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In 1874-75, Major Leander
P. Williams assembled a farm out of four parcels of land known
by the names Good Luck, Magruder’s Plains Enlarged, The Levels,
and Offutt’s Adventure. He bought them from Col. Ninian Beall,
Benjamin Berry, and Alexander Magruder, who had received the
original patents to the tracts from Lord Baltimore, proprietary
of Maryland. Fifty years later, on February 2, 1925, the
District Heights Company bought the 504.93-acre farm from Major
Williams’ estate for $60,000. The company had been formed by
Joseph Tepper, David L. Blanken, Henry Oxenburg, Gilbert
Leventhal, Simon Gordon, and Simon Gerber for the specific
purpose of developing a residential community. At the time of
the purchase, the land was being farmed by Walter and Al Dustin,
whose descendants still live in the area. Their farmhouse stood
on the site of the present house at 7116 Foster Street, which
was built by Mr. Tepper, president of the development company.
By the summer of 1926, approximately 25 homes had been built
and two businesses had been established—the gas station at 72nd
and Marlboro Pike and the Sanitary Grocery Store (later Berry’s)
at Gateway and Marlboro Pike. In the course of the development
work, graders ran into a pipe that apparently was a relic of
what records referred to as “the great oil strike.” Two oil
wells had been drilled, it seems, one on 73rd Street just off
Halleck and the other on Berkshire. The amount of oil pumped
from them is not known.
Today, District Heights is one of only three municipalities
in Prince George’s County that has—besides its administrative
offices—its own Police/Code Enforcement Department,
Recreation/Cultural Department, and Public Works Department.
They serve nearly 7,000 residents.
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