McLean Gardens has been described as the ultimate urban suburban setting.Situated on the edge of Glover Archbold Park, McLean Gardens offers residents the benefits of a park-like setting just a short walk away from urban amenities such as dining, services, entertainment, Metrobus and Metrorail.
The 23-acre, wooded community has more than 1,000 residents living in 31 unique, garden apartment-style buildings built in the early 1940s and converted to condominiums in 1980 to include duplexes, flats and lofts. Amenities at McLean Gardens include a community pool, barbecue areas and an elegant ballroom available to residents and the general public for private functions. This is a great community for first time home buyers or anyone who wants to be close to the metro and lots of restaurants, shops, and community activities.
FEATURED LISTING – 3841 NEWARK ST NW #456
One of the most stunning floorplans along the Wisconsin Avenue corridor is the loft style on the top floor of many of the McLean Gardens buildings. With high ceilings and skylights, the loft style condos are always filled with sunlight. This unit at 3841 Newark, listed for $449,900 by Coldwell Banker has been fully renovated. The one bedroom and one bath plus loft is a great floorplan since the loft gives you even more space than the 1109 square feet would suggest. I have seen a baby grand piano in the loft of one of these condos, although how the owners got it in or out, I will never know!
FEATURED RESTAURANT – 2 Amys – 3715 Macomb St NW
2 Amys is probably my favorite pizza restaurant in DC. In saying that I am certainly not going out on a limb,
since I think it is nearly everyone’s favorite pizza restaurant – particularly on Saturday afternoons and evenings when the line is out the door! No ordinary pepperoni pizza here! Instead try their meatball pizza or the Etna, with Eggplant confit, olives, capers, oregano, and grana. My daughter loves the peppers and anchovies and I can’t eat there without ordering the roasted olives or the orange and red onion salad.
This is a great place to bring children. In fact, it seems like every other table has a child or two on a Saturday afternoon – attired in Stoddert soccer uniforms, or with hair combed into careful chignons after an intense work out at Washington Ballet. What better way to recover from an active morning!
FEATURED EVENT – St Albans House Tour
The Christmas House Tour, a tradition since 1983, brings the community together to benefit the wonderful St. Albans faculty and staff, the foundation of our sons’ St. Albans education. Past House Tours have enabled the Parents’ Association to support the faculty and staff in a variety of ways, including contributions to the mortgage assistance program, and grants for classroom needs and continuing education.
This year’s tour features five stunning homes in Spring Valley. Leading floral designers will decorate each home with seasonal flair, and students from St. Albans and National Cathedral Schools will provide musical accompaniment and Christmas carols.
Complimentary shuttle buses will run from St. Albans to the individual homes on the tour, and will leave every fifteen minutes. Luncheon is available in the St. Albans Refectory, and an array of specialty boutiques will be open for holiday shopping both Friday and Saturday. Tickets for the house tour are $35 each and the luncheon tickets are $15 each.
FEATURED STORE – Sullivan’s Toy Store 3412 Wisconsin Avenue, 202-362-1343
There are only a few independent toy stores, and Sullivan’s is one of them. It has a great assortment of Legos and
Playmobile, Breyer horses, art supplies, and even doll house furniture. More important though is that when you walk into Sullivan’s you have the feeling that you have walked into a real store owned by real people for real children. No pretend giraffes here. Instead you get Tam, the owner and a Washington native. Sullivan’s has been here a long time. My cousins remember when their middle brother somehow was locked in toy handcuffs which had no key. There was nothing to do but carry him down to Sullivans, even though it was Sunday morning and he was in his underwear. His parents put him on the counter next to the cash register and Mr. Sullivan started trying toy keys to open the handcuffs!
HISTORY OF MC LEAN GARDENS - FUN FACTS
The history of the 23 acre McLean Gardens property began in 1695 as part of a 3,000 acre tract of land was granted to Colonel Thomas Addison and James Stoddert. The two men called the property “Friendship,” in honor of their own friendship. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, the land was divided. transferred, and sold. Then in 1898, newspaper publisher John Roll McLean bought 75 acres of the land to build a summer retreat. McLean was a newspaper publisher and businessman who owned the Washington Post, the Cincinnati Inquirer, and many Washington properties and business interests. The town of McLean in Virginia was named for him.
McLean built a luxurious Georgian Revival home, designed by John Russell Pope, the famous New York architect, which McLean named “Friendship” and used as his summer house. Later, a cast iron swimming pool, an 18 hole golf course, stables, Italian gardens and other luxuries were added to the estate. The entire property was surrounded by a tall iron fence with the entrance at 3600 Wisconsin Avenue. Upon McLean’s death, his son, Ned inherited the property. Ned was married to the very colorful heiress, Evalyn Walsh McLean, who owned the Hope Diamond. Ned died in 1941, and the property reverted to the trustees of his father’s estate.
In 1942 the estate’s trustees sold the property to the federal government, which used the property to build McLean Gardens, a garden-style dormitory housing complex for the rapidly growing number of defense workers being hired during World War II. The original mansion was torn down in 1942 to make room for the new housing. After the war the government sold McLean Gardens in 1948 to the Hartford Insurance Company, which managed the complex as a rental property until 1970. McLean Gardens was eventually converted to condominiums in 1981 and today is considered one of the most desirable addresses in the nation’s capital.
If you would like some more information about McLean Gardens or any other listings there, the LIse Howe Team is here to help you. Just give us a call at 240-401-5577 or follow us on our blog, www.dcmdvaluxuryhomeblog.com or email us at lise@lisehowe.com.
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