My mom’s sister married a guy from Hyattsville MD in the late 1940’s. They bought a house just around the corner from his mom. They were close to the District line. Convenient because he was with the DC Metropolitan Police for close to 40 years. They moved to Gettysburg PA after he retired. Basically at least two generations of our extended family lived there over a 70 year period. Not sure if my Uncle’s grandparents were from there too.
Always wondered how well Hyattsville MD has held up. There was some crime even back then. Break ins. Typical stuff.
Wikipedia has a nice entry.
Locals to the DC area. What kind of of reputation does it have? Declining? Stable? Gentrified? Hows the crime concerns?
Sure wish we could recall his street. My mom just remembers it was close to Silver Spring. We visited at my uncle’s a handful of times. He gave us a nice tour of the DC landmarks when I was 4 or 5. The zoo was my favorite.
One of my best friends has lived in Hyattsville for the last 30 years. He doesn’t mention anything about the area going downhill - the impression I get is that it’s a somewhat gentrified DC suburb.
Sounds like my Uncle’s house may be quite valuable. Too bad he sold it thirty years ago. Nothing that special. Middle class home, with a basement walk out to the back yard. It had heavy double steel doors covering the walk out.My aunt’s beauty salon was in an addition they added on. She did ladies hair there for a long, long time.
My mom is looking through some old paperwork. Trying to find the address. We’d love to pull it up on Google Street view and see it again.
Interestingly enough for the OP, I’ve lived in both Hyattsville (for like 10 years) and Gettysburg. Two different places, though.
I left Hyattsville in 2011. I recently drove through there a couple of months ago. The biggest difference to me was the new buildings on Rte 1. It seems they’ve put in new apartments with stores on the ground floor on the lots that used to be eyesores like used car lots. I think they’re trying to cultivate an “artists’ district” along Rte 1. They also are also probably trying to attract University of Maryland associated people (UM is like two miles up the road).
So my impression, at least along Rte 1, is that it’s improving–it looks nicer. But Hyattsville is much larger than the Rte 1 corridor.
Crime-wise, it seemed tamer than other areas of PG–maybe due to the proximity of the University, but shit still happens there. Besides Baltimore City–so topical right now, PG county is probably the biggest shithole county in MD.
Great hearing from a former resident. Thanks for posting.
I had wanted to visit my uncle during my college years. Really regret blowing the opportunity to see DC and that area with a guy that knew it well. I kept putting it off and then he retired and moved away. My fault for procrastinating.
I don’t mean to come across as Hyattsville bashing–maybe a little PG Co bashing is fair, because it is the high crime, low education county besides Baltimore City in MD.
Hyattsville has things to offer. It has a DC Metro stop, it’s right down the street from Univ of Md, it’s building this arts district (after I left, so I’m not that familiar). I lived there for years while attending and working at UM. You have nice tree-lined streets off the major roads that are probably blooming now. DeMatha High School has one of the most famous prep basketball programs in the country–they dealt Lew Alcindor/Kareem Abdul Jabbar his only high school loss, and their famous coach (now retired), Morgan Wotten has over a 1000 wins.
Edited to add: My regret was not going to a DeMatha bball game. The school was only blocks from me and in certain games, you might see a few future NBA guys.
Hyattsville went downhill in the 60s and 70s, hit bottom in the 80s and 90s and has been on the upswing over the past 15 years. It was never a ghetto or slum, but was definitely run down. As mentioned, there has been development up and down Route 1, both commercial and apartment, that is both the cause and effect of improvement. Likewise, many parts of NE and SE DC are much better than they were in the 80s and 90s, though some are still dreadful.
Hyattsville is a working class neighborhood with a mix of white, black, hispanic and other ethnicities. As for “reputation”, Hyattsville is still perceived as “PG County”, in the worst way possible, by those who live in other parts of the DC area, much like surrounding neighborhoods inside the Beltway in PG County. Some of it is deserved, but some is just snobbery. Perfectly safe and suburbanized communities outside the beltway, such as Laurel, Bowie and Upper Marlboro, area also snubbed.
I just moved out of NE DC and I had friends who lived in PG County. Hyattsville has been gentrifying. The parts along Route 1 are a lot nicer than they were a few years ago. Reputation wise, it is still Prince George’s County (PG), which has a pretty bad reputation in the area. In truth, I think that the bad rep isn’t deserved, because there are some pretty nice spots outside of the beltway and Hyattsville is gentrifying fast. I don’t know of any particular issues with Hyattsville. Its considered affordable by a lot of people and with the Arts District and new businesses coming in, I would expect it to get nicer than it has been in the past.
I think a lot of people who have been priced out of DC have moved to Hyattsville. It has a lot of things making it attractive like walkable neighborhoods and new bars and cafes. I think the fact that it is PG county hurts it, though, as PG has a reputation for poor local government, especially the police.
A lot of people I know have moved out there recently. I’d say it is gentrifying, but not gentrified.
Houses are affordable (as in, almost unbelievably cheap) for how close you are to the city, and some of them have a lot of charm. A growing number of amenities are popping up to accommodate yuppies. Some neighborhoods are really cute and charming.
But the schools are still abysmal, and even the cute neighborhoods aren’t far from blighted run down strip malls. It’s attracting some gentrification, but not as many families.
Nothing that special. Middle class home, with a basement walk out to the back yard. It had heavy 
