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Trying to write a short article about growing up in the Hillcrest Heights area during the 1950s and 60s is a very difficult thing to do. There was so much going on - some of which many of us probably never knew. I grew up in the Hillcrest Heights and the adjoining Silver Hill area, from 1951 on, after leaving D.C. where I was born. In the 50s many folks came & went in this new and rapidly developing area. Some came to the area because they were assigned to D.C. the military or some had government jobs. Some just showed up and would stay and raise families. What happened over the course of time from the 50s thru the 70s would change the landscape forever but in many respects it turned out fine. Considering there was never a 'master plan' for the entire region, in many respects it turned out as well as or even better than some of the planned communities elsewhere in the D.C./Md/Va. area. Sadly, today what was once a vibrant place to live is more of a sad monument to what happens when laws are ignored, folks are allowed to run amok, and nobody in charge cares.
That it ever developed into a decent place to live may have had a lot to do with the fact that it was in a sense isolated from the rest of the general region. Colebrooke Drive was the only way in back in 1951; down Branch Ave at Curtis Drive, that road would get you into Hillcrest Gardens - an area of duplex homes. As the road went over the hill, it most likely stopped, at least until 28th Parkway was extended from Colebrooke Drive soon thereafter, as single family homes were built in that section. By the mid 50s, 28th Ave would extend to St Barnabas Rd. when the Marlow Heights shopping center opened up. More duplex houses, many single family homes and apartments would soon follow. Iverson St. in 1957 was a dirt road from 23rd Parkway to Wheeler Rd but as single family homes were built down the road towards what is now 19th Ave.,
It was paved in sections until finally by 1963 it was completely done. Also in 1957, Holy Family left the quonset huts behind Murphys moved up the hill and Catskill St opened. Now there was now a way to go from its parking lots to Oxon Run Hills and D.C. via Dunlap St. Dunlap St. would later be paved from Holy Family as it extended over the hill to 23rd Parkway when the apartments were built in the early 60s; that portion had been there as a dirt road. 23rd Parkway would also be paved and completed down to Oxon Run Drive during the early 60s but it has never been connected on the other end to St Barnabas Rd even though a connecting dirt road has existed there since the early 60s. It does blend into Olsen St in that area where a short distance away.
Raleigh Road in Deer Park Heights was finally connected to Olsen St in the late 60s [actually early 70s], replacing a footbridge that had been in use for many years. The last remaining part of Iverson St that had never been paved or connected to Branch Ave was finally done in the mid 60s from 28th Ave. By the late 60s, it was cut thru to join Silver Hill Rd. By then, most of the land from Southern Ave to Temple Hills Rd and from Suitland Parkway to 19th Ave in Hillcrest Heights was built upon, paved over for parking, or designated as open space for schools and/or recreation.
In the early 1970s, things were changing in Hillcrest Heights and the rest of the county; these changes were largely due to very poor local (county) government. It had always been a local 'good ole boys' network run out of Upper Marlboro. That's where the problems started and I've included some of the reasons why I feel this way The Washington Post has numerous articles from the 1890s detailing stories about the 'Silver Hill Road' area. Runaway horsedrawn wagons and robberies were written up often along this route. It was very rural then. But from what I can pinpoint this area was Naylor Road to where it crosses todays Branch Ave near Curtis Drive or somewhere closeby. Road names changed over the years but they are mostly still there today. Branch Ave then followed Old Silver Hill Rd and crossed what is Silver Hill Rd today. At its intersection with St Barnabas Road, Branch Ave (Rt. 5) swung south. This was near where the sign of the Marlow Heights Shopping Center had stood for many years. As late as say 1970, this area was one of the worst intersections in the state with
the maze of traffic lights; there was no overpass then.
There was a train 100 years ago which ran from D.C. to Chesapeake Beach, then a popular resort. Though it ran north of the much of Silver Hill/Suitland area, it touched parts of Central Ave & Upper Marlboro. And what caused its demise in the 1930s was the increased use of the automobile. And getting from D.C. meant that many folks used roads that bordered the Silver Hill area or crossed it, such as Branch Ave and Silver Hill Road.
In 1908, Prince Georges County got $125,000 from the state which was allocated some $5 Million statewide for road improvements: in most cases macadam pavement and at others at least a gravel overlays. These amounts were huge for its time but the small amount (relatively) that P.G. got paved Branch Ave and many other roads from the D.C line to near Brandywine (T.B.) and this was only 1908. Given the way the city of Baltimore seems to have always gotten much more in state tax benefits than it pays (tax money paid by the counties), wanna bet $4 million of these funds went to that city for its roads?
About 1913 or so, motor buses traveled thru parts of Silver Hill area to meet up with a train in Brandywine that would take them to a ferry at Morgantown which would then take them to Colonial Beach, Va. - then a major resort. Car trips were a major hazard to motorists in the early 1900s due in part to speedtraps and actual highway robberies - including carjackings, even then. Prior to 1950, there's no doubt crimes were committed in the Suitland and Silver Hill areas. It was a remote and largely rural area. Cab drivers were often taken out to the entrances to the cemeteries and robbed. Some of the retailers in the area were robbed day or night, even after closing and with an electric alarm. During a certain gangsters funeral in the 1930s, a photographer got punched and shoved into an open grave at another ongoing service at Cedar Hill Cemetery.
There are stories in newspapers of the time about certain bars and at least one grocery store in the 1940s in the Silver Hill area that were real dives. There were robberies and shootings. One reputed gambler from the College Park area supposedly moved his gambling operations to a site along Silver Hill Road. The Post used to publish day-trip by car stories that ran along Suitland or Silver roads in the 1910-1930 time period, similar to what they do today. One can glean a lot of info about the supposed 'boondocks' back then.
Both my great grandfather and his son-in-law were some of the 1st purchasers of property on Cobb Island back in the early 1920s. They got there from D.C by driving out Suitland Rd or Branch Ave. all the way to T.B.They picked up what was then MD Rt. 3 all the way to Rock Point, turning off at the island. Cedar Hill Cemetery tried to stop the opening of Washington National Cemetery across Suitland Rd in the mid 1930s by pulling some strings in Upper Marlboro, which wasn't that hard to do back then.
In the 1930s & 1940s, there was a racetrack called Piney Grove just off Marlboro Pike west of District Heights. And the origins of NASCAR were in the Laurel, MD area back then. As is often the case, the county wasn't keen on his dreams and Bill France Sr took it to Fla; the rest as they say is history. There was a NASCAR 1/2 mile track in Beltsville back in the 1960s but P.G. county killed it by requiring mufflers because the new homeowners behind the track didn't want the noise. This had been all government-owned farmland along the B-W Parkway (I-295 today) except for a few acres here & there. All of the then current NASCAR stars were there twice a year- Richard & Lee Petty, Bobby Allison, and many others. And a local guy from Temple Hills - Elmo Langley. He had
raced at speedways in West Lanham Hills and the oval portion of the world-renown (then) car track in Upper Marlboro.
By the way, the ruins of the track in Upper Marlboro remain today near the Giant on Rt 301. A few of the 'white'gentry who lived nearby managed to get its operations stopped but the ghost lives on. It was a very good track located in the middle of nowhere. And it's still rural or industrial there today.
As the older generation fades away over time, many details of the way the suburbs were created also got lost. The Census Bureau has on its website a story about a few city folks who attempted to visit the Suitland site in the early 1940s and got lost coming out Pennsylvania Ave. Had they came out Branch Ave. like most folks would have and then cut up Silver Hill Rd, they would have got there fast. Most of the area east of Branch Ave. had been owned by the Suit family; that to the west (what would be Hillcrest Heights) I haven't been able to find a clear answer. When I worked there in the mid 60s I would often hear from the old folks that the only thing out there in 1942 was a bus stop at Silver Hill and Suiltand Roads. The reality was there had always been some supply stores, a schoolhouse, a post office, and a civic center all nearby. And for many years. What may have confused them was that Suitland Road from the D.C. line was mainly a dirt and gravel road up to Silver Hill Rd. which was paved. Suitland Rd. stopped there; later a road would connect to it called Mayhew Rd. which later was changed to Suitland Rd. I have relatives who were buried in the graveyards that line Suitland Road and as late as 1941, the entrance to one was still dirt - the mourners at my late aunts funeral had to walk across muddy roadways in the rain.
Many folks don't know that there was an airfield on what is today the Suitland Federal Complex. In the late 1930s at least one person died when their biplane crashed into the earth there. But the main reason we even moved to Hillcrest Heights was like so many other families did; many worked for the U.S. Government either in D.C. or at Andrews field, or even more likely, the new complex nearby in Suitland. Census Bureau workers started there in the 1942 in the 1st of 2 buildings and by 1945, the Navy opened it Hydrographic Office, where my dad went to work during the war. Lack of local fire stations caused the federal government to place some apparatus in the garage area between the buildings in the area near Navy Day Place which at some point in time crossed over Silver Hill Rd. This was told to me by some old folks who went to work there in the early 40s and have long since passed on. New stations were soon built in the area, including one on federal property: the Silver Hill Vol. Fire Dept. As such, they were required to use the same type and color of brick as those used in the Census & Navy buildings just up the road. Their website reveals these details.
I lived in the Hillcrest Heights/Silver Hill area from 1951,as a very young child, til late 1971 when I 'bailed'(like others did) and for several brief periods off & on after that. I was one of the first to live in the townhouse/apartments built from 28th Ave up to 23rd Place and over to Colebrooke Drive and along Iverson St. I can remember having a bus converted to a 'small grocery store on wheels' come thru several times a week. Much better than any convenience store of today. The nearest stores were along Naylor Rd in D.C. in an area still call Hillcrest. I don't recall if the Village Supermarket had opened yet or the old DGS at Silver Rd & St. Barnabas RD (before Iverson St was cut thru), which may have been a tavern then.
By 1952, the Hillcrest Heights Shopping Center had opened one section with a new Safeway store. We had moved to this area just as Branch Ave (the new Rt 5) was being created in its dual-lane form. The many oak trees which were knocked down were simply burned in piles. I can still to this day recall the smell of burning oak and perhaps this is why I keep a woodburning stove. The smell which lofts thru the area on cold winter nights seems to bring back all kinds of fond memories...
The U.S. Weather Bureau had its test facility behind the parking garage of todays Iverson Mall and one building remains at the school there now: the one where the balloons were launched from. As kids at the Hillcrest Heights and Silver Hill elementary schools, we would watch the daily launch of a weather balloon and try to guess what was in it. That function was transferred to Sterling, Va and it wasn't until I worked for the forecast office in Suitland (some years later) that I found out what those balloons did. That office has since moved to Sterling as well. It sounded 'neater' as a kid.
Parts of the old Branch Ave (now Rt 381) parallel the 'new' Rt 5 to this day. What had been called 'Military Highway' had been renamed Suitland Parkway by the early 1950s, creating what many believe to be the dividing line between Suitland and Silver Hill. In 1953, we moved to a house on Silver Hill Rd, between the Suitland Parkway and St Barbabas Rd. We still went to the new Hillcrest Heights Elementary school for 1st grade. In 2nd grade we attended the old 4 room Silver Hill school on St Barbabas Rd which was then an annex to the HHES. Prior to 1920, an old one room school house had existed across the road. Sometime in the 60s the last Silver Hill Elementary School was built and was used until it closed in the late 70s. They tore down the old white building which had been in front of it.
I remember seeing the high school kids in their 32 Ford hot rods and old Chevy coupes riding along Silver Hill Rd in the early 50s when Suitland High School let out for the day. The movie 'Thunder Road' was out in the mid 50s and it showed how a country boy could make them old hot rods hum. Many TV shows at the time showed hot rods. Area teenagers were hooked from that point on. Up to the mid-60s, Suitland was the school to go to. Most everyone in Hillcrest Heights and Marlow Heights did. I'm not sure about Deer Park Heights. Some kids had attended Anacostia High before moving into the area in the early 60s. School zones in the 50s were all messed up with overflows continuing to use the old Silver Hill School as the county tried to keep building schools for the influx of students. In 1959-60, we had kids from Morningside at Stoddert Jr High; I don't know if that was the first or last time either.
In 1979 the county would close Panorama and Silver Hill elementary schools. They sold Sandymount E.S. for whatever reason. A few years ago a columnist in the Washington Post complained about the deplorable conditions at Green valley E.S.- the roaches, the filth, etc. And they wanted the county to build them a new school soon. I wrote in an asked him about the closed Panorama School - which was much newer and now much closer, say only a few blocks with the new homes built in the woods near Holy Family. And why did the county sell Sandymount when it's just a short busride away - the county now being 'experts' in busing. I pointed out how Hillcrest Heights school was still in use and in better shape. Maybe the parent just cared more. Gee, I never got an answer!
By the way, Hillcrest Heights elementary was just renovated and the students were sent to John Hanson for 2 years, a school identical in appearance. Now John Hanson is being overhauled. But those kids were bused a long distance for that time. There's a least 3 more schools along Temple Hills Rd that I was told have been closed as well. By late 1955 we moved by to Hillcrest Heights, just across the street from the shopping center. The new phase was just completed from the bank to Murphys. Soon, the new A&P would open, as would shopping areas at Oxon Run Hills and Marlow Heights. The gap between what was then a drugstore and the bank was orginally planned to be a huge open area leading to a diagonal movie theatre where G.C. Murphys ended up. Murphys had a huge basement that was never used except for special events and sales. Behind Murphys was a large parking lot on a hill that never really was used much.
For whatever reason, the local hangout from the mid '50s up thru the 60s had been the drug store. There were old time phone booths and a soda fountain. Guys in the 50s would stand out front and pitch pennies and sometimes more. Eventually they hired an off-duty county cop to run is off. There were 2 owners we called 'Doc Shuman' and 'Doc Shockett'. Shockett was a pain in the butt always running us off. Someone once hung a dew dead rats from the roof over the delivery door in the rear. They delivered prescriptions back then and the car they used was often vandalized - sometimes spray painted.
The quonset huts behind Murphys which in the early 50s had been used by Holy Family were vacated in 1957 when Holy Family moved to its new facility. The huts became a boys club of sorts, mainly for boxing events and training, funded by bingo they ran there on some nights in one hut. Just before the club got started though,back in 1957, a local radio stein held a dance one night and all kinds of fights broke out. Police cars were coming for hours it seemed. Back then, the term 'rumble' came into play largely at the urging of the stiff media which prevailed then. Several newspapers spoke of a reported 'rumble' there that night. To get an idea of what that was like, get ahold of some old movies which detailed what 'Juvenile Deliquents' looked like.
'The Wild Ones' with Marlon Brando remains a classic. 'Rebel without a cause' with James Dean is another. And parents were forced to attend PTA events where films were shown about how 'good kids' dressed and how 'delinquents' did. A popular haircut at the time featured the 'ducks ass'...Is it any wonder why in later years as young adults we packed old movie halls on weekends to watch such classics as 'Reefer Madness'? It was made in the 30s but still featured the same stupidty which prevailed into the late 60s when young folks rebeled against 'the establishment'.
From the jeans of the '50s (called dungarees then) and the black leather cycle, jackets, in the early 60s, kids who identified with the 'S.E.' style wore double pleated gabardine ('gabs') slacks with Clapp wingtip shoes or Florshiems. Shirt were knits and Ban-Lon was the rage (Charlie Sheen wears them on 2 1/2 Men). Casual wear was 'Bic Mac' work pants and knit shirts. This style was called 'block'. A 'Peters' jacket with your first name embroidered on the front was also popular. But the major bombshell of the era which remains today as the grandkids discover them: Chuck Taylors became very popular. High or low, black or white. Nobody wore Joe Lapchicks or US Keds after that. Some of the wierdos wore the girly style 'mary jane' sneakers til they got tired of getting beat up over it. Today, many kids are wearing and I can't go anywhere without kids yelling out 'he's got All Stars' on. They were first made before 1920 as just 'Converse' but added Chucks name in the 30s. Soldiers had some cool olive drab versions during W.W. II.
Anyway, several local folks trained at the H.H Boys Club and became Golden Glove champions, such as Buddy Boggs and later on Bobby Magruder. The younger brother of an old-time D.C. champ Lew Hanbury trained there as did my cousin. One night back in 1962, the H.H. boys club would win several events in the Golden Gloves finals. My cousin won his after having been staggered somewhat by his opponent, one who later was found out to have been a semi-pro and had already fought several bouts as such. The crowds from Hillside and Capital Heights were said to cheered and stomped so much the noise snapped my cousin out of the fog and he swiftly knocked that moron out cold. Buddy Boggs tore his opponent up. Buddy was respected and adored - he rode a Harley and was seen all over the county. Bobby Magruder would later train there and the only one to beat him was Sugar Ray Leonard. Each recalled the past in an article in the paper a few years back when the old hut they trained in burned down a few years back.
When Crossland opened in the early 60s it was as a 'Jr/Sr High', the lower grades from Morningside only and 10th grade had those and the the rest from a huge swath that included parts of Silver Hill. Next year 7th grade was dropped and the 11th grade was added. The next year had 9th thru 12th grade but 10th grade kids from Hillcrest Heights went to Potomac and from then on only there. In the 1963-64 school year, seniors went to Suitland, juniors to Surratsville, and sophomores to Crossland. The next year dropped Suitland and added another sophomore class to Crossland from Hillcrest Heights. By the next year Surratsville was dropped and Potomac was added for the sophomores. The following year was the last for Crossland as everyone would then attend Potomac.
As a result of the interaction over the years with the kids in Morningside, some of the hangouts were 'Kelleys' on Allentown Rd not far off Rt. 5 and 'Mickey D’s' down near Suitland Rd. Off course the main hangout for years was the Jr Hot Shoppes at Iverson Mall but we also did the Mighty Mo’s in District Heights and S.E D.C. Hell, we even drove all the way to Ginos back in the mid 60s cause the radio would play a jingle that said 'Everybody goes to Ginos'. The only problem with that was the closest Ginos was in Dundalk - as in the east side of Baltimore. That was a really fun trip in many ways. Yeah, and we got thrown off the lot there just like we did everywhere else - few places let teens hang out on their lots.
About '63- '64, there was a 'gang' called 'the jungle' and the 'little jungle' - each would congregate near one of the churches across from Murphys. Otherwise, many of these same kids and others from all over would hang at the Boys Club from the early 60s on. It was a place to shoot hoops and play pool. There was the kid named Allman at Central High School who for at least 2 years ran thru everyone on the football field; and even though Central didn't play 'AA' then, it was still the most feared school around because of him. The schools were 'AA', 'A', 'B' and 'C' back then. We'd lose a lot of old 'S.E.' guys to graduation but they'd be replaced each year by our little brothers and new kids who moved in the 'hood'. There seemed to be 1,000s of kids in the broad area that was centered in Hillcrest Heights and radiated out for many miles.
I'm not sure when the boxers would train but they were still there and bouts were held from time-to-time. Jimmy Merritt (an old D.C.'name' from S.E) who owned the huts and the club would keep his classic '57 T-bird in between the buildings now & then - it was fenced and had barbed wire at the top so nobody messed with it.In the early 60s, the Silver Hill Boys Club would play baseball games on part of parking lot of the Iverson Mall, just below the sign . Iverson St. wasn't cut thru to Branch Ave til about '65 before it was later cut through and connected to Silver Hill Rd. For many years there were signs that stated a shopping center was coming to this expanse of vacant land. A scale model existed in the bank lobby for a few years before the mall was actually built. Where Woodies ended up had been planned as a grocery store with a movie theatre on the lower level. Wards opened up first as a standalone before the rest of the mall would open a year or two later.
Silver Hill would play many of its baseball games at 2 fields it groomed at the Hillcrest Heights school but these were mainly for the younger players. There were other fields used as there were many teams but I can't recall many. All the 'home' football games were played at the Oxon Run Park which also had some baseball fields. many nighttime practices were held on the ballfield at Hillcrest playground in D.C. as it was one of the very few fields with night lights. There had been too many fights at Northwestern High in Hyattsville so the county wouldn’t put them in. But Assessor High in Mayberry - er Upper Marlboro had them installed at some point. Go check them out.
Finally, no discussion of the area would be complete without a mention of one of the the worst persons to have ever lived in the area: ole man Reeder, the notorious vice-principal at Stoddert Jr. High for many years. If you missed getting him, you're very fortunate. He roamed those halls from the late 50s until sometime in the 60s. He was the 'poster child' for the establishment of the dark ages in his time. He didn't mince words and he cared little what folks thought of him. When he 'retired', he ran for county council and got elected in an 'at large' slot. He voted against the planned Capital Center and once said about it 'Wait til the finger nail polish wears off! it will be a ghost town and a loss of county tax money.'The county had owned much of the farmland it was built on. I'll refrain from telling many of the stories he was known for simply because we'd need a website for everyone to send in their stories as well.Oh he was so much fun!?!
Taxes were so high in the county by the early 70s that I left. In the early 80s I lived in Macon, Georgia. Birthplace of Little Richard and Otis Redding, former home to the Allman Brothers in the 70s (they since split up by then), and others. Downtown Macon still had an old-style hobby shop like the one that was in Hillcrest Heights before going to Marlow Heights as 'Hobby Headquarters' in the early 60s.I lived a mile or so from the spot where Duane Allman had been killed while riding his chopper in 1971 and nearly a year later and less than a mile away Berry Oakley was hit by a city bus and died the next day. These were two key members of the Allman Brothers Band. The name of the section of the city where I lived and where they were killed? Hillcrest Heights.
Recently, I ran across an old 'master plan' for District Heights that was in the Washington Post; it read something like this:
A new community called District Heights is planned along a stretch of Marlboro Pike,
known to many as the road to the area beaches. It's designed for government workers
to be able to own their home for a monthly payment that is less than the average rental
fee on a 3 bedroom apartment in the city.
And it's only 6 miles from the city line. Stores will be permitted only on a stretch of several lots on the Marlboro Pike. Only detached houses can be built In the community, and they must cost not less than $4,000. All the needed zoning has been completed. Twenty-five acres in the heart of the community have been donated by the sponsors of the development for churches, schools, and parks. The California bungalow-type homes feature 6 rooms, an attic, electric lights and city improvements and utilities. Mortgage payments have been computed to allow the average worker to own their own home in about 12 years.
A feature of District Heights includes a 120 acre country club with golf links, swimming
pools, bowling alleys and tennis courts. Pretty cool huh? Sound just like the hoopla St Charles spouted when they took over the failed 'Linda City' near Waldorf in the mid 60s. But with lots of federal funds, planning, and money, St Charles was a hit with working folks everywhere from that point on. And they got everything that District Heights had planned but didn't deliver. Their plan though was from 1925.
And Hillcrest Heights got most of both worlds - not the recreational stuff or the pools but one of the best mixes in housing anywhere in the area. I never saw any older 3 bedroom apartments in D.C. and if they did exist, they had to be high-dollar and in N.W. Hillcrest Heights had 3 bedrooms in all but the original townhomes built in 1951. All of this and no real 'master plan' despite the planners who ran the county in the real 'boondocks' of the region - Upper Marlboro at that time!
I can fully understand why many would miss what the hard working folks who made Hillcrest Heights, Marlow Heights, Silver Hill and the surrounding areas what it was. But I feel it was doomed in the later years not so much by what many percieve today as the cause but more so by the county government in place for so many years that seemed to look out only for themselves. And many of them left the area long before they died. That's the real crying shame.
That's my take oh what happened over the years. I hope others will write in and give their comments or even better, their stories. There's at least one other discussion on Hillcrest Heights out on the 'net at:http://genetics.med.harvard.edu/~depalma/steve/md/index.html (Big Al).
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