Can anyone out thier give me more information about Luke and Helen
Wilson. I am also interested in knowing about the tree tops estate. I
guess basically trying to learn anything more than I already know
would be great.

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Request for Question Clarification by scriptor-ga on 29 Jul 2002 09:25 PDT

Dear stephenh,

Could you please clarify what you know already?

Regards,
Scriptor

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Clarification of Question by stephenh-ga on 29 Jul 2002 10:06 PDT

I know the following information. I know that theses two people were a
couple that lived on the estate before it was known as NIH. The estate
was known as Treetop. I have gotten theses people obituaries and I
have recieved from MCHS a pamplet which has told me about the Old
Georgetown estate. I guess you could say that I have recieved a lot of
information.  However I would still like to know a few things like

where are the Wilson's buried,
I would like to get a picture of the Wilson estate before it was
turned into NIH,
I would like to know more about the wilson's in the hay-days while
living at the estate and
I also would like to get a better discription of who the couple were.
And anything else that might be avvailable.

Hello, and thank you for this interesting question. I think I have
found some information for you that will help.

National Institutes of Health
http://ugsp.info.nih.gov/BioResearch/lastbest.htm
This article by Larry Van Dyne mentions the Wilson's and their
Treetops estate, which they donated to the Federal Government in 1935.

Here's a little background on the Wilsons from the article: "a wealthy
Washington couple--Luke Wilson, whose money came from a sporting-goods
store in Chicago, and his wife, Helen, the daughter of a founder of
Washington’s own Woodward & Lothrop department store."

Eventually, the Institutes of Health acquired the estate, and now use
it as their base of operations.

Also of interest is this article on the NIH web site, which describes
saving the last building on the estate:
http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/05_29_2001/story01.htm
This article also gives a brief history of the estate.

Some photos of the old estate
http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/09_10_96/finalpic.htm
Here are some nice black and white photos of some of the original
buildings on the grounds of Treetops.

Photo of Helen and Luke Wilson
http://www.co.fairfax.va.us/gov/bos/ld/helen_wilson_community_room.htm
This room was named after Mrs. Wilson, and I believe the photo on the
left is of Helen and Luke.

Tree Survey at NIH
http://www.nih.gov/news/NIH-Record/11_14_2000/story01.htm
Here is an article about the trees on the NIH campus. Some of the
oldest are around the buildings in Treetops, and may have been planted
before the Wilsons donated the property.

I hope this gives you more information than you already have! If you
need clarification, please let me know, I'll be happy to help in any
way I can.
nvwriter-ga

Search strategies used:
Helen Wilson
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&newwindow=1&q=%22helen+wilson%22&btnG=Google+Search

"treetops estate" +wilson
://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=%22treetops+estate%22+%2Bwilson

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Clarification of Answer by nvwriter-ga on 29 Jul 2002 10:07 PDT

Stephenh, you posted your clarification as I was posting my answer, so
I did not get all of it in my answer. I will continue searching.

I am the son of Luke Wilson and the grandson of Helen Wilson and I
grew up at Treetops (the second incarnation).  If you sre still
interested in knowing more about it, please let me know and I'll try
to answer your questions.

Thank you for responding back to me. I really do apprecaite it. At the
present moment I have finished my research on the treetop estate but
if I ever need any additional information I will defintely let you
know.

Thanks again
Stephenh-ga