An Irish priest and the Duchess of Windsor each separately played a part in Woodley Park's history. In 1912 Father Thomas A. Walsh bought the present site of St. Thomas Apostle Church and Rectory on Woodley Road for $16,750. It was here that he established the first Catholic parish in the new suburb of Woodley Park. It was known as the church of the catacombs because it remained a basement church from 1923 until 1951 when the current structure was built. St. Thomas was also known as the diplomatic parish serving embassies within its boundaries ranging from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
The international celebrity of Wallis Warfield Simpson also had connections to this neighborhood. In the 1920s, her mother, Alice Montague Warfield, ran a boarding house on Woodley Road across the alley from the school building that was originally built to house St. Thomas School. Mrs. Simpson, an American socialite and double divorcee, married Edward VIII of England after their relationship created an international scandal that led to his abdication from the British throne in 1936.
The Woodley Park call boxes were developed by the Woodley Park Community Association as part of Art on Call, a program of Cultural Tourism DC with support from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, and the District Department of Transportation. Local support for this call box was provided by the Woodley Park Community Association and Shapiro & Company LLC.Visit www.woodleypark.org for map and more information.
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