It is no accident that the Chevy Chase Recreation Association is such a beautifully landscaped and bucolic property. Before it became a neighborhood swim and tennis facility in 1959, it was part of a 34-acre estate developed by Dr. David Fairchild in the early 1900s and home to some of the first Japanese cherry trees in the Washington area. Fairchild House and its garden, which is part of the CCRA five-acre site, are on the Montgomery County List of Historic Places. Some of the trees are unique and more than 100 years old.

Dr. Fairchild, who was a noted botanist and “plant explorer” at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, began to develop a garden on the site in 1906. There he planted rare and exotic trees and shrubs gathered from all over the world. In 1910 he built a house, then called “In the Woods,” which was noted for its unusual openness to the outdoors and its oriental influence.

Fairchild was born in 1869 in Michigan and joined USDA in 1889 as a botanist in the plant pathology section. His work involved searching the world for plants of economic and aesthetic value that might be cultivated in the U.S. He organized and led USDA’s Office of Foreign Seed and Plant Introduction, and in the 1890s he was involved in establishing a laboratory in Miami to study tropical plants and diseases. Fairchild later helped lead the effort to establish a national park in the southern Everglades.

Fairchild’s global travels took him to Japan in 1902 where he was impressed by the beauty of the flowering cherry trees lining waterways and streets. After Fairchild married Marian Hubbard Bell, the daughter of Alexander Graham Bell, in 1903 and settled with his growing family in Chevy Chase, he began to import and plant cherry trees on his property. The trees were hardy and thrived, so Fairchild ordered 300 trees for the Chevy Chase area, donating many to schools and park areas. These efforts caught the eye of first lady Helen Taft and others who were interested in beautifying the land around Washington’s Tidal Basin and along the Potomac River. The first of several thousand Japanese cherry trees were planted in 1912, and an historic marker notes Fairchild’s involvement in the effort.

“In the Woods,” later Fairchild House, was well known in Washington in the early part of the 20th century. Alexander Graham Bell often visited and used a small laboratory-workshop that the Fairchilds built for him overlooking Rock Creek, and Mrs. Fairchild’s brother-in-law, Gilbert Grosvenor of the National Geographic Society, visited regularly. During World War I it was leased to Secretary of War Newton Baker and frequently visited by President Woodrow Wilson. In 1918 Herbert Hoover rented it to protect his family from the influenza epidemic. In 1927, poor health prompted the Fairchilds to move permanently to Florida, and the house was sold to Dr. E.A. Merritt, a local radiologist who was also an amateur botanist and interested in azalea hybridizing. He added many azaleas to the garden and continued to propagate Fairchild’s cherry trees.

After Merritt’s death, his widow moved out and leased the house to the U.S. Army during World War II for a secret project. In 1954 she leased the house to her good friend, Bertha Belt, who wanted to expand her “Outdoor Nursery School” which she had started in her home on Meadow Lane in Chevy Chase in 1933.

In the early 1950s, Chevy Chase resident John Thurston organized an effort to establish a neighborhood swimming pool. He convinced several neighbors to join in creating CCRA and became its first president, and they spent several years searching for an appropriate property. When a potential site on Brookville Road fell through, Thurston heard about the Fairchild Estate and recognized that it would be the perfect home for the project. Thurston and Ray Jager approached Mrs. Merritt about selling the estate. They reached a final agreement on the condition that the Outdoor Nursery School would be able to rent the house for the next ten years.

Construction on the pool and bathhouse began that spring, and the pool opened on May 28, 1960. The facility consisted of a pool house with changing rooms and showers for men and women; a large pool with deep-water diving area and shallow play area for young swimmers; and a kiddie pool for very young children.

Over the next fifty years, CCRA expanded considerably by adding tennis courts and other equipment, reflecting the community’s growing interest in summer sports. In 1994, CCRA turned storage space in the bathhouse into a kitchen to create a poolside café that provides food and beverages and encourages all-day use of the facility. A 25-meter regulation-length, heated pool for lap swimming was completed in 2000. That has given rise to a very sizable and active swim team that competes in the Montgomery County Swim League. The Outdoor Nursery School continues to rent Fairchild House, where it has educated generations of Washington families.

When the bathhouse began to show signs of wear and decline after 40 years, the CCRA board began to explore options for renovation. After much analysis they determined that it would be more economical and practical to tear down the old facility and replace it with a more modern and well-designed structure that would meet current safety and access standards as well as historic preservation requirements. The replacement project was completed during the winter of 2009-2010, and despite record snow and cold, the new facility opened in May 2010, 50 years after the first CCRA structure.

In addition to a more spacious bathhouse and reception area, CCRA gained a new guard and pool house in a style complementary to the new bathhouse; a modern kiddie pool with fountains and sloped entry; and a renovated kitchen and screened-in pavilion that allows members to enjoy meals without having to fight the elements and provides shelter from sudden storms. The tennis courts were resurfaced and support a greatly expanded tennis program. Much attention was paid to landscaping the area so that it retains the beauty and variety originally created by Dr. Fairchild.