Update: On August 8, 2023, Glen Echo Park voters finally voted to be annexed by the City of Normandy, which borders the village on three sides.
Glen Echo Park? Wow, I missed that one, I said to myself last week, so I went and checked it out. It is one street, and one alley that goes behind houses that face the fairways of Glen Echo Country Club. It is truly a fascinating example of one of the smallest subdivisions-turned-towns in North County. I do not know about its current financial liquidity, but newspapers over the last fifty years reveal serious problems. It repelled an annexation attempt by Normandy, which surrounds it on several sides. The housing stock is interesting; it is a mix of obvious rural streetcar suburb architecture with later in-fill from around World War II, such as the houses above on St. Andrew’s Place, the only full sized street in the town.
The house above is a perfect example of one of the houses that faces the golf course and has its road access via the alley street, Henderson Road. There is one abandoned house, whose story eludes me. It is clearly one of the oldest houses in the town, near the entrance off Lucas and Hunt Road.
Around the corner, off of Natural Bridge Road on St. Mary’s Lane, which leads to the Glen Echo County Club, are two fascinating houses, and are much, much older than the surrounding homes. The collector of revenue states the one below is from 1883, which could very well be true. I am curious why this house was built out here on this plat of land, called the Oehler Place Addition.
The same goes for this house, which the collector of revenue lists as being built in 1890; it is an old style of house that has Italianate leanings. Why they are here is a mystery.
Update: I found the plat for the neighborhood; in 1909 the house in the second photo can clearly be seen in Lot 2 of Block 5 of Glen Echo Park, while the houses in the last two photos are seen facing each other on St. Mary’s Avenue in the Ohler’s Place Subdivision.
