A Market Analysis of the proposed Hillcrest Heights
Shopping Center
I came across this 1951 document in the Maryland Room at the
library of the University of Maryland at College Park.
Hillcrest Heights was just coming into being in 1951, with
roads
and houses expanding outward from the original Colebrooke Drive
to Iverson, Gaither, and Fairlawn Streets. Anthony Carozza's
development company planned a shopping center to be located at
the intersection of two major streets, Iverson and the
then-under-construction 23rd Parkway. The consulting company of
Fred W. Tuemmler and Associates performed the market analysis,
dated July 2, 1951.
The first sections are reproduced here.
Highlights of this document include these maps and aerial
photos:
- A map of the region surrounding
Hillcrest Heights, from Bradbury Park and Suitland to Temple
Hills.
- A map showing existing and planned
streets of Hillcrest Heights, bordered by Southern
Ave. / Branch Ave. / St. Barnabas Rd. / Wheeler Rd.
This map includes names of landowners and developers in the area
-- see also
this list,
indicating their immediate plans for development of their
properties. (I suspect the "Marlowe" you see is a misspelling of
the Marlow family's name, whose property would be developed into
the community of Marlow Heights.)
- Three poorly-reproduced aerial photos showing roads being
scraped out of the woods that will soon become a dense suburban
neighborhood: Plates A,
B, and
C.
- The architect's rendering
of the proposed shopping center. (Architect: Evan J. Conner.)
Notice that a movie theater, "The Hillcrest", was originally
planned but never
built, for the corner that became the G.C. Murphy store.
