Potomac West in Alexandria, Virginia — The American South (Mid-Atlantic)
The Town of Potomac / Mount Vernon Avenue
Town of Potomac
— 1908 - 1929 —
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), March 30, 2018
1. The Town of Potomac side of the marker
Inscription.
The Town of Potomac, also, Mount Vernon Avenue. Town of Potomac.
The Town of Potomac. When the Washington, Alexandria and Mount Vernon Railway announced plans in 1892 that included tracks between Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, the flat, open land north of Alexandria became a logical site for a new community. The development firm of Wood-Harmon bought two large plots of land in 1894 --- a larger one called "Del Ray," from the estate of John Lloyd, and a smaller one called "St. Elmo" --- separated from each other by a racetrack. The Town of Potomac, Virginia was chartered in March 1908, bounded on the east and by the Washington and Alexandria Turnpike (now U.S. Route 1), on the north by Old Georgetown (now Glebe) Road and Braddock Avenue (now Ashby Street), on the west by the electric rail line (now Commonwealth Avenue), and on the south by Bellefonte Avenue., Del Rey and St. Elmo are early examples of commuter suburbs, since one of the first inter urban electric railways in the country provided a rapid means of travel for workers going between Washington and Alexandria. The Town of Potomac was also one of the first recipients of federal highway funds in 1915 when modernization of Mount Vernon Avenue met the needs of an emerging automobile culture. Ease of transit between Potomac and Alexandria was no doubt a factor in the decision of the City to annex the town. The first annexation effort in 1915 failed, but a second one launched in 1927 succeeded. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day, 1930, the Town of Potomac ceased to exist and became the Del Rey neighborhood of Alexandria., [Captions:] The Town of Potomac was formed around two subdivisions, Del Ray and St. Elmo. Other subdivisions followed through the 1920's, but only one (Del Ray Section 2 by David N. Rust, Jr.) was sold with houses. All the rest were said simply as lots and the owners built their own homes, often considerably later than the land purchase. The result is a wide range of architecture that reflects the dynamic evolution of styles between 1894 and 1930, including Folk Victorian, Colonial Revival and Crafts, Foursquare and even row houses of various types. The presence of so many well-reserved styles within such a small area helped it receive designation as a state and national historic district., The Bank of Del Ray opened in July 1923, in temporary quarters in the Mt. Vernon Drugstore. The bank later constructed a new building, which still stands, at 2018 Mount Vernon Avenue, as does the house of its first president, John R. Harding, at 2100 Mount Vernon Ave. The bank withstood a dramatic robbery by a gang of six armed men in May 1929, but later fell victim to an attack from within, when it was found that cashier Clay Brittle had embezzled more than half the bank's assets. The bank closed its doors on January 21 1930, and therefore paid out about 43 center on the dollar to depositors pending sale of the land., On the eve of annexation in 1929, many of the streets had been paved and lighted, and additional house constructed had created a true town feel to Potomac. Street lighting had been installed in 1910 in the form of forty-five 40-candlepower incandescent lamps. The hard paving of streets began with Mount Vernon Avenue in 1911 and gradually expanded to other streets, although this process was still not complete in 1930. This view shows Hume Avenue from the top of a small ridge, looking east towards Potomac Yard., Alexandria County (which became renamed Arlington County the next year) established a Health Department in 1919 and constructed one of its clinics in Potomac in 1923 and 2704 Mount Vernon Avenue. The clinic was open one or two days a week, concentrating on pregnancy and infant care, functions later taken over by City agencies after town annexation. Seen here are most of the professional employees of the Arlington Health Department in December 1929: Director Peyton Chichester, MD, second from the left; Sanitary Inspector Norbert Melnick, second from the right; an Norma Davies, RN, a nurse shared with the school system, far right. Missing is infant nurse Minnie Rudasill, RN. On the far left is Henry Latane, MD, who gave tuberculosis tests as needed, and in the center is Sue Brown, RN, who organized the "Health Crusaders" in Mount Vernon School on a volunteer basis to teach the virtues of cleanliness and a healthy lifestyle to local children. the building was also used sometimes by the one-person County Welfare Department, which concentrated mostly on child abandonment and truancy cases, and by the county school system's full-time dentist., A massive railroad classification yard (for switching and sorting trains) was built in 1904 to the east of Del Ray and St. Elmo, named Potomac Yard. This brought employment to the area, and spurred housing and retail growth. It also brought life to what had been the poorly maintained Washington and Alexandria Turnpike, along the eastern boundary of the Town of Potomac. here that road is seen about 1930, improved as the Jefferson Davis Highway, with Potomac Yard on the right and the eastern edge of the town on the left.,
Mount Vernon Avenue. Proposals for a modern road connecting the nation's capital with the Mount Vernon Estate were raised in 1888 and proceeded in fits and starts for the next forty-two years. By 1900, a patchwork of new roads and renamed existing roads had created Mount Vernon Boulevard from Rosslyn to Alexandria. With the construction of an electric rail line running a similar route all the way to Mount Vernon however, the impetus for such a road died out. The rise of the automobile renewed interest in the road proposals and resulted in a rebuilt Mount Vernon Avenue in 1915. Eventually, the George Washington Memorial Parkway used an all-new route north of Alexandria in 1930 and claimed the electric railway's right-of-way for the portion south of the city., The appearance of mass-produced automobiles changed American life in many dramatic ways, including the need for high-quality paved roads. In 1914, the federal government began subsidizing "experimental roads" to test various materials and construction techniques. An early form of transportation largesse, these projects were eagerly sought after. One of the first to be launched was the "mount Vernon Avenue Experimental, Road", which ran from the foot of the Highway Bridge at 14th Street down what is now Arlington Ridge Road, along Mount Vernon Avenue and into Alexandria., [Captions:] The 1920s saw remarkable growth in the commercial density along Mount Vernon Avenue. The core area between Bellefonte and Mt. Ida avenues in 1921 was the site of fifteen residences, five stores, and the Mount Vernon School. Ten years later, that stretch of road had gained only one house, but now had eighteen commercial buildings along with the school., The few hard-surface roads in the US by 1900 were mostly of macadam construction, using several layers of rock and gravel. With the advent of the automobile, a new technique came to the fore called tarmacadam ("tarmac" for short), that involved pouring tar or asphalt over the gravel so that it would seep in a few inches and form a hard, dust-free surface. The most miserable job on a road-building crew was that of the "oiler," whose function was to pour the hot molten liquid on the gravel surface. Here an oiler, wearing his leather protective outfit is working on Mount Vernon Avenue near Uhler Avenue in 1915. About half of the experimental road was done using this technique, while the other half received the pioneering (now standard) method called "hot-mix asphalt," in which the asphalt or tar and gravel are mixed together before spreading., Since 1894, Mount Vernon Boulevard had been the widest road in Del Ray and St. Elmo. In recognition of its role as the main street, the Town of Potomac had Mount Vernon Boulevard surfaced with tarmacadam in 1911, while the rest of the streets in the town remained clay and gravel. The surface failed early, due to poor specification. here a steam roller heads north on Mount Vernon, pulling a device to scarify, or rip up, the old tarmac surface at the intersection with Windsor Avenue in 1915., By 1929, Mount Vernon Avenue (below) in the Town of Potomac was starting to lose its rural and largely residential character in favor of a more commercial main street. This view looks north from near Windsor Avenue. The building on the near right is a Sanitary Grocery Company store, a Washington, D.C.-based chain that was bought by Safeway in 1928, but kept its own name into the late 1930s. The curbs and gutters were just a year old at the time of this photo.
The Town of Potomac
When the Washington, Alexandria & Mount Vernon Railway announced plans in 1892 that included tracks between Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, the flat, open land north of Alexandria became a logical site for a new community. The development firm of Wood-Harmon bought two large plots of land in 1894 --- a larger one called "Del Ray," from the estate of John Lloyd, and a smaller one called "St. Elmo" --- separated from each other by a racetrack. The Town of Potomac, Virginia was chartered in March 1908, bounded on the east and by the Washington & Alexandria Turnpike (now U.S. Route 1), on the north by Old Georgetown (now Glebe) Road and Braddock Avenue (now Ashby Street), on the west by the electric rail line (now Commonwealth Avenue), and on the south by Bellefonte Avenue.
Del Rey and St. Elmo are early examples of commuter suburbs, since one of the first inter urban electric railways in the country provided a rapid means of travel for workers going between Washington and Alexandria. The Town of Potomac was also one of the first recipients of federal highway funds in 1915 when modernization of Mount Vernon Avenue met the needs of an emerging automobile culture. Ease of transit between Potomac and Alexandria was no doubt a factor in the decision of the City to annex the town. The first
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annexation effort in 1915 failed, but a second one launched in 1927 succeeded. At the stroke of midnight on New Year's Day, 1930, the Town of Potomac ceased to exist and became the Del Rey neighborhood of Alexandria.
[Captions:]
The Town of Potomac was formed around two subdivisions, Del Ray and St. Elmo. Other subdivisions followed through the 1920's, but only one (Del Ray Section 2 by David N. Rust, Jr.) was sold with houses. All the rest were said simply as lots and the owners built their own homes, often considerably later than the land purchase. The result is a wide range of architecture that reflects the dynamic evolution of styles between 1894 and 1930, including Folk Victorian, Colonial Revival and Crafts, Foursquare and even row houses of various types. The presence of so many well-reserved styles within such a small area helped it receive designation as a state and national historic district.
The Bank of Del Ray opened in July 1923, in temporary quarters in the Mt. Vernon Drugstore. The bank later constructed a new building, which still stands, at 2018 Mount Vernon Avenue, as does the house of its first president, John R. Harding, at 2100 Mount Vernon Ave. The bank withstood a dramatic robbery by a gang of six armed men in May 1929, but later fell victim to an attack from within, when it was found that cashier Clay Brittle had embezzled
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), April 17, 2022
2. Mount Vernon Avenue side of the marker
more than half the bank's assets. The bank closed its doors on January 21 1930, and therefore paid out about 43 center on the dollar to depositors pending sale of the land.
On the eve of annexation in 1929, many of the streets had been paved and lighted, and additional house constructed had created a true town feel to Potomac. Street lighting had been installed in 1910 in the form of forty-five 40-candlepower incandescent lamps. The hard paving of streets began with Mount Vernon Avenue in 1911 and gradually expanded to other streets, although this process was still not complete in 1930. This view shows Hume Avenue from the top of a small ridge, looking east towards Potomac Yard.
Alexandria County (which became renamed Arlington County the next year) established a Health Department in 1919 and constructed one of its clinics in Potomac in 1923 and 2704 Mount Vernon Avenue. The clinic was open one or two days a week, concentrating on pregnancy and infant care, functions later taken over by City agencies after town annexation. Seen here are most of the professional employees of the Arlington Health Department in December 1929: Director Peyton Chichester, MD, second from the left; Sanitary Inspector Norbert Melnick, second from the right; an Norma Davies, RN, a nurse shared with the school system, far right. Missing is infant nurse Minnie Rudasill, RN. On the far
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), April 17, 2022
3. The Town of Potomac side of the marker
left is Henry Latane, MD, who gave tuberculosis tests as needed, and in the center is Sue Brown, RN, who organized the "Health Crusaders" in Mount Vernon School on a volunteer basis to teach the virtues of cleanliness and a healthy lifestyle to local children. the building was also used sometimes by the one-person County Welfare Department, which concentrated mostly on child abandonment and truancy cases, and by the county school system's full-time dentist.
A massive railroad classification yard (for switching and sorting trains) was built in 1904 to the east of Del Ray and St. Elmo, named Potomac Yard. This brought employment to the area, and spurred housing and retail growth. It also brought life to what had been the poorly maintained Washington & Alexandria Turnpike, along the eastern boundary of the Town of Potomac. here that road is seen about 1930, improved as the Jefferson Davis Highway, with Potomac Yard on the right and the eastern edge of the town on the left.
Mount Vernon Avenue
Proposals for a modern road connecting the nation's capital with the Mount Vernon Estate were raised in 1888 and proceeded in fits and starts for the next forty-two years. By 1900, a patchwork of new roads and renamed existing roads had created Mount Vernon Boulevard from Rosslyn to Alexandria. With the construction of an electric rail
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), April 17, 2022
4. Mount Vernon Avenue side of the marker
line running a similar route all the way to Mount Vernon however, the impetus for such a road died out. The rise of the automobile renewed interest in the road proposals and resulted in a rebuilt Mount Vernon Avenue in 1915. Eventually, the George Washington Memorial Parkway used an all-new route north of Alexandria in 1930 and claimed the electric railway's right-of-way for the portion south of the city.
The appearance of mass-produced automobiles changed American life in many dramatic ways, including the need for high-quality paved roads. In 1914, the federal government began subsidizing "experimental roads" to test various materials and construction techniques. An early form of transportation largesse, these projects were eagerly sought after. One of the first to be launched was the "mount Vernon Avenue Experimental, Road", which ran from the foot of the Highway Bridge at 14th Street down what is now Arlington Ridge Road, along Mount Vernon Avenue and into Alexandria.
[Captions:]
The 1920s saw remarkable growth in the commercial density along Mount Vernon Avenue. The core area between Bellefonte and Mt. Ida avenues in 1921 was the site of fifteen residences, five stores, and the Mount Vernon School. Ten years later, that stretch of road had gained only one house, but now had eighteen commercial buildings along with the school.
The
Photographed By Devry Becker Jones (CC0), March 17, 2018
5. Plaque to the right of The Town of Potomac Marker
Yoga in Daily Life
The System
World Peace Tree
September 11, 2008
dedicated by
Peace Ambassador P. Swami Maheshwarananda
Mayor William D. Euille
Congressman Jim Moran
few hard-surface roads in the US by 1900 were mostly of macadam construction, using several layers of rock and gravel. With the advent of the automobile, a new technique came to the fore called tarmacadam ("tarmac" for short), that involved pouring tar or asphalt over the gravel so that it would seep in a few inches and form a hard, dust-free surface. The most miserable job on a road-building crew was that of the "oiler," whose function was to pour the hot molten liquid on the gravel surface. Here an oiler, wearing his leather protective outfit is working on Mount Vernon Avenue near Uhler Avenue in 1915. About half of the experimental road was done using this technique, while the other half received the pioneering (now standard) method called "hot-mix asphalt," in which the asphalt or tar and gravel are mixed together before spreading.
Since 1894, Mount Vernon Boulevard had been the widest road in Del Ray and St. Elmo. In recognition of its role as the main street, the Town of Potomac had Mount Vernon Boulevard surfaced with tarmacadam in 1911, while the rest of the streets in the town remained clay and gravel. The surface failed early, due to poor specification. here a steam roller heads north on Mount Vernon, pulling a device to scarify, or rip up, the old tarmac surface at the intersection with Windsor Avenue in 1915.
By 1929, Mount Vernon Avenue (below)
in the Town of Potomac was starting to lose its rural and largely residential character in favor of a more commercial main street. This view looks north from near Windsor Avenue. The building on the near right is a Sanitary Grocery Company store, a Washington, D.C.-based chain that was bought by Safeway in 1928, but kept its own name into the late 1930s. The curbs and gutters were just a year old at the time of this photo.
Location. 38° 49.608′ N, 77° 3.519′ W. Marker is in Alexandria, Virginia. It is in Potomac West. Marker is at the intersection of Mount Vernon Avenue and East Oxford Avenue, on the right when traveling north on Mount Vernon Avenue. Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Alexandria VA 22301, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Credits. This page was last revised on March 27, 2024. It was originally submitted on March 18, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. This page has been viewed 440 times since then and 35 times this year. Photos:1. submitted on March 31, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. 2, 3, 4. submitted on April 17, 2022, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. 5. submitted on March 18, 2018, by Devry Becker Jones of Washington, District of Columbia. • Bernard Fisher was the editor who published this page.
