History

The Shouse Village Community Association was incorporated on December 17, 1968. The original model homes were opened to the public in the spring of 1969. The land on which Shouse Village was built is farmland owned by the Cooksey family as far back as 1845. The original farm house still stands and was once owned by Lyle Smith, the assistant attorney general in the cabinet of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. When he was vice president, Harry Truman was a frequent visitor to the farm.

Shouse Village is named in honor of Catherine Filene Shouse, the founder of the Wolf Trap Foundation, which she established in 1968 as a place where “young people with talent could be heard, seen, and taught the demands of a professional career in the arts.” Our street names reflect that artistic and musical influence: Chopin, Schubert, Baritone, Tuba, and Spinet, etc.