History
How Hillcrest was built, from DC's historic building permits, and what the newspaper said about it a hundred years ago this week.
When it was built
Buildings by decade of permitCounts by decade
| Decade | Buildings |
|---|---|
| 1900s | 6 |
| 1910s | 13 |
| 1920s | 171 |
| 1930s | 579 |
| 1940s | 657 |
| 1950s | 161 |
At a glance
Each record is one building listed on a historic DC building permit; a single permit can cover many buildings. The busiest decade is highlighted in the chart.
Top architects
Buildings designedTop builders
Buildings builtFeatured block
One builder, one yearIn 1941, A. Lloyd Goode built 29 buildings on the 2100 block of Suitland Terrace SE under 9 permits, designed by Denton, Wm. N., Jr.. The largest permit covered 5 buildings at an estimated $39,800 in total.
100 years ago this week
October 31 – November 6, 1926Mentions of Hillcrest in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for "Randle Highlands", Hillcrest, "Naylor road".
No clips matched this week.
No usable mentions in the Evening Star for October 31 – November 6, 1926 (4 matching pages searched). Some weeks a neighborhood just isn't in the paper. Clips are machine-read text (OCR) from scanned Evening Star pages on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, lightly cleaned (line-break hyphens rejoined, stray symbols removed); misspellings are the scanner's. Newspapers this old are public domain. Each clip links to its page at loc.gov. Clips that mention race, covenants, deed restrictions or slurs are skipped automatically (keyword list: race, races, racial, colored, coloured, negro, negroes, white only, whites only, for whites, white people, white persons, white residents, caucasian, segregation, segregated, covenant, covenants, restricted, restriction, restrictions, plus a list of slurs), because they need an editor's context; legal notices and lists of private individuals are skipped too.
Street names: where they come from
12 names, each with a source- Alabama Avenue SE
- Honors: State of Alabama
Winds about five miles from Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue to Benning Ridge. DC's Highway Plan gave broad diagonal avenues the names of states and territories. In Hillcrest it passes the Gregory library and the Lutheran Church of the Holy Comforter.
Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Highway Plan: Street Names of Washington, DC (DC Office of Planning) · Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025) - Fort Baker Drive SE
Once the front approach to the Overlook Inn, a resort of the 1890s on the W Street plateau beside the remains of Civil War Fort Baker. DCist says coaches carried wealthy guests out from downtown hotels. No source we opened says who the fort was named for.
Sources: Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025) · Ten Facts You May Not Know About Hillcrest (DCist, 2019)- Fort Davis (Fort Davis Street SE)
- Honors: Col. Benjamin F. Davis
Finished in August 1861 as part of the Eastern Branch line along the Anacostia, and abandoned in 1865. The National Park Service says it honors Davis, killed at Beverly Ford in Virginia in June 1863.
Source: Fort Davis (National Park Service) - Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood Library1985
- Honors: Francis A. Gregory, first Black president of the DC library board
Opened in 1961 as the Fort Davis Branch, on land once part of the Civil War fort system, and renamed in 1985. Gregory was an assistant school superintendent and a senior Labor Department official. David Adjaye designed the current building, which opened in 2012.
Earlier: Fort Davis Branch LibrarySources: Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025) · Ten Facts You May Not Know About Hillcrest (DCist, 2019) - Highview Terrace SE
Wikipedia says the luxury houses near this street and 34th Street went up in late 1937 and early 1938, and were first called Fairfield. No source we opened explains the street's name.
Source: Hillcrest (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia- Hillcrest
Sold off for development after the Civil War. Col. Arthur Randle took over the planning and established Hillcrest; no source we opened explains the name. The DC History Center records the nickname Silver Coast.
Sources: Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025) · Ten Facts You May Not Know About Hillcrest (DCist, 2019) · Hillcrest (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia- Hillcrest Drive SE
Nine midcentury modern houses above this street are the work of Yettekov Wilson, a Black architect at Cohen-Haft Associates. No source we opened explains the street's name.
Source: Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025)- Marion Barry Avenue SE2023
- Honors: Marion Barry Jr., four-term DC mayor
Good Hope Road until 2023, when the Council voted unanimously to rename it after years of advocacy by Barry's supporters. Wikipedia says it began as Upper Marlborough Road, and that the town of Good Hope grew up in 1820 around a tavern near today's Alabama Avenue.
Earlier: Upper Marlborough Road, Good Hope RoadSources: DC renames Marion Barry Avenue SE from Good Hope Road (DCist, 2023) · Good Hope (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia - Skyland Town Center
The city took this 18-acre site at Good Hope Road, Naylor Road and Alabama Avenue by eminent domain in 2005, and the last court case settled in 2012. Walmart signed a lease, then pulled out for good in 2016. A supermarket and apartments now anchor it.
Sources: Ten Facts You May Not Know About Hillcrest (DCist, 2019) · Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025)- Suitland Parkway SE
- Honors: Suitland, Maryland
Planned in 1937 and built during World War II to link Bolling with Camp Springs, now Joint Base Andrews. It was first called the Camp Springs highway. One lane opened in October 1944 and the whole road that December. It joined the National Register in 1995.
Earlier: Camp Springs highwaySource: Suitland Parkway - Wikipedia - Suitland Road SE
Marion and Effi Barry moved here when he became mayor in 1979. The Curtis Brothers Furniture family built homes along it too. No source we opened explains the road's name.
Sources: Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025) · Ten Facts You May Not Know About Hillcrest (DCist, 2019)- Summit Park
A more exclusive subdivision east of Hillcrest, bounded by Suitland Road, Alabama Avenue and Branch Avenue. The old Nonesuch manor stood inside it until it was torn down by the 1940s. Wikipedia says most people counted Summit Park as part of Hillcrest by the late 1960s.
Sources: Hillcrest (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia · Hillcrest neighborhood history guide (DC History Center, 2025)
Still looking for a reliable source on Akron Place SE, Austin Street SE, Bangor Street SE, Branch Avenue SE, Buena Vista Terrace SE, Camden Street SE, Denver Street SE, East Fairhill Drive SE, Erie Street SE, Forest Glade Lane SE, Frankford Street SE, Gainesville Street SE, Hartford Street SE, James M McGee Jr Street SE, Jasper Street SE, Knox Circle SE, Knox Street SE, Knox Terrace SE, Naylor Road SE, Oxon Run Place SE, Palmer Place SE, Park Drive SE, Park Place SE, Shipley Terrace SE, Skyland Place SE, Southern Avenue SE, Suitland Terrace SE, Texas Avenue SE, Wagner Street SE, West Fairhill Drive SE, Westover Drive SE, Wood Bark Lane SE. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.
Neighborhood voices
Oral histories, held by the archivesWe haven't found a recorded oral history about Hillcrest in a public archive yet.
Search the archives yourself: The People's Archive, DC Public Library · Historic Chevy Chase DC Oral History Archive · Humanities Truck Community Archive, American University · Tenleytown Historical Society · Boundary Stones (WETA) · Glover Park History: Oral History and Reminiscences · Cleveland Park Historical Society Oral Histories · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · hometown DC (DC History Center) · Hola Cultura: Adams Morgan History · Citizens Association of Georgetown · Peabody Room, Georgetown Neighborhood Library (DC Public Library) · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Archives: A Right to the City Exhibition Records · Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project · Mosaic Theater H Street Oral History Project · Library of Congress, Manuscript Division · Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Department Library · The Catholic University of America Archives · Bygone Brookland · Dig DC, DC Public Library · hometown DC (HumanitiesDC / Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) · Dig DC, DC Public Library's digital repository · A Right to the City exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · Palisades Community Association · Forest Hills Connection (neighborhood history series) · Foggy Bottom Association History Project: Oral Histories · George Washington University Special Collections Research Center · Woodley Park Community: A Sketch of Our Past · Empower DC: Ivy City · Power of Preserving the Black Deaf Experience (Dig DC) · Gallaudet University Archives. Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.