Chevy Chase Library History

The Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library at 5625 Connecticut Ave. N.W., just two blocks south of Chevy Chase Circle, was dedicated March 21, 1968. The two-story building, described in contemporary accounts as “an example of modern functional architecture,” was designed by Nicholas Satterlee and Associates under the District’s Public Works Program. The Klein Construction and Development Company was responsible for the building's construction, under the supervision of James A. Blaser, the Director of D.C. Buildings and Grounds. The fourth home of the Chevy Chase Library, the building was erected in 1967 adjacent to the site of the Elizabeth V. Brown School Building. The now-demolished school, erected at the turn of the 20th century, had served the community jointly as a library and recreation center since the late 1940s.

The present library building faces a commercial section of Connecticut Avenue and shares the frontage between McKinley and Northampton streets with the city-owned Chevy Chase Community Center.

There has always been strong community support in Chevy Chase for a neighborhood library. It was hoped that special quarters for a public library branch could be built as part of the 1919 addition to the school, but, because of the increase in post-World War I construction costs, plans for incorporating a library were eliminated.

The first opened in 1920 as a collection of several hundred books housed in the kindergarten room of the local Elizabeth V. Brown School. The D.C. Public Library provided books at the request of the Citizens’ Association of Chevy Chase, which agreed to underwrite the librarian’s salary of $20 a week and equipment costs such as shelving.

For its first six years, the library was supported by the Citizens’ Association of Chevy Chase, whose fundraising efforts included band concerts and ice cream carnivals. Congress provided an appropriation in 1926 to pay for a librarian to be shared with another library station located in the Janney School on Albemarle Street at Wisconsin Avenue. Hours were increased from two nights to three days a week, with a resulting increase in annual circulation from 6,500 to 20,000. The librarian from 1920 to 1932 was Ada C. Cotton. Dr. George F. Bowerman, head librarian of the D.C. Public Library, said, “one librarian in a school corridor circulated 20,000 books.”

The two stations were combined to form the Chevy Chase Subbranch of the Public Library under a congressional appropriation for the public library system for fiscal year 1928. This permitted the rental of new quarters in a storefront on Livingston Street. The spaces at 3815-3817 Livingston St. were rehabilitated and opened as the Chevy Chase Subbranch in October 1927. A third storefront at 3813 Livingston St. was added on January 3, 1939, as the library expanded. Congress also funded a full-time children’s librarian.

By 1930, the Chevy Chase Subbranch’s collection numbered about 5,000 volumes, of which about 2,100 were children’s books. Monthly circulation at that time ran between 3,500 and 4,500. According to a contemporary account, “[i]n building up her book collection...[Mrs. Cotton] has paid particular attention to the needs of suburban patrons. Consequently, the branch has a good group of books on gardening, and an excellent working collection of books for parents.”

The library became a full-time branch on September 5, 1944, offering 64 hours of service a week. The staff doubled, and within two months there was a 34% increase in circulation and a 64% increase in new membership compared with the same two months of the previous year. By the end of World War II, the library had outgrown its space, and an expiring lease forced the issue of relocation. The heavy use of the library was described in a contemporary article:

“Into the three-room library each week come about 1,400 people. In the morning, the housewives stop by to exchange books while they’re marketing. Sometimes, they come in with toddlers who look at the picture books. After lunch, women with an hour or two to spare drop in to look at the home-making and fashion magazines.

“Then right after school, the high school students take over. Jammed in two small rooms, they do their homework...

“In the evening, whole families come to exchange books. Nobody stays to browse because there simply isn’t room and it is too noisy. All day long, trucks rumble through the alley beside the store-library.”

The Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library returned to the Elizabeth V. Brown School building in 1948 as the result of an extensive community campaign. The Brown school building had been condemned for use as a school in 1939 and was used by the Office of Price Administration during World War II. When the former school building became vacant in 1945, residents saw it as an opportunity to provide space for both the recreational and library needs of the community, although extensive renovation was needed. The Chevy Chase Community Council, a dormant organization that had collected funds for civilian defense during World War II, was revived under the leadership of the local druggist, Samuel F. Higger, to work for a combined recreational center and library. The Council included representatives of all the community churches, schools, businesses and service organizations. Despite the support of the Board of Library Trustees and the District Board of Recreation, the project was initially vetoed by the District Commissioners. Community leaders, supported by The Star, successfully campaigned to obtain a second hearing from the District Commissioners, who approved the project in January 1947.

Appropriations for the renovation were successfully sought from Congress. Of the $60,000 appropriation, $18,000 was spent on the library portion, principally to conform to city fire safety regulations. The library opened in one wing of the renovated school building on August 16, 1948. It had a full-time staff of eight and 17,000 volumes. Children's books consisted of 7,000 volumes in the collection. The building was partially furnished through community donations.

Within 10 years of the opening of the Neighborhood Library in the Elizabeth V. Brown Building, discussions began on the need for a new Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library because of the lack of space for books and readers in the existing one. In March 1958, the Board of Library Trustees sent a letter to the District Commissioners requesting that funds for the construction of a new branch in Chevy Chase be included in the Public Works Program. In November 1959, a new Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library was included in the six-year Public Works Program. The Library Trustees met in June 1960 at the Elizabeth V. Brown branch to discuss possible sites on the school building grounds for the replacement branch, scheduled for construction in 1966.

One possibility was the vacant corner of the property at Connecticut Avenue and Northampton Street, while another was the corner at Connecticut Avenue and McKinley Street facing Connecticut Avenue. The third choice was the existing site, which would involve replacing the library’s wing with a new building. This site proved initially to be unpopular with the Chevy Chase community, who were against razing the library wing of the old school building. Site alternatives were discussed over the next several years, and a tentative site plan was accepted by the Board of Library Trustees in June 1964.

Congress appropriated $40,000 for fiscal year 1965 for plans and specifications for the new Chevy Chase Branch. Construction began in March 1966 on the site at Connecticut Avenue and Northampton Street after Congress appropriated $611,000 for construction, equipment and the basic book collection.

Nicholas Satterlee (1915-74), architect of the Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library building, achieved prominence for his work both in the design of modern residential buildings and communities, and in the restoration and rehabilitation of historic landmarks. He was appointed to many local and national committees for the preservation and redevelopment of Washington, D.C., including the Committee of One Hundred on the Federal City and the Committee on Landmarks of the National Capital Planning Commission.

Educated at Harvard College and Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, (B. Arch, 1941), Satterlee began his architectural career in 1945. In 1949, he formed a partnership, Satterlee & Lethbridge, with Donald Francis Lethbridge. In 1951, they joined Arthur Keyes and Chloethiel Woodard Smith to form a partnership that lasted until 1956. From then until 1963, he practiced with Chloethiel Smith as Satterlee and Smith and, from 1963 until his death, he headed the firm of Nicholas Satterlee & Associates.

Satterlee helped create the Redevelopment Plan for Southwest Washington (1953-55) and with Smith won the American Institute of Architects Merit Award for the Capitol Park Apartments, Section I, the first building erected in the redevelopment area. Other work included Capitol Park Apartments, Section II, Temple Sinai at 3100 Military Road N.W. and the Garfield Terrace Housing Project.

The Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library was completed in summer 1967, yet the planned September opening was postponed until March 1968 because strikes delayed the delivery of shelving. Once in place, the shelves were filled with the many volumes belonging to the library branch that had been located in the old library. Many of the volumes, moved over a two-week period, were carried by the students of the Ben Murch, Blessed Sacrament and Lafayette elementary schools. Mayor Walter E. Washington spoke at the dedication on March 21, 1968, to an audience of about 700. Dr. Albert W. Atwood, president of the Board of Library Trustees, presided. Other speakers included D.C. Public Library director Harry N. Peterson and the chairman of the Chevy Chase Community Council, Mrs. Robert V. Maudlin.

The Chevy Chase Neighborhood Library encompassed two floors and a basement. The first floor consisted of an adult reference-reading room, a browsing area, individual study carrels for students and book stacks. The second floor housed the children’s room, additional book stacks and a meeting room. Total space was over 24,000 square feet with a book capacity of more than 70,000 volumes. Provision was made for a third floor to meet future requirements for additional space. The building was fully air-conditioned.

The library’s exterior walls were finished in a red brick facing with architectural pre-cast concrete trim and Philippine mahogany woodwork. The brick facing was selected to complement the neighboring commercial buildings. Glass was used extensively on the building, and a skylight provided natural illumination for the open staircase from the first to the second floors.

The building had few fixed walls, and the delineation of specific spaces was achieved by the arrangement of furniture and equipment. The open design created problems with noise in the adult reading room that came from the central stairway and the circulation desk. Therefore, over the next few years, several efforts were made to reduce the noise.

The Chevy Chase Branch became one of four regional libraries created in a 1977 reorganization. The new organization was a response to staff reductions resulting from fiscal constraints. The regional libraries were open more hours and maintained larger book collections than the local branches. Each regional library also provided administrative coordination and staff support to four local branches.