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Blagden Alley and Naylor Court Jesting

Naylor Court Revisited

The editor posted a pair of pictures labeled as "Naylor Alley" forwarded by the blogger (bloggerette?) Inshaw. Among other things, it reminded him of the time the Blagden Alley and Naylor Court Association moved the summer picnic into Naylor Court. He thinks it was the first or second year of such, and as we were setting up, say 5:30pm, and older black gentleman stopped and watched from O Street. The editor invited him in, be he declined. We chatted a bit, and he said he remembered playing as a child in "Naylor Alley", but that he had lived in PG County for a long time. The editor had impression that he might have moved there while young, and had not been back much, if at all, since.

It would also be interesting to know when "Naylor Alley" became "Naylor Court". It is probably in living memory, as in maybe the 40's or 50's? And why was it changed? Because one can have residences in "Courts" but not "Alleys", or not alleys at that time?

How was the name changed? On what authority or in what bureaucracy? Was there a prominent landowner who got something started? Some Do-Gooder trying to do the Right Thing? Just a point of interest.

One of pictures was

In the previous post said he couldn't recall where in Naylor Court that would be. Now he thinks he knows:

Given the foliage, he can't match the left side, but the right side looks right, with a small structure fulled in at the right.

Photos, Old and New. Part VMore Naylor Court

Comments

Unregistered user Tuesday, May 19, 2009 2:45:42 PM

tonysmallframe writes: I still don't think this is Naylor court - the big Tally Ho stable was there since the 1880's, and would have been where the houses are on the right, unless it was expanded sometime in the 1920's. The other perplexing part is the building in the background - in the current view, you can see straight through to 10th st. Another slightly different vantage point is seen here - http://www.planning.dc.gov/planning/frames.asp?doc=/planning/lib/planning/preservation/brochures/historic_shaw_web_version.pdf page 7, I believe. If I had to guess - it looks like it could be looking southbound on Shepherd Alley East, but thats just a shot in the dark.

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