Chevy Chase Lake was 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 ...

in southern

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 ...

, that operated from 1894 until about 1936. It was created by the Chevy Chase Land Company, which sought to draw residents 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 ...

, to its nascent suburb of

Chevy Chase Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase (; born October 8, 1943) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He became the breakout cast member in the first season of ''Saturday Night Live'' (1975–1976), where his recurring ''Weekend Update'' segment b ...

. It was named for the artificial lake created in 1892 when the Land Company dammed Coquelin Run to power its

Rock Creek Railway The Rock Creek Railway, which operated independently from 1890 to 1895, was one of the first Streetcars in Washington, D.C., electric streetcar companies in Washington, D.C., and the first to extend into Streetcars in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, ...

streetcar line from D.C. to Chevy Chase. The park gave its name to the neighborhood that grew up near it in unincorporated Chevy Chase.

History

The park operated from spring to fall. In preparation for the 1912 season, the park received a

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 ...

, renovations to its dance pavilion, and new walks and benches. Music was provided by the

United States Marine Band The United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in the ...

. In 1916, a band led by 22-year-old Meyer Davis displaced the Marines as the park's main dance band. Wrote the ''Washington Post:''

The lure of the dance is proving potent these evenings at Chevy Chase Lake. The cars treetcarsto the Maryland resort are crowded each night by Washington's young people who wish to keep time to the melodies provided by the Meyer Davis orchestra for dances on the big Chevy Chase pavilion. Various amusement devices, including the carousel for the youngsters, await non-dancing visitors to Chevy Chase Lake.

The following year, Meyer took over management of the entire park, which became the foundation of his sprawling dance-band business. By the time he relinquished it in the early 1930s, Davis would be the "biggest businessman among U.S. band leaders," as ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' put it in 1941, a wealthy

society A society () is a group of individuals involved in persistent social interaction or a large social group sharing the same spatial or social territory, typically subject to the same political authority and dominant cultural expectations. ...

figure whose operations included some 80 bands with 1,000 musicians playing all along the East Coast. By 1922, a second dance pavilion had opened, featuring bands led by Davis and Joseph Shirley “Pete” Macias (1898-1947), a native Washingtonian who became a popular local nightclub pianist and bandleader. The last known newspaper advertisements for the amusement park appeared in 1936, suggesting that the park closed after the summer season.

The lake

The park's eponymous lake was created by the 1892 damming of Coquelin Run, a tributary of Rock Creek. This was done to provide water for the coal-fired steam turbines that powered the electric streetcars of the

, the trolley line built by the Chevy Chase Land Company to connect residents of its new suburb to Washington, D.C. The railway's terminal complex, some 1.7 miles due north of the Maryland-D.C. border, sat just north of the park. It included the power house with its tall chimney, a car barn, a turnaround loop, and a small station. It also served as the southern terminus of the Chevy Chase Lake & Kensington Railway, which connected the town of

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

to D.C.

Notes

{{reflist Chevy Chase, Maryland Defunct amusement parks in Maryland