Then

Mentions of Tenleytown in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for Tenleytown, Tenley, "Fort Reno".

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.

Fort Reno Park1863

Honors: Maj. Gen. Jesse Lee Reno, Union officer

Begun in 1861 by Pennsylvania troops as Fort Pennsylvania, the earthwork was renamed in 1863 for General Jesse Lee Reno, mortally wounded at South Mountain in September 1862. The fort was later demolished for an underground reservoir, and the grounds are now a park.

Earlier: Fort PennsylvaniaSources: Fort Reno (National Park Service) · Fort Reno Park - Wikipedia (cites Cooling & Owen, Mr. Lincoln's Forts) · Tenleytown Main Street - History · Stepping through history: Tenleytown Heritage Trail (The Eagle, 2024)

Friendship Heights1713 (land grant); c. 1900 (subdivision)

Honors: The colonial land grant called Friendship

Takes its name from Friendship, a grant of about 3,000 acres given to Thomas Addison and James Stoddert in 1713. Addison descendant John Murdock later built a house called Friendship on the tract. Developers subdivided the Wisconsin Avenue area around 1900.

Sources: Murdock's Friendship (Tenleytown Historical Society) · Ten Facts You May Not Know About Friendship Heights (DCist, 2019)

Grant Road NWby 1870

A pre-grid country lane from Tenleytown eastward, first called New Cut Road and labeled Grant Road by 1870. Residents commonly assume it honors Ulysses S. Grant, who inspected the city's defenses in 1864, but the local history article treats that as unproven. Short historic blocks survive near Albemarle Street.

Earlier: New Cut RoadSource: Grant Road: The historic country lane in DC's modern street grid (Forest Hills Connection, 2017)

Nebraska Avenue NW

Honors: State of Nebraska

A state-named diagonal that meets Wisconsin Avenue at Tenley Circle, following the Highway Plan practice of naming broad diagonals for states. No source consulted gives the date it received the name.

Sources: Highway Plan: Street Names of Washington, DC (DC Office of Planning) · List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia

Reno (Reno City)1860s

Honors: Named after Fort Reno, beside which it grew

A largely Black community that formed around Fort Reno during the Civil War and was subdivided in 1869; developers marketed it as Reno City. In the 1920s the city bought out and condemned its properties for the park and schools. The 1903 Jesse Reno School survives.

Sources: Reno City (DC Historic Sites, DC Preservation League) · Fort Reno Park - Wikipedia

River Road NWby 1791

One of Tenleytown's founding roads: a 1791 survey of River Road shows Tennally's Tavern where it met the road now called Wisconsin Avenue, and the village grew around that junction. No source consulted explains the road's name.

Sources: Tenleytown Historical Society (home page history) · Tenleytown: Named for a Man Who Signed with an X (Ghosts of DC)

Tenley Circle1927

Honors: The Tenleytown namesake (tavern keeper Tennally/Tenley)

A 1902 park plan proposed a circle where Wisconsin and Nebraska Avenues meet. The District Commissioners gave it the Tenley name in May 1927. Unusually, Wisconsin Avenue runs straight through its center. Metro's planned 'Tenley Circle' station opened as Tenleytown after residents objected.

Sources: Tenley Circle - Wikipedia (cites Evening Star, May 28, 1927, 'Circle Named Tenley') · Behind the Name: Tenleytown (DCist, 2012) · Tenleytown: Named for a Man Who Signed with an X (Ghosts of DC)

Tenleytownc. 1790

Honors: John Tennally, 18th-century tavern keeper

The village grew around John Tennally's tavern at the fork of River Road and the Rockville road, shown on a 1791 survey. Tennally signed with an X, so spellings varied; a post office opened as Tennallytown in 1846, and 'Tenleytown' won out in the 20th century.

Earlier: Tennallytown, Tennally's Town, TenallytownSources: Tenleytown: Named for a Man Who Signed with an X (Ghosts of DC) · Tenleytown Historical Society (home page history) · Behind the Name: Tenleytown (DCist, 2012)

Wisconsin Avenue NW1890s-1906 in stages

Honors: State of Wisconsin

Georgetown's stretch was High Street; north of town it was the Tennallytown or Georgetown-Rockville road. Commissioners recommended the Wisconsin name in 1890, Georgetown's portion changed in 1895, and after local protest in 1904 the name was carried through Tenleytown to the Maryland line about 1905-06.

Earlier: High Street, Tennallytown Road / Tenley Road, Georgetown and Rockville RoadSources: Wisconsin Avenue: From High Street to a State Name (Ghosts of DC) · Highway Plan: Street Names of Washington, DC (DC Office of Planning) · List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia

Still looking for a reliable source on Albemarle Street NW, Brandywine Street NW, Chesapeake Street NW, Davenport Street NW, Ellicott Street NW, Fessenden Street NW, Garrison Street NW, Harrison Street NW, Jenifer Street NW, Morrison Street NW, Yuma Street NW. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.

• Joan TaylorJoan Taylor · 2012 · transcript · remembers the 1940s, 1950s

  She recalls Tenleytown as a Black community during her Deal and Wilson years, with wooden houses now gone near Nebraska Avenue and Reno Road, and Wilson High School during desegregation in the late 1950s. Also mentions Sears and Woodward and Lothrop on Wisconsin Avenue.

  At Historic Chevy Chase DC · Black Tenleytown, school desegregation, Wilson High School, Wisconsin Avenue
• Timothy Hannapel and Emily SwartzTimothy Hannapel and Emily Swartz · 2016 · transcript · remembers the 1970s, 1980s

  Nephew and aunt discuss the Fort Reno concert series, a 1984 dig in Fort Reno Park, Wilson High School in the 1970s, neighborhood planning council youth programs, and the clearing of the largely Black Reno City community for Deal and Wilson. Includes 1983 photos of bands at Fort Reno.

  At Historic Chevy Chase DC · Fort Reno concerts, Wilson High School, youth programs, Reno City
• Judith Clark AdamsJudith Clark Adams · 2017 · transcript · remembers the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s

  Adams recalls drug use around Fort Reno Park in the 1970s and the later concerts there, Wilson High School during busing and integration, Woodies in Friendship Heights, and teen hangouts on Wisconsin Avenue.

  At Historic Chevy Chase DC · Wilson High School, Fort Reno, Friendship Heights shopping, drugs
• Richard Sullivan and John SullivanRichard Sullivan and John Sullivan · 2011 · transcript · remembers the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s

  Brothers recall streetcars to Friendship Heights (Richard thinks the last ran in 1962), working at the Woodward and Lothrop store there, Black families living around Tenleytown near Belt Road, and a year at Wilson High School.

  At Historic Chevy Chase DC · streetcars, Friendship Heights, Woodward and Lothrop, Black Tenleytown
• James Fisher and Tanya HardyJames Fisher and Tanya Hardy · 2016 · transcript · remembers the 1920s, 1930s

  Descendants of George Pointer trace the family's move from Broad Branch Road to Davenport Street in Reno City, a relative who attended the segregated Reno School, and an undertaker uncle who served the Fort Reno neighborhood.

  At Historic Chevy Chase DC · Reno City, Black landowners, displacement, Reno School
• Oral History of Rock Creek Baptist Church Members Recount Life at Reno City and along Broad Branch RoadMary Daniel, Augusta Moore, and Eddie Dixon · 1977 · transcript

  A 1977 recording with members of Rock Creek Baptist Church about life in Reno City, the Black community once at today's Fort Reno Park, and along Broad Branch Road. Offered as a downloadable PDF.

  At Historic Chevy Chase DC (Lafayette-Pointer Project) · Reno City, church life, displacement
• Wilson High School Videotaped Oral HistoriesTom Hier, Ken Luchs, Joan Topalian, Lisa Friedman, and members of the Class of 1954 · video · remembers the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s

  Videotaped oral histories with Woodrow Wilson High School graduates: a group recording by the Class of 1954 at its 60th reunion and individual interviews with alumni from the classes of 1956, 1961, 1965 and 1976.

  At Historic Chevy Chase DC · Wilson High School, alumni memories
• [Your Band] Played Here (An Oral History of Fort Reno)2011 · article · remembers the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, 2010s

  Washington City Paper oral history, compiled from interviews, of the free summer concert series at Fort Reno in Tenleytown, from its 1968 start through the punk and hardcore years to the early 2010s, with organizers, volunteers and musicians.

  At Washington City Paper · Fort Reno concerts, music, youth programs, punk
• Fort Reno's Oral History: Saint George2011 · article · remembers the 1960s, 1990s, 2000s

  Companion piece to the City Paper's Fort Reno oral history: organizers and musicians remember Father George Dennis, the Jesuit priest who guided the concert series for decades.

  At Washington City Paper · Fort Reno concerts, community figures
• 4941 Butterworth Place, NWMarshall Cedric Gleason · article · remembers the 1910s

  Recollection, tagged oral history, of growing up from 1910 in a then-rural house near today's AU Park. The family went to Tenleytown for shopping, school and church by way of Murdock Mill Road and Wisconsin Avenue.

  At Tenleytown Historical Society · rural life, streetcars, shopping, farming
• The Destruction of Reno City2024 · article · remembers the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s

  Boundary Stones article on Reno City, the largely Black community at Fort Reno in Tenleytown, and its removal by the late 1940s. Draws on 1977 interviews with former residents for daily life and the condemnation process.

  At Boundary Stones (WETA) · Reno City, displacement, Black history, Fort Reno

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). Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.

• DC Historic Preservation Office, Historic Data on DC Buildings (HistoryQuest), CC BY 4.0
• Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Chronicling America, Library of Congress; public domain

History data refreshed Oct 31.