History Now

A recap of neighborhood events and sentiments after the 2016 election.

Carl Lankowski, October 2015: On 30 November 2014, a draft resolution was posted to the Chevy Chase listserv to change the name of the fountain in Chevy Chase Circle by Gary Thompson, an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner (ANC Commissioner) for ANC 3/G encompassing the “DC side” of Chevy Chase Circle, the round-about that originally defined the new street-car suburb from 1892. The recitations in the draft resolution were clearly about distancing the community from honoring Francis Griffith Newlands—lawyer, Nevada Congressman, then senator, and heir to great wealth through his wife—because of the outspoken racially segregationist positions he advocated during the same period (ca. 1890 to Newlands’ death in 1917) that he founded Chevy Chase (on both sides of Western Avenue, the DC/MD boundary).

Joan Solomon Janshego, May 2015: each year for the past 35 years, there has been a Holiday party on the 3200 block of Oliver Street, and this is because of an amazing couple – Bernie Hillenbrand and Aliceann Wohlbruck. The party takes place on a Sunday evening a couple weeks before Christmas at Bernie and Aliceann’s home.

On November 23, 2013, HCCDC board member Carl Lankowski sat down with Richard Graham, who has been active in the CNC—Connecticut Avenue Neighborhood Coalition—to discuss the history of the controversy surrounding plans to build a large glass structure on the block defined by Connecticut Avenue, Military Road, Kanawha Street and an alley running parallel to Connecticut Avenue. Though animated by the specifics of the 5333 case, the issues involved transcend it, creating an opportunity to offer insight into the broader characteristics of the Chevy Chase community, its outlook, capacity to act, and willingness to engage.