Glen Echo Park is an arts and cultural center in

Glen Echo, Maryland Glen Echo is a town in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, that was chartered in 1904. The population was 279 at the 2020 census. History Glen Echo derives its name from the name of the lots developed by Edward and Edwin Baltzley, * * ...

, a suburb of

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

Located about northwest of the city's downtown area, the park's site was initially developed in 1891 as a National

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Cha ...

Assembly. Following the foreclosure and sale of the Chautauqua grounds in 1903, leisure facilities were developed there to serve the city's growing population. In 1911, the site was expanded to become the privately owned Glen Echo Amusement Park, a popular facility that operated until 1968. The

National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an List of federal agencies in the United States, agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government, within the US Department of the Interior. The service manages all List ...

(NPS) now operates the park, which functions as a regional cultural resource when offering classes, workshops, dances and performances in the visual and performing arts. The park is known for its

Streamline Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In indu ...

architecture, an antique Dentzel carousel and its historic Spanish

Ballroom A ballroom or ballhall is a large room inside a building, the primary purpose of which is holding large formal parties called ''balls''. Traditionally, most balls were held in private residences; many mansions and palaces, especially histori ...

, as well as for its children's theater and social dance programs. Visitors also come to the park to participate in its festivals and events, which include the Washington

Folk Festival A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods. Handicra ...

and a Family Day. The NPS maintains a visitors center and conducts park history tours. More than 350,000 people attend events and participate in instructional activities at the park during each year.

History

19th century

Twin brothers Edwin and Edward Baltzley—writers, inventors, * * * * * * * * * * * * industrialists, and real estate developers—hoped to build upon the banks of the

Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...

a suburban community free of the urban pollution of late 19th-century Washington. To compete with other suburban developments, the Baltzleys planned a series of opulent attractions for their would-be community. On February 24, 1891, the Baltzleys incorporated the National

of Glen Echo, the 53rd such assembly, and set to building a stone citadel of culture to complement their real estate and resort enterprises. Opened on June 16, 1891, their arts and culture program included lectures and concerts in a 6,000-seat amphitheater; special classes in Bible studies, Greek, and Hebrew; physical training regimens; and university extension courses. Hundreds flocked to the site to picnic and to attend lectures on American history by Jane Meade Welch, courses on ancient Egypt by Lysander Dickerman, and concerts by

John Philip Sousa John Philip Sousa ( , ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic music, Romantic era known primarily for American military March (music), marches. He is known as "The March King" or th ...

and his band.

Clara Barton Clarissa Harlowe Barton (December 25, 1821 – April 12, 1912) was an American nurse who founded the American Red Cross. She was a hospital nurse in the American Civil War, a teacher, and a patent clerk. Since nursing education was not then very ...

, encouraged by the Baltzleys, located her home and the

American Red Cross The American National Red Cross is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit Humanitarianism, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. Clara Barton founded ...

headquarters at Glen Echo and also presided over the Women's Executive Committee for the Chautauqua itself. The inaugural season's success warranted an extension well into August.

Failure

But by the following spring, the various Baltzley enterprises were gravely in debt. On April 7, 1892, the Glen Echo Sand and Building Company, a Baltzley subsidiary, borrowed a large sum of money, giving the Chautauqua site as collateral—just one of several Baltzley mortgages on the site. The financial difficulties spread to the Glen Echo Railroad Company, yet another Baltzley enterprise, which, because of the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

and the adjacent

Washington Aqueduct The Washington Aqueduct is an Aqueduct (water supply), aqueduct that provides the public water supply system serving Washington, D.C., and parts of its suburbs, using water from the Potomac River. One of the first major aqueduct projects in the ...

system, had failed to bring the much anticipated streetcar service to the Chautauqua site and Glen Echo Village. At the beginning of the 1892 season, a rumor spread throughout Washington that Glen Echo was rampant with

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

. Combined with the brothers' precarious finances, the Chautauqua site fell into disuse. In 1897, the Washington and Great Falls Electric Railway Company completed an

electric streetcar A tram (also known as a streetcar or trolley in Canada and the United States) is an urban rail transit in which Rolling stock, vehicles, whether individual railcars or multiple-unit trains, run on tramway tracks on urban public streets; some ...

line that traveled from a

car barn A train shed is a building adjacent to a station building where the tracks and platforms of a railway station are covered by a roof. It is also known as an overall roof. Its primary purpose is to store and protect from the elements train car ...

in Georgetown, passed the former Chautauqua site and terminated in Cabin John.(1)
(2)
(3) "In 1899, the National Chautauqua property was leased to the Glen Echo company, an amusement park venture."

20th century

After changing its name to become the

Washington Railway and Electric Company The Washington Railway and Electric Company (WREC) was the larger of the two major streetcar companies in Washington, D.C., and its Maryland suburbs in the early decades of the 20th century. Founded as the Washington and Great Falls Electric Rai ...

(WR&E) in 1902, the railroad constructed a

trolley park In the United States, trolley parks, which started in the 19th century, were picnic and recreation areas along or at the ends of streetcar lines in most of the larger cities. These were precursors to amusement parks. Trolley parks were often cre ...

(a type of

amusement park An amusement park is a park that features various attractions, such as rides and games, and events for entertainment purposes. A theme park is a type of amusement park that bases its structures and attractions around a central theme, often fea ...

) at the Chautauqua site. "In 1911, the Washington Railway and Electric Company bought Glen Echo and the modern amusement park was built." Glen Echo Park became one of the larger establishments of its type in the Washington area. Beginning in 1940, the

Capital Transit Company Streetcars in Washington, D.C. transported people across the city and region from 1862 until 1962. The first streetcars in Washington, D.C., were Horsecar, horse-drawn and carried people short distances on flat terrain. After brief experiment ...

(the successor to the WR&E) built a number of Streamline Moderne structures within its facility. The park remained popular well into the late 1940s. By the mid-1950s, however, attendance began to decline due to the growing popularity of larger regional theme parks such as

Disneyland Disneyland is a amusement park, theme park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was the first theme park opened by the Walt Disney Company and the only one designed and constructed under the direct supervision of Walt Disney, ...

, and also because of the proliferation of new retail products that children of the

Baby Boom generation Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that ...

could use during their leisure time. On January 3, 1960, D.C. Transit—the successor to Capital Transit—closed the trolley line that had connected the park to Georgetown, part of the larger abandonment of streetcars in Washington, D.C.

Segregation and integration at the amusement park

Like many public facilities in and around the Washington area, Glen Echo Park was long restricted to whites—indeed, for 63 out of its first 70 years. On June 30, 1960, to draw attention to the park's

racial segregation Racial segregation is the separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Segregation can involve the spatial separation of the races, and mandatory use of different institutions, ...

, the

Nonviolent Action Group The Nonviolent Action Group (NAG) was a student-run campus organization at Howard University that campaigned against racial segregation and other civil rights causes in the areas of Virginia, Maryland and Washington D.C. during the 1960s Civil R ...

, led by students from the

historically black Historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education in the United States that were established before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with the intention of serving African Americans. Most are in the Southern U ...

Howard University Howard University is a private, historically black, federally chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. It is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" and accredited by the Mid ...

organized an 11-week civil-rights campaign against the park's policies. The campaign began with a

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

protest on the carousel during which five

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

students were arrested for trespassing. Members of the

liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * Generally, a supporter of the political philosophy liberalism. Liberals may be politically left or right but tend to be centrist. * An adherent of a Liberal Party (See also Liberal parties by country ...

, politically connected and largely

Jewish Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

Bannockburn community near the park joined the students in protesting and picketing for change. As a result, the park opened its doors to all races for the 1961 season. Four years later, the

Supreme Court In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

considered the students' arrests in '' Griffin v. Maryland''. The court reversed the convictions on the grounds that the state of Maryland had unconstitutionally used its police power to help a private business enforce its racial exclusionary policy.

Decline and closure

On Easter Monday 1966, the park's roller coaster closed early after a cigarette thrown from a coaster car damaged its tracks. When park officials did not explain the reason for the closure, visitors from Washington became disruptive. As tensions flared, the park closed for the day, resulting in a mass exodus of about 6,000 customers. Reports of slashed seats on the first bus returning to the city prompted D.C. Transit to stop bus service to Glen Echo, stranding hundreds of people at the park. Vandalism occurred during long nighttime walks back to the city, adding to tensions in the communities surrounding the park. Although the park's popularity had declined severely before this incident, newspaper coverage of the event further discouraged potential customers and dealt a blow from which the park could not recover. Attendance at the park fell when former patrons afraid of recurrences avoided the park. The park also developed a reputation of being a haven for teenage gangs. In 1968, the

U.S. Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the management and conservation of most federal lands and natural resources. It also administers programs relating t ...

and the

National Capital Planning Commission The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) is a United States government, U.S. government executive branch agency that provides Urban planning, planning guidance for Washington, D.C., and the surrounding National Capital Region. Through its pl ...

asked the

General Services Administration The General Services Administration (GSA) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. G ...

(GSA) to try to acquire the Glen Echo Property by means of a swap, to include the land and all permanent structures. In April 1969, the park's owners announced that they would not open the park that year. Over the next two years, they sold most of the rides and other amusements.

National Park Service ownership

The GSA acquired the title to Glen Echo Park on April 1, 1970. Two months later, the NPS took over administration of the park. The Glen Echo tract and title was officially transferred to the NPS on March 5, 1976. Of the approximately that originally came with the title, a portion () became a part of the

Clara Barton National Historic Site The Clara Barton National Historic Site, which includes the Clara Barton House, was established in 1974 to interpret the life of Clara Barton (1821–1912), an American pioneer teacher, nurse, and humanitarian who was the founder of the American ...

while the remainder ( became part of the lands of the

George Washington Memorial Parkway The George Washington Memorial Parkway, colloquially the G.W. Parkway, is a limited-access road, limited-access parkway that runs along the south bank of the Potomac River from Mount Vernon, Virginia, northwest to McLean, Virginia, and is maint ...

. After a year of clean-up operations and planning, on June 20, 1971, the National Park Service opened the park to the public for the first of a series of consecutive summer Sunday afternoon events.

21st century

In February 2001, the NPS and the government of

Montgomery County, Maryland Montgomery County is the most populous County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, the county's population was 1,062,061, increasing by 9.3% from 2010. The county seat is Rockville, Maryland ...

, formed a non-profit partnership to fund and administer the park. The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture took over administration of the park's artistic, cultural, and educational programming while the National Park Service continued to oversee, manage, maintain, preserve, and protect the park's resources. From 2003 to 2010, the county and NPS made extensive renovations of the park's facilities with input from the partnership and resident organizations and funding from federal, state, and county governments and private donations. The work started with a National Park Service-led, volunteer-labor makeover of the deteriorating Bumper Car Pavilion, converting it into an all-weather dance pavilion and band shell to allow dance events to continue during the subsequent renovations. It remains in use as an alternative dance venue and for private events, such as wedding receptions. Beginning in 2003, an 18-month, $19 million renovation of the Spanish Ballroom returned it to its original splendor, giving it continued prominence as one of the premiere sites for dancing in the Washington, D.C., area. Other facilities renovated in the effort included the Dentzel Carousel, the Puppet Co. Playhouse, the Arcade building, the Yellow Barn, Adventure Theatre, the Candy Corner, the Chautauqua Tower, the Ballroom Annex, and the Caretaker's Cottage.

Features

Chautauqua Tower

The central entrance to the park is dominated by Chautauqua Tower, a

Richardsonian Romanesque Richardsonian Romanesque is a architectural style, style of Romanesque Revival architecture named after the American architect Henry Hobson Richardson (1838–1886). The revivalism (architecture), revival style incorporates 11th- and 12th-century ...

circular structure of irregularly shaped, rough-faced stone. Construction of the tower was started in 1890 or 1891 and completed in 1892. It is about 34 feet in diameter and three stories high, capped by an 11-sided roof of steep pitch with a flagpole at its peak. Originally part of a complex of buildings, the tower is the sole intact physical remnant of the late-19th-century

Chautauqua movement Chautauqua ( ) is an adult education and social movement in the United States that peaked in popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chau ...

at Glen Echo, and a local example of late

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

rustic architecture. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1980. The National Register of Historic Places nomination form correctly identifies the architect, Victor Mindeleff, but misspells his name. Mindeleff is best known for his work with the

Bureau of American Ethnology The Bureau of American Ethnology (or BAE, originally, Bureau of Ethnology) was established in 1879 by an act of Congress for the purpose of transferring archives, records and materials relating to the Indians of North America from the Departme ...

. Today it contains art studios.

Dentzel carousel

Glen Echo Park's antique

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (International English), or galloper (British English) is a type of amusement ride consisting of a rotating circular platform with seats for riders. The seats are tradit ...

was built by the

Dentzel Carousel Company The G.A. Dentzel Company was an American builder of carousels in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. History Its founder, Gustav Dentzel, had immigrated to the United States in 1864, from Germ ...

in 1921. It was added to the

in 1980.

PCC streetcar

In 2005, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transport Authority (SEPTA) donated to the NPS a

streamlined Streamlines, streaklines and pathlines are field lines in a fluid flow. They differ only when the flow changes with time, that is, when the flow is not steady flow, steady. Considering a velocity vector field in three-dimensional space in the f ...

1947

PCC streetcar The Presidents' Conference Committee (PCC) is a streetcar (tram) design that was first built in the United States in the 1930s. The design proved successful domestically, and after World War II it was licensed for use elsewhere in the world where ...

that had served Philadelphia. The NPS installed the trolley on tracks laid in front of the park entrance. A planned $100,000 restoration was canceled for lack of funds, the streetcar deteriorated, and was sold by the GSA and removed in 2012. Its tracks remained in place.

Current use

The Glen Echo Park Partnership for Arts and Culture administers the park's artistic, cultural, and educational programming. It works with resident artists and organizations to develop programming, operates the Dentzel carousel and the Spanish Ballroom, presents a social dance program, produces festivals and special events, and conducts fundraising and marketing. The National Park Service continues to oversee, manage, maintain, preserve, and protect the park's resources. Both work to promote the park as a destination for the region's population.

Resident arts programs

Glen Echo Park is home to more than a dozen resident artists and arts organizations that offer classes, concerts, exhibitions, open studios hours, workshops, and lectures. As of 2021, these included: Adventure Theatre MTC, Art Glass Center at Glen Echo, Glen Echo Glassworks, The Sculpture Studio, Nizette Brennan, Glen Echo Pottery, J. Jordan Bruns, Photoworks, Playgroup in the Park, the Puppet Co., SilverWorks, Glen Echo Park Aquarium, Washington Conservatory of Music, Yellow Barn Studio & Gallery, and Young Creative Spirit.

Special events and concerts

The park hosts several family festivals and special events throughout the year, including Family Day (when the carousel opens for the season), Then & Wow, Labor Day Art Show, Irish Music and Dance Showcase, Washington Folk Festival, Fall Frolic, Contrastock, an extensively-decorated Halloween dance, inaugural balls, and Winter's Eve. From June through August, the Glen Echo Park Partnership presents a free summer concert series each Thursday night in the Bumper Car Pavilion.

Social dancing

Glen Echo Park offers an array of social dance events and classes in

waltz The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

, swing,

contra Contra may refer to: Places * Contra, Virginia * Contra Costa Canal, an aqueduct in the U.S. state of California * Contra Costa County, California * Tenero-Contra, a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerla ...

, and

salsa Salsa most often refers to: * Salsa (food), a variety of sauces used as condiments * Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music * Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music Salsa or SALSA may also refer to: Arts and ent ...

. Dances take place in the historic Spanish Ballroom, the Bumper Car Pavilion, and the climate-controlled Ballroom Annex (''The Back Room)''. About 60,000 people attend Glen Echo Park's dances each year. All social dances are open to the public, for all ages, with no experience or partner required. All dances offer an introductory lesson before the dance begins and most include live music. Alcohol is prohibited on park grounds, and smoking is prohibited in all buildings.

Incidents

*June 23, 1918: The first person to die at the amusement park was Joseph J. Hamel, a 43-year-old stonecutter from Washington. Hamel fell from the "Gravity Railway"

roller coaster A roller coaster is a type of list of amusement rides, amusement ride employing a form of elevated Railway track, railroad track that carries passengers on a roller coaster train, train through tight turns, steep slopes, and other elements, usua ...

while sitting on the armrest of one of the coaster's overcrowded cars. He was rushed to Georgetown Hospital but died the next day. *May 5, 1989: During a Friday-night

contra dance Contra dance (also contradance, contra-dance and other variant spellings) is a form of folk dance, folk dancing made up of long lines of couples. It has mixed origins from English country dance, Scottish country dance, and French dance styles in ...

, the rain-swollen Minnehaha Creek overflowed its banks. The flood destroyed about 50 vehicles in a parking lot, including about 25 that were swept from the lot and some that ended up in the

Gallery

Pictures of Glen Echo Park are available on

Wikimedia Commons Wikimedia Commons, or simply Commons, is a wiki-based Digital library, media repository of Open content, free-to-use images, sounds, videos and other media. It is a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. Files from Wikimedia Commons can be used ...

. Image:GE-Tower.gif, The Chatauqua Tower at Glen Echo File:Glen Echo Park, entrance (21616175172).jpg, A

at the renovated

entrance to Glen Echo Park (June 2006) File:Glen_Echo_Park_(6929279761).jpg, The renovated Streamline Moderne Popcorn Gallery, Visitors Center and Arcade (February 2012) File:GlenEchoArcade2006.JPG, The renovated Streamline Moderne Arcade (June 2006) Image:GlenEchoCuddleUp.JPG, The renovated Streamline Moderne Cuddle Up (May 2006) Image:Crystal pool.jpg, The Streamline Moderne entrance to the Crystal Pool before renovation (August 2007) Image:Crystal Pool Entrance.jpg, The renovated Streamline Moderne entrance to the Crystal Pool (June 2012) Image:GlenEcho_BumperCarPavilion.JPG, The renovated Bumper Car Pavilion (May 2006) File:Glen Echo Park (6929277155).jpg, The renovated Spanish Ballroom (February 2012) Image:Glen-echo-stream.jpg, Minnehaha Branch (April 2009)

Footnotes

References

External links

*
Glen Echo Park, from the National Park Service
* Cook, Richard A. (1997). ttps://glenecho-cabinjohn.com/GE-01.html A History of Glen Echo, Maryland
Glen Echo TownGlen Echo Park
*, including 2003 photo —

Maryland Historical Trust The Maryland Historical Trust is an agency of Maryland Department of Planning and serves as the Maryland State Historic Preservation Office. The agency serves to assist in research, conservation, and education, of Maryland's historical and cultur ...

*, including 2003 photo —

Guide to the Glen Echo Chautauqua and Glen Echo Park Company records, 1889-1953
—

George Washington University The George Washington University (GW or GWU) is a Private university, private University charter#Federal, federally-chartered research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Originally named Columbian College, it was chartered in 1821 by ...

*, including photo in 2003, at Maryland Historical Trust website The following are filed under 7300 MacArthur Boulevard, Glen Echo, Montgomery County, MD: * * * * * * * * {{authority control 1891 establishments in Maryland 1968 disestablishments in Maryland Amusement parks closed in 1968 Arts centers in Maryland Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Maryland Buildings and structures on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Defunct amusement parks in Maryland Event venues on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland Historic American Buildings Survey in Maryland Historic American Engineering Record in Maryland Historic American Landscapes Survey in Maryland Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Maryland National Park Service areas in Maryland National Register of Historic Places in Montgomery County, Maryland Parks in Montgomery County, Maryland Queen Anne architecture in Maryland Shingle Style architecture in Maryland Spanish Colonial Revival architecture in the United States Streamline Moderne architecture in Maryland Tourist attractions in Montgomery County, Maryland