Battery Park History
After World War I, four military officers formed a real estate development company. Major H.C. Maddux assumed the presidency of Maddux, Marshall, Moss & Mallory. From their company headquarters located at the National Capital Building (923 15th Street), they controlled and managed five of Washington’s most prominent hotels as well as Washington Gardens, Garrett Park, a group of homes in Luzon Heights, and a community of small farms near Waldorf. By March of 1923, Maddux, Marshall, Moss & Mallory had purchased the 53.59 acre farm wedged between Wilson’s Lane and Georgetown Road and developed the site for the construction of new homes. The subdivision was formally approved on May 1, 1923.
The developers intended to create a restricted community reserved only for military personnel. Tradition holds that the name “Battery Park” derives from early residents who were World War I veterans from the same artillery battery. This attractive neighborhood, however, soon drew the attention of the general public who also sought to settle in the area. As a result of this interest, the developers finally relented and opened access to civilians “who would measure up to the standards required to live in Battery Park”. The development and sales of Battery Park properties were so successful that the Maddux Company was called upon to take over real estate sales in Edgemoor.
Prior to Battery Park’s initial residential development, there was a vegetable truck garden on some of the land, and a few stands of trees, but the area was largely bare of houses, streets or utilities. The first houses (5203, 5205, 5207, and 5211 Wilson Lane) were completed by the end of 1923, and in the next year another 40 were added. Growth was steady, though slowed by the stock market crash of 1929. By the time of Pearl Harbor in 1941, there were houses built on almost 90 per cent of all the lots.
Construction was not typical of the mass-produced housing of today. Foundations were excavated by a horse-drawn metal scoop. Galvanized pipe was threaded by hand. There were no electric saws to cut the full-size 2x4’s. Covenants required that houses cost at least $6,500 and some were in the $9,000 to $12,000 range. The Dutch Colonial with its gambrel roof was a favorite in Battery Park, as it was all over Washington DC and the whole eastern U.S. Bathrooms in the basement bespoke a day when servants were expected and affordable.
School was at Bethesda Elementary and the B-CC High School on Leland Street, until the first of the new high school buildings on East-West Highway opened in September 1937. As is today, there was an annual 4th of July parade at the Clubhouse with bunting-decorated bicycles. Battery Park remains a desirable neighborhood in bustling DC suburbs.
Bethesda History
Most of Bethesda belonged to the original “Friendship” land grant of 3,124 acres that was awarded to Thomas Addison and James Stoddert on December 1, 1711. The northern portion belonged to Stoddert (1562 acres) and included the area up to Edgemoor Lane. Battery Park, adjacent to “Friendship” on the north, formed part of Thomas Fletchall’s 307 acre “Huntington” grant of which he took possession on December 10, 1715.
By 1879, the future subdivision of Battery Park was part of farmland belonging to the Lewis Williams family. The area became more attractive and accessible after March of 1890 when the Tennallytown and Rockville Railroad Company received a charter to extend the line another 3.75 miles from Friendship Heights to Alta Vista by way of Old Georgetown Road. In 1891 the Railroad Company purchased a 50-acre tract of land at the end of the line and built “Bethesda Park”, an amusement park that included a bandstand, dancing pavilion, rides, Ferris wheel, bowling and refreshments, a hotel, and even an open space for hot-air balloon launching. Bethesda Park was destroyed by fire and storm damage in August, 1896 and not rebuilt.
In 1913, Harry King and five promoters organized the Woodmont Country Club on a 68-acre site just east of Battery Park. The club later sold the property to the “Public Health Institute” and established a new golf, tennis, and swimming facility on 500 acres in Rockville.
At the beginning of the 20th century, Bradley Boulevard did not exist as a roadway but as a railway right-of-way which once extended between Wisconsin Avenue and Great Falls. In order to provide access to their newly developed Bradley Hills subdivision in 1914, Thomas Earl Hampton, both father and son, built the Chevy Chase and Great Falls Railway.
From Wisconsin Avenue the line passed through Edgemoor, then back to Bradley Boulevard, and on to Great Falls. Although the line ran only until 1921, it did, however, provide an incentive to the development of this area. Bradley Boulevard was later built on the former railway right-of-way. The road was named after Joseph Bradley (son of the first Assistant Postmaster General) who had sold his farm to the founders of the Chevy Chase Country Club.