Town of Berwyn Heights

Berwyn Heights was established in 1888 as a commuter suburb on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. This approximately 1-square mile residential community was first named Charlton Heights and became Berwyn Heights when it was incorporated in 1896. Washington businessmen who first developed the land valued its varied terrain and built substantial homes on the crest of a hillside rising 150 feet from the Indian Creek valley, where on a clear day there was a view of the U.S. Capitol. The mansion built by Edward Graves, for whom the subdivision plat is named, stood on the site of today’s Berwyn Heights Elementary School; when it was sold in 1896, it became the summer home of St. Ann’s Infant Asylum, chosen in part for the fresh breezes. The house of another Charlton Heights founder, James Waugh, stood nearby on the ridge beside old Edmonston Road. Although the Graves and Waugh homes were razed in the 1950s, several old houses still occupy the hilltops, including the Federal period Sportland on Natasha Drive, the Victorian-era Capitol View on Goucher Drive, and Keleher House on 62nd Avenue.

Berwyn Heights, Maryland · United States