Inside Chevy Chase Village, one of the richest – and whitest – communities in the US, with a median income somewhere between $250,000 and ‘sky’s the limit’

Melissa and Tom Dann are gently arguing about how much their neighbours earn. While they disagree with each other’s estimates, they both agree that the US Census Bureau has significantly low-balled the wealth of their exclusive community.

The US Census American Community Survey on Thursday ranked Chevy Chase Village, on the border of Maryland and the District of Columbia and a five-mile ride from the White House along Connecticut Avenue, as one of the 17 highest-income communities in the US.

Median income among the Danns’ tight-knit community of just under 2,000 people is “more than $250,000”. As a man from the Census explains the average income could be much higher than $250,000 but “that’s the highest income our statistics can include”.

Melissa Dann, an environmental policy adviser, has no doubt $250,000 is a low estimate. “No question. Absolutely, absolutely, more,” she says. “I would say $400,000 to $500,000 without even thinking. This street alone, there are people with serious, serious money.”

Her husband, Tom, a 63-year-old venture capitalist, interrupts. “I don’t know I’d go quite that far,” he says. “There are people who have been here for a while, they would bring the average down.”

Melissa counters. “There is a woman who lives down there [she points to the corner of their street], they say she could buy the entire neighbourhood. There’s major wealth here, akin to Rockefeller wealth. Really significant hereditary wealth.”

Tom agrees, and the names and fortunes of their neighbours are discussed. He points out that interest on hereditary wealth might not be included as household income in the Census figures. Taking into account just those that work for a living – “really powerful partners in law firms, lobbyists, federal judges, famous journalists” – Tom reckons the average household income would come in at “$250,000 to the sky’s the limit”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tom and Melissa Dann pose for a portrait outside of their home in Chevy Chase Village, Maryland. Photograph: Eric Kruszewski/The Guardian

In recent weeks the Guardian has reported from several of America’s poorest towns, and has now come to this corner of Montgomery County, Maryland, as three communities – Chevy Chase Village, Chevy Chase Town and Chevy Chase Section Five – all have median incomes of more than $250,000. The US Census Bureau said its median income category of “more than $250,000” means at least 50% of the households have income of at least $250,000. The bureau has in recent years twice increased the maximum household income band from $150,000 to $200,000 and again to $250,000 in 2009.

The Danns, who have lived in Chevy Chase Village for 13 years, won’t say how much they earn because “this is the sort of community that’s modest about wealth”.

“These are the types of people that tone down their wealth. There aren’t the battleship-sized houses you’d find in Potomac [a rich Maryland suburb favoured by DC influentials],” Tom says dressed in weekend gear of green cords and checked shirt, with a cartoon-themed blanket under his arm. “There’s more of a New England ethos. In fact a lot of people have another house there for the summer.”

Unlike most of their neighbours, the Danns aren’t from within the Beltway. He’s from Memphis, she’s from the midwest, and as we speak they are loading their car with their golden retriever and the youngest (ages 16 and 19) of their four children for a 12-hour drive to visit to Melissa’s mother in Chicago for Thanksgiving.

Their two older children, one in college and the other a recent graduate living in Austin, Texas, will meet them there. The level of education, the Danns say, is one of the factors that sets Chevy Chase apart. “These are really, really, educated people,” Tom says pointing at his neighbours’ homes. “Business people, doctors, lawyers.”

In fact, across the wider Chevy Chase community 81.6% have a bachelor’s degree or higher, and the Village was named the smartest community with population of 1,000 to 10,000 in the country by the Business Journal in 2011.

Among their cleverest neighbours are supreme court chief justice John Roberts and bestselling author Ann Brashares. They also mention “Rick, who was in the Clinton administration” and “Miriam, who was the chair of the Federal Aviation Administration” and “a Fed governor”. There’s also a collection of high-profile journalists including Marvin Kalb, Mark Shields, Chris Matthews and George Will. (“Obama comes to his house,” says Melissa.)

Rich, powerful and clever, but not diverse

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A woman dressed in fur walks by The Collection at Chevy Chase, a commercial outlet with high-end shopping, where an employee adjusts a window display. Photograph: Eric Kruszewski/The Guardian

Along with Chevy Chase’s immaculately maintained sidewalks – you will never see trash cans on the streets here as garbage men have been contracted to collect waste from bins at the rear of the homes – local schools are the key attraction for Chevy Chasers.

Access to the well-regarded schools is why the lobbyists, politicians and journalists who make a living in Washington decide to live just across the border. Choice schools include Chevy Chase elementary and Somerset elementary, and Walt Whitman high school, which is ranked the best in Maryland and the 55th best in the country.

Bethesda Magazine describes Chevy Chase as: “An affluent enclave of pricey homes, well-tended lawns and hushed streets, as well as top-notch schools – although many families choose private schools.” The Danns’ 16-year-old son goes to a boarding school in Pennsylvania.

Then there’s the shopping. Just outside the border of Chevy Chase Village, which bans commercial enterprise, Jimmy Choo, Cartier, Louis Vuitton, Gucci and Bulgari stores sit alongside each other on Wisconsin Avenue by the DC Metro station at Friendship Heights.

But, there are drawbacks. The Danns, and other residents, mention a lack of diversity. Melissa says she doesn’t think there is anyone living in the village who isn’t white. Tom says there must be at least a handful as the village is a popular home for visiting diplomats and their families.

The Census shows that of the 1,953 residents recorded in 2010, 1,873 (95.9%) were white. The biggest minority was Asian, which totals 31 or 1.6%, followed by Black or African American: 11 or 0.6%.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest James (last name not provided) prunes vegetation on a fence. James has been a gardener in the area for many years and works on roughly 12 homes. Photograph: Eric Kruszewski/The Guardian

A significant number of the minority residents is likely to be made up of au pairs and live-in housekeepers. Among them is Maria, who was walking her employer’s labrador down Grove Street. Maria, who declined to provide her surname, came from India seven years ago to work as housekeeper and childminder for two executives at the World Bank. “This place is very nice,” she said. “I work babysitting, cleaning and taking care of the family.”

As Maria carries on her way towards Friendship Heights, the front door of a house proudly flying the stars and stripes above the portico bursts open and a dapper gentleman in a suit and bow tie strides out towards his gleaming 4x4. “It’s changed,” he says of the neighbourhood. “It used to be a lot more government people, but as prices have increased government doesn’t pay enough.”

The man, who declined to give his name, because “I’m a federal judge”, said he could only afford to live in the village because he moved in a long time ago and had spent a large portion of his career in private practice to make enough money.

Branka Sipcic, a realtor at TTR Sotheby’s International across the street from a Ralph Lauren and Tiffany store on Wisconsin Avenue, says it is impossible to find any homes for sale in Chevy Chase Village for less than $1.5m and even then it would be something small in need of modernisation. A search of listings on her MacBook Air reveals just one property for sale in the village: a six-bedroom, six-bath room, 5,850 sq ft house on Oxford Street listed for $3.195m. On top of that, the property tax, which helps maintain the village’s immaculate image, is $42,000.

“Look at these numbers,” she says as she extends the search to take in the other nearby districts. There’s a three-bed condominium in the Somerset House gated complex for $5.5m, with monthly fees of $2,995 to pay for the upkeep of the gym, swimming pool and 24/7 guards.

Another option is a five-bedroom house on Cedar Parkway in prime Chevy Chase Village listed for $4.3m. Sipcic says the Cedar Parkway property would be worth half a million less if it wasn’t “right next to the club”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flowered trees line a walkway to the private Chevy Chase Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland. Photograph: Eric Kruszewski/The Guardian

The club is the Chevy Chase Club, a private member’s country club that Sipcic says is so elitist that “you can be a CEO, a billionaire, but you can’t get in”. She’s right. When the Guardian asked for a tour of the club, founded as a hunting lodge in 1892, we were told we would need to contact the general manager, Luke O’Boyle. Messages were left, emails were sent with no reply from O’Boyle.

“We haven’t given an interview in over a 100 years, we’re not about to start now,” explains Dan, a senior manager.

Asked what the facilities include and how much membership dues come in at, Dan replied: “We only share that information with members.” (Members of the club said the initiation fee is more than $50,000.)

How do I go about becoming a member?

“You have to know a member and be introduced.”

Can we come in and meet some members?

“No.”

Do you have prospective member nights?

“No.”

On the way out of the parking lot, we got chatting to a member of the club leaving the paddle tennis courts. “It’s a wonderful place to be,” she said. “It is quite expensive, yes, but it’s a really great club.”

Before we could ask her name a security guard pulled up in a golf buggy marked “security club car”. “He’s going to make you leave,” she warns.

She’s right. “You must leave,” the guard says. “You’re not a guest, you’re not a member and this is private property.” Although we agree to leave the guard calls 911 and requests police assistance.

Within five minutes, John Fitzgerald, the chief of police for Chevy Chase Village, pulls up in a gleaming white police 4x4. “Can I help you gentleman?” Fitzgerald asks. He explained that several residents have called raising questions about our presence in the village.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chief Fitzgerald is the head of an 11-person police force that patrols the neighbourhood. Photograph: Eric Kruszewski/The Guardian

Fitzgerald says, that unlike most police forces in the country, he has the means to respond to every single call and “we make a point of circling back and telling residents what we found out”.

Fitzgerald, who spent 23 years with Montgomery County police before joining the Chevy Chase police four years ago, has a team of 10 armed police officers serving the village of 1,953 residents “and there’s very little crime”. He agrees that it is “probably a tight ratio” of residents to officers. Across the US there are an average of 2.5 police officers per thousand, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. In Chevy Chase it works out to 5.6. “Small is good, we get to know the residents,” he says. “Courtesy is a premium.”

The Chevy Chase force, who are equipped with Segways as well as a fleet of new 4x4s, are funded by local taxes and revenue from speed cameras installed on Connecticut Avenue, one of the main roads to downtown DC that passes through the village. At one point the speed cameras were making the village $250,000 a month. The revenue must be spent on public safety, hence the Segway. There have been just two robberies in the village in the last seven years. In October, there were a total of 10 reported crimes.

Alongside Fitzgerald and his 10 officers, the village employs 18 other staff who run the day-to-day operations of the village under the control of an elected board of managers. Portraits of previous chairs of the board of managers line the walls of the village hall where the Chevy Chase Village flag is hung alongside the Maryland state flag and the American flag.

“I don’t want to say it’s a boring town,” says Michael Younes, who’s been the village’s director of municipal operations since 2005. “But it’s a very calm area.”