Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2009.2086.12 |
Title |
The National 4-H Center |
Object Name |
Recollections |
Date |
September 1, 1977 |
Creator |
Office of Information, National 4-H Council |
Description |
History of the National 4-H Center by the Office of Information, National 4-H Council September 1, 1977 THE NATIONAL 4-H CENTER It's hard to visualize now. The stately white pillars are still there at the end of the tree-lined drive at 7100 Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase. But while they once looked out on ladies in long skirts bowling on the lawn, they now see teenagers in shorts sitting cross-legged on the grass debating ecology. Today it is the campus of the National 4-H Center - training site for thousands of young people and adults and orientation point for exchangees in 4-H international programs. The Center is owned and operated by National 4-H Council in behalf of the 4-H program of the Cooperative Extension Service. Before the turn of the century is was a resort hotel, refuge for families wishing to escape the hot and humid weather c. downtown Washington. The year was 1890. Francis G. Newlands who was later to become a senator from Nevada, had spotted the potential of the farmland north of Washington and had just formed the Chevy Chase Land Company to develop the area. It was hard to get to Chevy Chase in those days. Rock Creek Park, now a scenic drive, was a perplexing wilderness barrier to travelers. Newlands had to build two bridges-one of them as high over Rock Creek as the Brooklyn Bridge is over the East River-to extend Connecticut Avenue out to Chevy Chase. By 1893 the Rock Creek Railway had opened an electric streetcar line out to Chevy Chase, and a Washingtonian could ride all the way out to the National 4-H Center--then called the Chevy Chase Inn--for a quarter. To attract buyers to Chevy Chase, Newlands not only invested in bridges but also developed a recreation area at Chevy Chase Lake, a man-made lake just north of East-West Highway. When families began moving into the homes built by the Land Company in 1895, they found all kinds of services available to them: not just water and sewage systems, but a horse and-wagon delivery service that would bring everything from needles to heavy furniture from stores to their door. Then, as now, Chevy Chase was a prestigious subdivision. In fact, some have said it was the first planned suburban subdivision in the United States. Newlands had an eye for aesthetics, and provided a landscape gardener to plan the arrangement of ornamental shrubs. There was also a stern rule that no house facing Connecticut Avenue could cost less than $5,000. The Inn seems to have been popular in the summer, but during the winter it was somewhat of a white elephant. One winter the Chevy Chase Land Company tried to keep the hotel on a paying basis by leasing it to a French schoolmistress. On October 1, 1895, Miss Lea M. Bougliny established a Young Ladies Seminary, where the daughters of diplomats and proper Southern families studied French. But the school had its problems. Groceries were hard to get: they had to be brought in by streetcar from Washington. And youthful enthusiasm being what it is, the girls wanted to take frequent trips into the city. The school closed its doors after one term. Even the summer hotel business went bad during 1896 - perhaps the result of a nationwide depression. The land company leased the inn for $1,500 that summer; but after all the taxes had been paid and repairs had been made on the servants quarters and bowling alleys, there was a profit of only $353. By 1903 the building's hotel days were over, and it became the home of the Chevy Chase College for Young Ladies. The name later was altered to Chevy Chase Junior College, and the appearance of the campus changed as well. A brick facade was added to the white frame colonial structure and two new buildings went up on either side of it. In 1927 a senior high school was added, but 20 years later it was discontinued. In 1950 the college yearbook painted an idyllic picture of campus life, with students dancing around a maypole, playing hockey on the front lawn, and experimenting with what the book gushingly called the wonders of chemistry" in the laboratory. But that year marked the end of an era: the college closed. The new owner of the property was a non-profit corporation called the National 4-H Foundation. It had been formed two years before by the Cooperative Extension Service of the State Land-Grant Colleges and Universities and the U. S. Department of Agriculture. The Extension Service had watched 4-H--an out-of-school educational program for young people age 9 to 19--grow from a rural-based organization into a program that was reaching out to young people everywhere, not only on farms but in towns and cities as well. It had seen a need for a foundation that could channel private support from business and industry into 4-H; a foundation that could conduct 4-H international exchanges and develop leadership training programs for young people, adult volunteers and professional 4-H staff. The National 4-H Foundation was born in a tiny office in Silver Spring, Maryland, but it immediately began looking for a site to establish a leadership training center. The old college seemed like a perfect spot. On Valentine's Day, 1950, the Foundation dedicated the buildings to the service of 4-H programs in the United States. But they held the keys for less than half an hour. The nation was gearing up for the Korean conflict and the Defense Department asked to lease the buildings for an Operations Research Office. The Foundation agreed. In the late fifties, the Army moved out, and the National 4-H Foundation made plans to move in. For seven years the Foundation had been raising funds to help turn the old college into a National 4-H Center. A "share and care" program had been launched among all 4-H members and leaders in the United States. The young people had pitched in and raised nearly $250,000; which, together with substantial grants from the Ford Foundation and the Danforth Foundation, made the dream of a National 4-H Center become a reality. President Eisenhower himself came to cut the ribbon for the opening of the Center on June 16, 1959. It was the beginning of a chain of events the likes of which the old inn had never seen. For one thing, there was National 4-H Conference, an assembly of boys and girls from every state in the United States. Before that time the conference had been a camp. Youngsters brought their tents and met for a week on the Mall near the Washington Monument. Now the 4-H'ers had a permanent home in the Nation's Capital, and each spring they would come to the National 4-H Center for their conference. But even more important, the Center became the site for year-round-training programs. First was the Citizenship training, a program of one-week seminars held during the summer months for teenage 4-H members. The first participants, 40 teenagers from Buchanan County, Iowa, arrived by bus in 1959. Today more than 6, 000 youngsters from Maine to California come each summer by bus and plane to take part in the course. During the winter not only 4-Hers but high school social science students and other youth groups come to the Center for citizenship, public affairs and leadership training. With Washington, D. C. as a living laboratory of democracy in action, young people develop a working concept of citizenship they can apply in their own lives. They return home to take more active, creative leadership roles in their communities. Training at the Center is not limited to young people. Volunteer 4-H leaders and professional staff members take part in a wide variety of forums, seminars and other training conferences to help them gain confidence and skill in working with youth. Throughout the year the National 4-H Center serves as the orientation site for 4-H international exchangees. The same corridors where Miss Bougliny's students practiced their French in 1895 today ring with Spanish, German, Hindi and Swahili. The International Four-H Youth Exchange (IFYE), started in 1948, brings teenagers and young adults from other lands to the United States to live and work with host families for six months and sends U. S. delegates to live with families in other countries. Over the years, 4-H international programs have grown. To IFYE has been added a Youth Development Project, which sends U.S. young people into developing countries for a year to help the people there set up 4-H-type youth programs. Today there are programs like 4-H in 82 countries on every continent. And there are 4-H international programs for professional youth workers as well. The Center also is used as an orientation point for young farmers from Poland and the Philippines who participate in the Agricultural Training Program-a two-year work/study experience in the United States, and for participants in the Young Agricultural Specialists Exchange Program between the Soviet Union and the United States. With the steady growth of 4-H--now involving more than 5, 800, 000 young people and 575,000 volunteer leaders--the educational facilities at the Center began to feel the pinch for space. During the summer Citizenship participants overflowed the buildings and hundreds of youngsters had to be housed 12 miles away at the University of Maryland. To solve the problem, a Center expansion program was launched in 1969-asking for support from the 4-H family and from the private sector. The response was quick. Pledges made it possible for the first phase of construction to begin on April 20, 1970 when a groundbreaking ceremony was held during National 4-H Conference. By July 1971 the first two buildings were completed and the overnight capacity of the Center jumped from 300 to 650. The new facilities included 190 twin bedrooms with private baths, plus a dining room seating 600 and 31 conference and class rooms. Expansion efforts continued and on April 29, 1976 at the annual National 4-H Conference, restoration ceremonies were held to mark the beginning of reconstruction of the main administration building, which includes a large auditorium and recreation area, a chapel, a reference gallery and administrative offices. Redecorated dormitory wings at the rear of the building provide sleeping space for 250. On September 22, 1977 completion of the expansion program will be celebrated at a dedication ceremony which will recognize the contributions of more than $8,000,000 from thousands of businesses, corporations, foundations and individuals, including 4-H members, leaders and staff. The administration building, with its familiar pillars restored, will be named J. C. Penney Hall. The residential and dining hall building will be named W. K. Kellogg Hall and another residential and conference room building will be McCormick Hall. Meanwhile another major event has taken place. On February 1, 1977 the National 4-H Foundation and the National 4-H Service Committee, Chicago, were merged into National 4-H Council- bringing together two organizations with a long tradition of private support to 4-H through training, research, recognition, information and development programs. Council is a private nonprofit educational institution incorporated to strengthen the 4-H program and enhance its positive influence on youth and adults through support from the private sector. Council headquarters is in Chicago at 150 North Wacker Drive. Washington offices are at the National 4-H Center which will continue to serve as a focal point for leadership and citizenship training for thousands of young people and adults who come from across the nation and around the world to gain new insights, share creative ideas and return home to help youth development in their own communities. Office of Information National 4-H Council 7100 Connecticut Avenue September 1, 1977 |