Tenleytown Neighborhoods & Subdivisions- Armesleigh Park

Armesleigh Park is an early twentieth-century suburb that includes approximately ninety houses in the 3800 block of Albemarle Street, the 3800 and 3900 blocks of Alton Place and Yuma Street, part of the 3800 blocks of Windom Place and Warren Street, and 38th and 39th streets between Albemarle and Warren.

The plan for Armesleigh Park was conceived in the late nineteenth century. In 1891 Civil War Major George Armes, one of the Chevy Chase Land Company developers, acquired a tract of land surrounding The Rest and laid out public streets at his own expense. The proposed subdivision was platted, approved, and recorded in the District of Columbia Surveyor’s Office in March 1891. An 1892 map of Armesleigh Park shows that Albemarle Street did not exist, Alton Place was called Lyles, Yuma was already so named, Windom was called Austin Place, and Warren was called Xenia. The only house shown on this map was the Robert Curran home at the corner of 39th and Lyles. Mr. Curren was Master of Fox Hounds at the Chevy Chase Hunt Club.

George Armes never carried out his plan to build houses in his new subdivision. It was only in 1918, after the death of Armes, that Harry and Samuel Kite purchased the property and began to develop Armesleigh Park, using the house designs of architect George T. Santmyers.

Designed by George Santmyers

The first building permits were issued in 1919 for the bungalows, colonials, and large foursquare houses on Yuma and around the corner on 39th Street between Yuma and Alton Place. These were followed by houses on the south side of Alton, for which permits were issued in 1920
	Colonial	Dutch Colonial
Large Bungalow	Small Bungalow	Large Foursquare

Designed by Albert H. Sonnemann

In 1920 the Kite Brothers began a new collaboration with architect Alexander Sonnemann. Sonnemann’s house styles differed from Santmyers’, and included cottages and smaller foursquares. Between 1920 and 1923 such houses were built in the 3900 block of Alton Place, the 3800 blocks of Alton and Albemarle, on 38th Street, and on the south side of the 3800 block of Windom Place. In 1924 and 1925 another series of wooden cottages, also designed by Sonnemann, was built by the Kite Brothers on the north side of the 3800 block of Windom and the south side of the 3800 block of Warren
	Three bay Foursquare	Small Foursquare
	Classic Revival Cottage	Classical Revival Cottage (with open porch)
Saltbox Cottage	Horizontal Cottage	Colonial

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Cottages Designed by Albert H. Sonnemann

The houses of Armesleigh Park are easily distinguished by their related styles and materials. The Kite Brothers offered fourteen basic house styles with many variations in interior and exterior details. It is notable that the arrangement of styles on the north side of Alton Place (odd-numbered houses) is absolutely symmetrical.

Cottage A	Cottage B	Cottage C

All of the Armesleigh Park houses (with a few exceptions) had granite foundations, fireplaces, and chimneys. All originally had slate roofs with shingle or clapboard siding. Most had front or side porches, screened-in back porches, and second-story sleeping porches.

Now over eighty years old, Armesleigh Park seems like a village, with its quiet streets, mature trees, flower gardens, and a special sense of community.