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Cheverly Maryland has been characterized by some as a lovely island of green in a sea of dual lane highways and by others as a "jewel" among planned communities. Whatever its image in the Washington metropolitan area, it exists today because of concerned and caring people. Its civic-minded residents are maintaining a heritage established by its founder, Robert Marshall, an Ohio investor and stockbroker. He came to Washington during World War I with a vision, years ahead of his time, of creating a restricted, carefully planned residential community, convenient to the
city by rail and road, but retaining the beauty of its natural surroundings through saving as many of its trees as possible, and designing its streets to follow the rolling contours of the land.
In August 1814, the British, marching on Washington to burn the Capitol and White House, headed for Bladensburg, the first fordable point in the Anacostia, and it was here that the Battle of Bladensburg was fought on August 24. According to tradition two springs located within the present day boundaries of Cheverly were used by the British during this campaign and both were designated in 1988 as Prince George's Historic Sites.
Mt. Hope , the plantation house which still stands on a ridge in the center of Cheverly is at No. 1 Cheverly Circle. It was built by Fielder Magruder about 1839 and expanded in the 1860's. This 12-room ante bellum home is on our town seal and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in November 1978. It was carefully restored by Cheverly's founder and first resident Robert Marshall. He called it Crestlawn and lived there from 1919 to 1929.
With the exhaustion of tobacco land by the middle of the 19th century and the death of the slave-based agrarian economy of the area after the Civil War, a general agricultural depression and abandoned farmland became characteristic of Prince George's County during the rest of the century. Many fields began to grow up with weeds and then with locust and scrub pine. Although prosperous farmers like Fielder Magruder could continue to survive with general farming, the old days of the ante bellum plantation were no more. Also affecting his property during this period was the coming of the railroad. The Baltimore and Potomac (now Penn Central) track passed through all three of the original land grants. It provided one of Robert Marshall's original selling points for Cheverly, "10 cents and 12 minutes to downtown Washington,
D.C."
Cheverly was founded in 1918 and was named for a rich man's estate in England. Research at the British Museum in London by the Cheverly Town Historian in January 1977, supported by documents later provided by the Archivist of Cambridgeshire, reveals that there is only one place in England that matches this description. It is called Chevely, and is located in Cambridgeshire, near the British horse racing center of Newmarket, about 60 miles northeast of London. The name can be traced to Anglo-Saxon times, when it was referred to as "ceaflea" (market field). Chevely was originally a 1,000-acre manor belonging to the Anglo-Saxon and then to the Norman kings.
Cheverly was incorporated in 1931, during the Great Depression. The thirties were difficult times for Cheverly, and it was only due to the dedication and hard work of the civic-minded residents led by mayor Fred Gast (1931-1937) and J. Raymond Fletcher (1937-1945), that it survived. Despite the economic constraints and limited tax base at the time, the streets were substantially improved and street lights repaired. During Fletcher's years as mayor, home construction increased five fold from 135 to over 650. Joint efforts by the citizenry were characteristic of the period, and were exemplified by the establishment of the American Legion park in the center of town in 1935, in a landscaping effort directed by Raymond W. Bellamy, Sr., an early associate of Marshall. The Bellamy garden, just north of Legion Park, which he developed over a 40 year
period (1927 to 1967) is only one of the many lovely gardens gracing Cheverly Homes. The Bellamy home, "Belmar", a Sears-Roebuck "Alhambra" model built by Robert Marshall in 1925, was designated a County Historic Site in 1992.
The decades of the sixties, seventies, eighties, and nineties were characterized by population growth and commercial development in the surrounding areas.
The future, promises to be a time of challenge to Cheverly citizens determined to maintain the character of their little island of green. It is up to us who love our town to maintain Robert Marshall's vision of an attractive and peaceful residential community, a vision which continues to shine brightly.
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