• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

The Cleveland Park Historical Society

Become a Member

Everyone is welcome to join CPHS! Click here to join or renew securely online

  • Home
  • About CPHS
    • Contact CPHS
    • Board & Staff
    • Calendar
    • Newsletter: “Voices” Archive
  • Historic Preservation
    • About the Cleveland Park Historic District
    • Preservation Design Review in Cleveland Park (Architectural Review Committee)
    • Design Guidelines
  • Neighborhood History
    • Cleveland Park History
    • Oral Histories
    • Videos
    • Historic House Markers
  • All Posts
  • Membership
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
You are here: Home / Cleveland Park History

Cleveland Park History

What is now Cleveland Park began in the 18th century with Pretty Prospects (later known as Rosedale), a single estate of nearly a thousand acres. The yellow farmhouse in the middle of the Rosedale property (3501 Newark Street) was the home of Revolutionary War General Uriah Forrest. The rear section of the Rosedale Farmhouse dates to the 1730s and is the oldest house in Washington. Today, the grounds in front of the farmhouse are preserved by the Rosedale Conservancy for everyone to enjoy.

During his first term as president, Grover Cleveland bought a house just south of Rosedale from Uriah Forrest’s descendants and turned it into a summer retreat. That house, which was razed in 1927, stood near 36th Street between Macomb and Newark Streets. In the 1890s, the extension of the electric streetcar line up Connecticut Avenue made possible for the first time an easy commute between upper North-west and downtown Washington. Cleveland Park was developed as a streetcar “suburb” from the 1890s on. Some of the earliest houses from this phase of development are on Newark Street and Highland Place, and on Macomb near the site of President Cleveland’s old house. Cleveland Park is noted for its architectural diversity. The neighborhood showcases all the popular architectural styles of the late 19th and early 20th centuries—Queen Anne, Shingle, Colonial Revival, Dutch Colonial Revival, Mission Revival, Tudor Revival, Craftsman foursquares and bungalows—as well as important modern houses, including one by I.M. Pei and several by Waldron Faulkner and his son Winthrop Faulkner

This brochure from the D.C. Historic Preservation Office provides a great introduction to Cleveland Park’s history and architecture.

Download the National Register of Historic Places nomination form for the Cleveland Park Historic District here: text and photos (PDFs)

Click here for access to an archive of blog posts on this site relating to Cleveland Park history.

See also this this page for oral histories of Cleveland Park residents and the back issues of our newsletter.

Read about the history of John Eaton Elementary School in the booklet published to celebrate its centennial in 2011.

BIBLIOGRAPHY ON CLEVELAND PARK HISTORY

Anderson, Cherrie, Kathleen Sinclair Wood, and John Weibenson. Cleveland Park: A Guide to Architectural Styles and Building Types. Washington, D.C.: Cleveland Park Historical Society, 1998.

Longstreth, Richard, ed. Housing Washington: Two Centuries of Residential Development and Planning in the National Capital Area. Chicago: Center for American Places, 2010.

Ozer, Mark N. Northwest Washington, D.C.: Tales from West of the Park. Charleston, S.C.: The History Press, 2011.

Peter, Grace Dunlop, and Joyce D. Southwick. Cleveland Park: An Early Residential Suburb of the Nation’s Capital. Washington, D.C.: Cleveland Park Community Library Committee, 1958.

Smith, Kathryn S., ed. Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation’s Capital. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.

Williams, Paul K., and Kelton C. Higgins. Cleveland Park. Charleston, S.C.: Arcadia Publishing, 2003.

HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS IN LOCAL LIBRARIES

Cathedral Archives

The archives of the Washington National Cathedral contain records of the search by Bishop Satterlee, the Cathedral Foundation trustees, and Phoebe Hearst, for land on which to build the Cathedral and its educational institutions in the 1890s, amid the early land-rush among developers buying up the old estates in this area.

D.C. Public Library

Washingtoniana Division, MLK Library: Washingtoniana’s collections, described here, are unparalleled for local-history and house-history research in the District. It is worth following Washingtoniana on Facebook for notices about their programs and workshops. To make an appointment to visit the collection there, email them at wash.dcpl@dc.gov.

Washington Post and Evening Star archives: Did you know that a D.C. public library card gives you free access to full-text search of the Washington Post back to 1877 and the Evening Star back to 1852? Explore the available databases here. Happy searching!

Historical Society of Washington

HSW’s Kiplinger Library is a very important archive and library for Washington history. HSW holds the archives of CPHS, as well as many other resources for neighborhood history research. Their hours are by appointment only, so please call them to arrange a visit. The online search function for their collections is very user-friendly.  Many of their photographs and archival finding aids have been digitized and can be consulted online via this search interface. Note that it is possible to search by neighborhood and/or street address.

Library of Congress

HABS: Records of the Historic American Buildings Survey, a WPA-era project that still continues to document historic structures, are searchable online here.

Pamela Scott, “Residential Architecture of Washington, D.C., and its Suburbs,” an essay online at the Library of Congress’s website, discusses a number of architects important in Cleveland Park’s development, including Waddy Wood, and covers LC’s and other area libraries’ relevant holdings.

Contact Us

Email CPHS
Cleveland Park Historical Society
P.O. Box 4862
Washington DC 20008

 

Line art in our site header is by the late architect John Weibenson for CPHS.

CPHS ON FACEBOOK

Comments Box SVG iconsUsed for the like, share, comment, and reaction icons
Cleveland Park Historical Society
2 weeks ago
Cleveland Park Historical Society

Vintage postcard of the Broadmoor, at Connecticut Avenue and Porter Street NW in Cleveland Park, a luxury apartment building designed in an eclectic style by noted DC architect Joseph Abel, who specialized in apartment buildings. Completed in 1928, it features a rough "clinkered" brick finish and some hints of Art Deco. ... See MoreSee Less

View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 13
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Cleveland Park Historical Society
1 month ago
Cleveland Park Historical Society

... See MoreSee Less

View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 2
  • Shares: 1
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Cleveland Park Historical Society
2 months ago
Cleveland Park Historical Society

Uptown Theater Neighbors Draft Plan To Keep It A Theater ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Uptown Theater Neighbors Draft Plan To Keep It A Theater

dcist.com

The group has already raised $460,000 in pledges for the idea.
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 9
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Load more

Self-Guided History Walk

Download the map here.

© 2023 The Cleveland Park Historical Society • All Rights Reserved

X