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 Dutch 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
Called the Johns’ House because John Kerry and John Lindsay Lived There
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
Bernie Hillenbrand
From Omaha Beach to Oliver Street: A Life Rich in Adventure, Neighborhood Connections, and Family
Murray Howder
Librarian, Russian Translator, and Opera Lover Moved to Chevy Chase in 1960s
Loretta Kiron
Łódż is Closer than you Think: Loretta Kiron Talks about Auschwitz, White Flight and Tennis
Jean Klieger
Being German and Jewish in DC: “We were so thrilled to be in a neighborhood that didn’t say ‘No Jews allowed.’”
Milton Kotler
ECCO bene: Milton Kotler is Father of ANCs and the Neighborhood Government Movement — a Perspective Best Viewed from the Front Porch
William and Joan Mullan
Mullans Reflect on Raising Six Children in Neighborhood So Close 60 Vacationed Together Each Summer
Patty Myler
Patricia Wimsatt Myler Reflects on 350 Years of Family Migration — from the Ark and Dove to Alexandria, DC’s ‘Island,’ and Chevy Chase
Ruth and Mort Needelman
The Inns of Court: The Needelmans Talk Tennis
Gen. Frederick W. “Fritz” Plugge, MD
Chevy Chase Native, Doctor Held World Spotlight While in Charge of Iran Hostages
Connie Tobriner Povich
A First Date to Union Station to See a Train Wreck and Other Amazing Tales About Growing Up a Tobriner and Marrying a Povich
Vera Rubin
How She Became an Astronomer (and Got a Telescope Named in Her Honor Postmortem!)
Thomas and Mae Scanlan
Couple Talks About Why They Remained in the City While Others Fled to the Suburbs
Richard Sullivan and John Sullivan
Those Where the Times When, For Only a Thousand Dollars More, You Could Get a Better House in Chevy Chase DC
Joan Taylor
A Career in European Archeology, Taylor Shares Observations of Smithsonian Sci+Tech Museum Founder Frank Taylor
Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman
Love at First Exposure — Frank Van Riper and Judith Goodman Share a Life of Photography, Writing, and Art
Warren Wright
The Hottest Country Sound on the East Coast – Warren Wright talks about Chevy Chase-based radio station WMZQ.
Wilson High School Videotaped Oral Histories
Members of the Woodrow Wilson High School Class of 1954 met to record on oral history at their 60th reunion in Washington DC. Individual oral histories were also recorded of WWHS graduates Tom Hier (1976), Ken Luchs (1956), Joan Topalian (1961), and Lisa Friedman (1965).