Managassett, above ,the Truesdell country estate at Columbia Rd.and Wyoming Ave.,1880s . Left, Margaret Stuyvesant Rutherfurd White,and husband Henry White,were the first owners of 1624 Crescent Place.
schools,they knew each other,and desegregation went well.In 1955 school officials and residents organized as the Adams Morgan Better Neighbor- hood Conference—giving the area its new name. Long before the schools came together,the breezy hilltops here had attracted Native Americans and colonial settlers.Like most areas on this broad ridge,this one remained rural for the city’s first 80 years,with a few sprawling private estates.In fact,Peter C.L’Enfant’s 1791 plan for Washington ended at the foot of a steep rise at Boundary Street, now Florida Avenue. In L’Enfant’s day, when city dwellers walked or relied on horses, climbing steep ridges was very difficult.But once electric streetcars appeared in the late 1880 s and hills were easily conquered,city dwellers began to settle on higher ground.One early streetcar line followed 18 th Street to Calvert Street and then crossed a bridge spanning Rock Creek to Connecticut Avenue Extended. The streetcars led to the appearance of the grand apartments and town houses of Kalorama Triangle and Washington Heights. Up-scale businesses followed.From the 1890 s until the 1930 s, 18 th and Columbia was known for its gentility,its furriers and caterers.Nearby Lanier Heights attracted
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