Historic Pictures

The platting of Chevy Chase DC by two of the Washington metropolitan area’s most prominent developers, Francis Griffith Newlands and Fulton Gordon, propelled development in the northwestern quadrangle of the nation’s capital, forever changing the layout of the city and adding to the prestige of Connecticut Avenue. Although bordering its precursor, Francis Newland’s planned picturesque Maryland suburb of Chevy Chase, Chevy Chase DC illustrates more of the traditional components of the District of Columbia: commercial buildings, apartment buildings, and multi-family dwellings as well as freestanding single-family houses laid out in a relatively traditional grid-like plan. The multifaceted growth is a result of several different developers and builders, and their vision for residential subdivisions along a highly traveled commercial corridor in northwest Washington, D.C.

The area currently known as Chevy Chase DC consists of eight distinct developments:

Chevy Chase DC (1907),

Connecticut Avenue Terrace (1907),

Connecticut Avenue Park (1909),

Chevy Chase Heights (1910),

Chevy Chase Terrace (1910), and

Chevy Chase Grove No. 1, 2, and 3 (1913/1915/1918).

Throughout its development, the neighborhood of Chevy Chase DC has striven to create its own identity, which has been accomplished through its churches, schools, public facilities, and its thriving commercial district, as well as throughout its distinct early- to mid-twentieth-century residential architecture.

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By Joan Solomon Janshego

It is a little known fact that Chevy Chase has had a homeless shelter for men since December 1992.  The shelter is located in the educational wing at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, just south of Nebraska on Connecticut Avenue.  

The following is a note we received from a shelter volunteer, Diana Zurer, some years ago.  It is entitled “Reflections by a St. Paul’s Shelter Volunteer.”

“I’ve been a volunteer at the Shelter since its inception.  The first year, I was asked to write up something for the church newsletter and recently came upon it.  It’s interesting how my feelings are very similar, years later.  I’m not a member of St. Paul’s.  In fact, I’m Jewish.  My synagogue provides meals for a large shelter, and of course that fulfills a need, but I prefer to be part of St. Paul’s effort.  One wants to make an individual human connection, in one’s own community, and one is enriched by the encounter.  Over 30 years ago, my husband and I were Peace Corps volunteers for 2 years in Thailand, and we always say we got more out of it than the Thais.  The same is true here.  Over the years, I’ve met so many interesting men trying to change their lives, gracious to the constant stream of dinner guests, friendly and appreciative.  

“The usual encounter with the homeless is being approached on the street and giving or more often, not giving, money – so unsatisfactory all around.   One wants so much to put a real face on this issue and to connect and do something meaningful. I have an old New Yorker carton on my bulletin board –  a man is sitting at the table and a woman comes in holding a birthday cake full of candles.  The caption is – ‘Food as a metaphor for love, again.’ That says it all.  I try to make a real effort for my meals at the Shelter, and the guys like my cooking.  And I think they know it is a metaphor for love.  I wish them the very best and thank St Paul’s for this wonderful effort.”

The idea for a homeless shelter began in 1992, when Pastor Tom Omholt called me  – as chairman of the Social Ministry Committee – and said. “  I think we need to open a homeless shelter.”  

The impetus was a controversy that developed when the city wanted to open an emergency homeless shelter at Guy Mason Recreational Center at Calvert Street.  A “not in my neighborhood” battle ensued.   But some Ward 3 people of good will wanted to make a contribution to help in the fight against homelessness, and the Community Council for the Homeless was born. 

And then a couple of local churches came to the rescue and opened homeless shelters in their buildings.  

These included St. Luke’s Methodist Church in Georgetown and Metropolitan Methodist In AU Park.  

I talked to people from those churches in order to get an idea as to what they were doing.  It was pretty simple.  They had up to 6 men in their shelter, which was staffed with a paid counselor.  Men came in at 6 PM and got a hot meal prepared and delivered to the church by a volunteer.  The men had a warm, safe bed and a place to shower and wash their clothes. 

With this model in mind, the next task for our small Social Ministry committee was to get a buy-in from church members and the immediate neighbors.

To that end, we had a potluck at the church where we invited the Church’s neighbors, informing them that the men would be referred to us by social workers at the Community Council for the Homeless and the men would be supervised at all times.

We also held meeting with parents and teachers from the Pre-Nursery and Montessori Schools that are housed in the church. as well as parents from Murch Elementary School, which is across the street from the church.   

Our next task was to got a rooster of 50 volunteers who would agree to bring a hot meal to the church.  Heleny Cook, a non-St. Paul’s member, held a meeting at her Barnaby Woods home.  Ten people attended who agreed to find ten more people to volunteer.  We had the beginning nucleus of a volunteer list.

Next, we held several forums at the church.  Pastor Omholt said that our opening the shelter should be biblically based.  So our invitation letter to the congregation began with the familiar words from Matthew, Chapter. 25:  “For I was …a stranger and you took me in. . .  verily I say unto you,  inasmuch as you have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, you have done it unto  me.” 

Gillian Wood, who was a street worker at the community Council for the homeless, led our first congregational forum.  She described the homeless population.

Another forum was led by Sister Ronnie Daniels, a Benedictine nun who provided medical care to the homeless.  

The third forum was led by Rev. Edin Naylor, Executive Director of Lutheran Social Service, who discussed the biblical/theological basis for opening our church to the homeless.  

Finally, there was a panel discussion by participants of the  other church-based shelters:  St. Luke’s Methodist, Metropolitan Methodist and St. Columba’s Episcopal.  

On Thursday, October 15, 1992, members of the Church council of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church approved a motion from the Social Ministry Committee to establish an emergency shelter for 4 homeless men in the educational building of the church.  

When the motion was put before the congregation on November 1, 1992, there was some small dissent, mostly around issues of safety.  However, it was approved. 

We then moved quickly – having a shower and a washer and dryer installed in the shelter.  The last obstacle was met when we got a Certificate of  Occupancy from the District of Columbia,  and we passed an inspection.   We opened in December 1992.   

In 1996 we expanded the shelter to 5 men.  It was a winter shelter until November 2001 when we expanded to year-around operation.  

We developed a set of rules that the men had to follow, including meeting with their social worker at Friendship Place on a regular basis, agreeing to come in on time every evening at 6:30 pm, and helping with shelter chores.  In return, we promised to support the men by providing a warm, safe environment where they could take the first step to getting their lives back together again.

We found that there were various reasons for homelessness.  Some men were homeless for situational reasons, such as the loss of a job.  But others were homeless because of addictions or mental illness.  For those who were employable, we helped them to gain employment.  For those who were not employable because of mental illness we worked with social workers at Friendship Place in efforts to get SSI benefits and a permanent place to live.  Those who had addiction issues were referred to AA or long-term treatment such as the Salvation Army.  

As of 2016, the shelter is still in operation. A choir member, Ellen Cohen, said that she is comforted when she leaves choir practice at night when she sees the men outside of the shelter smoking.  So we went from some members in 1992 voicing concern about safety to the choir member who felt comforted that the men were there.  

Since 1992, St, Paul’s has housed and helped hundreds of men. 

There are many stories to tell.  However, one particular man stands out.  

Larry was born into a privileged life.  His parents are no longer living, but he was the son of a doctor at Georgetown University Hospital.  He was an actor early in his life but encountered some bad luck, which he was not able to cope with in a constructive way.  He was homeless for almost four years.  During that time, he led a solitary existence because he was frightened all the time.  He said that his defense mechanism was a permanent scowl on his face, and it was difficult to erase the scowl once he was at the shelter although he finally felt safe there.

Before coming to the shelter, Larry was living in the woods near Arlington Cemetery after being attacked while sleeping in front of a bank.  

Although he remained introverted while at the shelter, it soon became apparent that Larry was an intelligent and witty man.  We learned that when he was homeless, he joined a poetry writing worship at Rachael’s Kitchen.  One evening at the shelter, Larry had us mesmerized as he read his poetry.  Larry, minus the scowl, became Larry the confident actor.  

The poem below, “Walking the J on K” refers to jaywalking on K Street.  Larry makes reference to looking for gold “carat” on the street in the poem.  This refers to his looking for loose change on the pavement. Larry said he once made a half-hearted attempt to pan-handle, but when someone dropped some coins into his cup, he was so mortified that he never did it again.

The happy ending is that, while at St, Paul’s Shelter, Larry found a construction job, saved $700 and was able to move into a subsidized apartment.  

‘Walking the J on K’ – by Larry

The sounds of machinery greet my day
A constant barrage of hydraulic compressed air
Horns honking, wheels turning, sirens screaming
Women walking, their horses clomping along
My senses become so aware
Of the attitudes, the rudeness, the menacing stares
Dressed for combat, I have my gear
On the front lines for over three years
My eyes are always searching, scanning
Street prospecting
Looking for gold carats that grow into rings
Dodging taxis, buses, and cars – taking chances
Getting a jump on the light
Walking the J on K
Going by the numbers block by block
Crisscrossing the alphabet H through P
Always wary of the animal in me
My back, my knees and feet are compressed
by the weight
Hungry all the time
The light is fading into night
Reflected shadows bounce along the walls
No place to hide
No place at all.

The post St. Paul’s Homeless Shelter appeared first on Historic Chevy Chase DC.

Written by Bob Zich (May 2013)

Avalon Born:  March 1923: Chevy Chase Theatre opened with one auditorium, a pipe organ, two shops and a commercial second floor

Sound and New Name:  1929, the theatre was wired for sound and renamed the Avalon

Refurbished: 1937, Art Deco redo inspired by the new Uptown Theatre; the Avalon is air conditioned

Expanded: 1970: In the converted second floor, second theatre added with 200 seats

Renovated: 1985: Bigger screen, new sound, seats in Avalon 1 reduced to 660, and on the Avalon 1 dome, Mercury is shown pitching film from a reel to a cupid

Landmarked: 1995: facade landmark approval through the providential labors of Historic Chevy Chase DC and the action of the DC Historic Preservation Review Board

Avalon Closed: March 2001: Closed, followed by Loews stripping away seats, 1985 screen, projection equipment etc.  RIP forever.  Or so Loews thought.

The newspapers reports in early 2001 had been ominous, but still were only distant thunder: “Loews in danger of bankruptcy.” But, said I, the Avalon surely was safe.  The theater seemed to enjoy constant patronage and at the moment Crouching Tiger had created lines of patrons around the block. 

Then the Post announced that the Loews bankruptcy had indeed struck and among other theatres to be closed:  The Avalon Theater “Chevy Chase”. For the present writer, it seemed the floor had been pulled from beneath him and his family. Fond CC memories seemed less substantial. Chevy Chase merchant expectations fell. All of us in greater Washington envisioned the loss of another beautiful old DC building – and one still functional.

In brief, an outrage.

These were among the eruptions I directed at my wife Joanne and family.  Their response was: “Yes. And what are we going to do about it?” An excellent question, pure American.  We then realized we had to try to save the theatre.

I identified the name of the Avalon owner, John Kyle of Bethesda, and called him.  Happily, he shared the same goal as ourselves – to keep the Avalon a theatre.  I immediately agreed to help him find a way to reopen the old building as a movie house. 

But even this early, Loews had stripped the theatre. Loews presumably sought to protect itself against possible post-bankruptcy competition.  This hollowing out of the theatre seemed a death stroke, but always hopeful, the Zichs struggled on.

Despairing of the failure to find a new exhibitor for our “outmoded” two screen theatre, Kyle rented the theatre to Doug Jemal, who developed retail blueprints.

The Zichs intensified their effort. We guessed that many of our neighbors felt the same anger at the closing of the theatre that we had felt.

We sought to focus this neighborhood anger and announced on the CC Listserv a meeting in the Zich living room to be held in October 2001. Invited were all neighbors willing to lead in the battle to keep the Avalon alive. In addition to myself, who was voted to be chair (a position I held until September 2004 when brain surgery forced my retirement), there came Vice-Chair Jen Kaplan, more Zich family, Bill Oberdorfer, Pat Fleming, Teresa Grana and others. We rapidly set about creation of the group originally named the Friends of the Avalon.

While establishing ourselves as a DC and US non-profit (thanks, Pat Fleming and Eleanor Holmes Norton!), we took our first substantive action. We planned and publicized an organizational meeting, April 3, 2002, open to all. It was to be held at the CC Community Center, across Connecticut Avenue from the Avalon. At this meeting, we would underscore our determination to revive the Avalon by explaining our purpose and recruiting an army of infuriated neighbors to join us in action. 

The Friends fretted about how many neighbors would in fact attend and, of course, we entertained the possibility that large numbers were beyond our reasonable hope. We had heard the joke about throwing the party where no one came. 

On that meeting night our worries swiftly vanished.  Providentially, the meeting room quickly filled to overflowing, more than 200 attendees, with standing room only for late-comers. I presented our plan in its many layers. 

First we would try to find an operator, if necessary by raising funds to buy needed theatre upgrading, and thus help return the building to commercial theatre use. If that failed, assess our position and proceed if feasible to take over operation by the Friends themselves. 

In the big old theatre, we would exhibit the best of popular commercial films together with some crossover films. In the small theatre, we would show some of best of the more esoteric films.  Because the neighborhood needed it and rightly expected it if they joined our movement, we would offer special shows Saturday and Sunday for youngsters, screen periodic movies with special arrangements for the elderly, invite directors to show and discuss their film, and become a showplace for Embassy sponsored films and film festivals. We would also be providing justification for our non-profit status.

And if we failed?  We would have judiciously paid for necessary publicity and organizing costs and would return to donors what was left over. 

There was close questioning from the crowd, as befitted our seemingly quixotic goals, but in the end we were delighted when, as we had planned, the Avalon lights across the street came blazing to life to celebrate our call to arms.  The crowd cheered.

Completely unscripted, filmmaker Aviva Kempner (Hank Greenberg, etc.) asked to speak. She described the value the theatre had had for her and for many of us, put her hand in her purse, and withdrew a dollar for each year in the near 80 year life of the Avalon. She lay them in my hands and challenged all who cared for the Avalon to do at least as much.  The Friends, of course, were surprised and delighted, but not just the Friends. The assembled neighbors that night spontaneously filled the Friend’s treasury with $2200.  We knew we were ready to run our race against “fate.”

Starting then and every Saturday for several months, Joanne and I and CC neighbors set up a solicitation table in front of the vacant theater. We would show the theatre in its derelict state to the many who wished to observe the wreckage.  We always came out of the empty theatre depressed, but energized for the cause – energy animating both visitors and ourselves. Each Saturday solicitation brought us at least an additional $1000 dollars.

We intensified our search for a commercial operator. We used every tool we knew to reach possible exhibitors including Variety want ads and an RFP.

We attracted eight possible operators, zero takers. It began to seem, that if the theatre was to survive it would have to do so under the care of the Friends of the Avalon.

And so it came to be.

Meanwhile others eagerly gave donations in kind, including a new group name.  The Friends were now to be called not the passive-seeming Friends of the Avalon but the super-dynamo Avalon Theatre Project.

Other people and institutions rallied: Doug Jemal who loved old buildings discovered just how lovable this old building was and contributed labor and funds to bring back our Chevy Chase  beauty; the American Legacy Foundation, an anti-smoking group, joined arms with us; Donetta George, Cynthia Mancini, and Melissa Cohen, planned and delivered a beautiful new interior, Paul Sanchez and staff promised theatrical operation, and the DC government performed for us a crucial paving of the way.

Councilmember Kathy Paterson held a strategic meeting in the Spring of 2002 with Doug Jemal, top relevant leaders in Mayor William’s city government, and officers of the Avalon Theatre Project. We came together and created a do-able plan (including concessionary rent) all of us working in tandem. Increasingly, help came from every side. In the end, we raised $200,000 from the community and much more in essential assistance and grants. 

There were support parties, an online petition with 1400 signatures and many moving stories, sale of Avalon seats, contributory events at Politics and Prose, and schools, and unending experimentation. 

Many of us were introduced to laboring ten hours a day seven days a week. Like me. Towards the end of the rebirth efforts, my eyes and mouth flew open as I awoke one Sunday morning. To Joanne I exclaimed with dismay: “My God, Joanne, it’s another day.”

Then, finally, on April 22, 2003 the Theater actually reopened for business with cinema from the DC Film Fest. As a result of our seemingly unending miracles, undergird by good sense, and basking in universal support, our community had won back the theatre.

Task 2, The New Avalon, could now begin. I refer to the enormous task of making it all work.  Theatre survival.

But that is another story. What I can say in conclusion here is that in 2013, ten  years later, we can look back with great satisfaction at not only concluding Task 1 The Rebirth triumphantly. We should take at least equal satisfaction in the survival, indeed the flourishing, of the Avalon Theatre in its eighth decade, now owned by the Project and mechanically upgraded.

More important, every day of the year the theater exhibits its films, delivers coffee and sandwiches to patrons and juggles the diverse schedules and needs that live movie exhibition entails. Congratulations to the Avalon’s devoted staff and to every contributing friend and neighbor in our Avalon diaspora around the world.

Every step of the successful rebirth and operation of the Avalon has happened through the work and devotion of those who love the theater: most recently, Debbie Yogodzinsky, who chaired the board for much of the last decade, 2004 to 2012, Bill Oberdorfer, Executive Director, almost forever, and Andy Mencher, its learned and able Programming Director. But let’s not forget its admirable new Board Chair, Kim Abraham….. 

But I have to stop. The names go on and on.

Better, perhaps, we must remember the essential part played by not just these Project stalwarts, but by just about all of us in Chevy Chase and many beyond. My deepest thanks to each of you.

There is the maxim that says “Be careful what you wish. You may get it.” Rare in this way as so many others, the Avalon Theatre Project, which mid-wifed the rebirth, can boast:  we have wished the theatre reborn, and it was reborn. Astonishingly, this rebirth has proved to be even as good — really, really good — as it was in our dream.

Bibliography: See the beautiful and informative book created by Jill Bernstein (program book editor) and colleagues, Avalon Theatre: Rediscover the Magic of the Movies (2003).. It provides the full Avalon story up to Spring 2003: who, what, why, where, when, with pictures.

Back to History Now!

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Written by Barbara Meade (March 2013)

There’s an old retail maxim, “location, location, location,” and Carla Cohen, a former urban planner with HUD, got location exactly right when she selected a vacant storefront in a what had been for years the most dreary retail grouping of stores on both sides of one block of Connecticut Avenue. Located midway between what was identified as Van Ness and Chevy Chase, the block had long been a no-name location.  When Carla selected the space, the anchor of the block was Higger’s, a wonderfully classic drugstore that offered home delivery. In little more than a decade, Higger’s was put out of business by competition from the discount chains.  CVS, which is now in the same space, is a sad successor to
the store that focused so completely on customer service.  On the same side of Connecticut were two tired restaurants, the Thai Room and Cafe Burgundy.

 At the time that Politics and Prose opened, in 1984, the bookstore was on the weaker retail side of Connecticut Avenue, sandwiched by The Yarn Shop and a title company, but the store benifitted from two popular businesses  on the same side of the avenue, the Clover Market (under Sam Steinberg’s ownership, offering the finest meats and produce in the area as well as home  delivery) and Mr. L’s (an odd combination of a Jewish delicatessen and Chinese restaurant that was constantly packed). Later the space became the Uptown Cathay and is now Jake’s.

Politics and Prose started in 1984 with just two booksellers, Carla Cohen and Barbara Meade, whom Carla had found through a classified ad in the Washington Post in search of a manager who knew the book business, which Carla did not.  The store was small, in the same space that Tersasol is now.

Five years later P&P had grown to about six booksellers and was beginning to run out of space. In 1989 Carla and Barbara, who had now become a partner, looked at a space across the street that had been vacant for several years and decided to make the move, doubling the size of the store and as well as rent obligations.  The store invited its customers to help carry all the books across the street and at 7:30 am on a Sunday morning, many, many customers volunteered their services.  Like the story of “Make Way for Ducklings,” a policeman stood in the middle of Connecticut to stop traffic as customers carried hundreds of cartons of books across the street.  Susan Stamberg reported the move live on NPR.

After the move, sales dramatically increased. Within several years, P&P’s next-door neighbors, Metro Video and a futon store both went out of business and P&P took over their retail space, doubling P&P’s square footage.   But even then, the bookstore’s increasing sales and tightening shelf space kept
the owners looking for even more space.  In a fourth expansion, P&P supplied the manpower to move the adjacent business, Sheffield Liquor, five doors down the block and take over their space as well, increasing their square footage by another 50 percent.  In addition, Barbara and Carla bought an office condo around the corner on Nebraska Avenue to accommodate all the store’s offices. Only the owners kept their very visible and accessible office in the store.

In 2010 Carla died from a fast-moving malignancy. Shortly before the diagnosis, she and Barbara had decided that, both nearing 75 years old, it was time to put the store in younger hands.  From a pool of some 50 prospective buyers, Barbara and Carla’s widowed husband, David Cohen, chose Bradley
Graham and Lissa Muscatine as the best candidates to share the vision of the store, to be a literary and cultural center of DC, as well as the USA.

Sales continue to increase with good news and bad news for the neighborhood.  The good: real estate ads headline “Near Politics and Prose,” and property values have increased because of that proximity.
The bad: on evenings of large events in the store, neighbors complain of  not being able to park near their house. 

The block still has no name, but three decades later it is humming with activity. Four restaurants, Buck’s, Comet, Terasol, and Jake’s offer a wide variety of food choices.  Marvelous Market and Besta Pizza supplement the eat-in menus with carry-out. Most often, the block now is referred to as the block where Politics and Prose is.

Happy customers outside Politics & Prose, 
including HCCDC board members, Carl & Pam Lankowski

Back to History Now!

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