Tenleytown Encompasses the Business District Along Wisconsin Avenue from (About) Upton Street to Fessenden Street, and the Surrounding Residential Neighborhoods
Tenleytown encompasses the business district along Wisconsin Avenue from (about) Upton Street to Fessenden Street, and the surrounding residential neighborhoods. A writer in Salon magazine, describing his visit to one of the neighborhood's more unusual businesses , characterized Tenleytown as "a trendy shop-and-cafe zone a few miles north of downtown Washington;" it's a fair description. Indeed, Tenleytown has one of the more eclectic mixes of shops and cafes in town. You need not leave the neighborhood to buy rare cigars, obscure golf supplies, and rugged outdoor gear. You can get a winter tan, learn a foreign language, or -- maybe -- have an out-of-body experience (see link in previous paragraph). If you fall ill, Tenleytown has holistic healers and acclaimed chicken soup with matzoh balls. If all you need to feel better is caffeine and conversation, the neighborhood sports at least three cafes. HISTORY Tenleytown has been around for a while. Eighteenth-Century locals called the place "Tennalytown," after the roadside tavern run by a John Tennally. During the civil war, the neighborhood -- then known as Tenleytown -- hosted a strategically important military installation, Fort Reno . Built on Washington's highest point (429 feet), Fort Reno was the largest and strongest of a string of forts encircling the city . In July of 1864, the fort saw action when General Jubal A. Early led 22,000 Confederates against the 9,000 Union troops guarding Washington. For the most part, the battle unfolded just across the District line in Bethesda and Chevy Chase, but some close-quarters fighting seems to have occurred in Tenleytown and the surrounding area.
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