Euclid Park

Euclid Park and Euclid Woods, and North Kenilworth

Lots were sold beginning in 1916, the buyers being mostly working-class African-Americans living in Washington, DC. A good percentage of the buyers were women. Shaw sold 31 lots between 1919, but then decided to sell the entire property. The subdivision was bought in 1919 by The North Kenilworth Mutual Improvement Association of the District of Columbia in the U.S. of America, incorporated in the  District of Columbia in 1919. By 1931 about half the platted lots had been sold, but only a few were built upon. 

During the same period, houses in the original Cheverly subdivision were being sold with whites-only covenants. In a 1925 letter to his financial backer, Robert Marshall, Cheverly developer, asked for funds  to purchase land adjacent to Cheverly to buttress it against African-American owned properties, apparently directly referring to North Kenilworth as "a small [African-American] subdivision directly adjoining Cheverly."

In 1920 a handful of households were enumerated in North Kenilworth. By 1930 there were none. The 1938 aerial map shows some house sites. We have tentatively identified two or three former house sites. We suspect these houses were built without foundations – a 1919 newspaper advertisement calls them “small bungalows” –  so leave little evidence but that of possible landscaping efforts (apple trees, bridal wreath spirea, for example).

North Kenilworth was annexed to the Town of Cheverly in 1958.

In 1963 the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission began buying up the properties for Cheverly Euclid Park, a process that continued to 1998. Of the original North Kenilworth owners, the Gadson and Jackson families continued to own the original lots, a hint of the importance this land holds.

Kristie Kendall, a student in the School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation at the University of Maryland has done a project on the history and archaeology of North Kenilworth. The Cheverly History Club has a copy of her report about this interesting part of Cheverly, North Kenilworth: Rediscovering an Early Twentieth Century African-American Subdivision.

Elijah S. Gadson was born in Tennessee about 1877. He married Mary E. Jackson in Washington, DC in 1908. In 1918 he bought 14 lots in North Kenilworth and moved his family here, where the family, with five children, were enumerated in the 1920 census. He was then a helper in the Navy Yard. By 1930 they had returned to DC, but the family still owns the original North Kenilworth property.

The Woodland

The Euclid Woods Hub, adjoining the active recreation area of Cheverly Euclid Park, is a woodland of diverse microhabitats, including pine barrens and pine woods where you may see box turtles laying eggs, deer, strawberrybush and spotted wintergreen. It is Cheverly's richest area  in both plant and animal species and thus functions as a source area for biodiversity that can generate a surplus to replenish the smaller hubs. Thus the Cheverly Green Infrastructure Plan calls for it to be managed as a community natural area. It is especially rich in tree and shrub species and the herbaceous plant layer is slowly returning as invasive species are being removed. A deep stream ravine, gullies, scrub pine stands and prairie type grassy glades offer unique microhabitats for a diversity of vegetation.  Twelve bat houses were installed in 2024 as a troop 214 Eagle Scout project.  

Tributary 1, which runs along the park’s western border, is essentially devoid of aquatic life due to heavy siltation. The wetland adjacent to the creek is also affected by the sediment runoff and disturbed hydrology and needs to be protected. The park playing field runoff is also eroding gullies in the woods. 

Deer paths throughout the woods permit a generally circular walk, with views of the stream.

The hub extends to the northwest across the tributary to include a densely wooded hillside dominated by invasive species as well as "Darnall's Spring" and associated wetland.

Who Lives Here?

See the inventories of plants, birds, and other creatures.

Find out more about Tributary 1. Even more.

Why does the map show streets in the park? M-NCPPC acquired the individual lots, but did not have the subdivision plat itself vacated. The platted streets remain the property of the Town of Cheverly.