On September 3, 2002, 18 Cleveland Park property owners met a deadline that should have been impossible. A few months earlier, Youth for Understanding had signed a $12 million contract to sell Rosedale to an independent school. A covenant from the late 1970s gave those neighbors ninety days to match any sale. They matched it unanimously. The school then asked a bankruptcy judge to throw out the neighbors' right. After a day-long hearing the judge upheld it, and more than 100 families put up the money to close.
That fight is the reason a free movie can play on the Rosedale lawn this Saturday night. Over on Klingle Road, Tregaron's free afternoon concert happens for a similar reason. Neither property is a city park. Each is open because neighbors signed a binding agreement that keeps it open, and each is still maintained by a nonprofit that neighbors fund. On October 17 both groups open their gates on the same day, and that is about as close as you can get to watching the two agreements at work.
Rosedale was kept public by a single clause
Rosedale's history is older than the city around it. The Rosedale Conservancy's history says Uriah Forrest and his wife Rebecca bought the property and named it in 1793, then built a frame house the following year around a stone cottage already standing there. The DC Historic Preservation Office's historic sites entry dates that cottage to about 1740 and the farmhouse to about 1793.
The clause that mattered came much later. When the National Cathedral School sold the estate to Youth for Understanding in the late 1970s, the sale included a covenant with surrounding neighbors. The covenant kept public access to the terraced grounds, continuing how they had long been used. It also gave the owners of about 18 nearby properties a deeded right of last refusal if Rosedale were ever sold again. The conservancy's history calls that provision "critical" 25 years later.
By 2002 the neighbors had used it. The front historic grounds went to a conservancy and were ultimately held by a neighborhood land trust. The farmhouse went back to being a residence. The dormitories were demolished, and the rear land was subdivided for seven homes. The Rosedale Conservancy formed that fall to manage the three front acres. Those acres are protected from development in perpetuity and open to the public as a park funded by the community.
Those three acres stay open by design. The conservancy's landscape plan calls for keeping the center as a village green and putting new plantings around the edges. Most recently, the conservancy reported in spring 2025 that phase three of its slope project had removed invasive plants, installed biodegradable erosion control and added native plants and shrubs. The open middle is where Saturday's screen goes.
Tregaron was kept public by a donation
Tregaron's route to staying open took longer and involved more parties. Its National Register nomination describes the estate as The Causeway, designed by Charles Platt in 1912. Joseph Davies and Marjorie Merriweather Post lived there from 1941 to 1958 and added a Russian-style dacha in 1945. The conservancy's 2007 history report traces the design to the original owners, James and Alice Parmelee, working with Platt and the garden designer Ellen Biddle Shipman. Beginning in 1980, ownership was split between the Washington International School and the Tregaron Limited Partnership.
The woodland was under threat by 2006. That year the Friends of Tregaron, the Washington International School and Tregaron Limited Partnership reached an agreement that donated 13 acres to the newly formed Tregaron Conservancy in perpetuity. The school kept the hilltop and its buildings. The conservancy owns and cares for the 13 acres and keeps them open to the public free of charge.
Put next to each other, the two deals look like this:
| Rosedale | Tregaron | |
|---|---|---|
| Year the public grounds were secured | 2002 | 2006 |
| How it happened | Neighbors used a covenant's right of last refusal to match a $12 million contract | A three-party agreement donated land to a new conservancy |
| Protected acreage | Three front acres | 13 acres |
| Who holds it | Conservancy, ultimately a neighborhood land trust | Tregaron Conservancy |
| Who kept the rest | Farmhouse went back to private residence | Washington International School kept the hilltop |
Owning the land is the first half of what the conservancies do. Taking care of it takes up most of their time. Tregaron's current-projects page lists Shipman-inspired gardens and native planting, meadow care, repairs to stone bridges, walls, footpaths and stairs, Klingle Stream restoration, tree care, and work on trails and storm-water drainage. The lily pond was rebuilt in 2008 after the sludge was cleared and the structure repaired.
This year's concert has an anniversary attached
The 2006 agreement turns 20 this year, and Tregaron Unplugged is marking it. Washington Performing Arts and Tregaron Conservancy co-commissioned a new soundwalk called Shimmers in the Field for Washington Performing Arts' 60th anniversary season and the conservancy's 20th, according to their joint announcement on September 22. The work comes from Chromic, the duo of Lucy Yao and Dorothy Chan. A free app uses GPS to work out where a listener is in the park and plays music and stories tied to specific spots along the trails. There is no fixed route.
On Saturday, guides will lead groups through the soundwalk every 30 minutes. After that, the app stays free for a full year. The announcement says each visit will be different "in every season," so a winter walk through the same woods will sound different from the premiere. The app needs headphones and can be downloaded on iOS or Android from QR codes.
The Washington Performing Arts event page lists the live performers set up around the grounds:
- Johnny Walker Jr., jazz
- Deepak Ram Trio, Hindustani music
- Sadie Kane, acoustic
- Dante Bank, yoga and a sound bath
- Ni Dembaya, West African drumming and dance
The full Saturday, in order
The schedules leave room to do all of it. Times below come from each organizer's own listing.
- 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., FRESHFARM Cleveland Park market at 3400 Connecticut Ave. NW, which runs every Saturday this season.
- 1 to 3 p.m., Tregaron Unplugged. It's free. Come in through the pedestrian gate in the 3000 block of Klingle Road NW. Small folding chairs and picnic blankets are allowed, street parking is nearby, and registration goes through Washington Performing Arts.
- 7 to 9 p.m., Rosedale Outdoor Movie Night. Toy Story 5 starts at 7:10 p.m. Enter at 35th and Newark Streets. The event is free and open to the public, the conservancy asks that dogs stay home, and weather alerts will be posted on its website.
Rosedale's own announcement invites neighbors to bring a picnic and blanket for an evening "under the stars with your neighbors." Those are the same neighbors whose covenant kept the lawn open.
After Saturday
Tregaron's calendar continues into November, and the rest of the neighborhood's fall dates sit along Connecticut Avenue.
- November 1: Tregaron's free birding walk with Sam Krause. The conservancy says registration is required.
- October 30, 7 to 10 p.m.: Cleveland Park Main Street's Halloween Bar Crawl, starting at Atomic Billiards, 3427 Connecticut Ave. NW.
- Saturdays through December 19: the FRESHFARM market keeps its 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. hours at 3400 Connecticut.
- Through October 2027: the Shimmers in the Field app stays free to use on Tregaron's trails.
A deeded right of last refusal and a three-party land donation are what keep two historic properties feeling shared by the whole neighborhood. Those provenance stories are the kind Ethan Carson tells in his short documentary films, and the portfolio shows how he presents the history behind a home alongside the home.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
