• 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 / Oral Histories

Oral Histories


Our New Oral History Project: First Fruits!


We are delighted to present the first interview in our new oral history project. This project aims to capture the experience of Cleveland Park residents with a focus on the 1960s and ’70s. We are particularly interested in Cleveland Park in the context of a changing Washington and changing American society; women’s lives and careers; architects and artists in the neighborhood; and the “prehistory” of historic preservation before Cleveland Park became a historic district—but the interviews will range over their subjects’ lives and careers.

Interview transcripts will be archived as part of the Records of the Cleveland Park Historical Society at the Kiplinger Library of the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and will be freely available to the public both here and via HSW’s library website.

The first interview of the new project was with George Idelson. Click the link at right to read his oral history. Next up this winter: transcripts of interviews with Lou Stovall and Clare Tighe. Stay tuned!

Click to read George Idelson’s oral history

George Idelson, now in his 90s, has lived in Washington since 1950 and in Cleveland Park since 1967. He has a long history of leadership in community organizations, particularly on preservation issues. In this oral history conducted in November 2017 by Abigail Porter, George reflects on what’s changed and what hasn’t over fifty years in Cleveland Park.


Oral Histories of Cleveland Park Residents in Other Online Projects


As our new project gets under way, we are eager to share oral histories of Cleveland Park residents that have been completed as part of other projects and are freely available online. If you know of other oral histories out there that we should link to, please email and let us know.

William and Sandra Christenberry (2010 interview, Archives of American Art)

Al Friendly (2003 interview, Bates College Edmund Muskie Collection)

Pie Friendly (2012 interview, Citizens Association of Georgetown)

Ann O. Hamilton (2006 interview, World Bank)

David B. Isbell (2008-2009 interviews, Historical Society of the DC Circuit)

Stephen J. Pollak (2002-2010 interviews, Historical Society of the DC Circuit)

Charles F. C. Ruff (2000 interview, Historical Society of the DC Circuit)

Anne Truitt (2002 interview, Archives of American Art)


1984 Oral Histories


These oral histories were collected in 1984 by students at John Eaton as part of a project headed by Rives Carroll. They were published in a booklet called Cleveland Park Voices: A Social History. A year later, when CPHS was founded, our newsletter inherited the name Voices.

These oral histories are arranged in order of the date their subjects moved to Cleveland Park. The files linked here represent the first half of those in the booklet, those whose time in Cleveland Park began between 1907 and 1965.

The earliest residents remember a time when Cleveland Park was still almost entirely rural. Sledding is a major theme; Philip Stone remembers sledding down Macomb Street from the 3500 block all the way across Connecticut Avenue! Elizabeth Faulkner remembers growing up in the Rosedale Farmhouse. She was the daughter of Queenie Coonley, patron of Frank Lloyd Wright who moved to Rosedale in 1917. Mary Ellen Grogan remembers when Ordway Street wasn’t paved all the way through from Connecticut to Wisconsin, and Helen Hayes was a John Eaton student.

The interviews include the proprietors and staff of beloved neighborhood institutions: the late, lamented University Pastry Shop, which was on Wisconsin just south of Macomb (Julius Andrascek); Roma Restaurant (Bobby Abbo); Sullivan’s (Thomas Sullivan); Friendship Florist (Philip Caruso); and the Safeway that used to be where the Brookville Supermarket is now (Wally Valentini).

Residents who remember the war years describe a neighborhood in some danger of being deemed “blighted” in the aftermath of the Depression. People who wanted to buy in Cleveland Park paid sub-prime rates. Many houses were turned into group homes as World War II brought a huge housing shortage to Washington, and there were so few children that John Eaton was in danger of being closed.

The description of the neighborhood by people who were kids here in the ’50s will be familiar to people who grew up in the Cleveland Park of the ’60s and ’70s, too – walking to school by scrambling over the banks and under the boxwoods of Rosedale; shopping at Murphy’s; eating old-school Chinese food at the Moon Palace.

Philip Stone Grew up in Cleveland Park, 1907—
Mary Louise and James Swindells Grew up in Cleveland Park, 1908—
Virginia Stephenson Grew up in Cleveland Park, 1912—
Elizabeth Faulkner Grew up at Rosedale, 1917—
Marjorie Morris Sinclair Grew up in Cleveland Park, 1918—
Ruth Merwin Grew up in Cleveland Park, 1918—
Mary Ellen Grogan Grew up in Cleveland Park, 1927—
Julius Andrascek University Pastry Shop baker from 1930 and owner from 1949
Patricia Scanlan Grew up in Cleveland Park, 1931—
Miriam and Elliot Moyer Moved to Cleveland Park in 1941
Harry Sachse Lived in Cleveland Park as a boy during WWII
Bobby Abbo Owner of The Roma Restaurant; moved to Cleveland Park in 1945
Hazel Graves Moved to Cleveland Park in 1947
Margaret Rood Lenzner and Tony Rood Grew up in Cleveland Park in the 1950s
Hilda and Sturgis Warner Moved to Cleveland Park in 1951
Libby Rowe Moved to Cleveland Park in 1951
Nick Linebaugh Grew up in Cleveland Park 1953-1963
Betty Miles Moved to Cleveland Park in 1954
Thomas Sullivan Owner of Sullivan’s Toy Store from 1954
Philip Caruso Owner of Friendship Florist from 1956
Peggy Ives Moved to Cleveland Park in 1962
Wally Valentini Assistant Manager of the Safeway on Connecticut Avenue
Kathryn Gibson Cleveland Park resident 1965-1977

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

The Sea Fare restaurant opened in 1945 at 3524 Connecticut Ave NW in Cleveland Park. Created by combining two 1920s storefronts into one building, the Sea Fare was another example of a small business that had been “renovized” by adding a shiny pale-green Vitrolite façade, framed in black, to make for a modern, streamlined look. The mirror-like Vitrolite became an enduring landmark on upper Connecticut Avenue, sometimes attracting unwelcome attention from passersby. In 1953, the Sea Fare’s owner commented to the Washington Post about gangs of young “hoodlums” that would frequent the neighborhood, claiming they would “daily preen themselves in the glassy surfaces of the tile covering the front of his restaurant. 'They all have long wavy hair—they call it duck-tails,’ he said, ‘and wear blue jeans and T-shirts or sweat shirts.’” Two years later, the Sea Fare closed and was replaced by the Peking Palace restaurant, which soon became the Yenching Palace, a landmark Chinese restaurant for many decades. The storefront is now vacant. ... 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: 4

Comment on Facebook

I do not remember this. Oh, I see it becoming Peking Palace that I do remember.

This explains so much! I always wondered at exterior of Yenching Palace as it seemed out of character/style.

Absolutely loved Peking Palace as a kids. My mother’s cousin lived on Connecticut Ave and we passed by almost every week!

Yenching Palace had the most amazing, diverse and abundant brunch on Sundays!!

Cleveland Park Historical Society
3 weeks ago
Cleveland Park Historical Society

The Winter 2022 edition of Voices is now available for download: tinyurl.com/46t7h7xy ... See MoreSee Less

The Winter 2022 edition of Voices is now available for download: https://tinyurl.com/46t7h7xy
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 0
  • Shares: 0
  • Comments: 0

Comment on Facebook

Cleveland Park Historical Society
3 weeks ago
Cleveland Park Historical Society

Uptown Theatre ... See MoreSee Less

Link thumbnail

Uptown Theatre

sah-archipedia.org

1936, John J. Zink. 3426 Connecticut Ave. NW
View on Facebook
· Share
Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Linked In Share by Email
View Comments
  • Likes: 34
  • Shares: 3
  • Comments: 3

Comment on Facebook

What is its current status?

Spent a lot of time there growing up in the 60’s and early 70’s

It was listed on the National Register last month. We are uncertain as to future plans for this landmark. The seating area has been cleared out, but the lobby and stairwells are still intact.

Load more

Self-Guided History Walk

Download the map here.

© 2023 The Cleveland Park Historical Society • All Rights Reserved

X