Top of the Town

— Tenleytown Heritage Trail —

Until 1890 Tenleytown was a rural crossroads. Then the electric streetcar arrived, followed by the Permanent Highway Plan. Real estate men promoted new houses at the top of the town: city conveniences, country charm, and great views, with a 25-minute streetcar ride to downtown.
Developers Ernest M. Pease and Colorado Senator Thomas M. Patterson snapped up the promising high ground here between the Wisconsin Avenue and Connecticut Avenue streetcar lines. In 1904 they promoted their subdivision, "Colorado Heights," to middle-income white workers, promising that homes would cost not less than $2,500. "Never again," predicted the Washington Post " will land anywhere near Connecticut Avenue be sold so cheaply as this."
Despite Tenleytown's modern amenities - police and fire protection, electric lights, water and sewers - growth dragged until after World War I (1914-1918). Then the Warren brothers bought many of Senator Patterson's lots. They built three blocks of battleship gray, two-bedroom bungalows, many with front porches or sleeping porches. A walk around these blocks is a step back into the 1920s. Note the striking contrast with the upright brick Colonials that came into vogue in the 1940s.
In Tenleytown the Permanent Highway Plan took its cues from real estate developers, who had laid a grid over the old picturesque, curving streets. Years of changes to the area have erased portions of Grant Road and other country lanes, and the plan renamed others. The introduction of Nebraska Avenue (1930s) and Brandywine Street (1950s) led to the demolition of the old Nebraska Market, once situated behind you at Brandywine Street and Grant Road.

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