Library Record
Images
Metadata
Object ID |
2021.09.04 |
Title |
The Chevy Chase Club: 1892-1992 |
Object Name |
Book |
Author |
Thompson, Robert H. (Editor) |
Published Date |
1992 |
Description |
The Chevy Chase Club: 1892-1992 Revised Edition Edited by Robert H. Thompson Published by the Chevy Chase Club, Chevy Chase, Maryland 1992 p. 10 INTRODUCTION The Chevy Chase Club is a sanctuary of open space now completely surrounded by the dwellings of suburban Montgomery County, Maryland. Just half a mile north of Chevy Chase Circle, its 190 acres of gently rolling and beautifully landscaped grounds lie next to Chevy Chase Village on the south and are bounded on the north by Bradley Lane, on the east by Connecticut Avenue, and on the west by Wisconsin Avenue. The name "Chevy Chase" has had several variant spellings. Its first literary appearance is in "The Hunting of the Cheviot." an ancient ballad of unknown authorship ".which was inspired by the Battle of Otterburn in 1388. The ballad celebrates the occasion when Earl Douglas of Scotland, leading a.000 spearmen. engaged in battle i.;oo archers led by Lord Percy' of England. Lord Percy had invaded what Earl Douglas considered to be his private chase or hunting ground in the Cheviot Hills of Northumberland. He challenged Lord Percy with the following (in the ballad as recounted in A Book of English Literature by Snyder and Martin): "Tell me whos men ye ar," he says, "or whos men that ye be: Who gave youe leave to hunte in this Chyviat chays, in the spyt of myn and of me." As a community designation, the name Chevy Chase applies to a large area today, but it is derived from Lord Baltimore's grant of a S6o acre plantation to Colonel Joseph Belt in 1725, described as "all that part or piece [of] Land Called Cheivy Chace," which was laid out by Lord Baltimore's surveyor in 1722 generally between what are now Wisconsin Avenue and Brookeville Road, from Bradley Lane southward to a point in the District of Columbia not far below Chevy Chase Circle. The development of Chevy Chase as a planned suburban community was begun in 1890 by the Chevy Chase Land Company. Following an ambitious campaign of land purchases in Maryland and the District of Columbia, a powerful and talented group of men led by Francis G. Newlands undertook one of the largest and finest speculative land ventures in the city. Their key purchase was the tract of land called "Chevy Chase," which sat directly on the line between Maryland and the District, and the men adopted the name for their new suburb. It was within this context that the Chevy Chase Club was founded. The history of the Chevy Chase Club begins with the old Dumblane Club, which was founded some five years earlier, in 1885. Revised and updated from John M. Lynham's The Chevy Chase Club--A History (1958) See item: 1993.02.01 |