Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale Park (68-093)

Home , George Calvert (planter), Rosalie Stier Calvert

Riverdale Park and the neighboring community of West Riverdale developed in the late nineteenth century as streetcar suburbs in central Prince George’s County. The town is located approximately seven miles northeast of Washington, D.C. and is bounded to the north by the East-West Highway and bisected by the heavily traveled US Route 1. The City of College Park is located to the north, and the City of Hyattsville is located to the south and southwest.

The area was first developed in 1801 when a Belgian aristocrat, Henri Joseph Stier, purchased 800 acres situated between two tributaries of the Anacostia River known as the Paint and Northwest branches. Stier and his family moved to America several years earlier to escape the French Revolution (1788-1789). He named his holdings Riversdale (PG: 68-04-005) and began constructing his residence that same year. The mansion was modeled after the Stier family’s Belgian home, Chateau du Mick, and when completed in 1807, the building stood as a two-story stuccoed-brick dwelling in the late Georgian style.1

Just two years after purchasing and improving the property, in 1803, the political tension that had caused Stier to flee his native country subsided and he and his wife, Marie Louise, returned to Belgium. Riversdale was given to their daughter, Rosalie, who married George Calvert, the grandson of the fifth Lord Baltimore, in 1799. After Rosalie Stier Calvert died in 1821 and George Calvert in 1838, their son, Charles Benedict Calvert, took over the plantation. Charles Calvert was a renowned agriculturist and helped establish the Maryland Agricultural College, now the University of Maryland at College Park. In 1861, Calvert was elected to the United States Congress and fought for the establishment of the United States Department of Agriculture. During his life, Charles Calvert conducted a variety of agricultural experiments at Riversdale and expanded the original holdings to 2,200 acres. Calvert died in 1864; however the property remained in the ownership of the Calvert family for another twenty years. 2

The 1861 Martenet map depicts the rural setting of Riversdale and identifies Charles B. Calvert as owner. The old Baltimore Turnpike, now known as US Route 1, is located to the west of the mansion house. To the east of the house is the Washington Branch of the Baltimore and Ohio Railway, which opened in 1833. The railway is located inside the boundaries of Riversdale, just west of the Paint Branch tributary. The 1878 Hopkins map shows little change and no significant development has occurred.

In 1887, the heirs of Charles Benedict Calvert conveyed 474 acres of land to New York City businessmen John Fox and Alexander Lutz in two separate transactions. The first deed involved the sale of 300 acres including the Riversdale mansion. The remaining 174 acres were transferred to Fox and Lutz shortly thereafter. 3 The cost of the sales to Fox and Lutz totaled $47,000. On March 23, 1889, Fox and Lutz formed the Riverdale Park Company, which was named in honor of the grand Federal-style mansion at the center of the proposed community. The company planned on creating an upper-middle-class residential suburb for residents working in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. 4

The land was platted in 1889 by surveyor D.J. Howell and the new development was named Riverdale Park. In an attempt to differentiate the historic plantation known as Riversdale from the subdivision, the “s” was dropped. The new roads were named in honor of U.S. Presidents and were arranged in a grid

1 George R. Adams, Mary Jane Grefory, and Ralph Christian, “Riversdale, ” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (March 1976), 7:1. 2 Alan Virta, Prince George’s County: A Pictorial History (Virginia Beach: Donning Company/Publishers, 1991), 294. 3 Susan G. Pearl, “Riversdale Mansion (PG: 68-4-5),” National Historic Landmark Nomination (June 1997), 27. 4 Christina A. Davis, Editor. The Riverdale Story: Mansion to Municipality . Riverdale, MD: Town of Riverdale, 1996, 31-32. Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale (68-093) 2

pattern that surrounded a central ellipse that served as the site of the commuter train station. The first of the stations was constructed in 1890. 5 Laid out as a “villa park,” the community featured traffic circles and green space, using the mansion as a central amenity. 6 The three original sections of the suburb utilized relatively uniform lot dimensions and building setbacks, thereby creating a cohesive development of middle- and upper-middle-class housing. The residential housing lots surrounded the Federal-style Riversdale mansion.

The construction of dwellings in Riverdale Park began in 1890. The buildings reflected popular trends of the time and were of wood-frame construction. Some structures were pyramidal-roof Foursquares, while others had front-gable or cross-gable roofs. Many houses from this period have projecting bays, corner towers, and wrap-around porches. By the turn of the twentieth century, Riverdale Park was comprised of 60 dwellings, a Presbyterian church, a schoolhouse, and a railroad station. 7 The new community straddled the Washington line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, which provided residents an easy commute to Washington, D.C.

Recognizing the financial potential of the new suburb, builders purchased groups of lots that were soon improved by high-style single-family dwellings. 8 Joseph A. Blundon was one such late-nineteenth- century builder, as well as the first manager of the Riverdale Park Company. Blundon acted independently of the development company when he purchased several lots each year for the purpose of overseeing the construction of single-family dwellings. Between 1891 and 1909, he was responsible for the erection of roughly 90 buildings in Riverdale Park. Accordingly, he became known as the “Father of Riverdale.” 9

The success of Riverdale Park prompted the platting of West Riverdale in 1906. Originally part of the lands of Riversdale plantation, the property was initially platted by Charles Benedict Calvert in 1853 as Ellaville. Francis Carmody purchased 62 acres of Ellaville and replatted it as West Riverdale in 1906.10 Growth in West Riverdale was relatively slow until 1915 when local real estate developer Walter R. Wilson purchased 200 unimproved lots and quickly began construction of modest single-family dwellings to meet the demands of the increasingly suburban population in Prince George’s County. Approximately 30 additional unimproved lots were added to West Riverdale in 1937 upon the platting of “Dr. R.A. Bennett’s Residue Riverdale,” which was located in the northeast corner of the neighborhood. As a residential community, West Riverdale was separated from Riverdale Park by the commercial corridor that developed along Baltimore Avenue (US Route 1).11

In 1920, a handful of owners in both Riverdale Park and West Riverdale petitioned the Maryland General Assembly requesting authority to incorporate the two neighborhoods as a municipality. On June 14, 1920, the community was incorporated as the Town of Riverdale. As a result of the transfer of power from the Riverdale Park Company to the municipal government, the importance of the real estate company began

5 Susan Pearl, “Harry Smith House,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (June 1992), 8:12. 6 Howard Berger, “Railroad Communities in Prince George’s County, 1870-1940,” in Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, Historic Contexts in Prince George’s County (Upper Marlboro, Maryland: M- NCPPC, 1991), 15. 7 Susan Pearl, “Harry Smith House,” 8:13 8 Town of Riverdale, Golden Panorama: “The Past is Prologue”: Town of Riverdale, Maryland, 1920-1970 (Riverdale, MD: Town of Riverdale, 1970), 39; see also Pearl, “The Evolution of Riverdale in Prince George's County, Maryland,” np. 9 Davis, The Riverdale Story, 33. 10 Prince George’s County Land Records, Circuit Court, Plat Book BDS 1:31. 11 EHT Traceries, Inc., “West Riverdale Historic District (PG: 68-093),” National Register of Historic Places Nomination form, prepared August 2001, 7:2, 8:18. Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale (68-093) 3

to diminish, prompting a financial strain. Within ten years of the town’s incorporation, the Riverdale Park Company went bankrupt. 12

Growth of West Riverdale continued at a steady pace until the 1930s, when over half of the buildings were erected. Platted in 1937, “Dr. R.A. Bennett’s Residue Riverdale” completed the West Riverdale community, which became the home of Prince George’s County’s first hospital in 1941. 13

Numerous annexations in the mid-twentieth century have increased Riverdale’s overall size. The municipal government continued to grow and change during this period. In 1941, the town changed the name of its roads to conform to the standards of the United States Postal Service and carried a similar pattern as those of Washington, D.C., and nearby College Park. The increasing population and commercial and governmental growth of metropolitan Washington, D.C., most notably during the last twenty years of the twentieth century, has resulted in further development of the town of Riverdale. This late-twentieth-century growth was predominantly commercial and centered along Baltimore Avenue, thereby physically and visually separating West Riverdale from Riverdale Park.

In 1998, the town was officially renamed Riverdale Park. Today, the town is made up of a mix of housing styles including 1960s apartment buildings, pre- and post-World War II era buildings, as well as dwellings from the turn of the twentieth century. The Riversdale mansion, now surrounded by eight acres is owned by the Prince George’s County M-NCPPC. Purchased in 1949, the Riversdale property is bounded roughly by 48th Avenue to the west, Riverdale Road to the north, Taylor Street to the east and Oglethorpe Street to the south. 14

There are five Historic Sites in Riverdale Park:

• PG: 68-004-01, Harry Smith House, 4707 Oliver Street (NR) • PG: 68-004-02, Warren House, 4716 Oliver Street • PG: 68-004-05, Riversdale/Calvert Mansion, 4811 Riverdale Road • PG: 68-004-67, Read House, 4722 Riverdale Road • PG: 68-004-76, Wernek House, Queensbury Road

There is one Historic Resource in Riverdale Park: • PG: 68-004-03, Calvert Family Cemetery, 4609 East-West Highway

National Register Historic Districts

In 2002, both the Riverdale Park Historic District and the West Riverdale Historic District were listed in the National Register of Historic Places. The Riverdale Park Historic District was nominated under Criteria A and C and is significant under the themes of architecture and community planning/development with two periods of significance extending from 1801 to 1864, when the Calvert family owned the Riversdale plantation, and from 1889 to 1940, when the Riverdale Park suburb was platted and improved. The neighborhood consists of 523 properties. There are 436 contributing primary resources and 87 non- contributing primary resources, and 267 secondary resources, of which 150 are contributing. Building uses include single-family, multiple-family, commercial, governmental, and social. The aboveground resources date from the 1890s to the last decade of the twentieth century, with only the three resources

12 Christina A. Davis, Editor. The Riverdale Story: Mansion to Municipality , 75. 13 EHT Traceries, Inc., “West Riverdale Historic District (PG: 68-093),” National Register of Historic Places Nomination form, prepared August 2001, 8:18. 14 Alan Virta, Prince George’s County , 294. Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale (68-093) 4

associated with Riversdale dating from before the platting of the neighborhood. As the centerpiece of the community, the Riversdale mansion is set within an eight-acre parcel surrounded by subdivided housing lots. Residential buildings make up most of the neighborhood, with commercial corridors at the center of the town and to the west along Baltimore Avenue. The residential buildings of Riverdale Park are generally set back from the tree-lined streets on rectangular building lots. Many of these properties have driveways to the side of the primary resources, several with freestanding garages at the rear. Generally, the commercial resources are set closely along Baltimore Avenue and Queensbury Road, with vehicular access at the rear of the property and/or directly in front of the buildings. The development in the Riverdale Park neighborhood is documented by its architecture, which includes a wide range of construction dates from the 1890s to the infill construction of the late 1990s. Limited demolition has taken place along US Route 1 at its intersection with East-West Highway. Varying from large two-and- one-half-story wood-frame dwellings to smaller bungalows, the residential areas of the neighborhood are generally defined by an eclectic collection of imposing Queen Anne- and Colonial Revival-style houses, and more modest examples of Colonial Revival-, Craftsman-, and Tudor Revival-style dwellings.

The West Riverdale Historic District was nominated under Criteria A and C with a period of significance extending from 1906 to 1942. The historic district contains individual components that combined to create a distinguishable entity with high artistic value. The district is significant under the themes of architecture and community planning/development. The district was recognized for its significance as an excellent example of the early twentieth century suburbanization taking place in the Washington metropolitan area. West Riverdale is defined by a modest variety of architectural styles and building types ranging from early-twentieth-century vernacular interpretations of popular architectural styles to diluted, suburbanized examples of revival styles that dominated the second quarter of the twentieth century. Primarily, the domestic resources in West Riverdale date from the 1910s to infill housing of the 1980s, although the majority of the buildings pre-date 1942. Architectural styles present in the district include examples of Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Spanish Colonial Revival, Craftsman, and Tudor Revival styles. The neighborhood is primarily made up of single-family dwellings that surround the centrally located Eugene Leland Memorial Hospital (now known as the Crescent Cities Health and Rehabilitation Center). Many of the properties include freestanding or attached garages and sheds. The buildings are buffered from the tree-lined public streets by sidewalks and grassy medians. The neighborhood consists of 69 properties including 68 single dwellings and a nursing home. Thirty secondary resources, such as garages and sheds support the 65 contributing primary resources and four non-contributing primary resources. Of the numerous secondary resources, 25 are contributing.

Windshield Survey

A windshield survey of Riverdale Park was conducted in February 2008. There were no visible changes in the residential areas of either the Riverdale Park Historic District or the West Riverdale Historic District. In Riverdale Park, there has been some loss of commercial buildings along US Route 1 and East- West Highway. Despite this minimal loss, the boundaries of the districts are sufficiently intact to convey the significance of Riverdale Park.

Local Historic District Evaluation

In addition to their listing as National Register Historic Districts, both the Riverdale Park Historic District and the West Riverdale Historic District merit recognition as individual Prince George’s County Historic Districts.

Riverdale Park

Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale (68-093) 5

Riverdale Park represents several Prince George’s County Heritage Themes including transportation, suburban growth, and residential architectural styles. The community meets the following criteria for designation as a local historic district:

(1)(A)(i) and (iv) – Riverdale Park is significant as a planned community that developed from an early- nineteenth-century rural estate owned by the Stier-Calvert family. By the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Calvert platted Ellaville to the west of Riversdale and provided land for the platting of College Lawn (later known as Old Town College Park) at the northern end of Riversdale. Additionally, Calvert donated land for the establishment of the University of Maryland at College Park. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad initially spurred development and growth in the Riverdale Park suburb, which was later joined in 1902 by a streetcar line administered by the Washington and Suburban Railway Company. The community was then directly connected to Washington, D.C. Later, the Washington, Spa Spring and Gretta Railroad Company serviced the community. The increasing popularity of the automobile and the need for efficient transportation routes into the District of Columbia and northward to Baltimore resulted in the re-emergence of Baltimore Avenue as the primary transportation route through the community. Consequently, Riverdale Park was firmly established as a commuting suburb of Washington, D.C. by 1950.

In 1887, former New York State Senator and iron mogul John Fox and real estate developer Alexander Lutz purchased 474 acres of land that historically was part of the Stier-Calvert family’s Riversdale farm. In 1889, Fox and Lutz formed the Riverdale Park Company, contracting surveyor D.J. Howell to develop the plan for Riverdale Park. Howell planned the community in three sections with an overlay grid of streets with two focal points: the Riversdale mansion and the central railroad line/proposed business district, both of which were located in Section One of Riverdale Park. The new roads were arranged in a grid pattern that surrounded a central ellipse that served as the site of the commuter train station, the first of which was constructed in 1890. Laid out as a “villa park,” the community featured traffic circles and green space, using the mansion as a central amenity. The three original sections of the suburb utilized relatively uniform lot dimensions and building setbacks, thereby creating a cohesive development of middle- and upper-middle-class housing.

Initial development within the community was residential, followed by the construction of a school, church, and passenger station in the mid-1890s. The first buildings to be constructed within the community were large wood-frame dwellings that appealed to the upper class of the late nineteenth century. By 1904, approximately 60 buildings had been erected in Section One, the majority of which were in close proximity to the Riversdale mansion and the railroad and streetcar tracks. The number of resources increased to 194 by the 1920 incorporation of the community as the Town of Riverdale. Over the next twenty years, 220 additional resources were constructed. Development within the community slowed after the onset of World War II, with 87 resources erected after 1940. The proximity of Riverdale Park to Washington, D.C. resulted in continued development of the three original sections and the expansion of the community with three additions. Begun in 1906 with the platting of “West Riverdale” by Francis Carmody, expansion of Riverdale Park continued over the next 30 years with the platting of the “Gretta Addition to Riverdale” (1910) and “Dr. R.A. Bennett’s Addition to Riverdale” (1937).

Expansion of the community was also aided by the availability of transportation and retail stores. Establishment of the commercial core began at the turn of the twentieth century. These businesses surrounded the passenger station at the center of the community. In the 1920s, the establishment of a commercial corridor along Baltimore Avenue augmented, and ultimately dominated, the central commercial district. Baltimore Avenue continues to serve as the primary transportation corridor through the town. Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale (68-093) 6

(2)(A)(i) and (iv) – Riverdale Park is also significant for its substantial concentration of domestic architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, representing the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, and Craftsman styles. Surrounding the 1801-1807 Federal-style Riversdale mansion, the majority of the residences were speculatively designed by the Riverdale Park Company and local builders and architects, including Joseph A. Blundon and Walter R. Wilson. The earliest houses erected within Riverdale Park were generally large-scale Queen Anne- and Colonial Revival-style residences built for upper-middle class residents. Set back from the street, these larger dwellings were augmented by wrap-around porches, turrets, and intersecting gables.

By the time residential construction began to take off in the 1920s, house sizes and stylistic features had begun to change in response to a new clientele. Consequently, a substantial number of smaller, less ornate houses were built within the original borders of the neighborhood. The dominant type of dwelling was the modest Craftsman-style bungalow and other smaller buildings of minimal ornament. Many of these dwellings were the products of mail-order companies or local realty enterprises that offered modest foursquare buildings, Cape Cods and bungalows ornamented in a variety of styles. The two commercial areas, located at the center of the community and along Baltimore Avenue, display an array of early- to mid-twentieth-century building types and styles common in many suburban communities. Included among the many commercial resources are one-story, one-bay-wide structures of wood frame construction; two- story, two-part commercial blocks of brick construction and minimal ornamentation; and one- to one-and-one-half-story buildings of the mid-twentieth century that display stronger ties to popular styles such as the Art Deco and Colonial Revival styles.

Further, as a result of this type of early-twentieth-century suburban development, nineteenth- century farms throughout the area surrounding Washington, D.C. were often subdivided to provide buildable lots for single-family dwellings. Typically, the original dwellings that occupied these rural estates were razed to make way for modern housing. This was not the case in Riverdale Park, however, where the early-nineteenth-century Riversdale mansion was retained by the Riverdale Park Company as a picturesque focal point for the community. Thus, the nineteenth-century improvement of the land was not totally lost to twentieth-century suburbanization.

West Riverdale

West Riverdale represents several Prince George’s County Heritage Themes including suburban growth and residential architectural styles. The community meets the following criteria for designation as a local historic district:

(1)(A)(i) and (iv) – West Riverdale is significant as a planned community that developed in response to the expanding middle-class suburban population of Washington, D.C., in the first half of the twentieth century. From its inception, West Riverdale was a residential neighborhood linked to the growing community of Riverdale Park. Located adjacent to Baltimore Avenue, West Riverdale drew on the commercial and cultural resources available in Riverdale Park and nearby Hyattsville and College Park. Additionally, this streetcar suburb was easily accessed by the Washington, Berwyn, and Laurel Railroad Company, which provided public transportation to Washington, D.C. The increasing popularity of the automobile and the need for more efficient means of transportation into the District of Columbia resulted in the emergence of Baltimore Avenue as the primary transportation route and commercial corridor for the community. Consequently, West Riverdale was firmly established as a commuting suburb of Washington, D.C., by 1942, when the last major period of construction was complete. Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale (68-093) 7

The land encompassed by the West Riverdale Historic District was part of the subdivision known as “Ellaville,” which was platted in 1853 by Charles Benedict Calvert. Although “Ellaville” remained undeveloped for the next 53 years, the population growth of Prince George’s County provided the impetus for later development. Ellaville was replatted in 1906 as West Riverdale. Architectural evidence suggests that little development occurred in West Riverdale until 1915. In that year, Walter R. Wilson purchased 200 unimproved lots and quickly began construction of modest single-family dwellings to meet the demands of the increasingly suburban population in Prince George’s County. Approximately 30 additional unimproved lots were added to West Riverdale in 1937 upon the platting of “Dr. R.A. Bennett’s Residue Riverdale,” which was located in the northeast corner of the neighborhood. As a residential community, West Riverdale was separated from Riverdale Park by the commercial corridor that developed along Baltimore Avenue (US Route 1), although the two were joined as the Town of Riverdale in 1920.

West Riverdale’s location amidst the twentieth-century suburban developments and the nearby University of Maryland at College Park made the neighborhood the ideal location for the county’s first hospital. The introduction of health care facilities in the residential neighborhood initially occurred in 1936, one year prior to Dr. Robert A. Bennett’s platting of additional building lots to West Riverdale. Construction of the fashionable Colonial Revival-style hospital, known as the Eugene Leland Memorial Hospital, was completed in 1942 under the direction of Doctors Wendell Malin and Lawrence Malin, who lived in West Riverdale. The Leland Memorial Hospital, known now as the Crescent Cities Health and Rehabilitation Center, was the first modern hospital in Prince George’s County.

(2)(A)(i) and (iv) - West Riverdale is also significant for its substantial concentration of early-twentieth- century domestic architecture. Fashionable stylistic interpretations include the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Craftsman, Spanish Colonial Revival and Tudor Revival styles. Sited along tree-lined streets, the properties within West Riverdale present a uniform setback, grassy yards, and historic secondary buildings. Although the majority of the dwellings were constructed between 1915 and 1942, the earliest houses erected within the first platted section of the neighborhood date from circa 1910 and represent the early-twentieth-century vernacular Queen Anne and Colonial Revival styles that were popular during the period. The majority of the residences were speculatively constructed in the 1920s and 1930s by prolific local builder Walter R. Wilson.

The dominant type of dwelling was the one-and-one-half-story Craftsman-style bungalow. Represented in West Riverdale by 33 examples, these dwellings constitute nearly half of the community. The Colonial Revival style, exhibited through ornamentation adorning large two- and-a-half-story dwellings and smaller Cape Cod forms, is the other primary architectural style present in West Riverdale. Five well-preserved examples of the Spanish Colonial Revival style and two Tudor Revival-style houses also exist in the community. The majority of these buildings share common characteristics through their form, materials, and ornament, suggesting that their construction was based on a few basic plans that were altered and adapted as each house was constructed.

Prepared by EHT Traceries January 2009

Riverdale Park (68-004) and West Riverdale (68-093) 8

Riverdale Park, 2007 Aerial

= Riverdale Park NR Historic District Boundary