As You Were
Tidbits of Cheverly History
What’s with all the numbers?
There are four tributaries in Cheverly that run north to south to feed Lower Beaverdam Creek. They have no names, so rather than calling them all “unnamed tributary,” we have been referring to them as Tributary 1, 2, 3, and 4, counting west to east, or left to right on a map.
Tributary 1
Running from about halfway between Greenleaf Rd and Hawthorne southward to Lower Beaverdam Creek, this tributary formed the eastern boundary of a 1685 patent named White Lackington, later Whitlentine, and the western boundary of the North Kenilworth subdivision (1910). It drains the western portions of Greenleaf Road and Hawthorne, as well as Euclid Woods, hospital hill and parts of the Kenilworth Industrial Park. The tributary is fed by hospital parking lot storm drains, runoff from Greenleaf, industrial park storm drains and direct runoff from industrial park properties. These areas were annexed to Cheverly in 1951 and 1958.
A spring also contributes to the tributary. First mentioned in a deed of 1885, in which Henry W. Darnall “reserv[ed] the right to use the spring and to protect the shade trees surrounding said spring for the space of twenty-five feet,” this spring provided drinking water for Cheverly residents into the 1950s. The spring runs into “Millbrook wetland” on Cheverly’s western buffer property.
The “Millbrook Wetland” is a portion of a former wetland area partly dried out by changes in hydrology due to the building of hospital additions (1950s) and the development of the Cheverly Industrial Park (1960s). In the past few years it has again become a wetland, supporting typical plants such as arrowhead and cattail.
The stream runs through a deep ravine, having plunged about 18 feet from its level at Greenleaf Road. A wall of large riprap between the upper and lower streams is intended to slow the water. Several types of ferns, dogwood, and native azaleas may be seen in and near the gorge. The soil in the stream, of mixed silt and clay, is easily eroded, and often forms picturesque but relatively short-lived grottoes and small waterfalls.
Comparing the1685 boundaries with the present-day stream centers, we can see the result of the streambank erosion, as the stream has moved eastward into Euclid Woods. South of Euclid Woods, human intervention has changed the stream’s route several times between 1886 and today. Whereas the stream once flowed directly into the Anacostia through a wetland at about where route 50 meets route 295, sometime before 1917 it was connected with a smaller stream flowing south to Lower Beaverdam Creek. Today it is piped in a straight line through the industrial area north of Tuxedo Road and east of 51st Place.