Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

kirkl3s t1_iy4gg7d wrote

I remember reading in a few books that rich folks maintained homes in the hills around the city to escape the heat and humidity of the downtown area. I've also read that the SW Waterfront area was a shanty town for the early 20th century.

34

speckatacular t1_iy50d1u wrote

Bethesda was the country back then! The Grosvenors, the founding family of the National Geographic Society, built a summer home in 1928 near where the Grosvenor Red Line Metro station is today.

https://images1.loopnet.com/d2/C1fHYmRpe1VPY5trgMBbYO1LBewUOJa84KMQw76iTLE/document.pdf

28

kirkl3s t1_iy512u4 wrote

I remember reading that Lincoln would vacation at the Old Soldier's home (a few blocks west of Petworth) to escape the city

21

cptjeff t1_iy5aaqg wrote

Yep. You can book your wedding there if you want. They've got a little Linconalia there, but mostly it's just the house itself, no furnishings or anything like that. Great place for events, lousy as a museum.

13

giscard78 t1_iy5japl wrote

If you go on the tour, they tell you he lived there for about three years and commuted to work everyday, mostly alone, on Old Bob. There is a statue of the pair.

5

[deleted] t1_iyb9yne wrote

[deleted]

2

speckatacular t1_iycu79t wrote

I think it was in late 1940s? People had flocked to work in Washington because of the war, and there wasn't enough housing in the city proper. Also people wanted more room to raise their baby boom kids! But pockets stayed rural even after the housing tracts came in. The mascot of Walter Johnson High School on Democracy Blvd is actually a cow, because dairy cows used to roam the adjacent fields when it was built in 1956.

2

dcearthlover t1_iy5wb57 wrote

Washington Grove MD was a Methodist campground where people from the city would leave and go to their cottage in the Grove. I grew up there. :)

4