Driving into Hyattsville from the south, I used to worry that I’d missed a Founding Father.

Since most of the east-west roads in town are named for famous Americans with three-syllable last names (Hamilton, Jefferson, Longfellow, et al.) in alphabetical order, I assumed that Armentrout was some early politician I’d never heard of.

Turns out I was half right. Charles L. Armentrout was a politician, but he was of more recent vintage, serving as mayor of Hyattsville from 1967 to 1975. His brother son, Robert, was mayor from 1999 to 2003.

From the Washington Post, July 30, 1992 (not available online):

Tanglewood Drive will be renamed Charles Armentrout Drive in honor of a past mayor and councilman who was instrumental in the 1960s and ’70s in the engineering of the county’s flood control project in the southern part of the city.

The late Charles Armentrout was mayor from 1967 to 1975, and served as Ward 4 councilman from 1961 to 1967 and from 1978 to 1982. His son, Robert Armentrout, currently serves on the council, but abstained from voting on the name change, which was approved July 20.

That would appear to make nearby Allison Street the first of the three-syllable street names in Hyattsville, but I don’t know who that is either.

Update: Stuart Eisenberg of the Hyattsville CDC points out that the Washington Post story was incorrect. Charles L. Armentrout Jr., mayor of Hyattsville from 1967-1975 and namesake of Armentrout Drive, was the brother of Robert Armentrout, mayor from 1999-2003. Their father was also named Charles L. Armentrout, hence the confusion.

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