Evening star., 1948-10-12
By ChoImers N. Roberts

~ Ola StdA ICN 6SaSA 4A4 VAC Goa ~
days of the war. Maybe 1t was a
trip down to Mount Vernon. At
any rate. my wife and I decided we
wanted to build q house with q Po-
tomac River view.
In the years since then, we have
acquired two children, and . lot Of
knowledge about houses, about sub
divisions, about streets ana sewers
and water supplies and about zon-
ing, and rights OF way. and plan
ming commissions.
But we still don't have the house.
It's true, we have the land-or at
least q pretty good grip on it-and
it has river view. In fact, beau
tiful river view.
It's not between Georgetown and
the District line where we first
started to look for 1t, but it's only q
mile further away. We craned our
necks from every hill, and poked
our noses between every tree from
Rock Creek to Glen Echo. There
really isn't much about the terrain
or who owns it. that we don't know.
We got to be quite a nuisance in
several real estate of11ces inquiring
about who owns what.
They Got There First.
It wasn't very long before we
found out what every other river
view searcher before and after us
discovered-the q. 8, Government
and the Capital Transit Co. are
against you. Nothing personal
just that they got there first. Like
Washington at Mount Vernon.
The trouble Is that long ago the
transit company bought up q right
of way for its Glen Echo line and
strung it along the District and
Maryland hills which overlook the
river.
Now and then the trolley ducks
behind q hill and leaves q pleasant
patch unobstructed by overhead
wires or other things you wouldn't
ask for In your front yard.
One Of these spots, In the District,
took our fancy and after q little
bargaining with the owner we set
tied on o price. Seemed high then
but In retrospect It looks like .
give-away.
We finally discovered the title was
good and on o certain winter af-
ternoon I was putting on my hat
and coat to 60 down to the title
company and sign over the papers
and pay over the money when the
owner phoned to say 1t was all of.
His wife wouldn't let him sell after
all.
Hill Still Stands Bare.
was out that way recently and
the hill is still standing bare, wait.
ing for somebody's house.
So we went tramping farther up
the river. We looked into the mat
ter Of an abandoned District school
house, but no 60. We backed up
the hill behind Macarthur boule-
ward and found a nice spot. But 1t
was In q settlement Of Colonial
homes and our taste for modern
architecture would have been out Of
place and probably resented by the
neighbors, If not forbidden by the
developers.
The inevitable finally happened,
We were forced across the District
line. We tried both sides Of the
river, Virginia and Maryland, but
We concluded that among other rea-
sons Maryland was what we wanted
because 1t offered a southern ex.
posure for that pleasant winter sun
we get in Washington.
One frosty winter Sunday after
noon, done up in boots and jackets
I'VE were hiking along the cliffs just
beyond what is now the Army Map
Service. The brush was pretty thick
and you couldn't tell where the river
was. I was leading the way and
then, suddenly, as I brushed aside
clump of branches, there it was.
Breath Taking View.
To US it's the most breath-taking
view outside of the one George
Washington laid claim to long, long
ago. You can look down at the
waters-and hear them-as they
break over the dam, or you can look
up the river over 3 miles Of water
to where the Potomac turns q cor
ner.
Then. we we're hit over the head
We were told the Government owned
the land, that 1t was part of the