Potomac Heights: Have You Seen It?

In the summer of 1909 a new "suburb" called Potomac Heights opened in the Northwest corner of Washington, DC. At the time only a semi- abandoned athletic park with a race track for bicycles existed on this edge of the city. The track, which opened in May of 1896, was nestled near the corner of Macarthur Boulevard and the Dalecarlia reservoir where an alley with a deep approach is now. 

1903 Baist Map

An article in the Evening Star had this description: "there are no obstructions in the entire area, and the only landmark is a solitary tree, which stands about the center of the place, and in the side of which, as a mark and a relic of bygone days, a piece of bayonet is firmly held, which was undoubtably imbedded in the tree doing war times, when the place was used as a camp by soldiers." Yep, that was a while ago.

An estimated 18,000 yards of earth were removed to create a sunken amphitheater effect with the course being one third of a mile long.  The president of the company,  Jacob P. Clark, was also the president of the Great Falls Electric Railway at the time. Housing development plans were alluded to, but never came to fruition. Here's a drawing of the bike track.

On June 16, 1909 a group of real estate men from North Carolina bought the 75 acre property which was still mostly undeveloped land, described at the time as "a maze of timothy oats and undergrowth."  The tract was one mile long, bounded by Arizona Avenue, the Dalecarlia reservoir, MacArthur Boulevard, and the bluff of the river.   JD Dorsett, R H McNeil and JM Maupin called their new corporation "The Potomac Heights Land Company." 

The new neighborhood would be three blocks wide, bisected by what was then the Glen Echo trolley line which provided the convenience of a streetcar to anywhere in the city.  Originally about 800 lots were planned with two acres donated to become Carolina Park by the developers where "walled springs under wide-spreading branches provided deliciously cold water." The springs are mostly forced through tunnels today, but one still meanders close to Macomb Street. The lots were 25 feet wide, and buyers were encouraged to purchase two at $800 a pair with financing available "for less per month than you pay a good cook."

 Potomac Avenue, a brand new road, was described in an Evening Star article on June 3, 1911 as "extending along the very brow of the hill and commanding a magnificent view of the Potomac River and the valley." As beautiful as the topography was, and still is, land near the river was not traditionally considered to be desirable. In the 1920s Chain Bridge led to a gas station and a tavern on the Virginia side. A watering hole had anchored that side of the bridge ever since one took the place of an abandoned Civil War guard station. 

photo from Library of Congress

Due to flooding, Chain Bridge has been replaced many times, and first got its name from a suspension bridge version  in 1808. The current stone piers have been in place since just before the Civil War. Various taverns came and went as well. During Prohibition in the 1920s, McKey's Tavern was known as a bootlegging outpost. I love this noir type shot.

Taken from parking lot of McKeys Tavern 

Of course, the DC side of the bridge had its own share of shady goings ons. In August of 1927, eighteen men and women were arrested for disorderly conduct, and three for bootlegging during a midnight raid on a house at the corner of Canal Road and Arizona Avenue. A thousand bottles of home brew and liquor were seized. In the summer of 1933 undercover cops in bathing suits arrested two entrepreneurs on a houseboat who had been "catering to canoeists and swimmers all summer doing a particularly heavy week end business." Business was booming. The cops seized a dozen quarts of their "alleged whiskey."

A girls' reform school, which opened in 1893 on the site of the present day Sibley Hospital, flanked one end of the neighborhood- just across the road from the bicycle track.

Reform School Admin Building 1937

In 1921 eleven girls escaped from the reform school. Thirteen men and women were later arrested for harboring the runaways, several being caught while "enjoying life in Marquise Camp" south of Chain Bridge according to a story in the Evening Star. A motorboat called "The Vamp"was raided and yielded more arrests. The girls reported that they "were motored about the river" and that bathing suits were acquired for them. I have a feeling their benefactors were not well-intentioned. 

Life was both rural and blue collar here in the early 1900s. Fishermen and laborers lived in shacks which dotted the bluffs on both sides of the river. Quarries lined the Virginia side from near Spout Run to Pimmet's Run by Chain Bridge. Barges still ran up and down the canal delivering everything from coal to ice cream until a flood in 1924 basically shut down operations.  Here's a canal barge serving as a party boat in June 1916.

Canal Party photo by Willard Ross 

The B and O Railroad ran a line from Georgetown along where the Crescent trail is now, but Chain Bridge was often the scene of recreation as much as commerce as this "Chain Bridge Hike" in June of 1916 portrays.

Postcard by Willard Ross

The Potomac Height Company capitalized on the natural beauty of the area with advertisements proclaiming the benefits of healthy living with city conveniences. "Your home -within 5 cent street car fare of Washington-on the healthful level of 150 feet above and overlooking the most beautiful part of the Potomac-that's what awaits you..."

 Many subsequent ads hinted that the neighborhood would soon be lake front property. For decades plans to harness the river's energy were pondered. The Great Falls Manufacturing Company which later reorganized as the Great Falls Power Company retained riparian rights starting in the 1839 even though the river was within the jurisdiction of Maryland. A massive hydro-electric dam was proposed in the 1890s. The lake would be named after Montgomery Meigs, an architect and engineer who oversaw the construction of the Washington aqueduct which included a feat of engineering now known as the Cabin John Bridge. The 220 foot masonry arch was the longest in the world for about 40 years after its creation. 

In 1864, Meigs, a fervent supporter of the Union during the Civil War, was Lincoln's quartermaster and later a self imposed doorman when Lincoln lay dying at the Petersen House. It was Meig's who had the vengeful idea to bury soldiers in Robert E. Lee's yard and turn the grounds into Arlington Cemetery.

Montgomery Meigs Library of Congress

But I digress.  

The powers-that-be finally came to their senses in 1927, when the National Park and Planning commission realized a dam would be environmentally ruinous, attract unwanted heavy industries, and possibly  "imperil" the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument downstream if breached. About ten years later, the government bought the C and O Canal from the B and O Railroad.

The most disturbing history of Potomac Heights can be found in 1911 when an ad in the Evening Star listed 15 "good" reasons to buy property here, the number one being "because the property is in a splendid neighborhood and free from persons of African descent." 

This ad was the most blatant I found, but not a one off by any means. Advertising pitches repeatedly emphasized that "only the best people" could buy homes here, and deeds with racial covenants were not outlawed until 1957. In July 1919 an ad in the Evening Star had this abhorrent description of home sales in Potomac Heights: "Under stringent restrictions. It will always be white." And that's pretty much what happened.

Development of the neighborhood preceded slowly. Sears and Roebuck, the mail order company, began selling homes in 1908, but the DC market took off in 1922 when a local sales office opened on 10th St NW.  Sears kit homes came in a stunning array of both styles and materials and were a popular choice for those investing or moving to Potomac Heights. 

In 1923 The Potomac Heights Community Church forged connections between many of the new neighbors. The only church in the area was Catholic, and since there weren't enough Baptists or Methodists to make a difference, a group of neighbors decided to join the community church movement and merged eleven denominations into one church.

Now many of those homes are making way for newer bigger buildings- especially on lots overlooking the river.  My block of Potomac Heights has two Sears homes, including my own. This year, listening to all the hammering nearby,  I wondered who first lived on this block. under the shade of our 100 year old willow oaks? Stay tuned to this site for those House Stories.