Chevy Chase DC

Chevy Chase is an affluent neighborhood in northwest Washington, DC. It borders Chevy Chase, Maryland, a collection of similarly affluent neighborhoods. Chevy Chase DC, a comparatively large neighborhood by DC standards, provides a more sedate and suburban feel compared to many of the better known and more urban residential neighborhoods in Washington, such as Georgetown, Adams Morgan, Capital Hill and Dupont Circle.

In the late 1880s, Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada and his partners began the aggressive acquisition of farmland in Washington, DC and southern Montgomery County, MD, for the purpose of developing a residential streetcar suburb. They founded the Chevy Chase Land Company in 1890, and its eventual holdings are now known Chevy Chase DC and Chevy Chase, MD. Chevy Chase DC was developed beginning in the early 1900s after construction was completed on the Chevy Chase Line, a streetcar line stretching to and beyond the northwestern boundary of the District of Columbia, thereby linking the area to downtown.

Over the succeeding decades the area was transformed from farmland and woods to middle-class housing. The neighborhoods major commercial road is Connecticut Avenue N.W., which in addition to commercial establishments is home to apartments, a Community Center and a regional branch of the D.C. Public Library. Unlike many urban neighborhoods that have lost local businesses to large chains and suburban malls, the small and generally locally owned businesses along Connecticut Ave. remain in place and are well patronized by the local population.