District Heights is a small city in PG County, Maryland. It was created from farmland in 1925. Way back in the ‘20s and ‘30s, the area was beginning to take shape. Washington, D.C. was growing fast, bringing traffic, noise, and crowded lifestyle. Land developers saw an opportunity and started offering plots just outside the city limits at close in PG County neighborhoods aka the ‘Heights. The area provided single family and townhomes for government workers with young families. As for its name, “District” was chosen for the obvious connection to D.C., and “Heights” because, well, it just sounded nice, but also because several areas in PG County provided some elevated areas.
By the time the 1960s rolled around, District Heights had already been incorporated for a few decades, but it was the post-war housing boom that really kicked things into gear. Rows of Cape Cod-style homes and brick split-levels dotted the tree-lined streets. It wasn’t fancy, but it was family-oriented, affordable, and felt like home.
If you were a teenager in District Heights during the ‘50s through the ’70s, chances are high you had one main academic destination: Suitland High School. Opened in 1951, Suitland High quickly became the default high school for kids in the area.It was where students made lifelong friends, played sports (Go Rams!), joined the marching band, and danced under the basketball hoop during school socials. Depending on shifting boundaries and enrollment numbers, some students may have ended up at Crossland High, Forestville High, or even Central High School in Capitol Heights, especially when forced busing began in 1973. But Suitland was the big one—the anchor school that served much of central Prince George’s County. Before high school, local kids would have attended District Heights Elementary School and a number of other elementary schools, and later on, Walker Mill, Andrew Jackson, Spaulding, or Benjamin Foulois jr high schools.
Every teen generation has its places—the spots you’d meet your friends, your crush, or maybe sneak your first cigarette behind the parking lot. In District Heights and its neighboring towns, there was no shortage of hangouts for young people. In the early days, one iconic gathering place was the Marriott Mighty Mo Drive-In, which opened in 1957 and remained popular through the mid to late 60s. You’d pull up, flash your headlights, and the carhops would deliver with trays full of Mighty Mo burgers, onion rings, the Orange Freeze, soda or shakes. Later on, in the ’60s and ’70s, teens started flocking to Shakey’s Pizza, just off Pennsylvania Avenue. With its lively family atmosphere, hot pizza and other menu items, and a piano player.
One of the hangout spots was the Penn Mar Shopping Center in nearby Forestville. More than just a shopping plaza, Penn Mar was the place to see and be seen. Whether you were popping into Woolworth’s, flipping through records at Penney’s, or just people-watching from the snack bar, it was a hub for teen life.
Another favorite was the Hot Shoppes Cafeteria in the Marlow Heights Shopping Center. A variation of the Hot Shoppes, a Marriott staple since 1927, it offered customers a line to pass through to select food items. When it closed in 1999, it was the very last Hot Shoppes owned by Marriott. There was also the Jr Hot Shoppes in Hillcrest Heights, the very first opened by Marriott in 1966. A fast food version of the Hot Shoppes, if offered Royal Burgers (different in name only to the Might Mo), fries, onion rings, Pappy Parker fried chicken, sodas and shakes. Iverson Mall, the DC area’s first all indoor climate controlled shopping center, opened behind Jr Hot Shoppes a year later, in 1967.
For weekend entertainment, the Hillside Drive-In Theater was hard to beat. Pile into the back of a station wagon, bring your own popcorn (and maybe a few sneaky beers if you were bold), and catch a double feature under the stars. Kids would roam between cars, couples would neck in the backseat, and everyone had a story from “that one night at the drive-in.”
Believe it or not, the streets around District Heights weren’t always quiet. Local street gangs actually roamed Prince George’s County and the D.C. area in those days. In District Heights, the Apollos were a well-known crew during the ’50s and ’60s, often hanging out at the Kay Cee Drugstore across from Marlboro Pike. It wasn’t just them, either—gangs like The Avenue from DC, the Bachelors, Drapes, Dyaks, and Rovers were familiar names around SE DC and PG County. Other groups, like The Lords, The Hill, Ledroit Ramblers, Langley Dukes, Greenway Boys, and the Saints, popped up as well. These names might sound like something out of an old movie, but they were very much part of local teen culture back then.
District Heights was one of several close inside the Beltway PG County communities that were part of the county’s golden era, starting with the 50s, and continuing throughout the 60s and 70s. It offered great shopping, restaurants, and the schools were pretty good. It was a great community to grow in during a great time in PG County. Of course, like any American suburb in the late 20th century, District Heights saw its share of changes. As the 1970s began, forced busing, started by the PG County Board of Education in 1973, resulted in many families moving to the further out suburbs of PG and Charles counties. But the memories of the 50s, 60s, and 70s—when District Heights was full of teenagers cruising down Marlboro Pike and moms packed lunchboxes for kids heading off to Suitland High—have a way of sticking around.
Today, the neighborhood still stands, quieter in some places, revitalizing in others. And if you drive through those old neighborhoods today, many of them still look the same as they did during the 60s and 70s, with only the people having change. But for those who were lucky enough to grow up in District Heights during its golden years, it will always be remembered as a place where life was a little simpler, friendships were made face-to-face, and you could count on a Mighty Mo, a drive-in movie at Hillside, and maybe a slow dance at a Suitland Senior High event to make a good weekend great.
