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| treetop | | Published by: jane 2008-11-21 |
| | Hi, Everyone
Can anyone give me some help finding out about the history of NIH when
it was known as treetop.
Treetops was the name of the estate owned by Luke and Helen Woodward
Wilson, from which they donated 92 acres to the NIH. This now forms
part of the 300-acre NIH campus at Bethesda. The last remaining
original structure of the Britton/Wilson estate, Building15K is
eligible for the historical register.
A fairly detailed history of the donation, plus an account of how
Building 15K has been renovated, appeared in the NIH Record, May 29,
2001, Vol. LIII, No. 11 and is available at
http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/05_29_2001/story01.htm
A record of the donations of land from the estate, which were made in
the period 1935-1942, is avalailable in the 1998 NIH Almanac at
http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/1998/property/acquisition.html
This includes the size in acres of each parcel and also its estimated
value obtained from Montgomery County assessment records.
The NIH Record, September 10, 1996, Vol. XLVIII, No. 19 has some
photographs of original buildings from the Treetops estate at
http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/09_10_96/finalpic.htm The captions
mention that construction of Building 15K started in 1926.
Links to aerial photos from 1937, 1944, 1951, 1957 and 1964, which
show how the Treetops area was developed, are given at
http://www.eacarchaeology.com/poolesvillenih.html on the web site of
Elizabeth Anderson Comer / Archaeology.
http://ugsp.info.nih.gov/BioResearch/lastbest.htm is a web page from
the NIH which features an article that appeared in 1997 in The
Washingtonian. While most of the article is irrelevant to your query,
it does include the following paragraph, “In 1935 the Wilsons offered
to donate half of their 94-acre "Treetops" estate in Bethesda to the
federal government, a gift that fell eventually into the hands of the
National Institutes of Health, then a small federal agency operating
out of a few buildings on a hilltop just east of where the Kennedy
Center now stands. Though NIH first intended only to build a facility
on the Wilson estate to house animals used in experiments, it moved
its entire operation there by the late 1930s and has added land
through gifts and purchases.”
Search strategy on Google: 1. Treetops, NIH (Treetop gave nothing, so
I made an inspired guess it might be Treetops since this is a popular
name for houses, etc.)
2. Treetops, NIH, Wilson
I hope that you can see this e-mail and response back to me again.
I have learned a lot about the estate which I have been examing for
the last few weeks. I almost have enough information to be satified
with the thought of what treetop was like. However the only missing
parts I would like to get are the following information. Where are
Luke and Helen Wilson buried. Are they buried together ? Also are the
orignial structures of where Luke and Helen Wilson lived in the early
days still standing or have they been demolished.
Also, anything else that you could add would be great too. Once again
I hope you can answer theses questions for me, again.
Thank you-
Hello stephenh
The first URL I gave has the following: "By 1942, she and her family
had moved out of Treetops' main house (Bldg. 15K) and into the nearby
guest cottages" She refers to Helen Woodward Wilson. Bldg 15K was
the main family house from the time of its construction in 1926. The
Wilsons would have lived in it together until Luke's death in 1937.
Further on in the same article, there is information that Bldg 15K was
actually redsigned over an older building which had also been the
family home. "Bldg. 15K was the former 19th century Britton family
farmhouse, which the Wilsons employed architect Edward Clarence Dean
to redesign, according to various historical sources. The design...
...was a mixture of "English and American country house tradition. The
main house had a formality in its large rooms and sophisticated
finishes appropriate for entertaining, while the smaller house had a
more rustic flavor." "
So the answer to one of your questions is that the home of the Wilsons
in the early days is still standing, because it is the recently
renovated Bldg 15K. There is a lot about the renovation, and photos
of the interior and exterior, in the first URL I gave you
(http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/05_29_2001/story01.htm) The
article also mentions that this house is the last remaining original
structure from the Wilson estate. As many as possible of the original
features have been preserved.
I found a couple more details about Bldg 15K and further confirmation
it was the Wilson family home at
http://www.nih.gov/about/almanac/1999/property/buildings14-16.html The
cost of the original construction was estimated at $62,500. This web
page also mentions that Bldg 15L1 as the residence of Ruth F and Luke
W Wilson (son of Helen and Luke) (L1) and Bldg 15L2 as the home of
their caretaker (L2). They were acquired in the purchase of the Ruth
Wilson estate (2.2409 acres) for $1,100,000 on August 5, 1993 and were
demolished in 1998.
From an obitury of someone who worked for the Wilsons, I found that
Helen died in 1960 http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/05_05_98/obits.htm
I'm afraid I cannot find anything about where the Wilsons were buried.
There is a web site at http://www.interment.net/help/research.htm
which provides resources and tips for carrying out a search on where
people are buried. However, it does warn that this can involve a lot
of work.
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treetop