Welcome to the website of Ohev Sholom -- The National Synagogue.

The National Synagogue is conveniently located in the Shepherd Park neighborhood of Northwest Washington, DC, just minutes by foot from Downtown Silver Spring.

The Washington Post featured Shepherd Park in a January 2002 article "Diversity Flourishes in Shepherd Park".

For your convenience, we've collected a list of local apartment rentals.

Other local resources and points of interest:
JIRS-- Jewish Information and Referral Service
Rabbinical Council of Greater Washington-- Supervised Restaurants, Markets, etc.
Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park Neighborhood Library
Shepherd Elementary School
Ward 4 Councilmember Adrian Fenty's Website
Rock Creek Park (National Park Service site)

History of Shepherd Park

The neighborhood of Shepherd Park in the northern corner of the District of Columbia is bounded on the south by Aspen Street and includes the Walter Reed Army Hospital. The exact boundaries to the west and northwest, though, have been in contention from at least the 1930s. Around 1924, 17th Street and Kalmia were described as part of Rock Creek Park Estates, which was one of the three major subdivisions in the area together with Shepherd Park proper (L. E. Breuninger’s development) and Sixteenth Street Heights. In the 1980s the Shepherd Park Citizens’ Association claimed the Census Tract 16 boundaries which included the subdivisions of Colonial Village and North Portal Estates which are west of 16th Street.

Settlement in the area began in 1730 with Crystal Springs (now Brightwood) which became a horse racing center from the early 1800s to the 1880s (Ward 4 Notebook, 2). When opened in 1819, the 7th Street Turnpike (now Georgia Avenue) became the main artery for race traffic, agricultural produce and other business between Washington, D.C. and Maryland through the nineteenth century. Starting in 1873 streetcars began traversing 7th Street Road from downtown Washington, but extended only to south of Brightwood. B & O’s Metropolitan Line was too far east to be convenient to the area of Shepherd Park and did not contribute significantly to development there. The rural character of the area predominated until the early twentieth century. Gradually development followed 7th Street Road northward as the well-to-do from Washington established summer homes. One such politician was Alexander Robey Shepherd who built a summer home on a tract of land just west of Georgia Avenue in 1868. Shepherd was involved in the District’s government, serving as governor of the Territory in 1873-74.

In 1911 investors bought much of the former Shepherd estate and L.E. Breuninger laid out the grid for Shepherd Park. Just to the southeast of this neighborhood, the U.S. Army had purchased land in 1909 and built a hospital, now known as the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The streets of the new development were named for various trees and flowers. The new houses of Shepherd Park were set within spacious lawns and featured Colonial and Tudor styles using red brick, stone or stucco. Lots were developed as they were purchased. The developers attached covenants to the deeds which sought to exclude African– Americans and Jews from settling in the neighborhood. For many years Shepherd Park was comprised only of middle class, Anglo-Saxon protestants. In 1917 the residents formed the Sixteenth Street Heights Citizens’ Association (changed in the 1940s to the Shepherd Park Citizens’ Association) to address road improvements and educational needs. However the population was inadequate to receive a school of its own until a temporary structure was built in 1928. The Alexander R. Shepherd Elementary School replaced the original temporary rooms four years later. In the same year the Marjorie Webster Junior College for women opened at 17th and Kalmia Streets. After this college closed in 1971, it was acquired by Gallaudet University and serves as a branch campus.

Not until the early 1940s did Shepherd Park experience much change in its demographics. German Jews first began moving up from the city into non-covenanted areas west of Rock Creek. Eastern European Jews who had also been moving out of the city since the early twentieth century began entering covenanted areas by living above their shops. After 1948 when the Supreme Court struck down the use of racially exclusive covenants, the Jewish population in Shepherd Park increased to about 80% by the 1960s. The businesses and religious buildings reflected the Jewish presence with kosher meat markets, delicatessens and synagogues (two Orthodox, one Conservative). Wealthy families in the area tended to move out of Shepherd Park’s more modest housing stock into the larger, stylish houses of Colonial Village (1931) and North Portal Estates (developed by Jews in the early 1950s). The next demographic shift occurred as African-American families sought housing in the area. While they were excluded at first from western divisions such as Colonial Village, these families found that Shepherd Park residents tended to be more open to an integrated neighborhood. With the help of Neighbors, Inc., the Shepherd Park Citizens’ Association resisted real estate speculators’ attempts to manipulate housing value through racially-tinged scare tactics. Shepherd Park continues to enjoy a reputation for being a stable, integrated, and well-maintained neighborhood of single family detached and semi-detached houses.