19th century

In the 1880s, Senator Francis G. Newlands of Nevada and his partners began acquiring farmland in unincorporated areas of Maryland and just inside the District of Columbia, for the purpose of developing a residential streetcar suburb for Washington, D.C., during the expansion of the Washington streetcars system. Newlands and his partners founded The Chevy Chase Land Company in 1890, and its holdings of more than 1,700 acres (6.9 km²) eventually extended along the present-day Connecticut Avenue from Florida Avenue north to Jones Bridge Road.

Newlands, an avowed white supremacist, and his development company took steps to ensure that residents of its new suburbs would be wealthy and white;^[4] for example, "requiring, in the deed to the land, that only a single-family detached house costing a large amount of money could be constructed. The Chevy Chase Land Company did not include explicit bars against non-white people, known as racial covenants, but the mandated cost of the house made it impractical for all but the wealthiest non-white people to buy the land." Houses were required to cost $5,000 and up on Connecticut Avenue and $3,000 and up on side streets.^[5] The company banned commerce from the residential neighborhoods.^[6]

Leon E. Dessez was Chevy Chase's first resident. He and Lindley Johnson of Philadelphia designed the first four houses in the area.^[7]

Toward the northern end of its holdings, the Land Company formed a manmade lake, called Chevy Chase Lake, to produce hydroelectric power for its streetcars, and provide a venue for boating, swimming, and other activities.^[8] The streetcar soon became vital to the community; it connected workers to the city, and even ran errands for residents.

Part of the original Cheivy Chace patent had been sold to Abraham Bradley, who built an estate known as the Bradley Farm.^[9] In 1892, Newlands and other members of the Metropolitan Club of Washington, D.C., founded a hunt club called Chevy Chase Hunt, which would later become Chevy Chase Club. In 1894, the club located itself on the former Bradley Farm property under a lease from its owners. The club introduced a six-hole golf course to its members in 1895, and purchased the 9.36-acre Bradley Farm tract in 1897.^[10][9][11]

20th century

In 1906, the Chevy Chase Land Company blocked a proposed subdivision called Belmont after they learned its Black developers aimed to sell house lots to other African Americans. In subsequent litigation, the company and its affiliates argued that those developers had committed fraud by proposing "to sell lots...to negroes."^[12]

By the 1920s, restrictive covenants were added to Chevy Chase real estate deeds. Some prohibited both the sale or rental of homes to "a Negro or one of the African race." Others prohibited sales or rentals to "any persons of the Semetic [sic] race"—i.e., Jews.^[12]

By World War II, such restrictive language had largely disappeared from real estate transactions, and all were voided by the 1948 Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer.

In 1964, Arthur Krock wrote an article for The New York Times alleging that the Chevy Chase Country Club barred "Negroes" and "one ethnic group of Caucasians" from membership. In response, Club president Randall H. Hagnar denied that the club excluded Black or Jewish people; he said that no members were African-Americans but that several were Jewish.^[13]

Lea M. Bouligny founded the Chevy Chase College and Seminary at the Chevy Chase Inn, located at 7100 Connecticut Avenue). The name was changed to Chevy Chase Junior College in 1927. The National 4-H Club Foundation purchased the property in 1951,^[14] turning it into the group's Youth Conference Center. For decades, the center hosted the National 4-H Conference, an event for 4-Hers throughout the nation to attend, and the annual National Science Bowl in late April or early May.^[15]

21st century

The National 4-H Club Foundation sold the center in 2021 for $40 million; as of 2022, it is to be replaced by a senior living development.^[16]

Villages

• Chevy Chase Village, Maryland
• Chevy Chase Section Three, Maryland
• Chevy Chase Section Five, Maryland
• Martin's Additions, Maryland
• North Chevy Chase, Maryland

In addition to the Maryland villages listed above, the United States Postal Service uses Chevy Chase for some postal addresses that lie outside historical Chevy Chase: in Somerset, the Village of Friendship Heights, and the Rock Creek Forest area, east of Jones Mill Road and Beach Drive and west of Grubb Road.

Current residents

• Ann Brashares – author^[20]
• John Carlson – professional ice hockey player^[21]
• Marvin Kalb – journalist^[20]
• Brett Kavanaugh – associate justice, United States Supreme Court
• Tony Kornheiser – television host, currently ESPN employee presenter
• Howard Kurtz – host of Fox News program Media Buzz
• Collin Martin – soccer player
• Chris Matthews – commentator
• Jerome Powell – current Chairman of the Federal Reserve
• John Roberts – Chief Justice of the United States^[20]
• A. B. Stoddard – political commentator and editor of RealClearPolitics
• George Will – conservative commentator^[20]

Former residents

Yosef Alon

• Yosef Alon – Israeli Air Force officer
• Jamshid Amouzegar – former prime minister of Iran
• Tom Braden – journalist and author^[22]
• David Brinkley – journalist^[22]
• John Charles Daly – media personality
• Mark Ein – venture capitalist^[23]
• Bill Guckeyson – athlete and military aviator
• Josh Harris – investor and sports team owner^[23]
• Ed Henry – journalist
• Richard Helms – former director of the Central Intelligence Agency
• Genevieve Hughes – one of the 13 original Freedom Riders^[24]
• Hubert Humphrey – politician^[22]
• Gayle King – television anchor
• Ted Lerner – owner of Lerner Enterprises and the Washington Nationals
• Anthony McAuliffe – US general
• Sandra Day O'Connor – United States Supreme Court Justice^[22]
• Hilary Rhoda – model^[25]
• Nancy Grace Roman – former NASA executive
• Peter Rosenberg – media personality^[26]
• Danny Rubin – basketball player^[27]
• Mark Shields – political columnist^[20]
• Karl Truesdell – US Army major general^[28]