lyddane, who lived on Hall Place until he was eighteen, recalls baseball in the street, lamplighters, trolleys downtown, the then-open Naval Observatory grounds, and band concerts and films at Mount Alto Hospital after World War I.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Hall Place, streetcars, Naval Observatory, Mount Alto Hospital
• Margaret WoodwardMargaret Rupli Woodward · 1988 · transcript · remembers the 1910s, 1920s

  Excerpts from a 1988 U.S. Naval Observatory oral history, plus other pieces about her. Woodward moved to Hall Place as a small child around 1913, says the street was named for Mr. Hall who lived at its foot, and remembers playing with astronomers' children and treating the unlocked Observatory grounds, reached by Observatory Lane, as a private playground.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Hall Place, Naval Observatory, astronomers' families
• “Kelly” Brown: Gypsies in B.T. WoodsRaymond Robert “Kelly” Brown · 1969 · transcript · remembers the 1910s

  From a 1969 oral history held in the Peabody Room of the Georgetown library. Brown, born in the Bryantown section of Georgetown, recalls a Romani encampment in the woods across from Georgetown Hospital; his mother and friends sewed clothes for a promised wedding and found the camp gone overnight. Fletcher cites 1911 press reports of a camp near Western High School.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Bryantown, B.T. Woods, Romani encampment
• Margaret Hunt: Childhood in Glover Park, 1926-1939Margaret Hunt · memoir · remembers the 1920s, 1930s

  Hunt moved to Tunlaw Road at age eight in 1926. She recalls the Piggly-Wiggly, Pearson's drugstore and the streetcar, a huge walnut tree at Calvert and Tunlaw she was told gave the road its name, and two old houses trucked across to Wisconsin Avenue around 1929-30 before Calvert Street was cut through.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Tunlaw Road, shops, streetcars, Calvert Street
• Ellen McDowell Keyes: A Glover Park Childhood in the TwentiesEllen McDowell Keyes · 2003 · memoir · remembers the 1920s

  Born in 1920, Keyes lived on Hall Place until she was nine; first printed in the Glover Park Gazette in 2003. She remembers milk and Jewel Tea deliveries, a scissors grinder with a monkey, children chasing the ice wagon for chips, Pearson's Drug Store, Dacey's Deli, the Piggly-Wiggly, and street games with the gas lamp as home base.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Hall Place, street vendors, childhood games
• Francis McKinley: Remembering Glover Park in the FortiesFrancis McKinley · 1998 · memoir · remembers the 1940s

  First published in the Glover Park Gazette in 1998. McKinley describes wartime Glover Park: air-raid sirens sending children home from Tunlaw Road and Beecher Street, blackout shades checked by Civil Defense wardens, searchlights, service-star flags on doors, a severe housing shortage, and kindergarten sessions at Stoddert Elementary in 1942.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · World War II, Tunlaw Road, Beecher Street, Stoddert Elementary
• Grace Powell Cochran: Let’s Look BackGrace Powell Cochran · memoir · remembers the 1910s, 1920s

  Excerpts from an undated typescript in the Washingtoniana collection at the King Library. Cochran traces the first Tunlaw Road townhouses of 1918, a cornfield and frog pond across the street, her family's 1928 move along muddy Schneider's Lane (now Calvert Street), band concerts at Mount Alto Hospital and the shops near 37th and Wisconsin.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Tunlaw Road, Mount Alto Hospital, shops
• Paul Friday: Memories of Snow on W Street & “Suicide Hill”Paul Friday · memoir · remembers the 1950s

  Friday recalls snow days in the early 1950s when police barricaded W Street between 38th and 39th for sledding, leaving a gap so children could sled off a small slope at the park they called Suicide Hill, and the city supplied a barrel fire at 39th and W where parents gathered.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · W Street, sledding, Glover-Archbold Park
• Jennifer Williams Duffy: Beecher Street in the ThirtiesJennifer Williams Duffy · memoir · remembers the 1930s

  Duffy, who lived in Glover Park until she was thirteen, describes her block of Beecher Street as a 'doll's village' of narrow streets and brick rowhouses, where neighbors visited across porch railings without getting wet and she could name nearly everyone on the street.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Beecher Street, rowhouses, neighbors
• Kathleen McCormick: B.T. FieldKathleen McCormick · memoir · remembers the 1940s

  McCormick, whose family moved to W Street in 1940, remembers city mule teams mowing the big field behind the houses, now Whitehaven Park, and being allowed to groom the mules at lunch. Fletcher adds that children called it B.T. Woods, likely for the old Bryantown settlement, and that a ball team used it in 1947.

  At Glover Park History (Carlton Fletcher), Oral History and Reminiscences · Whitehaven Park, B.T. Field, mules

Search the archives yourself: The People's Archive, DC Public Library · Historic Chevy Chase DC Oral History Archive · Humanities Truck Community Archive, American University · Tenleytown Historical Society · Boundary Stones (WETA) · Glover Park History: Oral History and Reminiscences · Cleveland Park Historical Society Oral Histories · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · hometown DC (DC History Center) · Hola Cultura: Adams Morgan History · Citizens Association of Georgetown · Peabody Room, Georgetown Neighborhood Library (DC Public Library) · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Archives: A Right to the City Exhibition Records · Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project · Mosaic Theater H Street Oral History Project · Library of Congress, Manuscript Division · Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Department Library · The Catholic University of America Archives · Bygone Brookland · Dig DC, DC Public Library · hometown DC (HumanitiesDC / Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) · Dig DC, DC Public Library's digital repository · A Right to the City exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · Palisades Community Association · Forest Hills Connection (neighborhood history series) · Foggy Bottom Association History Project: Oral Histories · George Washington University Special Collections Research Center · Woodley Park Community: A Sketch of Our Past · Empower DC: Ivy City · Power of Preserving the Black Deaf Experience (Dig DC) · Gallaudet University Archives. Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.

• DC Historic Preservation Office, Historic Data on DC Buildings (HistoryQuest), CC BY 4.0
• Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Chronicling America, Library of Congress; public domain

History data refreshed Nov 3.