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 »

Judith Clark Adams

Witness to Stark Changes from 1960s to 1980s as DC Schools Desegregate and Lifestyles Evolve

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) 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 – Rockville, Maryland Q – Can you describe your family? Were there other children in your family? FH – I had an older sister and …