National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

NPS Form 10-9004 OMB Approval No. 10244018
(M6)
United States Department of the Interior
National Park Service
National Register of Historic Places
Continuation Sheet
CLEVELAND PARK HISTORIC DISTRICT
WASHINGTON D.C.
Section number 8 Rage 2°
the "county," the city grid pattern of streets was used to lay out the new
subdivision of Cleveland Park (which included Newark Street, west of 33rd
Street to Wisconsin Avenue, and Ordway Street from 34th to 36th Street). The
first eight houses of the new streetcar suburb were constructed in this area
close to the Rosedale estate. John Sherman's houses were usually built on two
and a half or three lots and they were set back from the street to allow for
ample front lawns.
The quick success of the Cleveland Park Company's venture enabled John
Sherman and Thomas Waggaman to purchase additional adjacent land which was
called "The Connecticut Avenue and Northern Additions to Cleveland Park".
This land was located east of 33rd Street, encompassing all of Highland Place,
extending down Newark Street to Connecticut Avenue, and including lower Macomb
Street from Ross Place to the crest of the hill overlooking Rock Creek (which
today is the site of the Indian Embassy at 2700 Macomb). Houses were built in
this area as early as 1896 (3155, 3141, and 3100 Highland Place). This land
remained unsubdivided agricultural land for at least ten years, so that the
size and shape of each lot was individually selected. The streets in this
section, east of 33rd Street, follow the earlier property lines and curve
around following the natural contours of the land.
At the time Cleveland Park was being developed, the U.S. Government had
retained Frederick Law Olmsted's firm to submit "sketches, plans, etc... for
the extension of streets and avenues of the District of Columbia," *(Sara
White Hamilton, Louise Mann Madden, Sheila Dressner Ruffine, editors;
Historic Preservation Study of Cleveland Park, Washington D.C.; 1977; p. 19.)
From correspondence at the Library of Congress it appears that the Olmsted
firm was concerned with the streets east of 33rd Street. Newark Street was
specifically mentioned, and its curving path certainly exemplifies the
philosophy of the Olmsted firm. This philosophy stressed that streets should
conform to the contour of the land, rather than that the contour of- the land
should be altered so that streets could be flat and straight. (Ibid, p. 23)
From correspondence filed with one of the building permits in 1900 for a house
in the eastern section, John Sherman indicates that he is waiting for a map of
the street extension plans before having a subdivision of the land drawn up.
This further indicates the involvement of the Olmsted firm, which was
preparing sketches and thereby delaying the laying out of subdivisions until
the pattern of the streets could be decided. John Sherman did not hold up the
building of houses, so by the time the street plan came out in 1906 the
curvilinear lines of Newark Street and Highland Place were already an
established fact. The streets in Cleveland Park north of Newark and east of
34th Street follow the example set by Newark Street and exemplify the Olmsted
philosophy (Ordway, Porter, Quebec, Rodman, Rowland Place, Sedgwick and Tilden
Streets as well as 34th Street itself).
It is significant that the streets west of 34th Street laid out before
1895 reflect the earlier decision to continue the standard grid pattern of the
Federal City, and the streets east of 34th Street represent the change in
attitude brought about by Olmsted's involvement, beginning in 1895, which
resulted in the hilly curvilinear streets. In a newspaper article in the