National Park Seminary

As the Real DC Metro Map astutely pointed out, this area is neither a forest nor a glen. It is however, the site of National Park Seminary. The property was first a tobacco plantation and then a summer resort for D.C.’s elite in 1887. In the mid-1890s, it was sold to John Vesta Cassedy who turned the property into National Park Seminary, one of the most prestigious women’s colleges in the early 20th century. The school closed in 1942 and then served as a rehabilitation center for Walter Reed Army Medical Center. However, the location was not ideal, since the European and Japanese buildings reminded the patients of the war they had just left, and the Army stopped using the property in 1977.