A neighborhood in north bethesda, maryland
Built beginning in 1934, Luxmanor was an early suburban community, developed to give “each home an already planted small farm …, including stocked chicken houses, grape arbor and vegetable garden.”
In the nineteenth century, the area was the site of a plantation on which Josiah Henson was enslaved. After he escaped, Reverend Henson became an author and leader among formerly enslaved African-Americans living in both the United States and Canada. He returned to the area when “a strange, inexpressible longing came over me to see again the home of my boyhood.”
Please explore with us the history of our home. Scroll down for the intro, then go to:
For more information about Luxmanor, visit the Luxmanor Citizens Association. Citations to historical sources appear in brackets, with details on the About page.
Morning on Tilden Lane, 2011
In the summer of 1950,
Harry Truman was president, the Korean War was beginning, Nat “King” Cole was singing “Mona Lisa” on the radio, Cinderella was popular in movie theaters, and the sale of black-and-white television sets was booming. That summer, Barbara and Eugene Suto drove north out of Washington, D.C., looking for a new home. A real estate agent had suggested a house on Roseland Lane in a place called “Luxmanor.” Intrigued by the idea of trading city life for the countryside, they set off. [S]
Driving up through Bethesda, they bumped along Old Georgetown Road, a quiet, two-lane highway. Woods lined both sides. After several miles, they reached Mount Zion Baptist Church at the intersection of Bells Mill Road; they paused and consulted. They must have made a mistake, they agreed. There couldn’t possibly be anything interesting this far out. So they turned around. [S]
The next day their real estate agent admonished them – No, it’s really out there – and urged them to keep going. So they tried again; this time they continued about a mile farther north. As they passed Tuckerman Lane, they saw on their right a broad pasture where cows quietly grazed. On the left were woods and a farm that stretched for a further half mile, to Poindexter Lane.
About a hundred yards past Poindexter was Roseland Lane, where they turned left onto a narrow, unpaved road. After a short drive, they came upon a row of houses that had been built four years earlier by a builder named R. L. Willis. One was for sale; it had three bedrooms and a garage, and was set on about three-quarters of an acre. Surrounded by trees, it seemed a promising place for future children. Though land values in Luxmanor were modest, $2,000 or less per half-acre, the Sutos found the price of their house to be a little steep, at $15,500. But it was feasible – so in August 1950, they moved in. [S]
Barbara and Gene represented a trend: the small, country neighborhood that began with a few houses in 1934 grew dramatically after World War II, as the Washington area burgeoned with government employees and contractors. Gene had worked in intelligence in the Army during the war and continued in that field with The Johns Hopkins University’s Operations Research Office. Barbara worked for the Veterans Administration and then moved to a closer workplace, the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. They had thousands of neighbors: between 1950 and 1980, the Washington metropolitan area grew faster than that of any other large city, increasing from 1.5 million to more than 3 million. [TTD]
Luxmanor garden, 1990
North Bethesda
Somewhere between bethesda and rockville
Luxmanor is part of Montgomery County, Maryland. For many years, the mail was delivered by the Bethesda post office, and so the area was considered part of Bethesda. Later, the mail began to be delivered by the Rockville post office, and so it acquired a Rockville address. [S]
But Luxmanor is not really in either Bethesda or Rockville. As A. A. Milne said of being neither upstairs nor down, “It isn't really anywhere, it's somewhere else instead!”
Over time, this area took on the name “North Bethesda.” This name is now part of a “Census Designated Place.” The 2010 Census reported the population of North Bethesda at 43,828, continuing the growth from years past:
2000: 38,610
1990: 29,656
1980: 22,671
North Bethesda is but a drop in the sea of Montgomery County. The 2010 Census placed the county at 971,777 people, up from 873,000 in 2000. [USC]