How Potomac Heights Became a Community

By serendipity, my dive into the history of the houses on my block coincided with a volunteer job organizing the archives of the Palisades Community Church. Here  I unexpectedly found a treasure trove of photos and stories of many of our neighborhood's original inhabitants, and I soon realized this was not an ordinary church.

Jo-Ann Monez with big bow once lived at  5400 Cathedral

Legend has it that the idea of the church first started during a tennis game on a balmy evening in the summer of 1922.  This was when our section of the neighborhood was called Potomac Heights.  Cathedral Avenue, which predated the National Cathedral, still went by the name Jewett Street and was an unpaved little road which ran down hill towards the river. 

That summer, Olive and Robert Mancill were playing doubles with Mr and Mrs. Clyde Moore when the topic came up of how to get the neighborhood children to attend Sunday school. The Mancills were Baptists, and the Moores leaned Methodist. Both had made offers to haul their neighbors' offspring to their respective churches in Georgetown, but though the parents seemed willing, the reply always seemed to be "maybe next Sunday."

Perhaps they could manage a Bible school of their own? 

Both couples reached out to neighbors and asked if they wanted their children to attend a local Sunday school. The answer was a resounding "yes." They also discovered that many young families were feeling isolated and disconnected in this fledgling community of newly built homes.

newspaper ad from 1913

On December 5, 1922, twenty eight interested people gathered at the large Mancill home at 5410 Macomb Street. A history of the community church movement was read out loud, and people learned that many rural communities had put denominations aside in order to pool their resources. In the early 1920s, our neighborhood still had working farms. The only churches here were Our Lady of Victory and a small outpost of St Albans. Word spread, and the group met every weekend in January. They decided to call their enterprise the  “Potomac Heights Bible School.”

Meanwhile, a pair of brothers, Earl and Carey Rector were erecting store fronts on MacArthur Boulevard. Earl planned to open a general at 5441 MacArthur Boulevard, but he agreed to temporarily rent the empty space for $50 a month to the Bible school.  Determined to make the space work, the group found benches, borrowed hymn books, and bought a small stove. Forty-three people met on a Sunday morning, January 7th, 1923.

By March 5th the congregation had enthusiastically raised enough money for a down payment of $100 on a $1200 vacant lot  just behind the store, where the driveway of the current church is now. 

It was going to be a busy year.

On March 21, another neighbor, Mae Topping, hosted a luncheon at her home at 5018 MacArthur. Here,  energetic ladies of the church met to brainstorm about fundraising. They decided to call themselves the "New Idea Society." 

 By the third meeting, the club had collected $17, and everyone voted to spend it all on a set of dishes and a tub for washing up . They held luncheons as fundraisers, and catered events at other churches. Three months later the New Idea Society had bought 516 pieces of china. Bake sales, church suppers, hat parties, and many other events would rake in enough money over the years to pay the note on the property and raise new buildings. In November 1923, the first New Idea Society bazaar raised $500, the equivalent of about  $8,000 today. These women nailed fundraising. 

The Bible School had to vacate the Rector’s store in May of 1923.  Sunday school classes were then held all over the Mancill home including on the porches and in the kitchen. Their congregation was already taking off. 

In July that same summer, the school met on Edward and Margaret Doig’s lawn  The Doigs lived at 5315 Cathedral on the corner of Sherier Place. Here they heard a lecture about community churches, and the possibility of their Bible school becoming a church slipped into place.

The Doigs in 1930

Work progressed on a frame structure on Cathedral Avenue throughout the summer.

When the project ran out of money, neighbors picked up hammers and pitched in on weekends. The congregation was able to move into their new home in September of 1923.  

 

On March 19, 1924, the Potomac Heights Community Church formally adopted its name and constitution with eleven Christian denominations under one roof. The inclusiveness of their doctrine was key in bringing this community together. The first community church in Washington DC had become official. Two years later, the congregation had swelled.

Partial Shot of Congregation, Cathedral Ave 1925

In the summer of 1928, the church decided to buy the bungalow at 5200 Cathedral, on 

the corner of Cathedral and Hawthorne where the 1950s educational building is now. 

It was a stretch financially, but with this purchase the church now occupied a full block. That same year sidewalks were added on both sides of the street. 

Congregation in front of bungalow 1939

By 1929, another small building was added, and the roof was raised to add five additional classrooms due to the overwhelming number of children in the congregation. The construction was done by church members. 

The tot count reached 220 in 1931 and made up 18 Sunday school classes. That same year, the congregation agreed that space was a passing issue. The church needed a bigger boat.

 The ground was broken for the current sanctuary on Sunday June 12, 1938, and the building was ready for business on January 22, 1939. The congregation numbered about 260 at this time with an additional 275 children attending services.

In 1950 the DC government changed the name of our neighborhood to Palisades. The church followed suit on January 13, 1953 and kept growing. An educational building was planned, but the next event was completely unforeseen.  At 3:46 am  Sunday March 3, 1957, police on a routine patrol discovered a fire which had started in the church office and spread quickly. The original wood frame building was badly damaged, but parishioners showed up at 8 am that same morning and gamely cleaned up the sanctuary in time to hold services. Their plans for a new building became even more of a priority.

On Sunday November 2, 1958 the groundbreaking for the education building took place on the site of what was the rectory bungalow. Mary Cochran, the oldest active member of the church, got first crack at the ceremonial shovel. 

Mary Cochran far left

From the very beginning the church tirelessly sought out new ways to connect this community. During the very first meeting at the Mancill home in 1923, Mr Moore said  “I think social gatherings once in a while would be advisable in order to keep up the interests of the people.”  Mary Cochran proposed "scoping out home talent" to put on plays . A music recital was held a month after they moved into the building in 1923. This photo - probably taken in the late 1940s, featured at least three people from the 5400 block of Cathedral Avenue including Mary Cochran (5426), David Correll (5414) and Ezra Fox (5429.)

Mary Cochran back row far left next to Dick Corell. Ezra Fox back row far right

In 1925 church members Nettie and William McGinniss started “The Beacon,” a church and community bulletin which was named for the flashing light in the church tower. 

1939 Beacon

Topics were covered from gardening to procuring a gas station for the neighborhood. Each issue paid for itself with ads on the back. 

 On Sundays the pastor would often load his cars with boys and drive around the neighborhood handing out that week’s issue to keep our community connected.

Lots of clubs met in the building. In 1933 seven Boy Scouts kicked off a troop that still exists today. 

Cub Pack in 1935

Just a few weeks after the Social Hall was completed in 1938, Mary Cochran’s dream came true when a play called “Everybody’s Crazy” was performed on a real stage. 

Since then the building has housed too many social activities to mention including a bowling league, art classes, a rabbit breeders society, and a Welsh club. Many neighbors remember the bountiful ham and oyster dinners once put on by members of the legendary New Idea Society who loved a good hat party. 

1961

Since the 1970s, church membership has dwindled significantly to the point where the congregation can no longer support its own campus.  In 2021, the church decided to look forward, to the next one hundred years, and with that in mind, repurposed the building as a non-profit community space called Palisades Hub. The building is once again open for concerts, classes  and connecting neighbors. This new vision of  partnership between church and community will strive to keep this space a vibrant part of our neighborhood well into the next century.

 

A Sears Bungalow @ 5414

When my family first moved to this 1923 Sears kit bungalow, I wondered; Who lived here before we did? Was it a summer cottage or a full time house? And why were the two huge honking radiators in the crawl space the only source of heat upstairs?

I never found out the answer to that question, but by digging through old census forms, property deeds, and church records,  I was able to find out who lived here first and was thrilled to see her numbered and named in this church photo.

Nettie Correll #38

Annette Brandon Stewart was born in 1891 in Otter River, Virginia near Lynchburg. “Nettie” was one of nine children. Their mother died when Nettie was fourteen and Ben, the youngest child in the family, was four. Their father was a clerk for the railroad which may be how Nettie met both of her husbands. 

Nettie and her siblings lived on a farm with their grandmother Jennie Anthony until 1914 which was a rough year for the Stewart kids. Their father died in September, and Jennie died a few months later. That same year Nettie married a local boy, Guy Hewitt Ould who also grew up in Otter River. 

Like Nettie’s father, Guy worked for the Southern Railroad as a clerk. The Oulds and their baby girl, Mattie, moved to DC by 1917 and lived in Takoma Park. Another daughter, Nancy, was born in March of 1921 before Guy passed away two years later. He was buried back home in Otter River.

Meanwhile all seven of Nettie’s siblings had moved to Washington DC by 1920, and all five of her brothers became professional photographers. One sister even married a photographer.  

The Stewart Brothers Photography company was formed in 1924 and is still in business. One of their early jobs was filming the gardens of Dumbarton Oaks from 1929 until 1932. Nettie’s brother, Richard Stewart, became a prize winning photographer and explorer for National Geographic. 

Here is one of his famous photographs taken in Veracruz, Mexico in 1939.

Nettie, too, became a newspaper photographer after her husband passed away.  She bought this house, brand new, from the Potomac Heights Land Company in December 1923. A year later, she married David K. Correll who was listed as a boarder in the Guy Ould household in the 1920 census and worked on the railroad with Guy.  Nettie’s sister and two brothers also moved to Palisades in the 1920s.

Nettie, David and the girls were very involved with the Palisades Community Church which formed the same year Nettie bought the house. Her neighbors Mary and James Cochran, were founding church members and most certainly reached out to Nettie when she moved in. Nettie taught Sunday school and had her class over for an outing in 1927. I feel so lucky to have found this church photo taken in Nettie's back yard which looks like a casting call for "The Little Rascals."

Both David and Nettie performed in plays, and David was on the building committee, in the choir, and served as superintendent of the Sunday School. Church meetings were also held here in the house. Nancy sang in the choir and was a standout soloist. Mattie married William Eastman, “at home” on Cathedral on January 11, 1936.

Nettie and David sold the house after Mattie got married. They moved with Nancy to Arcadia Street off Western Avenue NW in 1937, but they stayed very involved with the church until they moved to Florida in the late 1950s. 

The Revolving Door of 5410 Cathedral

 

Adolf and Freida Frelitz were the first owners of this 1927 Dutch colonial. The couple came to this area from Germany when they were both about 30 years old. Adolf was a butcher by trade, and Frieida a home maker. Three children, Henry, Fred and Catherine, came along before they bought the house on Cathedral Avenue in 1928.  By then Fred was 17 and Catherine was 15. (Sadly their eldest son, Henry, died when he was only fifteen in 1922.) Perhaps the river attracted the Frelitz family as the only article I could find about them mentioned fishing for catfish in a 1926 Evening Star:

The 1930 census indicated that Adolf was still working in the meatpacking industry; Fred had become a draftsman for the government, and Caroline was a stenographer. A year later Caroline married and moved to Baltimore with her new husband George. 

Fred too, was married by 1936. He and his wife Hedwig had a son in 1937 and named him Henry after Fred's late older brother. By 1939, Fred and family had moved to New Jersey. Adolf and Freida moved in with Caroline and George in Baltimore. The house was rented to the Fuchs' family from 1939 until about 1942 which formed a lifelong connection for Peter Fuchs. He was born at this residence, and also lived near the Palisades library while growing up.   He left the area in 1956, but returned in 1968 with his wife Marilyn when they bought around the corner on Carolina Place. 

Adoph sold the home to the Glasser family in 1945.  The house turned over 4 more times in the next 35 years. Here is an ad from 1948

Here's another from 1967. We can see someone whacked down the foliage and put up a chain link fence in the meantime.

This house has turned over more than an other on the block, and has also seen a lot of renters. Additions were added in the back, and the garage was turned into a man cave, but the core of the house remains the same, and the front porch has always been welcoming.  

Fannie and The Foxes

Photo by Mary Stapp

I never met Fannie Harward, the first owner of 5429 Cathedral, but I believe she was a strong, hard working woman with a head for real estate. She was born in 1869, just after the Civil War, on a farm near Charlottesville, Virginia.  I first found her in Washington in an1898 street directory. She was listed as a widow and a dress maker, but after considerable digging, I discovered that Fannie was divorced from a man named JL Cox in 1896. The two had a daughter named Stella who was born in 1888, but did not live with Fannie or her ex-husband.

I think she may have called herself a widow for propriety’s sake. What I do know is that she had to make own way for some time and that two of her sisters eventually joined her in DC.  In the 1900 DC census, Fannie and her younger sister Elizabeth lived together working as a caterer and a waitress. They sublet a room to a typesetter at the Government Printing Office which was right across the street. Fannie may have met her second husband, Charles, through this connection. 

Charles Harward was born in North Carolina, but moved to DC to work at the printing office. I found this poem he wrote for his deceased little sister, Mabel when he was 20 years old in July of 1887.  

Baby's Grave

Down in the verdant woodland deep, 

Where blooming daisies wave,

Where rippling waters dance and leap, 

There is a tiny grave.

Our darling babe is buried there- 

Our treasure and our pride;

She was so sweet, so pure, so fair, 

So lovely when she died.

She died as does the budding rose, 

Which Winter's breath doth blast, 

And on Jesus' breast, in sweet repose 

She is safe from harm at last.

Charles and Fannie were married in 1901.  Fannie was 33 by then and never stopped working. In 1907 the Harwards lived in a large boarding house on 13th Street NW overlooking Franklin Square. Fannie managed the property which housed over thirty tenants and was also referred to as the Cutler Hotel. Fannie's first foray into real estate, as far as I can tell, was the purchase of two lots on the alley behind the building. 

Fannie continued to buy and sell real estate. In 1910 she sold her alley lots and bought property in Cabin John, MD which she later sold to her sister Sarah. A tiny announcement of the sale appeared in the Evening Star right next to a large real estate ad for Potomac Heights.  

The Cutler Hotel was sold in 1919, and the Harwards bought their own home at 23 Iowa Circle, now known as Logan Circle. A few years later, Fannie started investing in Potomac Heights like she was playing a game of Monopoly.  Between 1923 and 1927 she bought 5429 Hawthorne Place, 5515 and 5747 Potomac Ave,  5434 Carolina Place, and 5125 and 5429 Cathedral. There could be more. Fannie is usually the only name mentioned as the first owner of these properties. Most of these houses have been torn down, but 5429 Hawthorne, built in 1923, is still much like it was.

In 1926 Fannie and Charles were living at the 5434 Carolina Place property which was a Sears and Roebuck kit house. This may be the only other building still standing that Fannie once owned. 

A year later she oversaw the construction of a handsome Dutch colonial right across the street from herself at 5429 Cathedral. Here's a snippet from the Evening Star:

A mention in the church bulletin in 1929 indicates the Harwards rented furnished rooms, so it looks like they were still in boarding house mode. Here is the only photo I was able to find of Fannie, standing on the far left with the congregation of The Potomac Heights Church for their annual group photo in 1930. 

By 1930, the Harwards were both in their 60s. The census revealed they had a lodger named Ezra A. Fox, a 27 year old man who was born in Virginia. He was working as the manager of an A & P grocery store. The next year Ezra went back to his hometown of Luray, Virginia to marry his neighbor and long time sweetheart, Virginia Kibler.

Virginia's home in Luray, VA

Virginia, mind you, had not been sitting around pining for Ezra. She had to give up her job as superintendent of Page County schools when she went to live with Ezra at the Harward's home. Ezra started working for his neighbor Early Rector at Rector's Store which was just up the street.

Charles Harward retired from the printing office in 1932 and died “suddenly” at home in October of 1935. A year after Charles’ death, Fannie sold her home to the Foxes as well as the house at 5515 Potomac Ave. She lived at 5515, probably until the Foxes sold the property in 1939. I am not sure where Fannie went after this, but she her address was 1725 P Street when she died in 1951. Fannie was buried with Charles in Alexandria. 

In 1936, Ezra and Virginia had a baby boy they named Allen Wayne. That same year, Ezra's boss, Early Rector, talked Ezra into buying his store and gas station which Ezra thoughtfully renamed Fox’s Market and Service Station. 

Ezra would open the shop every day at 5 a.m., and Virginia would take phone orders at home, then fill and deliver them later in the day.  When Ezra added a soda fountain to the cigar bar, Virginia made the chocolate syrup for the ice cream.  

In 1940 the Foxes rented a room to a newlywed couple named George and Sarah Wilson. Keeping it all on the block, their neighbor Raymond Pruett, who lived on Carolina Place, sold the Wilson's his parents' house at 5422 Cathedral. This happened in 1951 after Raymond's mother had died.

The Foxes ran the store until they retired and sold the property. They were active in the Palisades Community Church for most of their lives. Ezra and Virginia can be seen in the 1947 congregation shot standing in the middle of the back row.

Chasing an Elusive History

Built in 1919, the first owner listed at 5408 Cathedral was Clarence Oliver Hamilton, a housing contractor and carpenter. But in the 1920 census, he lived nearby in Cabin John, Maryland. Perhaps he built this house as an investment and never lived here, or maybe he moved in after selling his own home in 1922 ? I can only guess what happened for the next five years. 

According to the deed, the next owner was Rose Dowling. Rose’s father died in 1916, and her mother moved up the hill to 5016 Jewett street which is what Cathedral Cathedral Avenue was called back then. Rose may or may not have lived with her mother until she died in 1920 when Rose was 32 years old. 

Rose's oldest brother Marshall bought the property for Rose in 1924,  but a few years later she finally married. Rose and her new husband Paul then moved to New York.The property was listed for sale, but did not change hands again until after the couple divorced in 1945. I believe the house was rented out most of those years. I found a little gem in the Evening Star in 1927 about policemen caught up in a gambling raid. One of the arrested listed his address as 5408 Cathedral. A year later though, a different man ran an ad for a lost collie. Again I'm grasping at history straws.

I do know that William and Edith Blowe officially bought the house in 1948, but they may have been renting from Rose since at least 1935. William was a bakery salesman. They had two boys, William Jr and Peyton.  Both went to Western High school. Here's a school shot of Peyton who was named for his maternal grandfather.

By 1940, William Jr, his wife Vera and their baby Caroline all lived here as well. Vera Maceron formerly lived around the corner on Sherier Place. William married his "girl next door” in 1936.  

In 1952 the Blowes sold the house to Blanche Stevens, a former missionary teacher and specialist with the Mapping Service. Before working at the map service, Blanche had taught school in Japanese occupied North Korea from 1911-1940. (If those walls could talk, I'll bet Blanche had some interesting stories.)

In 1963 Blanche sold the house to the McFall family. Also a teacher, Frances McFall taught third grade at Key Elementary for many years and was known for taking her students on a bird watching expedition every spring.  She raised her own children here and stayed in the house until the end of her life, shortly after retiring in 2004.