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When Melissa Mautz opened Pet Wants, an all-natural pet foods store, in 2014, she only wanted to set up shop in one Lexington zip code.
“I sought out a 40502 location, knowing of its strong community involvement, ease in accessibility and loyal customer following,” said Mautz.
Gary Doernberg was looking for something similar when he opened his Euclid Avenue wine shop, Corner Wine.
“I had been trying to find a location for a wine shop for some time, but I’m not a strip mall kind of guy,” he said. “Downtown didn’t offer anything that excited me.”
While the Chevy Chase business district has seen its share of changes over the years, the close-knit affinity of the well-supported neighborhood has continued to drive local entrepreneurs to the area for close to a century.
“It’s always been neighborhood-focused,” says fifth district councilmember Bill Farmer, who also owns the long-standing Chevy Chase family business Farmer’s Jewelry. “There’s a certain pride and sense of place.”
With beginnings that trace back to the1920s and 1930s, the Chevy Chase neighborhood was first developed from land originally owned by Henry Clay, including his Ashland estate and the adjoining horse farm. According to legend, the area got its name when founder Henry Clay Simpson, a great great grandson of the famous statesman, joined a Maryland golf club of the same name, with a “village-like” vibe that he took a liking to.
While city maps, real estate listings and popular opinion might not always agree, the rough consensus is that the Chevy Chase boundary spans from Cooper Drive to Fontaine Road, and from Tates Creek to Chinoe roads. The Chevy Chase “business district,” as often referred to in our magazine, is clustered near the intersection of Euclid Avenue and High Street, extending along several blocks and side streets to the north, south and west from that corner.
One way to track the evolution of Chevy Chase’s business district is to look at the history of Euclid Avenue. It was in 1920 that the boulevard was first asphalted, literally paving the way for its success as Chevy Chase’s main commercial thoroughfare. In the early ‘50s, the road was widened to four lanes to accommodate high traffic, but by the 2000s, it was reduced back to three lanes to make way for bicycles. Having evolved from pre-war suburbia – the former “outskirts of town” – to a bustling central shopping district, the Chevy Chase business district has been simultaneously fighting to make progress and preserve its unique character ever since.
With the rapid development of the early ‘40s, which saw a high concentration of new homes in the neighborhood, came a growing need for more commercial areas. Soon the neighborhood’s original Kroger opened, at Euclid and High Street, and by 1946, construction was being planned for Chevy Chase’s first business center.
Some of the corridor’s early storefronts included Bullock’s drugstore, Howard and Thompson clothing, and the well-known Cape Codder’s, which was Central Kentucky’s sole seafood joint at the time.
One aspect that has characterized the area for many decades has been its strong sense of neighborly affection. Corner Wine’s Doernberg, for instance, claims he couldn’t have stayed in business without the aid of a local bank that “took a chance on a middle-aged guy with less than great credit,” and the Farmer family (of Farmer’s Jewelry), who he says “bent over backward” to help him in his first few years of business.
Perhaps it’s this solidarity that gave certain establishments such loyal followings. You can’t talk about the neighborhood’s “old days” without someone sighing wistfully over the Saratoga. Opened in 1953 and named after the famous New York race track, this Chevy Chase landmark was hailed for its stiff drinks, interesting characters and affordable grub (like late-night fried bologna, or a fried egg sandwich for $2.50). But after several changes in ownership and temporary shutdowns, this beloved institution closed its doors in 1995; five years later, it was demolished to make way for a shopping complex. For many, memories of the famed restaurant signal both the heyday of Chevy Chase, as well as its low point.
Over the years, investors have tried to alter the community’s landscape by proposing numerous high-end developments, to varying degrees of success. In 1984, dramatic changes were proposed to the neighborhood skyline when Ted Mims and William Varney Jr. sought approval to build two nine-story high-rises. The idea was initially beset with opposition from locals but eventually became the $11 million five-story retail, office and condominium space that’s known today as Chevy Chase Plaza. Many locals rallied several years later to protest a high-rise senior care complex (a project that was eventually abandoned), and yet again in 2015 when the revamped mega-Kroger opened on Euclid. For decades residents have been – and likely always will be – fiercely protective of their historic buildings and tree-lined streets.
Though the aesthetic may have changed, what’s remarkable is how much of the neighborhood hasn’t. Since this magazine was first published 20 years ago, many of the same businesses remain, including Chevy Chase Inn, Charlie Brown’s, Oram’s Florist, John’s Run/Walk Shop, Farmer’s Jewelry, Chevy Chase Hardware, Chevy Chase Coin Laundry, Josephine’s, Barbara Ann’s School of Dance, Jonathan K. Kern Company, Super Hair & Nails and Le Matin, among others.
“Chevy Chase continues to grow and change with the times, while also keeping adored neighborhood staples such as CCI and Charlie Brown’s at the forefront,” said Pet Wants’ Mautz, who now heads the Chevy Chase Business Owners Association.
Sometimes the neighborhood has grown in surprising ways. It was actually a neighborhood controversy that led to the revival of the Chevy Chase Neighborhood Association, which had been highly active during the ‘70s but later became defunct. In 1997, the CCNA re-organized after residents successfully rallied against the construction of a 160-foot cell tower. The current president, Zachary Murray, points out that some changes in the community have been for the better.
“The Chevy Chase community has become far more diverse, which we all love,” Murray said. “You may have a 75-year-old lady living next to a 30-something couple. I believe that the trend of younger individuals moving into the neighborhood has been on the rise – by simply driving around the neighborhood on a nice evening, you get to see the wide range residents living in the area.”
Other changes, like the emergence of new businesses, also portend a bright future for Chevy Chase. Bear & the Butcher – the two-story restaurant and bar that opened on Euclid Avenue last month after two years of extensive renovations to the building that formerly housed a series of nightclubs – is the most recent Chevy Chase tenant to grapple with how to balance the old with the new. While co-owner Brett Behr initially wanted a rooftop bar, he also knew he had to preserve the structure, or else face possible pushback from residents. As a compromise, he settled for the two-story deck that now adorns the building – a dramatic change to Euclid’s street appearance, but one to which most residents seem to be responding positively.
“We wanted to make something that the neighborhood would be proud of,” said Behr. He also owns the successful neighboring bar and beer shop, Beer Trappe, which opened in 2010.
According to Farmer, new openings like Bear & the Butcher are integral to the future of the neighborhood.
“These are the numerous examples of ongoing entrepreneurial regeneration that keeps it all current,” he said.