Chevy Chase Street has famous ring to it
Editor’s note: This is one in an occasional series about the origin of unusual names of places in Washington, Greene and Fayette counties.
A few connections leap to mind when passing Chevy Chase Street in Finleyville: the iconic actor known for his roles in TV’s “Saturday Night Live” and the National Lampoon’s “Vacation” films; the upscale suburban community in Maryland of the same name, or, for devotees of medieval English, the ballad of “Chevy Chase,” which tells the tale of a hunting party in Cheviot Hills along the Anglo-Scottish border.
The mystery of this Union Township street’s famed name is a bit more prosaic.
One resident who has lived there for more than 30 years said she was told it was either named for the actor or the community.
But Union Township tax collector Bernadette Speer was able to unravel the conundrum. Her husband, Larry, lived there when he was 10 until the age of 17 in a house built by his father.
“I was curious too how the heck it got its name when I met my husband,” Bernadette Speer said.
Coincidentally, the couple purchased and moved into the very same house on the street years later when it was on the market, after living in Florida and then Upper St. Clair.
“We aren’t in a development with a name and every street is named according to the development. It was built one house at a time,” Bernadette Speer said.
According to the Speers, when their home was built in the 1960s, there were just two houses there. She learned from her husband that the builder had a connection with someone living in Chevy Chase, Maryland.
“Our house was part of the Smith farm. When my father-in-law purchased the land that he built the house on, he purchased it from Lew Smith, and Lew Smith’s brother lived in Chevy Chase Maryland, and that’s how he (Smith) decided on the name for the street.
“And then, one of his in-laws had a relative that lived in Bowling Green, so that’s how that name was assigned to that street,” she said, referring to a cross street in the plan. There is also a Lew Street, named after the builder.
“Nothing exciting, but it’s a little bit of history. People always think, when I tell them where I live, it was named after the actor. But, no, it’s an older house than that. It was the guy who sold the land. He had a farm in the area that he actually farmed,” Bernadette Speer said.
Indeed, should Hollywood’s Chevy Chase ever visit, he will encounter his namesake street – just not in honor of him.