Chevy Chase Cluster: Mid-Century Neighborhoods Tour

This group of eleven Modern Chevy Chase houses, each on its own separate lot, are clustered together around a block-long stretch of 28th Street NW between Nebraska Avenue and Rittenhouse Street NW. Although the houses are all based upon a similar model, they each have different site-specific footprints, orientations, roof forms and material treatments. 

At the time of this commission, the architects, Edward Burton Corning and Raymond G. Moore, had been in practice together for over a decade. Although their early work was almost entirely Colonial Revival in style, these houses illustrate the firm's evolving design approach that embraced a more Modern aesthetic. In addition to these houses, the firm designed the Maryland National Capital Park and Planning Commission headquarters at 8787 Georgia Avenue in Silver Spring (demolished) and an office building for the B’nai B’rith service organization at 1640 Rhode Island Avenue, NW. Architect Milton Fischer, who became a partner in the firm, Corning, Moore, Elmor and Fischer, served as associate architect on the Watergate complex (1961-71), under chief designer, Luigi Moretti.

Although each is different, the Chevy Chase houses are generally defined by such Mid-Century design influences as irregular footprints with off-set and discreet entries, a combination of flat, sloped and low-pitched roofs with wide and overhanging eaves, large expanses of windows, and a combination of brick and wood frame wall materials. The following houses make up the cluster: 

• 5860 Nebraska Avenue NW, 1954

• 5864 Nebraska Avenue NW, 1954

• 6004 28th Street NW, 1954

• 6006 28th Street NW, 1954

• 6005 28th Street NW, 1955

• 5990 Nebraska Avenue NW, 1955

• 2800 Rittenhouse Street NW, 1955

• 6007 28th Street NW, 1955

• 6012 28th Street NW, 1955

• 6020 28th Street NW, 1955

• 2750 Rittenhouse Street NW, 1956