Recordings of First Two Posted: The First 100 Years and The Civil War Came to Chevy Chase
In recognition of the nation’s 250th year as a democracy, Historic Chevy Chase DC has launched a four-part webinar series to thoughtfully examine our community’s history, century by century, through the stories of people whose descendants once lived and raised their families on this land from pre-colonial days to modern times. The series, called “Chevy Chase DC at 250: Beyond the Burgers and the Fireworks,” began Jan. 29 and will wrap up in June.
Listen to the March 26 webinar recording here: The Civil War Came to Chevy Chase
Listen to the Jan. 29 webinar here: The First 100 Years
This upper Northwest neighborhood had a unique opportunity to witness much of this history due to its geographic proximity to the seat of the world’s longest-surviving democracy. History tells us that the citizens who shaped Chevy Chase DC literally crossed paths with the founders as colleagues, nation builders, and also as enslaved laborers. We can In fact trace the stories of several early African American landowning families to their economic ties to George Washington.
Carl Lankowski, HCCDC president, said that the webinar series is an outgrowth of HCCDC’s work over the past several years to understand how Chevy Chase DC became the community it is today, and what it owes to our future residents especially as community and city leaders contemplate development of the civic core.
The Jan. 29 webinar reflected on the first 100 years of America, from the early 1700s to about 1840, when the land that would become Chevy Chase DC evolved from tobacco plantations to middling farmsteads. The second installment, which aired March 26, drew attention to the re-founding of our republic and as we examine the role of Chevy Chase DC in the Civil War — and how the proliferation of batteries and forts not only changed the landscape in these parts but forever altered its economic base. The third webinar, scheduled for May 14, looks at what occurred after Reconstruction. The suburban expansion under Jim Crow caused racial displacement., when locals who did not fit into the racially exclusive community envisioned by its founder, Francis Newlands, were pushed out.
The final installment examines the local response to a modern democracy, with visionary leaders that included local citizen Walter Tobriner, and how the Great Migration – into and out of Washington, DC – affected life within our neighborhood. The webinar will look at redemption efforts targeting the promises of the nation’s Declaration of Independence.
First in the Series, Jan 29, 2026: “Chevy Chase DC at 250: Beyond the Burgers and Fireworks”
The first century of colonial occupation of what we now know as Chevy Chase DC was a thoughtful examination of the largely agrarian landscape and its population, including enslaved people whose descendants eventually settled in this area. They were people like Caroline Branham and John Hutton, both of whom were born enslaved but by twists of fate and relentless willpower, they ensured their offspring would thrive by the middle of the 19th century as free people. And they did, right here in Chevy Chase DC.
The 90-minute discussion, with an introduction by Carl Lankowski and hosted by Chas Cadwell, both HCCDC board officers, featured lively presentations by historians Jocelind Julien and Mark Auslander. Julien is a descendant of Branham, a woman who was enslaved at Mount Vernon to serve Martha Washington and whose family just a couple of generations later bought land on Broad Branch Road. Historical anthropologist Mark Auslander of American University, shared some of his latest research on the role of African Americans on both sides of the Revolution, including John Hutton, likely the first Black landowner in what became known as the Hepburn tract of land near Broad Branch Road.
Second in the Series, March 26, 2026: The Civil War Comes to Chevy Chase
This webinar was a time-travel discussion about the Civil War experience in what became Chevy Chase DC. The event featured two guest speakers: Gary Thompson, a former ANC Commissioner and longtime Chevy Chase DC resident, who is an expert on Civil War fortifications that once ringed the nation’s capital; and Civil War re-enactor and interpreter Marquett Milton. American University anthropologist Mark Auslander moderated the talk, while HCCDC’s Chas Cadwell hosted the evening.
The discussion took us back to a time when rolling acres of tobacco fields planted in the 1700s had given way to grains by the early 1800s. The forests around them were then denuded by mid-century to protect Washington, DC, from Confederate attack via Maryland.
Gary Thompson set the scene of the daily life of a nation at war in a community swarming with refugees, many of whom escaped enslavement from Virginia and further south. Marquette Milton talked about the role of the 1st U.S. Colored Troops. Two of the first to volunteer were part of an African American landowning family on Dry Meadows, where Lafayette-Pointer Park is now. While they were free, they witnessed up close the lives of plantation slaves on adjacent land, and went to battle so others could gain freedom.
We learned how the Civil War years drastically changed the landscape in these parts. The closest batteries and forts to what is now Chevy Chase DC were heavily engaged during the Battle of Fort Stevens on July 11-12, 1864. They included forts Reno and DeRussy, and the various outposts like Battery Smeade where St. John’s College High School is today, and Battery Terrill, now owned by the Peruvian government in Forest Hills behind Broad Branch Road.
Tune in for the last two installments, to be held on May 14 and June 25.