Spring Valley (Washington, D.C.)


Spring Valley is a neighborhood in northwest, Washington, D.C., known for its large homes and tree-lined streets and more recently for being a military superfund site of former Camp Leach. It houses most of the main campus of American University, which gives its name to the neighborhood to Spring Valley's northeast, American University Park.

Description

The neighborhood houses the main campus of American University at 4400 Massachusetts Avenue, the Wesley Theological Seminary at 4500 Massachusetts Avenue, and the former Washington College of Law campus at 4801 Massachusetts Avenue and 4910 Massachusetts Avenue, which has since been moved to nearby Tenleytown neighborhood. Nebraska Avenue and Loughboro Road are to its south, Dalecarlia Parkway is to its west, and Massachusetts Avenue is to its northeast. Paradoxically, the neighborhood to the northeast is called American University Park, even though the bulk of the main campus is located in Spring Valley.
Spring Valley's residents include notable media personalities, lawyers, politicians, corporate officers, and elite Washington society. After the second world war, General of the Army Omar Bradley moved to a house on Indian lane in Spring Valley. Richard Nixon lived in neighboring Wesley Heights before becoming President; his immediate predecessor, Lyndon B. Johnson, after becoming Vice President under John F. Kennedy, purchased a three-story mansion named Les Ormes in Spring Valley along 52nd Street NW that had previously been the home of socialite and ambassador Perle Mesta. George H. W. Bush also lived in the neighborhood prior to his White House years. Presently it is the residence of the ambassador of Algeria. Warren Buffett and sister Doris Buffett lived on 49th Street during their years attending Wilson High School.
Several embassy residences are located in the neighborhood, such as the ambassador's houses of South Korea, Canada, Croatia, Mexico, Bahrain, Qatar, Uganda, Chile, Luxembourg, Algeria and Yemen.