As You Were
Tidbits of Cheverly History
Where in the world is Tributary 2?
Tributary 2 formed a rough trident shape, with branches meeting at about Forest Road and Valley Way. A western branch ran down present-day Greenleaf Road toward Crest The central branch flowed in meanders down Crest and Greenleaf Road, fed in part by springs, of which two are today partially visible. An eastern branch ran between Belleview Avenue and Hawthorne Street. South of Forest the stream meandered southward generally down the route of the present Valley Way. A subtributary, described in 1946 as an open creek-bed, entered tributary 2 from what is now Euclid Avenue between Lake Avenue and Valley Way. At the present Hoyer school playfield water lily ponds were created by damming part of the stream.
The demand for housing lots brought pressure to pipe the tributary and by 1940 a plan for piping on Crest and Greenleaf was in place. The pipes run below the road’s median “islands.” In 1946 a comprehensive town plan recommended the piping: “A deep ditch with steep sides now runs the length of Greenleaf Road and Valley Way, constituting not only a danger to the children of that neighborhood, but also causing wash-outs under the curb and pavement.” In the same period the Cheverly Citizen editor pressed for covering “the ditch.” Likewise, according to the 1946 town plan, “it is necessary to place the open creek following the course of the [Euclid] street into a storm sewer.”
A Cheverly neighbor who remembers playing in the Crest creek as a child estimates that the piping was not completed until the early 1960s. The soil tells the tale: The route of Tributary 2 down Crest and Valley Way can be followed on maps showing that the soils bordering the former stream are those associated with flood plains. The stream is now visible only at an outfall south of 7-11. From there it is piped under route 50 and the railroad and Metro tracks to join Lower Beaverdam Creek.
Looking into the histories of our streams leads us to ask, Do we see our waterways as assets, to be preserved for their beauty and natural functions? Do we see them as convenient ways to remove stormwater? Do we see them as nuisances to be abated? Seeing how our stream, springs, and seeps have been used and viewed in the past may help us decide what their future will be.