I am trying to find out the originality of a street name "Cordell
Ave", which is located in Bethesda, MD. I thought the street name was
at first named after one time senator Cordell Hull but since then I
have discovered that the street may have been named after Eugene F.
Cordell. Can anyone out their give me any further clue to the history
of this street's name.  Any help would be appreciative.

Hello,

According to the National Library of Medicine at
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/directory/045.html), Dr. Eugene Cordell
was "an early historian of the University (of Maryland) and first
librarian of the institution." See
(http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/hoffman/hoffb.asp) for a
excerpt of his writing.

Cordell was born in what is now West Virginia in 1843 and died in
Baltimore in 1913. He was married in Baltimore and all of his children
were born there. He is buried in Charles Town, W.Va. So it is unlikely
that he lived in Montgomery County. See his geneological record at
(http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=bushrod&id=I7204).
At lease one grandchild (born with the surname Jeffers) was alive at
the time the family tree was compiled.

According to an 1890 map of Montgomery County on the Library of
Congress Web site, most of the area around what is now Cordell Street
was owned by a Jno. E. Ball, with other parts being owned by Dr. W.F.
Elgin, Julian H. Miller and something called Colville Heights. The map
is at:
<http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/S?ammem/gmd:@FILREQ(@field(SUBJ+@band(United+States--Maryland--Montgomery+County+))+@FIELD(COLLID+trnsmap))>

Before then, the area was the site of the Gingle family farm,
Woodmont, which lent its name to the neighborhood that developed
there, according to the NLM
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/nlmsite/gingle_family.html).

By 1931, the area had already been developed as Northwest Park. See
the NLM's map at (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/nlmsite/images/map6.jpg).
In fact, Northwest Park shows up on maps as early as 1927
(http://www.lib.umd.edu/RARE/washington.html).

It so happens that the interurban railroad that reached Bethesda
opened in 1913, the year of Cordell's death, according to
(http://hometown.aol.com/chirailtwo/washism.html). It is likely that
the street opened around the same time, since interurbans tended to
spur development. Perhaps the developer knew Dr. Cordell. It's about
the only street in the development clearly named after a person.

For more information, try contacting the Montgomery County Historical
Society. They would probably be able to tell you who built that
development.

I hope this helps you. Good luck with your research.

---

Clarification of Answer by mwalcoff-ga on 07 Jun 2002 10:59 PDT

Search strategy:

<://www.google.com/search?q=Bethesda+interurban+Maryland&hl=en&lr=>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Montgomery+county+Maryland+historical+maps>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Bethesda+Montgomery+County+Maryland+history>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Montgomery+County+Maryland+history>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=+Bethesda+%22Northwest+Park%22>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=history+Bethesda+Maryland+Woodmont>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=history+Bethesda+Maryland>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Woodmont+neighborhood+Bethesda>

<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=Eugene+Cordell+Maryland>

---

Request for Answer Clarification by stephenh-ga on 17 Jun 2002 08:07 PDT

Please don't forget about me, I am waiting to hear back from you to
see if you have any further information about Cordell Ave.  If I don't
here anything by tuesday 6/18 I guess I will just have to resumit my
question.

---

Clarification of Answer by mwalcoff-ga on 17 Jun 2002 09:23 PDT

Hi,

I am not exactly sure what more you want me to do. I have sent a
letter to the Montgomery County Historical Society asking for
information on the developer of the area. Other than that, I think you
need to take the next step. If you want Dr. Cordell's obituary, you
have the date from his geneological record. If you are not near a
library that has Baltimore newspaper microfilms from the 1910s, you
can ask for help from a contact at Baltimore City GenWeb at
(http://www.rootsweb.com/~mdcbalti/). Unfortunately, the kind of
detail you seek is unlikely to be available on the Internet beyond
what researchers have already provided.

Good luck with your search.

---

Clarification of Answer by mwalcoff-ga on 18 Jun 2002 12:53 PDT

Hello,

This is going to be my last word on the subject.

I got an e-mail back today from the Montgomery County Historical
Society librarian. She said several people have been questioning them
about Cordell Avenue, but they do not know the circumstances behind
its creation or naming. The one thing she could tell me was that the
street was known as Melrose from the 1910s until at least 1941. It
likely changed names because of another street named Melrose in the
county.

Hello again, Stephenh!

I had researched this question as originally posted, a few nights ago.
 I had gone to the extent of writing up an answer very similar to the
one you received, but decided in the end not to post it.  It was the
middle of the night in my time zone, and a definite "YES, HE'S THE
ONE!" would have required at least a phone call or two to Maryland.

As it turns out, confirmation is not an easy thing to find.  The
librarians at Montgomery County Public Library tell me they have been
asked this question before, and were unable to locate definite
information. Likewise the various other sources I'd contacted by phone
or e-mail (by now it was getting to be "personal").

Short of going to the newspaper morgues in the area, and plowing
through days' worth of microfilm, I don't know how you might get firm
confirmation.

One thing I can tell you with confidence, is that no credible
alternative to Dr. Cordell turned up in my research, either.  I cannot
establish any other national or regional figure of that time who might
have been memorialized in this fashion.

It really blows my wonderful mind that you would spent that much time
for me to do this research. I can't THANK YOU enough. You are a great
person to tackle something that I have been looking for, for sometime
(aleast 3 months).  If you have the time and ability to keep searching
for me (over the weekend) please do.
I will not be back to my computer after today until monday morning.

Here I will list a few places you could continue to look for me since
you wrote me and said that you have run out of places to look.  Don't
spent more time than you want to on this.  All I can say is that I
believe that the answer MUST be out their someplace, don't you think
so ?


If you could find out when he dieded and you could look for his
obituary in the newspaper of the town he dieded in.

You could look on the library of congress website.
you could look on the national library of medicine (NIH) website
you could look on the maryland state/county website

Once again thank you so much, you are wonderful person to do this much
work for me on this subject.  Find the answer and YOU WILL GET THE
MONEY!!!!

Thank you for the wonderful answer that you gave me. I thought what
you told me was very interesting and fastinating.  If you have the
time, ability and resources please keep searching for me more over the
weekend and let me know what you find out on monday. Thank you again
for your wonderful and great work yoou have done for me on this
subject.

Steph,

I don't know if either of your follow-up comments are for me. I do not
think there is any more I can do this weekend. As I said above, I
suggest you contact the Montgomery County Historical Society and ask
them if they can tell you who developed that neighborhood. Then
perhaps you can find out if that developer knew Dr. Cordell. I think
the level of detail you seek requires a good deal of non-electronic
research. Keep in mind that many, perhaps most, suburban side street
names were chosen simply because they sounded nice. Good luck on your
search.

Hi, Stephenh

Just for the benefit of any others pursuing this track:  the NIH
people don't know.  It's not on their website and the librarian there
has been asked before and doesn't know.  There is nothing searchable
on-line at the state or county level that gives any usable
information.  The county library was unable to locate any definite
information.  The Bethesda Urban Partnership offered to look into it,
but have not responded since.  I have left a message with the
historical society, but have not heard anything back.

thank you for taking so much time to help me solve my question.

You no, now that I think about if we could get his obituary, it might
say their if their is a street named after him.  I think that in
obituaries they sometime mention that kind of thing even trough he
dieded a real long time ago.  I don't know much we might be able to
get his obituary but I always believe that if their is a will their is
a way.  Other things you might be able to do for me to find out if
this is the "MAN" you could write or look on the maryland state
website to see if it mention thier or we could call them and ask a
librarian about this issue.  I am afraid to say that since I am paying
you money for this research I would think that maybe you should do it
rather than me. Because if you get the answer, you get the money
otherwise if I call and get the answer you would be out of luck.  What
do you think about that.  Do you agree with me ?

Thank you