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54-703: Created to increase the value of land owned by the Chevy Chase Land Company , the railroad began service in 1890. By 1893, it stretched more than seven miles from the Cardoza/Shaw neighborhood of D.C. to Coquelin Run in Maryland. The trip from Chevy Chase to downtown took about 35 minutes. In 1895, the railroad purchased the Washington and Georgetown Railroad Company and changed its name to

108-589: A 1-mile extension that ran from its former terminus at 18th and Florida east along U Street NW through the neighborhood of Shaw to 7th Street NW. This double-track line intersected with several downtown lines and made Adams Morgan more readily accessible from downtown . The downtown portion of the line used the underground Love conduit system, while the Connecticut Avenue section used cheaper, more reliable overhead wires. Rock Creek streetcars were equipped for both, and switched from one delivery method to

162-458: A 10–3 vote. After two decades of dispute, the road was replaced with a trail for hikers and bicyclists. A 2011 Environmental Assessment resulted in a finding of "No Significant Impact". This assessment said the "preferred option" was a 10-foot-wide permeable-surface multi-use trail, full-stream channel and bank stabilization for Klingle Creek, a multi-use trail connecting this trail to the existing Rock Creek trail, and pole or bollard lighting of

216-584: A charter to build one of D.C.'s first electric streetcar lines but lacked the funds for construction. Newlands and his partners funded the grading and construction of the road and streetcar right-of-way that would become Connecticut Avenue north of Rock Creek ; the thoroughfare north of the District line was built by their Chevy Chase Land Company. Streetcar operations began in 1890 on two blocks of Florida Avenue NW east of Connecticut. The company ultimately spent about $ 1.5 million ($ 50,866,667 today ) to build

270-541: A deal in which the RCR issued stock with a total par value of $ 12,000,000, of which $ 10,750,000 was given to W&G stockholders. The actual value of RCR stock and bonds at the time was $ 1,500,000 ($ 54,940,000 today). On September 21, 1895, the two formed the Capital Traction Company , the first company created during "the great streetcar consolidation." The deal also took advantage of a peculiar facet of

324-584: A feasibility study by the Berger Group, an engineering consultancy. Published in August 1999, the study ruled out no options, and so did not end the dispute. In 2003, Mayor Anthony Williams expressed opposition to the demands that the road be rebuilt, but was overruled by the Council of the District , which in 2003 passed a line item in the District budget bill requiring that Klingle Road "be re-opened to

378-531: A five-mile line from 18th and U Streets NW to Coquelin Run in Maryland. A key link was the first bridge across the deep valley of Rock Creek at Calvert Street. Erected by the Edgemore Bridge Company in 1891 at a cost of $ 70,000 ($ 2,373,778 today ), it stretched 755 feet across six wrought-iron trusses on iron trestles that were 125 feet high. The company then conveyed the bridge to the municipal government of Washington, D.C. , which took up half

432-523: A lake to supply water to the railroad's northern power house . This generating plant, which burned coal that arrived on a B&O siding , used the Thomson-Houston system installed by General Electric to deliver electricity to streetcars via overhead poles. The poles—ornamented iron within the city and a mile beyond, square post lumber for the remaining mile—drove streetcars all the way to 18th and U Streets. On September 16, 1892, service opened on

486-528: A major streetcar suburb of Washington, D.C. Using his inheritance from his deceased wife's father , and attracting other investment partners—particularly Nevada politicians known as the "California Syndicate"—Newlands directed the quiet purchase of land along a straight line from just north of Dupont Circle , which was at the time the northwestern edge of urban development, into an unincorporated area of Maryland's Montgomery County and up to today's Jones Bridge Road. Newlands initially intended this line to run to

540-404: A public roadway in 1839, but only later was named Klingle. The road is named for Joshua Pierce Klingle, the nephew of Pierce Mill owner Joshua Pierce and was originally known as Klingle's Road. Klingle, who was adopted by Pierce when his parents died, inherited Pierce's land upon his death and in 1891 sold a large portion of it to the federal government for the creation of Rock Creek Park. In 1885,

594-532: A two-story Art Deco -inspired brick structure then called the Chevy Chase School; it would eventually become Chevy Chase Elementary School . Newlands ran the company until his death in 1917. One year previously, a sales brochure alluded to steps taken to keep Chevy Chase white: "The only restrictions imposed are those which experience has proven are necessary in any residential section to maintain or increase values and protect property holders against

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648-586: Is a real estate holding and development company based in suburban Washington, D.C. Founded in 1890 by Francis G. Newlands to develop all-white residential suburbs , it continues to operate today as a privately held firm. Among the company's developments are the Village of Chevy Chase ; other parts of Chevy Chase , Maryland; and the Chevy Chase area of Washington, D.C. Around 1886 or 1887, Newlands launched an all-but-unprecedented effort to create

702-538: Is a trail in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. In 1990, erosion led to the closure of a 0.75-mile section of the road between Cortland Place and Porter Street. This touched off a decades-long dispute between people who wanted the road repaired and those who wanted to keep the portion in Rock Creek Park free of automobile traffic. In 2017, that portion of Klingle Road became Klingle Valley Trail, reserved for hikers and bicyclists. The valley forms

756-479: The Capital Traction Company , which would become one of the two major streetcar companies that operated in and around Washington, D.C., in the early decades of the 20th century. The line fostered the development of several neighborhoods of northwest Washington, D.C. , and suburban Maryland. The Rock Creek Railway was founded by Francis Newlands as part of a plan to develop streetcar suburbs in northwestern D.C. and adjacent Maryland. He and his partners incorporated

810-490: The Duke Ellington Bridge ; to minimize traffic disruption, the trestle was moved 80 feet downstream on rollers and kept in use until the new bridge was completed, whereupon it was demolished on December 17 of that year.) Returning to solid ground, the track joined the recently graded extension of Connecticut Avenue NW north of Rock Creek and turned then ran north-northwest. The line continued on Connecticut to

864-504: The Howard Hughes Medical Institute . As part of the sales agreement, the company "retained the rights for architectural approvals in order to be sure that Chevy Chase's architectural integrity is maintained," a company official said. In 2008, David Smith, a great-great-grandson of Newlands, became the company's president and CEO. He was abruptly ousted in August 2014; company officials declined to say why. At

918-640: The Chevy Chase Land Company to bring the parcels together for development. That year, the Washington Star newspaper called it the "most notable transaction that has ever been known in the history of suburban property." Newlands and his partners also began to build a streetcar line to connect their remote landholdings to the city center. In 1888, he acquired majority control of the Rock Creek Railway , which had obtained

972-401: The District line at Chevy Chase Circle , then on trackage built by Newlands' Chevy Chase Land Company 1.7 miles due north to just past Coquelin Run in today's unincorporated Chevy Chase, Maryland . “The road bed, after leaving the improved streets of the city, was constructed with great difficulty, and at an enormous expense. Connecticut Avenue (extended) having as yet been unimproved, and

1026-531: The Japanese war effort. In 1937, the disused car barn at Chevy Chase Lake was converted into an equestrian riding ring for a polo club led by Mildred Pepper, wife of Sen. Claude Pepper , D-Florida. In 1980, the Chevy Chase Lake waiting station at the northern end of the line was disassembled and moved to Hyattstown, Maryland . The Chevy Chase Land Company The Chevy Chase Land Company

1080-540: The Klingle Road right-of-way was deeded to the city for use as a public highway. Five years later, when Congress authorized the creation of Rock Creek Park, Klingle formed the rough southern border of the new park. Along with Peirce Mill and Military Roads, it was the only roads that spanned the park north of the National Zoological Park. In 1913, the city generated a plan to straighten and widen

1134-805: The Rock Creek Railway, whose revenues were rather sparse but whose charter placed no limits on the amount of money that might be raised through the sale of stock and bonds. "This providential clause was turned to good advantage in the reorganization of the prosperous Washington and Georgetown Railroad which was severely crippled by its fixed capital ceiling of only $ 500,000", according to a 1966 history of D.C. streetcars. The Rock Creek line fostered development along upper Connecticut Avenue, helping to spawn several northwest Washington, D.C. , neighborhoods: Adams Morgan , Woodley Park , Cleveland Park , North Cleveland Park , Forest Hills , and Chevy Chase . Similarly, and as explicitly intended by its founders,

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1188-475: The Supreme Court in 1948, but the legacy of discrimination lingers," a historian wrote in 2016; Chevy Chase Village , for example, was 95.9% White at the 2015 census. Under Stellwagen and Hillyer, the company mostly just sold off pieces of land. That would change after World War II, when it began to more actively develop buildings. In 1946, William S. Farr became company president. Born in 1903, Farr

1242-473: The automobile road. But Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh succeeded in replacing this appropriation with a provision calling for the road to "remain closed to motorized vehicular traffic" and the right-of-way employed instead for a non-motorized-use trail. Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham attempted to restore funding for the automobile road, but his amendment was rejected by the District Council by

1296-753: The boundary between the Woodley Park neighborhood to the south and the Cleveland Park neighborhood to the north. A small stream, usually called Klingle Creek (but sometimes the Klingle Tributary), flows through it, and empties into Rock Creek . Much of the valley is administered by the National Park Service as a part of Rock Creek Park. The mouth of the valley joins the mouth of another narrow valley occupied by Porter Street. Formerly Klingle Ford Road, Klingle Road became

1350-613: The city, so the railroad used the Love conduit system between the rails to provide power to the cars. (These original tracks would be removed in 1899 as the city's streetcar network developed.) Meanwhile, the Land Company was extending Connecticut Avenue, down whose center the railroad would run, from the Rock Creek valley past the D.C.-Maryland line and into the land that would become Chevy Chase, Maryland. Tracks were laid from

1404-656: The company on June 23, 1888 (just four days after D.C.'s first electric trolley company, the Eckington and Soldiers' Home Railway ). The railroad's officers were the same as the Chevy Chase Land Company's: Newlands, president; Edward J. Stellwagen, vice-president; Howard S. Nyman, secretary; Thomas M. Gale, treasurer, and A. J. Warner, manager. In 1890, the railroad began operations on its first quarter-mile of track, connecting Connecticut Avenue NW and 18th Street NW along Florida Avenue (recently renamed from Boundary Street). Overhead trolley poles were forbidden in this part of

1458-751: The company's holdings are the Lake West Shopping Center in Chevy Chase, The Collection at Chevy Chase near Friendship Heights , and South Lakes Village in Reston, Virginia . Its apartment buildings and complexes include 672 Flats in Ballston, Virginia , which it acquired for $ 90 million in 2018; and Chase Manor Apartments in Chevy Chase. Its office buildings include 8401 Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase, with 169,812 square feet. Klingle Valley Trail The Klingle Valley Trail

1512-438: The cost of maintaining the structure. When the bridge began to fail in 1911, its deck—a 40-foot-wide roadway flanked by five-foot walkways—was narrowed. (The bridge would be replaced in 1933-35 by the current Duke Ellington Bridge .) In shaping the Chevy Chase neighborhoods, the Land Company pioneered efforts to provide various services to the growing areas. The Society for Architectural Historians writes, "A major reason for

1566-442: The country being very rugged, a succession of deep cuts and fills were necessary, as well as the bridging of several deep ravines," wrote Electrical World. Some 454,000 cubic yards were removed, including 242,000 of solid rock, 97,000 of loose rock, 32,000 of hard pan, and 83,000 of earth: an average of 75,000 cubic yards for each of the six miles. A bridge was built to carry road and track across Klingle Ford Road . The overhead wire

1620-635: The defendants submitted a motion to have the court dismiss this suit. On August 9, 2012, the U.S. District Court did indeed dismiss the suit "for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction". A permit to begin restoration of the creek bed, retaining walls, and water-permeable trail was granted in October 2014. Preliminary work on the Trail began in July 2015. On June 24, 2017, the Klingle Valley Trail

1674-598: The encroachment of undesirable elements." Newlands was succeeded by Edward J. Stellwagen. In 1925, the company built the Chevy Chase Arcade in northwest D.C.; it was planned as "one of four business centers alternating with apartments along Connecticut Avenue." In 1932, Edward Hillyer became company president. Under Hillyer, the Chevy Chase Land Company inserted covenants into land purchases barring their sale to Black or Jewish people. The racial "restrictions waned during World War II and were barred entirely by

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1728-616: The established town of Rockville, Maryland , but found it easier and cheaper to buy Montgomery County land about a half-mile to the east. Among the parcels was "Oak View" in present-day Cleveland Park , the 26.5-acre country estate of Grover Cleveland , who had recently completed his first term as U.S. president. Newlands paid $ 140,000 for the land in February 1890, just four years after Cleveland had purchased it for $ 21,500. On June 6, 1890, when his group of straw purchasers had accumulated 1,712 acres (6.93 km ), Newlands incorporated

1782-589: The hydroelectric generator that drove the Connecticut Avenue streetcars; the Land Company had also built the manmade lake—Chevy Chase Lake—that drove the generator, and later provided a venue for boating, swimming, and other activities. These services did not include shops, stores, or commerce in general, which were banned from the area; company leaders instead provided "freight service" on the Connecticut Avenue streetcar line by which groceries and other household goods might be delivered. An avowed white supremacist , Newlands took steps to keep African Americans out of

1836-490: The intersection of Wisconsin Avenue and Western Avenue. The company owned the plot, upon which had previously stood a Howard Johnson's motel; the deal allowed Metro to build its station as planned without the expense of purchasing the plot from the company. In 1981, Davidson handed the reins to Farr's son, Gavin M. Farr (b. 1942). In 1988, the Land Company sold a 22.5-acre tract at Connecticut Avenue and Jones Bridge Road to

1890-504: The line advertised its route past the National Zoological Park , which opened in 1889. And like many streetcar companies, the Chevy Chase Land Company built its own trolley park : Chevy Chase Lake Amusement Park , which opened on 1894 just east of Connecticut Avenue at the railroad's northern terminus. A central feature was the power house's artificial lake, landscaped for boating. One more source of passenger traffic

1944-627: The line fostered the suburb of Chevy Chase, Maryland . In 1923, Capital Traction gained the right to run its streetcars on the tracks of the Kensington Railway, which allowed it to operate through service from downtown D.C. through Chevy Chase Lake to Norris Station in Kensington. Twelve years later, Capital Traction was given permission to replace streetcars on the Chevy Chase line with buses. The last streetcars ran on September 15, 1935. The trolley poles, safety domes, and most of

1998-565: The national youth center for the National 4-H Foundation through 2021; it is currently being redeveloped as senior living. In November 1901, the company sold $ 25,000 worth of land on the west side of Connecticut at today's Van Ness Street. The buyer was the National Bureau of Standards —specifically, Dr. Samuel W. Stratton , the federal agency's first director—which was moving from its first home on Capitol Hill. The Bureau would turn

2052-521: The new neighborhoods. Though the Chevy Chase Land Company only began attaching racial covenants to its houses several decades later, it initially set its prices for houses at points that effectively limited sales to well-off whites: $ 5,000 and up on Connecticut Avenue and $ 3,000 and up on side streets. In 1894, the company built the Chevy Chase Inn on Connecticut Avenue; the property became Chevy Chase Junior College from 1903 until 1950, then

2106-409: The old Vineyard and Springland Farm into one of the country's most sophisticated scientific laboratory complexes, a 70-acre, 90-building campus. In 1906, Newlands' Land Company helped block the creation of Belmont , a subdivision intended to be a neighborhood created by African American developers and populated by African American homebuyers. In 1927, the company would successfully petition to have

2160-783: The original terminus at U Street NW up 18th Street through the neighborhood today known as Adams Morgan , where it formed a junction with the Metropolitan Railroad at Columbia Road. Turning west along Erie Street (today's Calvert Street), the line approached the Rock Creek gorge. Bridging the valley was the railroad's single most difficult engineering challenge. The company hired the Edge Moor Iron Works to build an iron truss bridge at Cincinnati Street NW (now Calvert Street NW). The 775-foot, 1,226-ton bridge, whose six trusses sat on 125-foot-high iron trestles,

2214-463: The other on every run at 18th and V Streets NW, a process that took 30 seconds or less. (In 1899, the Love conduit would be replaced by overhead poles.) In 1894, the line regularly operated 20 streetcars on 15-minute headways —and 7-minute headways on Sundays and holidays. The price for a single streetcar ride was 5 cents, or 6 rides for 25 cents. (It would rise to 7 cents in 1919.) To boost ridership,

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2268-441: The public for motor vehicle traffic" in 2007. An environmental impact study was performed in order to apply for federal funding for the construction. Repeated efforts to properly complete this environmental impact study were returned by the federal government to the District for rewriting and changes. In 2008, District Mayor Adrian Fenty attempted to bypass the environmental impact statement by providing full local funding of

2322-485: The roadway was barricaded in 1990 after erosion severely damaged a 0.75 miles (1.21 km) section. Because the road had been used by up to 3,200 cars a day, a campaign was launched to repair and reopen the road. But a competing campaign, led by the Sierra Club of DC, advocated for replacing the road with a bicycle, hiking, or bridle path. The repair-and-rebuild faction persuaded the D.C. government to commission

2376-472: The six-mile extension of the line, making the Rock Creek Railway the first D.C.-based streetcar to operate in Maryland. Congress approved two proposed extensions on April 30, 1892. One was a northern spur to the National Zoo that was never built, but the authorization to lay track east along Florida Avenue to North Capitol Street was eventually used. On March 2, 1893, the Rock Creek Railway opened

2430-471: The street as Klingle Parkway, connecting Beach Drive and Reno Road. Before World War I, the road was used by farmers to bring grain to Peirce Mill . Klingle Road remains listed as an arterial roadway for vehicular traffic on the District of Columbia's Functional Classification Map and is a part of DC's permanent system of highways. Klingle Road remains a right-of-way on the federal-aid system and has not been officially or administratively closed. A section of

2484-547: The subdivision erased from the Montgomery County property books. In 1913, the Land Company provided the land for Montgomery County 's first public school . The parcel sat northeast of Rosemary Circle in what is today the Town of Chevy Chase . Residents raised $ 5,000 to buy and erect four portable frame buildings as temporary classrooms for first- through 10th-grade students. In 1917, the permanent building opened,

2538-415: The success of this pioneering suburban community was the fact that the Chevy Chase Land Company included civil, sanitary, and structural engineers as well as architects, landscape architects, and real estate agents to incorporate zoning, architectural design guidelines, landscaping, and infrastructure...The company also constructed water and sewer systems and an electrical power house." That "power house" held

2592-465: The time, the company owned some 1.5 million square feet of commercial real estate, mostly office space and retail properties in or around Bethesda and Chevy Chase. Smith was replaced as interim CEO by board leader Kate Carr, and then by Tom Regnell, who had been an executive at Washington Real Estate Investment Trust. In July 2020, Regnell was replaced as president and CEO by John L. Ziegenhein III. Among

2646-571: The trail to facilitate nighttime use. On February 28, 2011, the Federal Highway Administration accepted this finding. But the assessment was challenged in federal court with a November 1, 2011, lawsuit demanding that the District and federal governments "refrain from any further planning, acquisition of right-of-way, financing, contracting, or construction of the Klingle Trail Project". On February 1, 2012,

2700-475: The waiting stations were removed the following week. The tracks remained for several years, but when the Export Control Act was passed barring the sale of most scrap metal to Japan it had a loophole for old rails, which made Rock Creek rail very lucrative. At that point, the tracks in Maryland were pulled up and sold to Japan by the state of Maryland. It's likely the tracks were melted down for use in

2754-583: Was both a grand-nephew and grandson-in-law of Newlands. Farr was followed in 1972 by Hunter Davidson. In 1979, the company announced a deal with the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority to build a 12-story office building above the planned Friendship Heights station on the Washington Metro 's Red Line . The office and station were planned for the pie-slice-shaped plot immediately north of

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2808-464: Was hung from poles set every 125 feet: iron poles manufactured by John A. Roebling’s Sons Co. The line ended just south of the grade crossing of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad 's Georgetown Branch at Connecticut Avenue. Here the Rock Creek built a terminus complex that included a small station and the railroad's six-track car barn. Coquelin Run, a small tributary of Rock Creek, was dammed to create

2862-424: Was officially completed on July 21, 1891. On the previous day, the railroad, under the terms of its charter, had transferred both of its bridges to the city of Washington, D.C. (In 1911, the rickety Rock Creek bridge would be shored up by narrowing its roadway from 40 feet to 25 and adding timber cribbing, which would in 1922 be replaced by steel joints and asphalt surface. The bridge itself would be replaced in 1935 by

2916-574: Was the Chevy Chase Lake & Kensington Railway (later, the Kensington Railway Company), a streetcar line that opened in 1895 and ran two winding miles north from the Rock Creek's terminus to the town of Kensington . On March 1, 1895, Congress authorized the Rock Creek Railway to purchase the Washington and Georgetown Railroad as part of an attempt to consolidate the streetcar system. Negotiations in August led to

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