Windermere: A History of Good Community Planning

A remodeled Windsor model with the Dutch roof elevation in one of the original homes built by Columbia Home within Windermere.

On the east coast, especially in one of the former thirteen British colonies, the two storeyed colonial is prized as an icon of colonial and Georgian architectural achievement. Windermere is a community in North Bethesda that features tree lined streets with British styled colonial homes sitting on landscaped and green lawns at an aesthetically pleasing distance from the street. The community takes its name from a lake and town by the same name in northwestern England.

True to its English heritage, Windermere’s initial five model homes took their names from the British Isles. The Berwick is pronounced Ber’ick if you are from the border lands near Scotland. The Amberleigh, the Carlton, the Downing, and the Jamestown later named the Windsor are all quite English place and sur names. Brilliant.

Windermere is a carefully planned single family subdivision made up of three sections located near Tuckerman Lane and Old Georgetown Road. The three sections comprise about 200 single family homes sitting on 1/4 to 1/3 acre sized lots. Development took place between 1970 and 2000.

The three sections of Windermere are bounded by I-270 on the western edge, the I-270 spur on the southern edge, Tuckerman Lane on the nothern edge, and Old Georgetown Road on the eastern edge. It’s just about two miles to the Grosvenor Metro, and some residents either walk or take the Ride On bus for their daily commuting.

Windermere’s first stage of development began in 1970 when Richard Nixon was President and Arthur Burns was Chairman of the Federal Reserve. News of the Vietnam War entering into Cambodia made international news headlines.

An exodus of families from many places moved along the Tuckerman Lane, Falls Road, and River Road corridors as new move up home builders erected stately and new colonial homes in the early 1970s.

Development of the first section of the community and incorporation of the Heritage Walk Homeowner’s Association occurred when homeowner’s associations (HOAs) as a common interest development started to take hold as a means of preserving value.

Columbia Homes, the first builder of Windermere’s section one, built five model homes on Rosemont Drive in the Luxmanor subdivision for the purpose of selling lots in Windermere, which is the Heritage Walk subdivision. At the time, these homes represented cutting edge thinking in colonial home design. Mostly brick elevations, architecturally accurate details, generous rooms sizes, and even the use of the 2:3 golden ratio for living and family room sizes. With the mathematics of beautiful proportions built in, good location and desirabilty led to home sales.

These were to be the last of the stick built homes in America after which time prefabricated construction techniques would come in as interest rates rose due to the war’s costs after Richard Nixon detethered the U.S. dollar from the gold standard and after Paul Volcker assumed the helm of the Federal Reserve.

The economy abruptly changed with a rise in interest rates, and coupled with a sewer and gas moratorium, the builder was suddenly unable to secure new building permits. Half of Windermere remained unfinished.

When new homes sales resumed, Zuckerman Katz came in and offered larger homes, and due to the lack of gas lines, these homes were outfitted with oil heat. Over time, Zuckerman Katz would complete the first section of Windermere. In fact, their models would be tweaked and come to define the entire second section of Windermere. Large, stately, and elegant.

Today, the first section of Windermere is so popular that residents from Tilden Woods, Arroyo Estates, Holly Oaks, Luxmanor, The Oaks and beyond come to walk the tree lined streets, because it is a safe community to walk in. They are pet walkers, families with strollers, bikers, children on roller blades, and the elderly. They come to walk Windermere Circle, which is a one mile trek, because the circle does not have cut through traffic from Tuckerman Lane. The tree lined streets provide shade from the summer heat, the perched song birds seranade, and squirrels look on.

This is the second article in a series on Windermere and community planning in North Bethesda.

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