Chevy Chase Historical Society

01/22/2026

William Francis Lanahan stands on the running board of a fire truck with members of the Chevy Chase Fire Department outside of the Village Hall. Taken between 1927 and 1931, this black and white photo captures Lanahan during his early leadership of the department.

The son of Irish immigrants, Lanahan served with the Washington, D.C. Fire Department from 1896 to 1927 before becoming Chevy Chase’s first professional Fire Chief. Under his guidance, the Chevy Chase firehouse was built and placed into service in 1931—laying the foundation for the professional fire protection the community still relies on today. This photo was generously donated by the Lanahan family.

📸 Chevy Chase Fire Department Collection, 2010.1004.01

01/12/2026

Captured in the Spring of 1916, this photograph shows a group of young women, likely students who attended Chevy Chase Seminary, knitting Red Cross sponges at the National Service School for Women in Chevy Chase.

By June 1916, 1,000 women occupied 71 tents on the east side of Connecticut Avenue near Underwood Street as part of the National Service School for Women. Opened on May 1, 1916, the camp was the first in a series of National Service Schools established by the U.S. Navy League to train women in military-style skills, national defense, and first aid in preparation for service during World War I at a time when the role of women in national service was still being defined.



📸 Photographic Collection, 1991.12.07

05/23/2025

✨Chevy Chase Historical Society extends a heartfelt thank you to our incredible sponsors who made the 2025 Spring Gala a night to remember. Your support helps preserve and share the rich history of our community, and we’re deeply grateful for your commitment.

✨We also want to extend our sincere appreciation to La Ferme Restaurant for catering the evening with a truly delicious spread. Your beautiful presentation and exquisite dishes were the perfect complement to a wonderful celebration.

03/10/2025

In honor of Women's History Month, we celebrate the life and legacy of Chevy Chase resident Minnehaha "Minnie" Etheridge Brooke (1871-1938), a trailblazer in the women’s suffrage movement. Minnie’s tireless advocacy for women’s rights, combined with her entrepreneurial spirit, left a lasting mark on both the local community of Chevy Chase and the broader fight for equality. For many years, Minnie toured the United States as a suffrage speaker, organizing a number of significant demonstrations, including the 1913 Suffrage Parade in Washington, DC, as well as the 1916 launch of the National Woman’s Party in Chicago. Locally, Minnie also gained renown for the many Saturday nights she spent at the statue of Benjamin Franklin on Pennsylvania Avenue, passionately advocating for women’s right to vote.

In addition to her activism, Minnie was a successful restaurateur, as evidenced by her efficient management of the Cosmos Club, as well as the opening of her own establishment, the Brooke Farm Tea House. Minnie used this tea shop as a platform to promote political causes, hosting national guest lecturers, organizing meetings for the Chevy Chase Woman’s Club, and, after enfranchisement, holding luncheons for the Women’s Democratic Club of Montgomery County.

Minnie was also a savvy entrepreneur who capitalized on the postcard craze of the early 1900s. She published hundreds of postcards featuring images of landmarks around Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., some even highlighting her own tea house. At a time when long-distance communication was costly, these postcards offered an affordable way for people to stay connected. Her business expanded to include The Brooke Shop, a popular stop for tourists. By the 1920s, Minnie had sold her tea house and relocated to Takoma Park, where she lived until her death in 1938. Today, her legacy lives on not only through her activism and entrepreneurial spirit, but also through the photographic record of the D.C. area she helped preserve.

📸 Photographic Collection, 2007.33.

02/27/2025

Born to parents Joseph Deweese Holston and Viola Copeland in April of 1944, Artist Joseph Deweese Holston Jr. spent much of his childhood in the tight-knit Black community of Hawkins Lane, in what was then a rural area of Chevy Chase, Maryland. Originally part of a 700-acre tract called “Clean Drinking,” three acres of this land were purchased by James H. Hawkins, a formerly enslaved man, in 1893 for $300. By the middle of the twentieth century, Hawkins Lane was a small, but vibrant, Black enclave in Chevy Chase.

As reported by journalist Tina Copan in the January 2025 issue of Home & Design, as a child, Holston spent countless hours in the nearby woods, captivated by the natural world. Holston explains that he “was studying the beauty that people didn’t see… I saw the movement and a lot of rhythm in the movement. I saw faces, people’s expressions. And people dancing; they were enjoying themselves. That’s most likely what I was looking at—that positive aspect of life.”

According to Holston, the formative years he spent living on Hawkins Lane played a pivotal role in shaping his artistic vision, influencing his portrayals of the African American experience through painting and printmaking. Holston reflects, "I knew I had to create something to communicate to people about from which I came, being African American and using my way of creating art.” While Holston initially embraced realism, he later transitioned to Cubist-inspired abstraction, stating, “I love the cubist age… You can say so much with a few lines.” Today, his work—spanning various media—resides in prestigious collections, including those of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and The Phillips Collection.

📸 (1) “Woman with Pipe.” Etching, 1975. The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (2) “Boy with Horn.” Oil on board, 1975. Federal Reserve System (3) “House of Refuge. Movement III: Journey of Escape” in “Color in Freedom: Journey along the Underground Railroad.” Acrylic on canvas, 2008 (4) “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Silk screen on rag paper, 2011. Library of Congress.

02/20/2025

Captured in 1927, this photograph features a group of African American men working at the bottom of the Chevy Chase Lake swimming pool on Connecticut Avenue. A powerful reminder of the invisible labor that maintained spaces of leisure, these men—essential to the creation of such settings—were denied the opportunity to enjoy them.

Originally opened in 1927 as a public space, the Chevy Chase Lake swimming pool swiftly became a symbol of exclusion, transforming into a venue that perpetuated the racial barriers already prevalent in the region. From the time of its construction onward, several swim clubs in both Chevy Chase and Bethesda adopted bylaws that effectively restricted membership to white individuals only.

In 1958, a local club introduced a residency requirement, mandating that members must live within three-quarters of a mile from the pool. This rule effectively excluded many Black families. The club did not receive a membership application from a Black family until 1968. This application was rejected. The club's members soon voted to formally ban Black individuals from joining.

The story of the Chevy Chase Lake swimming pool is a poignant example of how racial exclusion shaped even the most ordinary spaces. It highlights the broader patterns of injustice embedded in local communities, urging us to confront and remember this hidden history.

📸Photographic Collection, 2007.38.04

02/06/2025

This small black-and-white tintype photograph, originally discovered tucked away in the steel beam supports of 108 Oxford Street, captures the image of an unknown African American woman. Prior to 1968, the Oxford Street property was owned by Clarence Bourg, a lawyer and head of the Sugar Board during World War II. The Bourg family relocated to Chevy Chase from New Orleans in the 1930s, bringing with them two African American maids whose names remain unknown.

The Bourg family’s employment of two African American women was not at all uncommon for the period. In fact, according to the 1900 census, nearly one-third of households in the Bethesda district employed live-in domestic servants. Due to the negative social stigma surrounding domestic service, combined with widespread anti-Black racism and xenophobia, the industry was often dominated by American Americans or white immigrants. In his 2006 oral history interview, Chevy Chase resident Robert deSugny noted that “most people in Chevy Chase did have domestic help and up through the Civil Rights movement, most of that domestic help was African American.”

As for this tintype, little else is known. Although the identity of the woman in the photograph remains a mystery, she may have been one of the African American women employed by the Bourg family. The tintype itself was taken in a Photomatic booth, a type of instant photograph most commonly found in the arcades and amusement parks of the time. The back of the photograph bears a stamp from the International Mutoscope Reel Co., based in New York City.

As we celebrate Black History Month, we honor not only the famous figures, but also the personal stories—like that of this woman—that have been lost to time. We strive illuminate the lives of those who may have been forgotten, yet whose contributions to history are invaluable.

📸 Photographic Collection, 2011.16.01

01/31/2025

, January 31, 1901, this streetcar ticket was used to transfer from the Chevy Chase Line, operated by the Capital Traction Company. Chevy Chase, Maryland, was one of the first areas in the U.S. to benefit from the expanding streetcar network as a residential streetcar suburb, helping shape the community’s growth and development.

Founded in 1895, the Capital Traction Company was one of Washington, D. C.’s two major streetcar operators. Capital Traction was formed when the Rock Creek Railway acquired the Washington and Georgetown Railroad, and the company's streetcars connected the neighborhoods of Georgetown, Capitol Hill, Mount Pleasant, the Armory, as well as the suburb of Chevy Chase.

In 1933, the Capital Traction Company merged with the Washington Railway & Electric Company and the Washington Rapid Transit Company to form the Capital Transit Company. Streetcars continued to serve the Chevy Chase area until 1935, when they were gradually replaced by buses into the 1960s.

📸 Julie Rude Thomas Collection, 500.43.29

01/24/2025

Don't miss it!

On Sunday, January 26th at 3pm author and architectural historian Kim Prothro Williams will lead an illustrated talk on her book “Hidden Alleyways of Washington, DC.”

The discussion will be hosted by The Chevy Chase Historical Society at the Jane E. Lawton Community Center, 4301 Willow Lane in Chevy Chase, MD. Copies of the book will be available for sale and for signing, and no reservations are required for the free lecture.

01/23/2025

Painted in 1871 by renowned American artist George Peter Alexander Healy (1813–1894), this portrait captures the likeness of Clara Adelaide Sharon (1853-1882), a prominent figure in San Francisco’s high society and, later, the wife of Senator Francis Griffith Newlands, the founder of Chevy Chase, Maryland.

Known as the “Rose of Sharon” among peers, Clara was the eldest of five children born to Maria Mallory and mining magnate Senator William Sharon. Educated primarily in European convents for much of her childhood, Clara returned to San Francisco in 1872 to maker her social debut. It was there that Clara soon captivated the attention of Francis Griffith Newlands, a young lawyer and aspiring politician.

Clara and Francis were married on November 19, 1874, in a lavish ceremony at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Reflecting on Clara’s million-dollar dowry and extravagant furnishings imported from Paris, one attendee described the event as the “grandest affair” the city had ever seen. The couple had three children—Edith, Janet, and Frances—before Clara passed away on February 18, 1882, from complications following childbirth. Clara and her son, Sharon, were laid to rest at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in California.

📸 Object Collection, 2019.20

01/16/2025

The establishment of Chevy Chase began in 1725, when Colonel Joseph Belt received a 560-acre land grant from Lord Baltimore. Originally patented as “Chevie Chace,” the sizeable tract enabled Belt to construct a large estate and operate a substantial to***co plantation—a staple of Maryland’s economy in the eighteenth century.

The name “Chevy Chase” is believed to stem from the Battle of Otterburn (1388), a pivotal event in the Anglo-Scottish border conflicts during the Hundred Years’ War. The battle took place in a restricted hunting area, or “Chase” in the Cheviot Hills. The Scottish emerged victorious, and the Battle of Otterburn was later immortalized in the Ballad of Chevy Chase.

Photographed above is the Chevy Chase Manor, originally built by Colonel Belt around 1725. Upon the death of Colonel Belt, his son Thomas Belt continued the management of the land, maintaining its prominence. Like many other estates of the time, such as the “No Gain” plantation, the Belt estate relied on slave labor to cultivate their crops. In 1814, Abraham Bradley acquired the property, renaming it Bradley House. The Chevy Chase Manor was demolished in 1907.

📸 Photographic Collection, 2008.310.01

01/09/2025

Recruited for a job by a relative of a colleague, Joseph Deweese Holston (1911-1994) and his wife, Viola Copeland, relocated from Natural Bridge, Virginia to Chevy Chase, Maryland in the mid-1930s. Despite quickly securing a position as a chauffer and butler in Chevy Chase, Holston faced deep racial barriers in acquiring a home for his growing family: “I looked all over Chevy Chase, couldn’t find [a house] they would let us buy. The nearest place I could buy—a black person could buy then was in Rockville…See, if there had been one [black] family in Chevy Chase, I could have found a place but there wasn't nobody.”

Eventually, with the assistance of his white employer, Holston, Viola, and their newborn daughter, Shirley, moved in with the Hawkins family on Hawkins Lane—a historically black residential enclave and kinship community first established by the formerly enslaved James H. Hawkins in February of 1893.

Holston’s experience with racially restrictive housing covenants in Chevy Chase was far from his only encounter with racial discrimination in the suburb. In a 1988 oral history interview with the Chevy Chase Historical Society, Holston recalls, “They wouldn’t rent a car to me because I was black…My children couldn’t go to school in Chevy Chase, nowhere. They had to go to Rockville—all the way to Rockville. No black kids in Chevy Chase. When they did let them go, they went to Kensington…and they wasn’t treated nothing like nice at all, you know.”

Ultimately, Holston’s account reflects broader patterns of racial discrimination faced by Black Americans during this time. In spite of these challenges, Holston’s resilience highlights the determination needed to challenge and overcome injustice.

📸 Oral History Collection, 2008.12.18