With all the new development along Route 1, the area has gained a reputation as a top D.C. suburb. But it’s not the first time.

The Hyattsville Wire came across an interesting news clip from the Washington Times’ May 3, 1903, Sunday edition entitled, “Beautiful Suburban Environments of the National Capital.”

Hyattsville was featured as a flourishing community with easy access to D.C.

Here are two particularly interesting excerpts from the article:

Electricity has overcome all these unfavorable conditions through the supplying of an adequate car service. Hyattsville is now brought within a half hour’s ride of the Treasury building, in the center of the city, Government printing, Office officials find the trip from five to ten minutes shorter, and Capitol employes save a like amount of time in going to and from the country in that direction in Washington.

The article praises the streetcar service in detail:

Taking the car at Fifteenth and G streets, or anywhere along the line up through Eckington, the suburbanite gains the advantage of a restful, pleasant ride, through green fields with extended views here and there, to his healthfully-located home in Hyattsville. He has his daily traveling companions from places along the City and Suburban line—Eckington, Brentwood, Woodridge, Ellaston Terrace, Riverdale, and other flourishing communities—and their comfort in making the trip back and forth is considered in the providing of compartment cars.

To read the entire article, go to: http://1.usa.gov/UgR3Re.