cultivation. Tobacco was phased out of the area by the 1800s and the large land holdings converted to other types of farming. Roads into Washington, D.C., including Riggs Road, Sligo Mill Road (now New Hampshire Avenue), Sargent Road, and Queens Chapel Road, connected the farms with a market for their goods. For over 100 years, life continued in this pattern for residents of the study area with steady gains in housing and population while still maintaining a rural character. Like many small communities at the edge of cities, the return of World War II veterans and high population growth in the mid1940s and early 1950s resulted in the conversion of farmland into housing. Although some of this change began in the 1930s, the post-War boom greatly sped the development from rural farms to suburban housing. Five distinct neighborhoods separated by both natural and man-made barriers encompass the community: Chillum, Hampshire Knolls, Carole Highlands, Lewisdale, and Avonridge. Unlike other expansions into the suburbs in the Washington, D.C. area that were fueled by streetcar lines such as Chevy Chase, the greater Chillum area’s expansion took place with the increased use of automobiles. Today, these neighborhoods continue to develop their own character and conditions based on the demographics and the way the homes were originally built. The following findings for the five neighborhoods influenced how the consultant team developed recommendations specific to each.
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Introduction Greater Chillum Community Study