The Vineyard

Though many associate Cleveland Park with the Park and Shop — the first strip mall on the east coast — the neighborhood was trendsetting in other ways, too. In the early 1800s, the area was home to one of the first commercial vineyards in the United States, thanks to John Adlum who established a vineyard devoted to the production of American wine from native grapes. While Thomas Jefferson gave Adlum’s wine rave reviews, others weren’t so keen on it. Adlum‘s mature wines never really took off and he died a relatively poor man. Nonetheless, his groundbreaking work with the native Catawba grape earned him the title “the father of American viticulture.” Adlum’s appropriately named estate, “The Vineyard”, was eventually carved up and developed but you might be able to spot a few wild vines along the Melvin C. Hazen trail.