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Forest Hills If you have questions about the following data or want more information, contact us at 202-965-3715. If you would like to be included in periodic e-mail updates on this or other neighborhoods, send your name and e-mail address to info@hananhomes.com. As of September 30, 2008, 14 single-family homes were for sale in Forest Hills. All but one are selling for over $1 million. Four houses are on the market on the 2800 block of Chesterfield Place ranging from $3.5 million to $7.5 million. Six homes were under contract including a house on Albermarle Street that was listed at $7,595,000. In the third quarter of 2008, four homes sold; the highest sale price was $2,862,000. In the first half of 2008, 10 single-family homes sold in Forest Hills. In 2007, there were 19 sales, while 22 homes sold in 2006. The average sale price in the first half of 2008 was $1,777,612. This compares to $1,378,130 and $1,131,174 in 2007 and 2006, respectively. The average list price was $l,852,900 in the first half of 2008, $1,377,574 in 2007, and $1,167,923 in 2006. Listed below are the sales by price range.
The number of condominiums and cooperatives that were sold in the third quarter of 2008 totaled 16, with 7 under contract including one over $500,000. There were 13 condos and coops for sale as of September 30, 2008. For the first half of 2008, 40 condos/coops were sold, 65 for the year 2007, and 68 in 2006. The average sales price was $391,708 in the first half of 2008, $390,539 in 2007, and $369,859 in 2006. Listed below are the sales by price range.
Forest Hills probably has more architecturally modern residences than any other area of the city. Many houses take advantage of their natural setting by being built on hillsides with large glass panels to enjoy the wooded area. Many other homes in Forest Hills follow the traditional styles of Tudor, Colonial, Cape Cod, and Federal. Connecticut Avenue has several large and well-known apartment and condominium buildings. They include, among others, Tilden Gardens, built in 1927-30 by architects Parks and Baxter and Harry Edwards, and Sedgewick Gardens built in Art Deco style in 1931 by Mihran Mesrobian. The neighborhood is appropriately named -- living in Forest Hills is akin to living in a forest-- but in the middle of the city. With Rock Creek as its entire eastern boundary, the vistas from the hilly locations are spectacular. There are two other parks in the neighborhood, Melvin C. Hazen Park and Soapstone Valley Park, an ancient quarry where 2,000 to 5,000 years ago Native Americans mined stone. Even though Forest Hills living can feel like a mountain retreat, the neighborhood has much to offer in the way of amenities. Forest Hills is home to the Hillwood Museum, Levine School of Music, Howard University Law School, Pierce Mill, and Edmund Burke Elementary School. The neighborhood's western boundary, Connecticut Avenue, provides shopping for Forest Hills residents. The Park and Shop, designed by Arthur Heaton and opened in 1931, was used as a prototype for shopping malls for years to come. When it fell upon difficult times, neighbors worked to save it from demolition and it has since been revitalized. Another shopping area to the south was constructed in 1926, designed by architect George Ray, and houses some of the most popular restaurants in the area. Algonquin Indians were the first known inhabitants of the area that is now Forest Hills. The local native Americans fished and hunted in today's Rock Creek Park. In 1794 Isaac Peirce purchased 150 acres and continued to buy property until the turn of the century when he owned most of the land along Rock Creek north of today's zoo up to Chevy Chase. He built a hand-hewn oak home that was named Cloverdale in 1794 which was rebuilt into a stone house by his grandson, Peirce Shoemaker. In 1820 he built a mill which his family operated until 1880 when the Federal government took over the running of the mill. The Klingle Mansion, which was built in 1823 by Joshua Peirce, a stone mason and son of Isaac Peirce, lies in the southeast corner of Forest Hills. It was originally called Linnean Hill after the Swedish botanist, Karl van Linnaeus, whom Joshua Peirce admired. Joshua established the first commercial nursery in the city on his 83 acres. Upon Joshua Peirce's death, the estate went to his adopted son, Joshua Peirce Klingle. The National Park Service took over Linnean Hill as part of the establishment of the 1800-acre Rock Creek Park in 1890. Like the neighborhoods to the west and south, much of Forest Hills was part of the patent obtained by George Beall of Georgetown in 1723 which was subsequently bought by Uriah Forrest, Benjamin Stoddert, and William Deakins to create Pretty Prospects (see history of Cleveland Park). Upon the death of Gardiner Green Hubbard's widow in 1909, the 20 eastern acres of her Twin Oaks estate were given to her son-in-law, Alexander Graham Bell. James and Alice Parmelee bought the property from the Bells and built The Causeways in 1913. Charles Adams Platt, who was a nationally known country house designer, created a Georgian Revival home and hired Ellen Biddle Shipman to design the formal gardens with rustic stone bridges and bridle paths. In 1942 it was purchased by Joseph Davies, a former ambassador to the Soviet Union, and his wife, Marjorie Merriweather Post, heir to the Post cereal fortune. They renamed their estate, Tregaron, after the Davies family village in Wales. Their property is now the home of the Hillwood Museum. Another large Forest Hills estate was the Homestead or La Quinta, built in 1914 and designed by Frederick B. Pyle and was the last country house constructed in the vast area known as Cleveland Park. In the 1930s it was enlarged into a Georgian mansion. Since 1945 it has been the residence of the Indian ambassador. In the 1920s two additional large mansions were built. Estabrook on Broad Branch Road boasted 59 rooms. It was designed by Russell Kluge and built in 1927 on 22 acres. The library had paneling from Sir Christopher Wren's study in London. When Col. and Mrs. Robert Guggenheim bought it, they renamed it Firenze. The second manor house was built by Bank President George White on Upton Street. The Academy of the Holy Cross was built at 2900 Van Ness in the 1920s. It was taken over as Dunbarton College in 1935 which closed its doors in 1973. The main building now houses Howard University School of Law. The Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institute was located in a Mediterranean Renaissance Revival building designed by Waddy Wood and built in 1906. In 1992, the Levine School of Music bought the building and its 4.4 acres for $2.3 million and relocated from Burleith.
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