View source for Spring Valley (Washington, D.C.)

{{Infobox settlement
<!-- See Template:Infobox settlement for additional fields and descriptions -->| name               = Spring Valley, Washington, D.C.
| official_name      = Spring Valley
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| settlement_type    = [[List of neighborhoods of the District of Columbia by ward|Neighborhood of Washington, D.C.]]
| image_skyline      = South Korean Ambassador House DC.JPG
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| image_caption      = South Korean ambassador's residence on Glenbrook Road
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| image_map          = DC Neighborhoods - Spring Valley.svg
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| map_caption        = Map of [[Washington, D.C.]], with Spring Valley highlighted in red
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| coordinates        = {{coord|38.94018|-77.09677|display=inline,title}}
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| subdivision_name   = {{Flagu|United States}}
| subdivision_type1  = District
| subdivision_name1  = {{Flag|Washington, D.C.}}
| subdivision_type2  = Ward
| subdivision_name2  = Ward 3
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| leader_name        = [[Matthew Frumin]]
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'''Spring Valley''' is a largely residential neighborhood in [[Ward 3 of the District of Columbia|Ward 3]], [[Northwest (Washington, D.C.)|Northwest]] [[Washington, D.C.]] As of July 2021, it was the most expensive neighborhood in the District, with homes selling at a median price of $1.465 million.<ref name="wtop202107">{{citation|url=https://wtop.com/business-finance/2021/07/dc-home-prices-hit-another-record-high-but-payments-are-cheaper/|title=DC home prices hit another record high (but payments are cheaper)|first=Jeff|last=Clabaugh|date=July 26, 2021|work=WTOP News|publisher=WTOP|access-date=2021-09-03}}</ref>
==Residents==
Spring Valley's residents include notable [[media personalities]] (e.g., [[Ann Compton]], [[Jim Vance]]), lawyers (e.g., [[United States Attorney General]] [[Eric Holder]], [[Brendan Sullivan (lawyer)|Brendan Sullivan]]), politicians, [[corporate officer]]s, and other members of elite Washington society (e.g., [[Washington Nationals]] principal owners Ed Cohen and Debra Cohen). After the [[World War II|Second World War]], General of the Army [[Omar Bradley]] moved to a house on Indian Lane. As a Senator and then Vice President, [[Richard Nixon]] lived on Tilden St. 1951&ndash;1957, after which he moved to neighboring Wesley Heights; his successor, [[Lyndon B. Johnson]], after becoming Vice President under [[John F. Kennedy]], purchased a three-story mansion named Les Ormes (The Elms) along 52nd Street NW that had previously been the home of socialite and ambassador [[Perle Mesta]].<ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939326,00.html |title=The Home: Ormes & the Man |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |date=November 17, 1961 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930190951/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,939326,00.html |archive-date=September 30, 2007}}</ref> [[George H. W. Bush]] also lived in the neighborhood prior to his White House years. Presently it is the residence of the ambassador of Algeria. [[Warren Buffett]] and sister [[Doris Buffett]] lived on 49th Street during their years attending Wilson High School.
It had the highest percentage of people voting for [[Donald Trump]] of any precinct in the 2016 election, at 15%.<ref>{{Cite news|last1=Bloch|first1=Matthew|last2=Buchanan|first2=Larry|last3=Katz|first3=Josh|last4=Quealy|first4=Kevin|date=2018-07-25|title=An Extremely Detailed Map of the 2016 Presidential Election|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html,%20https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/upshot/election-2016-voting-precinct-maps.html|access-date=2021-03-17|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>
==History==
The neighborhood was the flagship development of the [[W.C. and A.N. Miller]] Companies, which sold its first homes in the subdivision in 1928, and built and sold homes there over the next 80 years.<ref name="wp">{{citation|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/spring-valley-haven-for-the-elite-has-walkability-diversity-and-now-places-to-eat/2021/08/10/51f43570-f3a6-11eb-9068-bf463c8c74de_story.html|title=Spring Valley: Haven for the Elite Has Walkability, Diversity, and Now Places to Eat|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=August 11, 2021|first=Haisten|last=Willis}}</ref> The neighborhood was originally [[Covenant (law)|deed-restricted]], with W.C. and A.N. Miller prohibiting the sale or rental of the property to "persons of Negro blood or extraction, or to any person of Semitic race, blood, or origin, which racial description shall be deemed to include Armenians, Jews, Hebrews, Persians, and Syrians"; the Millers claimed that these covenants reflected the desires of the residents, and not the prejudice of the company or its officers, and anyway could not be eliminated.<ref name="hearing">{{citation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RxrRAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA206|title=Testimony before the United States Commission on Civil Rights|work=Housing in Washington|first=Berl I.|last=Bernhard|publication-place=Washington D.C.|date=April 12, 1962|access-date=2021-09-02}}</ref> Although the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such covenants were unenforceable in 1948, they remained in the language of the deeds and were the subject of litigation until the passage of the [[1968 Fair Housing Act]].
Much of the land was formerly owned by American University. In 1917 the federal government established a weapons testing facility on land leased from the university, and the U.S. Army established [[Camp Leach]] to produce and test chemical weapons there, including [[mustard gas]] components, [[lewisite]], and [[arsenic]].<ref name="groundzero">{{citation|url=https://www.washingtonian.com/2000/12/01/ground-zero/|title=Ground Zero|first=Harry|last=Jaffe|date=December 1, 2000|magazine=[[Washingtonian (magazine)|Washingtonian]]|access-date=2021-09-02}}</ref> The Army closed down the facility after World War I, and the university sold off the property for development. In 1993, construction workers discovered unexploded chemical mortar rounds and 75mm shells, and the [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|U.S. Army Corps of Engineers]] carried out a cleanup dubbed Operation Safe Removal over the next two years which uncovered 141 munitions, including 42 poison gas shells.<ref name="groundzero" /> Nevertheless, reports of health problems continued and in 1997, the U.S. [[Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry]], at the request of D.C. Department of Health officials, released a report indicating the Army Corps of Engineers had botched the cleanup. Further investigations found that the contamination was not widespread, and limits to certain plots, notably the home at 4825 Glenbrook Road NW. Its owners, whose lawyers characterized the plot as the "mother of all toxic dumps," settled a federal lawsuit with the government, American University, and W.C. and A.N. Miller, and the house was demolished in 2012.<ref name="wtop201203">{{citation|url=https://wtop.com/news/2012/03/dc-house-over-mother-of-all-toxic-dumps-to-be-razed/|title=D.C. house over 'mother of all toxic dumps' to be razed|first=Neal|last=Augenstein|date=March 22, 2012|work=WTOP News|publisher=WTOP|access-date=2021-09-03}}</ref> Excavation and restoration at the 4825 Glenbrook site took 8 years, being declared complete in August 2020.<ref name="wtop202008">{{citation|url=https://wtop.com/dc/2020/08/wwi-chemical-munitions-cleanup-is-complete-under-former-northwest-dc-home/|title=WWI chemical munitions cleanup 'is complete' under former Northwest DC home|first=Neal|last=Augenstein|date=August 13, 2020|work=WTOP News|publisher=WTOP|access-date=2021-09-03}}</ref>
The cleanup by 2013 had cost the army $221 million,<ref name="toxic">{{citation|url=https://www.washingtonian.com/2013/02/28/the-toxic-waste-pit-next-door/|title=The Toxic Waste Pit Next Door|magazine=Washingtonian|first=Harry|last=Jaffe|date=February 28, 2013|access-date=2021-09-02}}</ref> before being paused in 2014 for three years. Between 2000 and 2017, more than 500 additional munition items, 400 pounds of laboratory glassware, and 100 tons of contaminated soil were removed as the cleanup continued.<ref name="wtop201705">{{citation|url=https://wtop.com/dc/2017/05/wwi-munitions-cleanup-d-c-nears-end-mysterious-find-pauses-project/|title=As WWI munitions cleanup nears end, mysterious find pauses project|first=Neal|last=Augenstein|date=May 19, 2017|work=WTOP News|publisher=WTOP|access-date=2021-09-03}}</ref> Work was paused with the discovery of an unknown substance containing low levels of mustard gas, and again after seven workers were sickened.<ref name="wtop201709">{{citation|url=https://wtop.com/dc/2017/09/digging-stopped-wwi-munitions-site-d-c-7-hospitalized/|title=7 sickened while working at WWI munitions site, cleanup halted|first=Neal|last=Augenstein|date=September 7, 2017|work=WTOP News|publisher=WTOP|access-date=2021-09-03}}</ref> By 2018, more than 1,600 homes had been screened for potentially elevated levels of arsenic, and contaminated soil had been removed from 180 homes.<ref name="wtop201803">{{citation|url=https://wtop.com/dc/2018/03/exclusive-91-homes-dc-face-testing-wwi-chemical-weapon-fallout/|title=91 homes in DC face testing for WWI chemical weapon remnants|first=Neal|last=Augenstein|date=March 9, 2018|work=WTOP News|publisher=WTOP|access-date=2021-09-03}}</ref>
==Geography==
[[File:Intersection of 49th St. and Hillbrook Lane NW in February 2021.jpg|thumb|left|Intersection of 49th St. and Hillbrook Lane NW in February 2021]]
The neighborhood is bounded by Nebraska Avenue and Loughboro Road to its south, Dalecarlia Parkway to its west, and [[Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.)|Massachusetts Avenue]] to its northeast; Dalecarlia and Mass. Ave. converge at Westmoreland Circle, on the [[Maryland]] border.
Massachusetts Avenue is the main commercial corridor serving the area. Neighborhood landmarks include the main campus of [[American University]] and the [[Wesley Theological Seminary]], at 4400 and 4500 Massachusetts Ave. NW respectively. The former [[Washington College of Law]] campus at 4801 and 4910 Massachusetts Avenue is also here, although the institution has since moved to nearby [[Tenleytown]].  Paradoxically, the neighborhood to the northeast is called [[American University Park]], even though the bulk of the main campus is located in Spring Valley.
Several embassy residences are located in the neighborhood, including the ambassador's houses of [[South Korea]], [[Canada]], [[Croatia]], [[Mexico]], [[Bahrain]], [[Qatar]], [[Uganda]], [[Chile]], [[Luxembourg]], [[Algeria]], [[Yemen]] and [[Estonia]].
==Education==
American University and Wesley Theological Seminary are located in the southeast of the neighborhood. No elementary or secondary institutions are located in Spring Valley; [[District of Columbia Public Schools]] students attend Horace Mann Elementary School, Hardy Middle School, and [[Jackson-Reed High School]].
== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}
* {{cite web |url=https://ghostsofdc.org/2019/11/19/camp-leach-when-chemical-weapons-were-made-at-american-university/ |title=Camp Leach: When Chemical Weapons Were Made at American University |website=Ghosts of DC |date=November 19, 2019}}
== External links ==
{{Commons category|Spring Valley, Washington, D.C.}}
* [https://springvalleywdc.com/ Spring Valley Neighborhood Association]
{{Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C.}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Military Superfund sites]]
[[Category:1928 establishments in Washington, D.C.]]
[[Category:Neighborhoods in Northwest (Washington, D.C.)]]