Introduction
harried commuters speed along Georgia Avenue every day without ever knowing this is a neighborhood, much less one with a distin- guished past. Yet free African Americans farmed this area as early as the 1820s. And in July 1864, Union and Confederate soldiers fought an important Civil War battle here. Viewing the skirmish from Fort Stevens, President Lincoln became the only serving U.S. president ever to come under enemy fire.
That Brightwood would develop became clear in 1818, when a private com- pany broke ground for the Seventh Street Turnpike to link Washington City to Rockville, Maryland. Soon a small com- munity named Brighton grew
Major General Alexander M. McCook and staff on the porch of old Moreland Tavern, 1864, headquarters for the defense of Fort Stevens.
up where this road, today’s Georgia Avenue, crossed the old Milk House Ford Road (now Rock Creek Ford Road). This intersection con- tinues to define the neighborhood. With the turnpike came a toll booth and a roadhouse providing meals to travelers passing through this rural area of Washington County, District of Columbia. Other new institutions serving the community’s European American and free African American farmers and wealthy landowners were Emory Chapel and the
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker