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eZTHE WASHINGTON POST.
SATURDAy, MARCH 7, 2020Where We Live drumaldry
BY DIANE BERNARDDriving into the Drumaldry
neighborhood in Bethesda, you
are transported from a sea of Colo-
nials in the surrounding a rea to an
unusual island of California con-
temporaries.
“You come into the area and it’s
like 1971 all over again,” said com-
munity board president John Del-
aney.
Drawn together by their love of
mid-century modern architecture,
neighbors here revel in the bright,
airy designs of their six model
homes “inspired by exotic court-
yard dwellings of yesterday,” a s de-
scribed i n the development’s origi-
nal 1971 brochure. Homes feature
vaulted redwood ceilings, open
floor plans and roofs m ade of cedar
shingles.
“Living here makes me feel bet-
ter about the fact that I’m not in
California,” said Rin-rin Yu, who
lived on the West Coast for years
before coming to the D.C. area.
Yu’s home, like most in the 50-
year-old development, features a
flood of light streaming through
two-story-high windows in the
vaulted living room. A previous
owner of her house, known in the
neighborhood as the “Disco Den-
tist” thanks to a vanity license
plate, renovated the house some-
time in the 1980s, building a bath-
room extension that nearly dou-
bled in size, Yu s ays.
“It’s enormous — we call it the
disco bathroom,” said Yu, who
moved to Drumaldry about a year
ago with her husband and two
children.
The dentist also opened up the
kitchen and family room space to
create one l arge room. A ll Yu h ad to
do was paint, she says.
The small neighborhood of 104
single-family houses lies within
the Courts of Wyngate subdivision.
It was built starting in 1970 by
home builder Miller & Smith, and
designed by architect Nick Pappas
with David N. Yerkes and Associ-
ates. Pappas’s house designs were
also inspired by the rustic feel of
English country villages, accord-
ing to resident Murray Goldstein,
94.
An unusual feature of the neigh-
California
dreamin’
lives on in
Bethesda
Residents love their
mid-century modern
homes’ light and privacyborhood is that each home is sur-
rounded by a six-foot-tall brick
fence that creates private outdoor
spaces. Neighbors can’t see into
the backyards, giving a heightened
sense of privacy. In addition, the
homes are designed so that win-
dows don’t look into any windows
of the houses next door, furthering
the sense of seclusion, according to
Leni Preston, who has lived in
Drumaldry f or 16 years.
“I like to say that I could run
naked in my rear garden and no-
body could see me,” Preston said.
Social committee chair Lisa
Finn also appreciates the privacy
and bucolic setting. “It’s like I live
in the Secret Garden,” s he said.
As the oldest resident in
Drumaldry, Goldstein is consid-
ered the neighborhood historian
— he still lives in the house he and
his wife bought here in 1973, which
has never been renovated or up-
dated.
Goldstein, who was director of
the Neurology Institute at the Na-
tional Institutes of Health until
retiring about 20 years ago, says
the name “Drumaldry” derives
from the Celtic word “drum”
meaning a knoll or a hill. Drumald-
ry Drive, the center of the neigh-
borhood and the only street to
allow entry and exit, runs up a hill
with four streets intersecting
along the way.
The history of the area stretches
back to pre-Colonial Maryland,guidelines to maintain the integri-
ty of the original designs. The
neighborhood is managed by an
elected board of directors.
The neighborhood is planning
to celebrate its 50th anniversary
this year, F inn said. The committee
is still working on event specifics,
she said, but it will certainly honor
the community’s breezy California
feel and distinct house d esigns.
In addition to the architecture,
residents are attracted to
Drumaldry by its convenient loca-
tion, Delaney said. “You can walk
to the elementary school and mid-
dle s chool,” h e points out, and Wal-
ter Johnson High School i s nearby.
Much as residents enjoy their
privacy, t here is a vibrant social life
in Drumaldry, according to social
director Finn. For the holidays the
neighborhood holds an annual pot
luck, she said. “With so many inter-
national people here, everyone
br ings a dish from their home-
land,” she said. During the sum-
mer, there are pool parties since
many of the homes have backyard
pools.
Finn said one social highlight is
occasional “creative tours” b y indi-
viduals in the neighborhood. The
tours are progressive parties
where volunteers show renova-
tions, or creative projects — any-
thing from jewelry-making to a
piano recital to a reading by a poet.
Living there: Drumaldry is
bounded by Greentree Road to thesouth and west, Sword’s Way to the
north and the Bulls Run stream to
the east. Drumaldry Drive runs
through the center of the neigh-
borhood.
Owners like to hold on tight to
their architectural treasures, ac-
cording to real estate agent Linda
Chaletzky. In the past year only
four homes have sold, with prices
ranging from $824,500 to
$953,500. Chaletzky said no
homes are for sale or under con-
tract.
She touted Drumaldry’s status
as a rare Washington-area devel-
opment that features patio homes,
with bedrooms on the first floor.
She said buyers who work at near-
by NIH are also attracted to its
location.
Schools: Wyngate Elementary,
North Bethesda Middle and Wal-
ter Johnson High.
Transit: The Bethesda and
Medical Center Metro stations are
both about three miles from the
center of Drumaldry. The Mont-
gomery County Ride On Bus 47
runs to the Bethesda station along
Greentree Road to Old George-
town Road. Bradley Boulevard and
the Capital Beltway are the closest
major thoroughfares.
[email protected]CRAIg Hudson foR THe WAsHIngTon PosT
Murray Goldstein, here with his dog Maggie, still lives in the house he and his wife bought in 1973 and is the neighborhood’s historian.Goldstein said, when the Magrud-
er family arrived in Maryland in- The colony was s till k nown as
Te rra Mariae. By the 1700s, the
Magruders were granted land near
Bethesda in an area called Leake
Forest, (now a street name in cur-
rent-day Drumaldry) and included
in the forest was Drumaldry.
The area was a wooded stretch
of land until Miller & Smith devel-
oped it starting in 1970, Goldstein
said. He said the community’s ar-
chitectural committee has strict
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Source: Maps4News/HERE
MEGHAN KELLY FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
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Detail
see more photos of drumaldry
at washingtonpost.com/realestate.