In 1928 the District of Columbia purchased twelve acres of rolling parkland — roughly bounded by Broad Branch Road, Northampton, 33rd, and Quesada Streets — to build Lafayette School. Part of the land had been a farm owned by the late Mr. Horace Jones, whose original 1859 farmhouse still stands on Quesada Street. Behind the house the Jones cattle once grazed in the area where children play in the tot lot today.

Much of the land, however, was acquired from African-American families who owned several small houses and farm plots near Broad Branch Road and Oliver Street. The families farmed the land for nearly 80 years, until 1928, when the city acquired it to build the park and Lafayette Elementary School. Many were descendants of Captain George Pointer, who was born enslaved in 1773, purchased his own freedom, and worked for more than 40 years as a supervising engineer on what became the C&O Canal. They were among the first freed African-Americans to become landowners in upper Northwest DC.

The houses were torn down to make way for the first school — a collapsible frame building. When the brick school opened in 1931, the land around it was woods, a barn, and just a few houses on 33rd Street, a farm-like setting that delighted the children. During World War II, victory gardens took advantage of the sunny south side.

These remembrances of local residents were summarized by Sharon Moran in Origins II, published by Neighborhood Planning Council #2 and #3 in 1976.

In 1999 a group of Chevy Chase DC neighbors organized as Friends of Lafayette Park (FOLP), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to preserving and improving the park. Beth Pierce and Jeff Stoiber were among the founders. From the start, the organization partnered with DC Parks and Recreation to do the work the city budget alone could not.

When FOLP was founded, the directors worked with the community to develop the organization's first phase of goals — the Phase I Master Plan. Those goals were completed in the first ten years and shaped most of what visitors see today: the perimeter gardens, playgrounds, the former tot lot, the amphitheater, upgraded tennis courts and ball fields, benches, picnic tables, and the Daisy Fountain.

Park-perimeter gardening began earlier still: in the early 1990s, before FOLP existed, neighbor Judy Goodman organized a small group of gardeners to rehabilitate the Quesada Street corner and plant the hill at Quesada and Broad Branch with azaleas. American Plant Food donated plants; local Boy Scouts helped prepare the site; garden designer Jane Berger donated plans. When FOLP formed, the garden group folded into the organization.

In commemoration of FOLP's tenth anniversary in 2009, the board developed a Phase II master plan. The capital improvements section called for replacing all walkways in the park, new upper- park lighting to match the lower park, a rubberized running track around the baseball fields, additional picnic tables, a renovated school gym, a new recreation center, and an extension of the green water irrigation system to the Broad Branch Road garden.

The maintenance section called for correcting drainage and erosion problems, repairing the earthen wall between the spray park and the play area, grading and seeding the baseball fields, and resurfacing the tennis courts (last color-coated in 2003). Many — though not all — of these items have since been addressed.

The complete Phase II goals list is preserved in the archive:FOLP Goals.

The Friends of Lafayette-Pointer Park played a vital role in getting extensive repairs done to the amphitheater in August 2011, with the rehabilitation completed at the start of the 2011–2012 school year. FOLP and the Lafayette Home and School Association (HSA) paid for and managed the project, funded by the generous support of neighbors and Lafayette school families.

The amphitheater — adjacent to the ball field and originally built in 2001 — had fallen into disrepair from heavy use. The work restored it to its place as a wonderful asset for the park.

In 2016 a parallel organization, the Friends of Lafayette Recreation Center and Park (FoLRAP), was founded by Elizabeth Engel and Patty Myler to focus on the recreation center redevelopment then under discussion with DPR. In 2017 FOLP and FoLRAP merged, consolidating volunteer effort under a single 501(c)(3) and broadening the board's remit to cover both the park grounds and the rec center building.

In 2020, after extensive advocacy and conversations with descendants of Captain George Pointer (1773–1862) — who was born enslaved, purchased his freedom at age 19, and worked as an engineer on the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal — the District renamed the park Lafayette-Pointer Park. The land had been home to African-American families including the descendants of George Pointer from the 1830s until 1928 when their homes were taken by eminent domain to build Lafayette Elementary School and Lafayette Park.

Beginning in 2018, Historic Chevy Chase DC researched the park's history, launched a petition in 2019 to rename the park, and located and contacted a number of Pointer family descendants. The DC Council approved the name change in late 2020. A sign near the recreation center now offers additional information, maps, and historic drawings.

Read more from Historic Chevy Chase DC.

The new Lafayette-Pointer Recreation Center opened in 2021, replacing the older structure. FOLP provided community input to the city throughout the design and construction process — work that began with the Phase II master plan and continued through the merger with FoLRAP.

FOLP is currently developing a new master plan for the park, the first since 2009. The work is in progress; this page will be updated as goals firm up. In the meantime, the historical record of past plans, projects, and the people who carried them out is preserved in the archive.

Browse the archive →