Chevy Chase, Maryland - One of the Richest Places in America
Historic Street Cars and Trolley Park Suburbs
Chevy Chase, Maryland is home to the Number 10 Richest Place in America, according to the Forbes.com analysts that worked with US Census2010 data and related surveys containing the needed information. One part of this group of communities collectively known as Chevy Chase is the Number 10 Richest and it is called SECTION FIVE of the Village of Chevy Chase.
This section is an incorporated village located just northwest of Washington DC on the map below, but also inside the I-495 Beltway. Traveling to this area about once every five years, I enjoy driving around the entire Beltway to look at the scenery and visit communities surrounding it.
The median household income in Chevy Chase is 367% higher than the national average.
— areavibes.com; July 17, 2017
SECTION FIVE of the village is home to 225 homes and a single upscale restaurant called La Ferme (see link below).
This portion of Chevy Chase became a Washington DC residential suburb outbound via Connecticut Avenue at the end of a streetcar line during the second half of the 19th Century. This is a historic time and place in Maryland as well as in many American communities. The setting is one that created memories, movie ideas, background material for some of the short stories of Ray Bradbury, and ideas for NBC's 2010 - 2011 first season of the action show The Cape.
As with many trolley lines in America, the streetcar company in the DC area built an amusement area with a carousel, ballroom, park, and other features at Chevy Chase Lake. Riders happily rode to the lake for a day of fishing and relaxation, dance in a ballroom, and opportunities to listen to the current tunes of Eubie Blake and John Phillip Sousa.
Parks Become Commercial Complexes
Chevy Chase Lake, like Central Ohio's Clintonville Olentangy Amusement Park, is part of a commercial complex now. The former is an area near a high rise business at a traffic circle off Connecticut Avenue and the latter is an upscale apartment complex north of The Ohio State University on High Street in Columbus, Ohio.
In Columbus long before my birth, the passenger trains operated up from Downtown's Union Station and straight into the huge back gate of the well laid-out Olentangy Park. It had many of NYC's Coney Island rides and amusements.
Today, the Half Price Books shop a bit farther north includes a hallway hung with enlarged postcards of the park and a full mapped layout. Disney attempted to purchase the former park and lands from the old park to thirty miles north of it and all the way to the Scioto River, 10 miles to the west, but was unable to purchase all the homes and properties in the early 1970s that stood on that 300 square miles.
Homage to Trolley Parks
- Ray Bradbury Short Stories
THE TROLLEY, published 1955 in 'Good Housekeeping' magazine. The children of Green Town are sad that their town's golden trolley car tracks will be torn up, until they get one last ride, beyond the end of the line to the old trolley car park.
The Former Chevy Chase Lake Park
What is Chevy Chase?
The term "Chevy Chase" encompasses a number of villages, an incorporated town, and one residential unincorporated place (CDP) in Maryland, northwest of Washington DC along Connecticut and Wisconsin Avenues. In the 2010s, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has lived here, as well wealthy business people, Senators, Congressmen and others.
From Sperling's Best Places: Median Home Cost = $900,000+. Population in 2010 = 2754.
Just 5 miles from the middle of Downtown DC, all of Chevy Chase is walkable and accessible by train, light rail rapids, bus, limousine, car rental, and airports.
Neighborhoods
In Section Five
- The Village of Chevy Chase Section 5 Chevy Chase Section 5
- Chevy Chase Historical Society
Chevy Chase Historical Society: Celebrating One of America's First Streetcar Suburbs
- The Connecticut Avenue Corridor is one of over a dozen historical neighborhoods in the DC downtown metro area. Other features are the National Zoo of the Smiithsonian, and the National Cathedral, which offers a number of organ recitals around the calendar year. The Shoreham Hotel has stood here since 1930 and I have enjoyed my stays in it for conferences and international martial arts tournaments.
- The Howard Hughes Medical Insitute is very near the Village of Chevy Chase. Its website at www.hhmi.org/ includes employment listings and an educational unit called Cool Science. Its current research efforts revolve around HIV, TB, imaging technology, genomics,neuronal circuits, and many others. The institute maintains a research campus of nearly 700 acres of green space surrounding laboratories on the Potamac River as well.
- Friendship Heights is known best as a shopping district in NW Washington DC.
Attractions and Famous People in Chevy Chase
- Audubon Naturalist Society at Woodend
Washington DC area nonprofit environmental education and conservation advocacy organization with nature activities for all ages, established in 1897. - Arthur Schatzkin, Who Studied High-Fiber Diet and Polyps, Dies at 62 - NYTimes.com
Dr. Schatzkin, an epidemiologist who investigated the connections between diet and cancer, found that eating fiber did not prevent the recurrence of polyps in the colon.
- Historic Chevy Chase DC
- National Institutes of Health (NIH) - Home Page
Official website of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). NIH is one of the world's foremost medical research centers. An agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the NIH is the Federal focal point for health research. The NIH w - Rock Creek Park - Directions (U.S. National Park Service)
- University of the District of Columbia
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Science Bowl is a nationwide academic competition that tests students' knowledge in all areas of science.
Wealthiest Companies in Chevy Chase
At the end of June 2017, the number of jobs advertised in Chevy Chase was over 104,000, with a decrease in the unemployment rate to 2.8%. By June 2020, the listings in the market area included over 98,000 jobs with unemployment at 3.8% in May.
The following are companies that maintain 1,000 to over 5,000 job listings in this market area:
- A variety of fast food and casual dining places
- General Dynamics Information Technology
- CACI Security and Defense
- Leidos: Engineering, IT
- Postmates: Delivery services
- ManTech International
- Booz Allen Hamilton
- Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC)
- Amazon Web Services
- Lockheed Martin
Other Major Companies Hiring Workers Now
- Deloitte
- Northrop Grumman
- IBM
- INOVA Health System
- Cybercoders
- Raytheon
- Kaiser Permanente
Top 10 High Demand Jobs
The most frequently listed job titles in this market area are involved in Information Technology and Healthcare industries, as listed below.
- Software Engineers
- Project Managers
- Physical Therapists and Assistants; Travel PTs (see Travel Nursing in #7, below)
- Occupational Therapists
- IT Systems Engineers
- Network Engineers
- Registered Nurses (RNs) - included Travel Nursing and other medical travelers (see Travel Nursing)
- Program Managers
- Java Developers
- Web Developers
Additional Frequently-Listed Positions:
- Administrative Assistants
- Network Engineers
- Sales Representatives
- IT Systems Administrators
- Business Analysts
- Senior Software Engineers
- Program Analysts
- .Net Developers
- Technical Writers
America's Richest Places
The data provides comes from by the US Census Bureau and US Census2010. Data for based median household incomes is found in these surveys administered from 2000 - 2019.
All of these median incomes are higher than competing publications' findings from other sources. The richest communities according to Forbes.com are the following:
- Westlake TX
- Kenilworth III
- Mission Hills KS
- Popponesset Island MA (tied with Mission Hills)
- Plandome NY
- Hewlett Neck NY
- Munsey Park NY
- Plandome Manor NY
- North Beach FL
- Village of Chevy Chase Section Five, MD (tied with North Beach)
Sources
- Forbes.com America's Most Affluent Neighborhoods; forbes.com/2011/01/18/americas-most-affluent-communities-business-beltway.html retrieved March 14, 2018.
- areavibes.com. Chevy Chase Employment Information. areavibes.com/chevy+chase-md/employment/ retrieved July 16, 2017.
- Sperling's Best Places.
This article is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge. Content is for informational or entertainment purposes only and does not substitute for personal counsel or professional advice in business, financial, legal, or technical matters.
© 2011 Patty Inglish MS
