Judith Clark Adams
Witness to Stark Changes from 1960s to 1980s as DC Schools Desegregate and Lifestyles Evolve
Oral Histories
Chevy Chase DC Residents Share Memories of Growing Up and Growing Old Here
By interviewing residents and asking them to recall the past, we can create a public record of history unique to one neighborhood or group of people. Oral histories differ from memoirs or biographies in that they give us a way to look at how people lived and experienced events or places — things that, during the time they were experienced might have seemed too commonplace to be worth mentioning. But they are details of daily life ingrained in our past that helped make us who we are. And when they are lost to memory, they are truly gone.
Since 2010 HCCDC has completed more than 32 oral histories of individuals — a few of them are couples or multiple family members -- plus videotaped oral histories involving graduates of Woodrow Wilson High School. By putting these histories on our website, we are giving them a wider audience as well as providing historians with direct access to unique information.
If you'd like to see a 2018 overview of our Oral Histories program, click here »
Allen Beach
Beach Ancestors Had First-Hand Experience with Lincoln, Kaiser Wilhelm, and The New Deal
Ralph Benson
Recalls Pinehurst Neighborhood in an Uproar Over Racially Mixed Couple in the 1940s
Dallas Dean
Stone House at Nebraska and Rittenhouse has been Dallas Dean's Home Since Birth
L. Bernice Degler
Spanish Scholar, ANC Commissioner, Businesswoman, and Racial Pioneer: Bernice Degler Made a Difference
Barbara Dresner
Pennsylvania Girl Recruited During World War II, Worked as Secretary on Manhattan Project
Sarah (Sally) Gamble Epstein
Experiments in International Living, public health, and collecting works by Edvard Munch
Brock Evans and Linda Garcia
A Marriage of Environmentalism and Technology: Saving Lafayette's Trees and Relishing Their Community
Allie Felder
PhD in Agriculture led to 12-year career in India with Rockefeller organization
James Fisher and Tanya Hardy
Descending from Black Landowners Where Lafayette Park Now Stands
Jeffrey Gildenhorn
Third-Generation Entrepreneur in Chevy Chase, Gildenhorn was also an Active Citizen, Neighbor, Hoya
Miss Ella Given
A Speech Given by Miss Ella Given, a Beloved Educator who was Head of the E.V. Brown School for Decades
William Gray
Gray's Memories are of 'A Sleepy Southern Town' when $1 Bought A Weekly DC Streetcar Pass
Timothy Hannapel and Emily Swartz
Chevy Chase Desegregates and the Neighborhood Organizes Youth Services: Nephew, Aunt Tell of Experience
Frances Hamby
Q – Let’s start with your name. FH – Frances Hamby Q – And when were you born? FH – August 4, 1927. Q – Where were you born? FH …
Elliott Hertzmark
Longtime Resident of Northampton Street: "Maybe I Should Write a Book on Old Age. I Have Lots of Experience"
Samuel Frank Higger and Marie Silverman Higger
Higger's Drug Store, First in the Area to Carry Penicillin: 'More than a Pharmacy' to Residents of Chevy Chase DC
Helen Higgins
Sculpture, Potter, Mother of Nine, Helen Higgins Also Lives in Oldest House in Chevy Chase DC