Vol. 4 No. 1 April 2002
Voice of The Hill

This Month
4 Neighborhood History: Overbeck Tape Seven
10 The Casey Trees
11 Community Gardens: Here Today, Gone Soon?
14 Landscaping: Making the Most of What You Have
15 To Tree or Not to Tree ?
16 Inside the Southeast Library
18 Out and Proud and Living on the Hill
21 2002 Community Achievement Award Winners
24 It Pays to Look Well

Departments
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Ask Judith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 0
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G rub Street. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 2
The g r e e n i n g o f
C a p i tol Hill
The g r e e n i n g o f
C a p i tol Hill
The East Capitol Street bike
lanes have to be some of the
most used in the city. Now they
dead end in a no-go zone where
cyclists are forced to choose either
traffic clogged streets or narrow, crowded
side walks.
Surely there’s some way that cyclists
could make it through the Capitol grounds
without posing a huge threat to national
security.
I am also concerned that this is one of
a stream of actions designed to seal off
the Capitol from the everyday city. What’s
next? Constitution and Independence
closed? Only tourists allowed on the
grounds?
It’s a crying shame....
POSTED BY ROBERT, MARCH 8
Opnions Expressed Should Not Be
Anonymous
The following letter is in reference to the
March letter entitled “Champs Reaction:
Sour Grapes?”
I am not a member or CHAMPS nor am I
associated with them except as a
Capitol Hill resident. The tone of the
writer of this letter certainly makes one
wonder what is behind its observations.
I take strong exception to the use of a
publication for such a letter when the
writer does not have the honesty or guts
to provide a name. Those reading the
entry ought to be able to identify the
writer of such a strong statement,able
to communicate with that writer if they
wish. In my professional life,I pay no
attention to any document where a
writer does not identify himself or herself.
CHAMPS invests no small amount of
time, energy and money in the improve -
ment of the Capitol Hill Business
District. Business owners or residents,
we owe them gratitude and support for
their efforts—at least the respect of
being willing to engage in dialogue. I fail
to understand why anyone would be sur -
prised at the response of CHAMPS to
the negative generalizations offered in
the Starfish review.
I would guess this anonymous writer
has not taken an opportunity to eat at
Starfish Cafe. Why offer an opinion
about it,then? Not incidentally, I have no
connection with this restaurant or The
Banana Cafe except as a patron.
The Post reviewer has no right to
“review” the restaurants on the Hill as a
group unless and until he has eaten in
them. Perhaps it was a shock to that
reviewer to find restaurants outside of
Northwest,Gaithersburg, Bethesda and
Alexandria.
The work of opening
any new business
takes time,
investment and
great effort. A
restaurant,like any
business,is not a
book that can be read and corrected
before publication or a Broadway musical
that can have a tryout in
Hartford. The owners of Starfish Cafe
are the first to admit that they are a
work in progress with continuing new
menu additions and additional staff. The
Post reviewer, in my opinion and in fair -
ness,ought to have provided the time
required to get this new addition to our
community up to speed.
Meantime,many people are
enjoying meals and the service at
Starfish Cafe. I urge members of this
community to support them and all Hill
businesses. They are a vital part of the
Capitol Hill experience.
As a community, we have enough criticism
regarding Capitol Hill. We should
not be subjected to anonymous and
caustic negativity provided by anyone
who lives on the Hill. Public discourse is
vital to the improvement of our community.
Criticism can be of singular assistance
when it is offered to promote that
improvement. Hopefully, we can all pro -
ceed to work together to pursue and
support the growth of our community
with fairness and in honesty.
Bill Hartgen,Jr.
634 E Street,N. E.
Editor’s Note: As of this issue, The Voice
of the Hill will no longer publish anony -
mous letters in VoiceMail (either those
culled from the website or sent to the
newspaper office).
Voice of the Hill Letter Policy
The Voice of the Hill always welcomes
responsible letters to the editor for publication.
We can also cull comments
from the “Hill Talk Discussion” section
of our website. However, anonymous letters
and comments posted on the site
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Washington,DC 20003
Letters submitted electronically and
through U.S. Mail should include the
writer’s name,address, and daytime contact
number.
VOICE of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 3
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Reader Questions Development
Dear Editor:
Some like development; some don’t. But
most agree it should be done taking
neighborhood concerns into account,and
without harming neighboring properties
during construction.
A former resident and current Hill
developer, Andrew Scallan,has not done
this in his development at 6th and G SE.
It went through the approval process with -
out ANC or community input. The design
was only shown to the community afterward.
Mr. Scallan has shown no concern for
neighbors. When asked to take reasonable
precautions in demolishing a garage
attached to my building, he refused,
bluntly stating that it would be “more
expensive.” As he had no raze permit, a
stop work order was initially issued,but
when a DCRA official learned which project
it was,he said,“they don’t need a
raze permit.” Eventually it was done
roughly to code,after endless calls to city
officials and a series of restraining
orders.
In March,Mr. Scallan excavated an
8,700-square foot area without an exca -
vation permit. He intends to install
beams by pile-driving, although four engineers
have said that this is likely to crack
nearby masonry, and an auger could be
used easily and economically. Scallan
and DCRA officials ignore the construction
code, which clearly states that neighboring
properties must not be harmed.
Mr. Scallan’s shocking behavior is
matched only by the city officials allowing
this to happen.
M A RY-SOPHIA SMI TH
Capitol Not Biker-Friendly
With the weather being so nice today
(March 8),I decided to start biking again
to work from the Hill. I’ve alw ays thought I
was so lucky because I got to bike around
the Capitol,up the Mall and through the
White House precinct to get to work in
Dupont.
The White House was closed off after
the 11th,necessitating a detour of several
blocks in thick traffic.
Now it looks like the Capitol is being
closed to all but tourists and staffers.
I was stopped this morning by a
Capitol policeman and told that starting
this Monday, people trying to ride bikes
onto the Capitol grounds will be ticketed.
Everything—street,sidewalk,parking lot,
whatever—will be off limits.
I understand that the current situation
requires tighter security, but I fail to see
how cyclists pose so much more of a
threat than the thousands of cars that
speed by on Independence or
Constitution every day, within feet of
Senate and House offices.
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
4 www.voiceofthehill.com
T H E O V E R B E C K T A P E S
A N O R A L H I S T O R Y O F C A P I T O L H I L L • P A R T V I I
The beloved Capitol Hill historian and preservationist Ruth Ann Overbeck spent
many years exploring our neighborhood’s past and inspiring others to explore with
her, but news of a far-advanced cancer, some two years ago,made it clear she
would not fulfill her dream of writing the community’s definitive history. To preserve
what knowledge she could for posterity, she collaborated with me in the final weeks
of her life on this series of tape recorded interviews.
On the tape transcribed here, we continue our discussion of how Capitol Hill and
the rest of the city were affected by the Civil War, and then we jump forward in time
to the Hill in the mid-twentieth century. We intended also to discuss the intervening
years, of course,but Ruth Ann apparently sensed,correctly, that she had very little
time left and she didn’t want to miss this opportunity to say some things for the
record about development, preservation and “gentrification” here after World War II.
The discussion continues in the Ma y Voice of the Hill installment.
To honor Ruth Ann and to carry on her work,the CHAMPS Community Foundation
decided last year to establish the Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project.
This all-volunteer effort is tape recording oral history interviews with longtime neighborhood
residents and former residents,building “a permanent, accessible,ongoing
record of the people,places and events that have shaped our community.” We’ve
also launched an Overbeck Lecture Series,which will feature, on April 9,DC
Historical Society director Barbara Franco discussing the role of Naval Lodge #4 and
other Masonic lodges in the early life of our neighborhood. To learn more about the
Overbeck project and how you can help,please go to www.CapitolHillHistory.org, or
call 543-4544.
J O H N F R A N Z É N
[Continuing the interview of March
14, 2000, at the home of Ruth Ann
Overbeck on 12th Street S.E.]
Franzén: Ruth Ann, let’s continue
with ... the hospitals on Capitol Hill
and their significance for the com -
munity – the Civil War hospitals
that were built.
Overbeck: The ironic thing about
them is the total [inattention] that
has been paid to them since the
Civil War ended, and the fact that
the one up in Northwest at Mount
Pleasant ... gets all the attention.
That is the one where Abraham
Lincoln went ... to call on soldiers.
Walt Whitman also did some of his
work there, as did Clara Bar ton.
And since we had certainly the
largest in Lincoln Hospital [located
at what is now Lincoln Park], we
[Capitol Hill residents] probably ...
put in more person hours with those
veterans and the wounded soldiers
than any other group in the city.
They needed everything. They needed
comfort. They needed quiet conversation.
They needed someone to
sit and play dominos with them.
They needed someone to read to
them if they could not see or if they
could not hold a book. They certainly
needed someone to write their letters
home. And those were the
responsibilities, primarily, of the
women in the community.
Some of the lodges, like the Naval
Lodge and the Odd Fellows, sent
contingents over on a regular basis
to give their aid and support to these
people. There are records that show
that there were marriages that resulted
between some of the people who
got very close over the long convalescence,
because convalescence was
not an easy thing to do then. Being
ill was not an easy thing to do then,
to say the least. And there were very
fast friendships that formed that
lasted for the rest of people’s lives.
The interesting part of it, for
Capitol Hill, is that the inner crescent
—that part of Capitol Hill that
had houses and so forth—[ended] at
6th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue;
it curved along there. So you really
had to take your time and be prepared
to go through mud and dust
boat manufacturing company. He
had no intention of giving it away to
anybody. Unfortunately, he built it
so far into the middle of the crescent
that it took from 1862 to something
like 1897 to get the last one of them
sold.
Franzén: They were standing
empty that long?
Overbeck: Not necessarily empty.
They were rented. It’s very interesting,
because I have a liquor bottle
from the basement store of one of
them, from the 1880s.
Franzén: Basement store?
Overbeck: Yes, a mom and pop
store in the basement, a little liquor
store. It’s got the label and everything
on it.
They were absolutely charming
buildings. They are different from
virtually anything that had yet been
built on Capitol Hill. First of all, they
had marble steps, and Capitol Hill is
not a marble steps place.
Franzén: Right. But they are built
in the Philadelphia style.
Overbeck: They are built in the
Philadelphia style. He sent down his
favorite contractor.
Franzén: He was from
Philadelphia?
Overbeck: He was from
Philadelphia. He sent down his
favorite contractor to build these
houses.
Franzén: So he built them on spec.
Overbeck: Yes. Every one of them
was on spec.
Franzén: What about the story
about the wife who was homesick
and so forth? Is there nothing to
that?
Overbeck: No.
Franzén: Where did that story
come from?
Overbeck: Well, there are about
five different buildings on Capitol
Hill, each of which have their own
apocrypha and need their own dictionary
and need their own explanation.
One of them is that [set of]
house[s]; one of them is the
Waterston house up on 2nd Street;
and then there is the entire assortment
of John Philip Sousa houses,
because he lived in something like
seven of them. And each [current
owner] claims [their house is] the
and dirt and grime to walk over
unpaved land to get over here, to
Lincoln Hospital.
The same thing would also have
been true of Emery, down by the
cemetery, with the exception of the
fact there was a fairly decent road
that led to Congressional Cemetery,
so that was not quite as much of a
problem.
The hospital needed things for the
soldiers, such as scarves and muffs.
They needed bandages. So probably
there was a Red Cross-like element to
some of the service that was provided.
...
One of the things that has come
through loud and clear, and is as fallacious
as it can be, is the history of
Philadelphia Row.
Franzén: Philadelphia Row, which
is on 11th Street.
Overbeck: It is in what would have
been the unit block of 11th Street,
but they re-numbered that street in
the 1870s to keep it from being split.
They decided it was too short to be
split and that this block [i.e. Ruth
Ann’s block of 12th Street SE] was
too short to be split. So basicall y,
Philadelphia Row would have been
in the 100 block, but it stands
between East Capitol and
Independence.
I was sitting an on airplane going
to Dallas at Christmas time, and this
man old enough to be my father was
chatting me up and telling me what
his son was doing and how wonderful
it was and he was publishing this
book called “The Greatest Gifts Ever
Given.” It had to do with Elizabeth
Taylor’s diamonds and I don’t know
what all. Then he said, “And
Philadelphia Row in Washington,
DC.” Well I had on my seatbelt and
it was a good thing that I did,
because about two months before I
had just finished the history of
Philadelphia Row.
I said, “Well, why don’t you tell
me about why it was this g reat gift.”
He said, “Because this
Congressman’s wife was homesick.
She wanted something she could see
out her front door that made her
think of Philadelphia. So he built
this whole row of houses. He didn’t
care if they sold or not ....” He went
on, he elaborated, he embroidered.
He just put the most wonderful
details in this story.
I said, “Has this book gone to
press, yet?” And he says, “Oh, yes.”
Well, here is another myth that
has to be fought, because
Philadelphia Row was built in 1862
for a man who owned a steam tug -
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 5
authentic one. And so you have to
decide which one is authentic, et
cetera. There are a number of these
wonderful little jewels running
around.
Franzén: Does the William F. Cody
house fall into that category?
Overbeck: A little bit. We’re going
to leave him alone.
Anyway, [Philadelphia Row] was
really wonderful, because the houses
themselves are quite lovely. The window
style [was] new to Capitol Hill.
Franzén: They were large for that
era, weren’t they – for 1862?
Overbeck: Not for an affluent
group of houses, they weren’t. What
makes them seem larger than they
really are is their perspective. Each
floor gets shorter as you go up. You
get this Thomas Jefferson perspective
... making it seem taller than it
really is.
Franzén: By making the upperfloor
windows smaller?
Overbeck: Shorter, and the [ceiling
heights] shorter, but keeping the
upper story windows pretty sizeable.
They also were some of the fir st
houses on Capitol Hill to have the
almost corkscrew staircase, instead of
one landing or two, and they were
very elaborate in terms of their trim.
The trim was millwork trim. It was
still pretty pricey to do, the millwork
trim. The cornice line is very different.
The dining room paper – I had a
frantic call one day from [one of] the
owner[s]. He had just pulled a cabi -
net in the corner. It was the original
corner cabinet that had been put in,
and behind it was blood red fleur-delis
[wallpaper]. God-awful. Anybody
who was going to eat in this dining
room was going to have trouble
doing that, and it was the dining
room wallpaper of the day.
They were handsomely done. We
do know that every room in the
house was papered. And that was
unusual at that point, because mos t
of the people papered the principal
rooms and plastered the secondary
rooms, because of money.
They had deep back lots ...
Franzén: So, the owner built these
houses on spec, expecting that the
boom that was going on in
Washington, because of the Civil
War, would quickly sell those houses.
Overbeck: I think he was astute
enough to think that the city was
simply going to march, that everything
would start being done right.
Instead of Henry Adams’ [view of]
little pigs in the streets, there would
be paved streets. We’d just gotten the
Washington Gas Light Company ten
years before, and had very few gas
lights in the city, so everything was
ready.
Franzén: So gas lines had started to
be laid.
Overbeck: They had started to be
laid for individuals, but not ... for
large rows, like Philadelphia Row.
But [the builder] had gas lights put
in his houses. So, he was making a
very modern statement.
And my curiosity is, who was he
visiting in the hospital? There’s no
other reason for him to have come
out here.
Franzén: So you’re suggesting he
had a family member or a friend
who was in the hospital ...
Overbeck: I would have to assume
so. There would be no other reason
in this world for him to come east of
6th Street.
Franzén: Now, he did live here?
Overbeck: No, no, he moved his
contractor here.
Franzén: But he never moved here
himself?
Overbeck: Never moved here himself,
no. ...
Franzén: ... So, getting back to the
hospitals, you have a theory that the
hospital may have been why
Philadelphia Row got built where it
got built.
Overbeck: Yes.
Franzén: You mentioned all of the
volunteer work that was done at the
hospitals.
Overbeck: Yes.
Franzén: But obviously they were
major employers as well.
Overbeck: Yes. Probably the most
major [employment] was for the
nurses. The indication is that the
medical staff was all either regular
Army or volunteer Army, and many
of the “worker bees” were as well.
Now, whether or not they went so
far down into the ranks as to utilize
local cooks as day laborers rather
than military cooks, I don’t know.
But if you remember, the Civil
War, the GAR, Grand Army of the
Republic, was an enormous operation
and very complex and very well
staffed. So I’m not sure what the
ratio would have been of off-site
hire.
Franzén: But there was money to
be made, certainly, in real estate.
Overbeck: There was money to be
made in real estate, but there was
very little real estate done during the
Civil War. Very, very little.
Franzén: Explain that.
Overbeck: This had been a
Southern town. At the beginning of
the Civil War, some of the
Southerners had their land confis -
cated ... quite literally.
At the beginning of the Civil War,
some of the Southerners sent part of
their property – that is, their slaves –
back home, to Virginia, Kentucky,
wherever. At the beginning of the
Civil War, some of the men sent
their wives and children back home.
Franzén: You mean people in the
District who were from the South
sent their families back home.
Overbeck: Right. They felt very
strongly about the cause, terming it
mostly as states’ rights.
They were very much of an
opinion that this was some -
thing the government didn’t
have any business doing.
The most prominent person
I know who did this
kind of thing was William
Corcoran – if you know the
Corcoran Gallery at the cor -
ner, opposite the White
House and the [Old
Executive Office Building]. He picked
up and moved to Paris for the duration.
He said, I don’t care if you use
my building. Use my building for
whatever you want. So that beautiful
art gallery was turned into everything
from a horse stable to – I think
it finally ended up being the quartermaster
general’s office.
His home – everything he had in
the city – he simply walked away
from. This was an extraordinarily
wealthy man. He was willing to risk
it because he wasn’t going to stay
here and take the heat. ...
Franzén: And a lot of people did
that?
Overbeck: Quite a number, to one
degree or another.
Franzén: It was an extraordinary
situation to have the capital of the
Union literally in the enemy territory.
Overbeck: Absolutely. And we
were for years the [nearest] city of
any size to the fighting lines. When
people left Washington going south,
they knew they were going to war.
Franzén: So you had building
going on ...
Overbeck: No.
Franzén: At least for the hospitals,
fortifications.
Overbeck: Well, yes, the hospitals.
We had very few fortifications
around Washington. They did that
for about a year, and then they gave
up on it. They said nobody was
going to come and raid. There was a
good network that let them know,
they were going to have plenty of
warning. Of course some of the people
who were letting them know
were the slaves who were rowing
supplies across the Potomac River to
feed the Confederacy at night.
Franzén:Well, I’m still a little puzzled
about what you said, that there
was very little in terms of building
and real estate that went on here
during the Civil War. How could
that be, since there was a huge infusion
of additional people into the
city, correct?
Overbeck: Yes. But think how temporary
they were. Most of them were
people who were going off to the
war or, like the medical professionals
[at the] hospitals, had places to stay
there. A lot of people doubled up in
the hotels.
Also, you lost somewhere between
a third and a half of the Congress
and their staff.
Franzén: Of course. Because of the
secession.
Overbeck: Yes. So you’ve got fine
empty buildings, you’ve got fine
empty messes, meaning where
everyone congregates around the
table for their meals.
And I just can’t picture all these
Yankee women coming down here –
particularly after they hear about all
these little piggies. There’s dirt, and
mud, and Hooker’s Division, and all
that kind of stuff. You know where
the word “hooker” comes from?
Franzén: General Hooker.
Overbeck: Joe Hooker, yes. There
was a whole contingent of ladies of
the evening that took up residence
down by Joe Hooker’s troops – here
in town, off Pennsylvania Avenue
[N.W.]. They called them Hooker’s
Division.
Franzén: There were a lot of men
passing through.
Overbeck: That is what they were
doing, passing through. They didn’t
stay here that long.
I know of one set of [six] buildings
on Capitol Hill, two stories tall,
probably 12 feet wide, that was built
over on 7th Street, between E and G
[or] D and E. They were built as spec
houses.
I also know one set in the 100
block of C Street Southeast may have
been built during the Civil War. If it
wasn’t, it just barely missed it.
But I do know that because of the
enormous amount of building that
had gone on to accommodate all the
workers who were coming in to build
the Capitol in the 1850s, many of
those people left either to fight or go
home, or back to their native land,
or go back south. People doubled up,
and so forth. It just wasn’t that big a
deal.
Franzén: But you did say that the
city was booming during the Civil
War, and by that you mean commercial
establishments – all the soldiers
needed bars to drink in, and ...
Overbeck: Tailors, officer’s clothes
...
Franzén: So, retail. A boom in
retail.
Overbeck: Yes. Silk-Stocking Row,
7th Street Northwest, never looked
so good. Seventh Street Northwest
was zooming along. I know of at
least two tailors down there who
built their houses strictly from the
profits they made during the Civil
War.
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
6 www.voiceofthehill.com
“suddenly” – a 30-year-period. By
the end of the 19th Century, Capitol
Hill was pretty well built out, was it
not?
Overbeck: It depends on your definition
of Capitol Hill. L’Enfant wrote
... there is a map that showed the L
of “La Capitol” up by the Capitol ...
and the L of “Hill” down by the
river.
Franzén: Okay. Well, continuing
with ... the impact of the Civil War
on Capitol Hill. What else stands out
in your mind?
Overbeck: The thing that stands
out in my mind more than anything
else was the enormous role the Navy
played, and the Navy Yard played,
and especially in terms of the mines
and the water bombs and things.
Franzén: Manufactured ...
Overbeck: Manufactured at the
Navy Yard, experimented with at the
Navy Yard. Tested there. At one
point, which alarmed me no end
when I found out what it meant,
they had something like maybe an
eight to nine feet tall “swing gun”
there that they were testing.
Franzén: Swing gun?
Overbeck: Yes. Think of a ride at
the circus that pivots in the middle
and it has a chair on one end and a
chair on the other and it catapults.
Well, that is what this was, except it
had arms in it.
After the war, there were a couple
of accidents and enough fear – and
patriotism was no longer really necessary
—so the neighborhood persuaded
the Navy to move it down
around on the Potomac, and that is
what gave us our start for the Navy
Resource Lab. It originated out of the
experimentation that was going on
at the Navy Yard.
One of the things we were very
blessed in, if you wish to talk about
the Yankee side of the war, we were
extremely blessed in the number of
academically well-trained engineers
from Germany.
Adolph Cluss, I mentioned.
Franzén: Spelled with a C. Are you
sure he was German?
Overbeck: Just you wait.
Franzén: Okay, go on.
Overbeck: Anyway, for the first 10
There were confectioners, there
were all sorts of weird and wonderful
things that were being sold—
souvenirs, maps, whole little books
of maps were put out. There were no
street addresses, so you put out your
map that told you how to find the
houses going from west to east and
north to south. All of those things
were available.
Another thing that would have
been available, that would have been
something on which one would
spend money, would have been
transportation. Part of it would have
been hiring hacks, and part of it
would have been riding the new lit -
tle streetcars, because there were
mule-drawn streetcars that started
during the Civil War to connect the
Navy Yard, the Capitol, the Treasury
Building and the White House.
Franzén: Mule-drawn streetcars.
They were on tracks?
Overbeck: I’m not sure. The streets
were so muddy you can’t tell. I have
to look that up.
I always get tickled, because whenever
I look at [the pictures] I just go:
“Oh, please. This is not the way to
run a railroad.” But they were run -
ning on a regular basis between the
different points of vitality, as it were.
Franzén: A lot of money could be
made in hacking?
Overbeck: Of course. But if you
look at the map from 1861, and if
you plat out a map for the same part
of Capitol Hill in about 1871, you
will see that there is very little
change in that crescent. The boom
begins between 1871 and 1878.
Franzén:Well, we’re getting ahead
of ourselves, but I still have to ask:
What did make it boom, when it
boomed, in the ’70s?
Overbeck: It became a territory.
We had our great experiment in
being a territory, headed toward a
state. And that was a fiasco you
wouldn’t believe—including on
Capitol Hill.
Franzén: We are getting ahead of
ourselves. I will contain my curiosity
for now, but I am really looking forward
to an explanation of how
everything got filled in here. It happened
rather suddenly, yes? Well,
entrance. Girls came and went separately.
It had a boys’ entrance,
because they came and went separately.
And the teacher load per
classroom was between 40 and 60
students. It knocks the wind out of a
whole bunch of people’s sails when I
say I don’t think 23 kids is particularly
very much, because you had
that many kids going there.
Franzén: So that was the fir st public
school?
Overbeck: That was the first public
school. There had been private
schools, as you know, before. The
blacks established a private school,
the Masons established a private
school, and different teachers had
their own little academies, and so
on. But that was the first public
school in the District of Columbia. It
was built in 1862, it was wartime,
after the election that was held that
gave Lincoln the power to get him
down here and get him inaugurated.
The first thing they tended to was
the education issue.
Franzén: There were public schools
farther north.
Overbeck: Oh, yes. Just not in
Washington. We had piggies.
Franzén: So again the Navy Yard
plays a very big role in the life of the
Hill.
Overbeck: Right. There is something
now called the David Taylor
Model Basin, which is where you
experiment with model ships to see
how they respond to wave and air
action. The original building for that
still stands on the Navy Yard. It was
done down there.
We have all these things that wer e
going on that were just, as you saw
in the pictures, you saw the different
types of cannons, you saw the different
types of trestles or carts that
moved them across the ship decks.
And by the Civil War, that was their
forte. Rather than building ships,
that was what they did.
Franzén: Okay. Anything else on
the Civil War?
Overbeck: There probably will be,
but I am debating in my head. I
think the best way to handle things
like the number of wounded, this
and that and the o ther from the
area, and some of the stuff about the
people from Washington who actually
fought, part of it may be in
charts. Because a long string of numbers
[here] it is not effective.
Franzén: Right.
Overbeck: Certainly [the information
we have on the US Colored
Troops could be shown on [a] chart,
in terms of color g radation, everything
from blue eyes and ashy skin
to brown-brown, those that we know
that are from Capitol Hill. I am surprised
how few actually came from
the city but came in from outlying
areas. That is true, basically, of the
whole city. Because people just simor
15 years he was here, that is the
kind of work he was doing, at the
Navy Yard. He ultimately decided he
was going to do buildings, because
that is what he wanted. He was a
close personal friend of Karl Marx,
and he and Karl Marx kept up a lifelong
correspondence. The reason we
have things like light and air and
wide front doors and easy steps and
so on at the Navy Hospital, even at
the new Eastern Market, was because
of Cluss.
He was the designer. He also
designed the Arts and Industries
building downtown for the
Smithsonian, and he designed the
first real public school here in the
District of Columbia.
Franzén: He designed Eastern
Market?
Overbeck: Yes.
Franzén: As it is today.
Overbeck: Yes. The school he
designed was Wallach School. Do
you know where Hine Junior High
is?
Franzén: Yes.
Overbeck: If you move around
such that you are paralleling D Street
precisely—and not that leg that goes
up to Pennsylvania Avenue—that is
where the school was built that
Cluss designed. Now the reason he
designed it was the Yankee
Congressmen. They came down and
they thought it was horrendous that
we did not have required education
for children—white children. So
they mandated that all [white] children
would be educated three
months a year from grades 1
through 8. That was to constitute a
formal education.
And for whatever reason on God’s
green earth— and I have not figured
out yet who sold or traded the land
or gave them the land or said this is
that little piece of land right there—
that was the first move north of the
crescent.
Franzén: For the school.
Overbeck: For the school. Now,
what is wonderful about it, is what it
was designed to do.
Franzén: It was on the site of what
is now Hine Junior High.
Overbeck: Yes. It had a girls’
Now the reason [Cuss] designed [Wallach School] was the Yankee Congressmen.
They came down and they thought it was horrendous that we did not have required
education for children—white children. So they mandated that all [white] children
would be educated three months a year from grades 1 through 8. That was to
constitute a formal education.
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 7
ply went out and bought their substitute.
Franzén: So, relatively few men in
this neighborhood actually went off
to fight.
Overbeck: Yes, except for those
that were literally already in the regular
Army or regular Navy.
Franzén: Or didn’t have the money
to pay their way out.
Overbeck: Right.
Franzén: What is that called?
Scutage? Is that the word?
Overbeck: I think so, yes.
[Ruth Ann asks to stop for the day.
Tape 7 restarts with ...]
Franzén: ... It’s now Tuesday,
March 21st, [2000]. ... We left off
talking about the Civil War, but
we’re going to go forward in time
now ... to the mid-20th Centur y.
Ruth Ann, what do you want to talk
about today?
Overbeck: I want to talk about
what I have been told and what I
have seen that relates to the development
of Capitol Hill [in the 20th
Century].
First of all, when I came up here,
all I heard was that this was a real
estate development. I may even have
said that, in the fir st tape we did
when I was talking about the real -
tors.
Franzén: This was 1968.
Overbeck: 1968. Now I’m going to
take us back to 1949. Everyone knew
that the lovable William Douglas
was a curmudgeon ...
Franzén: William O. Douglas.
Overbeck: Justice of the [Supreme
Court]. He got tired of commuting.
He said there is absolutely no reason
not to live close enough to walk.
Well, people had a fit that the
Douglases might even consider moving
near the Capitol.
Franzén: Explain that. What was
the condition of things here at that
time?
Overbeck: A lot of it was status. It
was certainly a down step for the
Douglases from that point of view.
Part of it was the mixed neighborhood,
and part of it ...
Franzén: Mixed racially.
Overbeck: Mixed racially—just
name it. Mixed. It wasn’t as mixed as
it had been, and it wasn’t as mixed as
it has become, but it was mixed.
At any rate, the Douglases chose a
house on the south side of the
Capitol where the Cannon building
now stands. So I can’t even give you
an address for it.
Franzén: You don’t mean the
Cannon building, you mean
Rayburn?
Overbeck: No, I’m sorry, I mean
the Madison building.
Franzén: The Madison, of the
Library of Congress. Across from
Cannon.
Overbeck: Yes. Well, all those wonderful
houses. The block was filled
with beautiful early houses, many of
them small and Victorian.
Franzén: Was that whole block,
that whole square, all residential?
O v e r b e c k :Well, on the front side
on Pe n n s ylvania Avenue, th e re wa s
some commercial use of first floors ,
but it was pri m a ri ly residential use.
But the re st of the block was pret t y
m u ch, perhaps a milliner or seamst
ress that sewed out of her house, or
s o m ething like that, but that is what
it was. This is 1949. This is pre -
E i s e n h ower school decision [th e
B rown vs. Board of Education desegre
gation ruling]. So why in the wo rl d
would anybody not think that it wa s
reasonable to buy a house within one
b l o ck, two blocks, of the Capitol, th e
L i b ra ry of Congress, et cet e ra?
Franzén: And the Supreme Court.
Overbeck: Yes. Well, after Douglas
moved there, it wasn’t very long
until the block began filling up wit h
different people. Now, the block
remained the same in many ways,
racially and so on, but ...
Franzén: As you say, this was a resi -
dential block primarily.
Overbeck: Yes.
Franzén: There were people living
there. Who were those people? Give
me a general idea of the makeup of
that block and Capitol Hill generally,
at that point, in terms of the demographics.
Overbeck: The demographics
changed block by half block. In
terms of that block, it may have
been as much as a third African-
American.
What happened is, here was
Douglas. That gave [the other residents]
some status. And here were
the paint jobs on the outside of the
houses, here were the flowers, the
tree care. Well, most people try to
live up to their neighbors’ minimum
standards. And all of a sudden this
place was just shining.
Franzén: They set a new standard
for the houses.
Overbeck: Yes. ...
Franzén: There must have been
some members of Congress living on
the Hill.
Overbeck: At that time, there was
nobody living on the Hill. I mean
nobody with status was living on the
Hill until the Douglases moved here.
Period. End of report. You didn’t
come east of the Capitol.
Franzén: How far back do we have
to go—obviously in the 1890s, when
some of these wonderful old
Victorian houses were built, there
was some status attached to it—or at
least it was not a negative to be living
on the Hill.
Overbeck: There was one person
out of all the persons listed in the
Elite List, which was that cur rent
day’s version of the Green Book.
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8 www.voiceofthehill.com
tainly moved out ...
Franzén: 1954.
Overbeck: Yes. And they certainly
began to move out after the Little
Rock decision, because there was a
lot of pressure ... for them to move
out.
Franzén: They were pressured by
what forces, exactly?
Overbeck: They were pressured
because of their schools being no t
up to par in the neighborhoods. And
the neighborhoods had been neglected
a long time.
Franzén: They were segregated
schools.
Overbeck: Segregated schools. So
you had segregated schools that were
not really matching the school that
the children next door would be
going to.
There were persons from the real
estate industry, a man here still alive
on Capitol Hill, who told me he
went through every rundown, shabby-
looking house he could find in
the neighborhood and asked to buy
their house. And for the most part,
they let him buy their house. He is
charming, he’s debonair, and he’s
what we’d call a bigot. And it [went]
all the way through his profession,
and he is still there today.
Those were the kinds of people
who initially gave the Hill such a bad
name for “gentrification.” I hate that
term, but nonetheless, in that
instance it certainly applies.
Franzén: So he was offering what
these folks saw as a good price for
their house?
Overbeck: No, he offered them the
lowest he could get away with.
Franzén: Okay. ... What was the
motivation to sell?
Overbeck: Put it in context. In the
1950s, after World War II, the first
time cars were available to anybody,
almost, since before World War II. ...
That and places like Greenbelt – and
there were Greenbelts for black people
as well as for white people. It was
neither ballyhooed nor large, but
there were suburbs that were advertising
specifically for blacks after the
[Brown] decision for school desegregation.
Franzén: In so many words, they
were advertised ...
Franzén: What was that you
referred to again?
Overbeck: Carrollsburg,
Carrollsburg Square, Harbor Square,
all of those.
Franzén: In Southwest.
Overbeck: Yes. It is one of the
worst schemes of design you can
possibly imagine. There is no room
for middle-class down there, and a
lot of the people who were moved
out were middle-class. Librarians,
people who had—both the wife and
the husband had a paying job. Mike
Michaelson had grown up there.
They personally knew Al Jolson
when he was growing up there. All
this sort of thing.
Franzén: Al Jolson?
Overbeck: Yes, he was born there.
Franzén: Al Jolson, the “Jazz
Singer.”
Overbeck: Yes, his father was a
cantor. The movie is almost to the
letter biographical.
Franzén: That whole development
that occurred down there, what was
it – in the 1950s or 1960s ...
Overbeck: Fifties.
Franzén: Who did that? Was that a
government ...
Overbeck: That was a Federal government
project.
Franzén: “Urban renewal.”
Overbeck: Urban renewal. I didn’t
like it a bit.
Franzén: What was down there [in
Southwest]? It was houses? What did
it look like?
Overbeck: It was houses. It was
mostly one step down, but not all,
from Capitol Hill. It had a lovely
shopping [area]. You could get
almost everything you could get on
Orchard and Delancy Street in New
York, as well as some other stuff that
you would want.
It had taverns. It had local things.
It had a cohesive overall community,
whether or not you’re talking about
race. You knew people who were
there and you spoke to them. That is
a community. Even if you only know
to ask, “How is Mrs. Dobbs’ chicken?”
or, “Has her daughter had her
baby yet?”
At least you know enough about
your neighbors to know your neighbors.
This is probably the one thing
the African-Americans missed most,
was their ability to know that
Johnny’s teacher, Johnny’s preacher,
barber, et cetera, was likely to see
Johnny and go out and take him by
the ear.
Franzén: If he got out of line?
Overbeck: And it’s gotten totally
and completely out of hand.
Franzén: The logic for doing that
project when it was done was what,
exactly? They were rebuilding a
“blighted neighborhood”? What was
the logic? Was it connected with the
building of the freeway there?
Overbeck: Not necessarily the free-
Overbeck: “For colored.” “Built for
colored.” “Built for colored middleclass.”
Franzén: But they were motivated
to move to the suburbs for much the
same reason the whites were moving
to the suburbs.
Overbeck: Sure. This is what’s so
tangled up in this story. It’s one of
the reasons it needs to get out.
Another thing is that they wer e
tearing down Southwest, which was
also a mixed community. Jewish
families in Southwest mostly just
headed for the hills, and bought up
on Meridian Hill. There were synagogues
up there, and there were
things that suited their lifestyle.
There were kosher restaurants
already up there .... But this was the
first time they had ever been able to
buy any of the big front porch houses
or the domed-door [?] houses, and
so on.
Franzén: Because they were prevented
before that ...
Overbeck: They were restricted.
Redlined. Covenants for blacks. And
I think they had dropped the Irish,
but they now had added the Jewish
people.
What was happening was, the
government made a promise – and
frequently made the promise to men
who were really well trusted in the
community, and they passed it on –
... that when Carrollsburg Square
and all of Southwest was redeveloped,
you would be able to come
back to your house, the spot where
your house was. It will be a new
house, but it will be the spot where
your house was. And so your neighborhood
will not be torn up. It will
not be destroyed.
I’ve never heard such nonsense in
my life, because none of the above
happened. First of all, they told
them it would take about a year and
a half, and Lord knows it took longer
than that. At one point, they even
promised to put the original front
doors back on the houses.
Franzén: This was going on over in
Southwest.
Overbeck: Let me correct that: All
the doorknobs—[they promised]
you’d get to have your [old] doorknob....
Franzén: One.
Overbeck: One, and that was not a
Congressman.
Franzén: So it was never really a
swank place to live?
Overbeck: Well, that is not necessarily
true either, because there had
been times when there’d have been
lots of congressmen living here.
They’d have been living in taverns
and boarding houses and so on. But
that was a long, long time ago.
Probably the latest was the 1820s.
What happened is congressional
committees ... formed “messes,”
since they all ate at the same place. It
may have been a boarding house, it
may have been a tavern, or whatever.
Franzén: This is early 19th
Century.
Overbeck: Early 19th Century. At
some point or other, they outgrew
those, and they also found that they
were getting deals to move down to
the newly built hotels downtown.
You come and you eat with us, and
you sleep with us, and you get a deal.
You get a cut rate.
Franzén: Because you’re in
Congress.
Overbeck: Of course. And because
the hotels needed people coming to
stay, because, quite frankly, the
tourist business wasn’t as big as
they’d expected. This was not the
Gilded Age of Mark Twain, where
lobbying really took over. That was a
mid-to-late Civil War phenomenon.
So, the only people who came to
town were jobbers who were selling
things to the merchants, the occasional
person who had no one to
visit but was just here as a tourist,
and then the people who came to
visit family. There really wasn’t
much to see. There wasn’t much to
do. So for the fir st 59 years—certainly
until the Civil War—there just
weren’t that many people in town.
Now, you move from this to the
fact that the shinier and brighter the
house looked, the more likely it was
to be saleable and get top dollar. So
that is when the African-Americans
began to move out.
Franzén: When are you talking
about?
Overbeck: This is within about the
first five years after ’54. And they cer -
So, the only people who came to town were jobbers who were selling things to the
merchants, the occasional person who had no one to visit but was just here as a
tourist, and then the people who came to visit family. There really wasn’t much to see.
There wasn’t much to do. So for the first 59 years—certainly until the Civil War—
there just weren’t that many people in town.
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 9
way, it was the “blighted” concept.
“We don’t want blight, we want a
city beautiful.” Capitol Hill, part of
Capitol Hill, escaped it by a smidge.
Anyway, the way in which it all
fell out was that, okay, we need a
temporary place to stay. Some of
these places up on Capitol Hill are
empty. They are either being rented
or they’re being sold or they’re doing
whatever. And some of these people
down here have a chunk of money.
The last ones to go got a chunk of
money.
Franzén: The last ones in
Southwest.
Overbeck: Yes. I remember being
told by the wife of one of the men
who worked as a librarian at the
Library of Congress – no, by that
time he was working at the Archives.
She said, “Oh, Jimmy and I got
$14,000 for our house.”
Now, let me tell you, $14,000 for a
house in a neighborhood that was
going to go nowhere. She said, “If
you think we were going to sign an
agreement to move back in there,
you’re crazy.” They headed out and
they lived in Brookland in a beautiful
house. Large lawn, beautiful brick
house.
Anyway, that’s how that happened.
By that happening and by
people continuing to double up,
Capitol Hill got a reputation as being
where all the rowdies [were] – it
already had somewhat of this, but
certainly it had become rundown,
ratty and tough.
Franzén: And the notion was, that
was from people moving from
Southwest to Capitol Hill ...
Overbeck: Yes.
Franzén: During the renovation or
the urban renewal in Southwest.
Overbeck: The perception is that.
The perception is also – and a valid
one – that black immig rants from
the South, who didn’t know how to
use toilets and so on, moved up here.
Because they came to live with
friends and families, and so on.
Those two factors are always
talked about. Never, never do they
talk about cars and suburbs. And
never do people talk about the idea –
it began to happen right after school
segregation and overlapped it. Very
few people talk about that as a factor
at all. And yet you have these
dynamic [pressures] going on and
being translated by the Federal government
for the most part, so that
you had these – I don ’t see how the
city survived the pressure, quite
frankly. ...
Continues next month.
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it?’”
Betty Brown Casey was prompted
to create the endowment after seeing
a November 2000 Washington Post
article that documented a 64%
decrease in heavy tree cover in the
District since 1973.
Dutch Elm disease
and a
lack
of funding
for the Department
of Public Works
Tree and Landscape
Division are
among the reasons
that the number of
trees in our city
has dwindled. Mrs.
Casey is also
devoted to restoring
trees because
her late husband,
developer Eugene
B. Casey, was a
In recent months, fleets of normally
idle D.C. Department of
Public Works vehicles have been
spotted rumbling through the
streets of Capitol Hill. Unfortunately,
they’re not fixing potholes, but they
are performing another valuable and
necessary service—planting
trees.
The presence of the “tree
trucks” was widely assumed to
be in connection with the $100
million gift that wealthy widow
Betty Brown Casey gave to the
city in February 2001. Fifty million
dollars was allotted to build and
maintain a mansion on Foxhall
Road, NW, to serve as the mayor’s
residence. With the other $50 million,
Casey, in conjunction with the
Garden Club of America, created the
GCA Casey Trees Endowment Fund,
referred to simply as “Casey Trees,”
with the purpose of restoring the
number of trees in our city. Residents
immediately assumed that Casey
Trees was behind the new plantings
popping up all over town, but, in
fact, a far less likely culprit was
responsible—the city.
“The city trucks that
everyone has seen loaded
with trees are not
through the Casey
grant,” says Margaret
Missiaen, Vice President
of Trees for Capitol Hill.
“Hundreds of new trees
were planted by the
Tree and Landscape
division of Public
Works. The eventual
goal is to plant 4,000
trees total, with hundreds
on the Hill,
through city funding.”
The mission of
Casey Trees is to
“restore, enhance and
protect the tree canopy in
Washington, D.C.” The
endowment’s work is not necessarily
about actually planting trees.
It is about addressing some of the
systemic issues that have allowed the
trees in our city to become so neglected,
and guiding the Tree and
Landscape office on the best way to
plant new trees. The creation of the
organization is fantastic news for
tree lovers both on the Hill and in
other parts of the city.
“It’s marvelous!” says Missiaen. “I
attended an urban forestry conference
with 800 urban foresters – I didn’t
know there were 800 urban
foresters in the world – and the buzz
was ‘DC got $50 million from the
Casey Foundation! How did they do
inventory. “There hasn’t been a tree
inventory in D.C. since the late 70s,”
says Missiaen. “The inventory is
important because you have to know
where you’re starting from.”
“Casey Trees is taking the lead on
the inventory,” says Deutch. “We’re
working with the city – teaching
them how to fish, but not fishing for
them.” The tree inventory will
include several phases.
First, in order to create an accurate
tree inventory, the Casey
Foundation needs knowledgeable
and dedicated volunteers to help
compile it. Enter the D.C. Certified
Citizen Forester Program. Much like
the popular master gardener program,
the forester program asks for a
commitment of 30 hours of classroom
work and 50 hours of field volunteer
work. Best of all – it ’s free.
“Training will be held everywhere
from Capitol Hill to Anacostia, so
that it is accessible to all,” says
Deutch. They are hoping to attract
the 598 volunteers needed to complete
the inventory. “It’s a great
opportunity to learn about trees,
meet people and help D.C.” The
D.C. Certified Citizen Forester
Training will take place from May 20
through May 31.
After securing the number of
needed volunteers, the actual inventory
will take place from June 3
through August 16. Groups of volunteers
led by team leaders with experience
in forestry and landscaping will
hit the streets and survey each of the
city’s estimated 100,000 trees.
Once data is gathered, it will be
incorporated into the city ’s street
tree management system. After this
data is analyzed, it be used in creating
a comprehensive tree strategy for
the city.
According to the organization’s
website, it hopes that the end outcome
of the tree inventory will help
the city to plant “the right trees in
the right place in the right way at
the right time – and with proper follow-
up care.”
For local tree activists, the inventory
is a crucial step that they have
been waiting for. “The city needs to
know how many trees it has, where
they are, and what condition they’re
in,” says Missiaen. “If the old ones
aren’t taken down before they fall,
there can be property damage and
injury. The tree inventory helps to
set the priorities for the work that
needs to be done.”
For more information on how to
participate in the upcoming Citizen
Forester program and help replenish
our city’s trees, visit the GCA Casey
Trees Endowment Fund website:
www.caseytrees.org.
Writer Sarah Godfrey is a frequent con -
tributor to the pages of The Voice of the
Hill.
tree lover in the time when D.C. was
still considered the “City of Trees.”
In addition to their aesthetic beauty,
city trees, of
course, play an
important environmental
role.
“What’s exciting now is that we
have the software and the science
that allows us to calculate in dollar s
and cents – the value of trees in
terms of their ecosystem service for
air quality and water quantity,” says
Barbara Deutch, Community
Outreach Officer for the GCA Casey
Trees Endowment Fund.
“D.C. is in jeopardy of losing its
federal highway funding because
we’re not meeting air quality standards,”
says Deutch. “There is a high
incidence of childhood asthma in
neighborhoods with few trees.”
In addition to their
contribution to
purifying our air,
city trees also
help replenish
our
water
supply.
“When
we develop,
it’s like
putting
Saran Wrap
over the
earth,” says
Deutch.
“Water that
would’ve
been
absorbed is
running off
of the top.
Pipes
designed to
collect the
water aren’t big
enough.
Planting trees
puts holes in that
Saran Wrap that
allow water to be
absorbed and
recharge the ground water.”
Casey Trees is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit
organization that operates off
of the interest of the $50 million
fund. Depending on what the interest
income yield, the organization’s
budget is approximately $2 million
each year. “What’s nice about an
endowment is that it sits in perpetu -
ity, so we can do long-term planning
to make sure that the right trees are
planted in the right way over time,”
explains Deutch.
The first step in that long-term
planning to restore Washington’s
tree cover is to update the city ’s tree
EXTENDING A BRANCH
Betty Brown Casey
Makes a Generous Investment
in Wa s h i n g t o n ’s Tre e s
BY SARAH GODFREY
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 11
BY CELESTE MCCALL With spring comes the
anticipation of gardening
–digging in
the fresh soil, carefully
planting seeds,
nurturing fragile
young shoots, and yanking unwelcome
weeds—great therapy after a
frustrating day at work!
Unfortunately, gardens are becoming
a luxury on Capitol Hill, as most
townhouse yards are too tiny to support
a decent-sized plot. As a result,
some residents have banded together
in communal gardening. Of the
approximately 30 such gardens in
Washington, D.C., we –er–unearthed
four on Capitol Hill. One has been
demolished; another is in serious
jeopardy due to ever-increasing
development.
Our
search for a community garden
began at Frager’s, the venerable
neighborhood hardware and gardening
center which supplies local g reen
thumbs with everything from mulch
to seeds to garden gloves. There we
met longtime Hill resident Nona
O’Neal, who works in Frager’s
accounts payable department.
O’Neal exercises her green thumb in
the Kings Court Garden in the alley
near 14th and C streets SE.
“Last year, my grandkids helped
me in the garden, and they are
already looking forward to it this
year,” says O’Neal, who has dwelled
in her family home on Bay Street SE
for 50 years. Last year, O’Neal harvested
a veritable cornucopia of
tomatoes, collards, cabbage, broccoli,
squash and cantaloupes. She
even tried her luck at miniature
watermelons, but “something happened.”
This year, she’s introducing
green peas and several kinds of
potatoes, including such
exotica as “Peruvian
blue” and yellow
“Russian Banana.”
Kings Court
On a brisk March
afternoon, Pat Taylor
is already hard at
work at the Kings
Court Garden. A native
of Vermont, the energetic
Taylor has lived on
Capitol Hill since 1983. She
unlocks the gate to let me in.
Yes, the garden is fenced to keep out
trespassers. Squirrels, rabbits and raccoons
—realities of urban life—are
somewhat of a problem, but so are
two-footed intruders. Despite a lingering
winter chill, colorful daf -
fodils, crocuses and tulip shoots were
peeking through the soil. Thanks to
a relatively mild winter,
hardier herbs like
rosemary, thyme,
parsley and
lavender were
thriving. A
large toy
frog (since
his battery
was kaput
he couldn’t
croak)
surveyed
the urban
landscape.
According to
Taylor, who lives
nearby, about 20 families
and singles till the garden’s
25 plots. Some sections are
raised – meaning plants are g rown in
a slightly elevated, enclosed structure
filled with “clean” dirt from a
garden center or from the country—
NOT the city. Many gardeners
employ this method because raised
plots are more efficient and produce
a higher yield. Moreover, some
urban soil is contaminated with
lead, due to decades of fumes from
leaded gasoline. “This is important if
you have children [who are susceptible
to lead poisoning], explains
Taylor. While participants may use
any sort of fertilizer they wish, toxic
pesticides are a no-no.
Kings Court is an incorporated
non-profit organization, with a
board of directors and a set of rules
and regulations. “Because of the
scarcity of [undeveloped] land on
Capitol Hill, it’s important to hold
on to our garden...urban gardens are
rare as hen’s teeth,” adds Taylor, as
she yanks some weeds from a plot.
“We have a waiting list.” She adds
that nearby residents–“garden
block neighbors”—receive
priority. In fact, the
land is so much in
demand that Kings
Court’s board of
directors recently
voted to offer
assistance to
groups interested
in starting
their own community
gardens.
Hilton Garden
Hilton Garden is a
gem hidden away
between Constitution
Avenue NE and Stanton Park. Like
Kings Court, Hilton is fenced. The 26
plots are maintained by about 50
gardeners. Some are half plots (a full
plot is 4 by 35 feet), explains Kendall
LePoer, a retired physicist and ardent
gardener. Along with wife Barbara
(also retired), he oversees the garden.
“There’s a lot of demand for
[green] space on Capitol Hill,” says
Ken, as he and Barbara show me
around the approximately 100-by-
100-foot garden. Is there ever! Hilton
has a five-year waiting list of approximately
80 applicants. “We have very
little turnover,” Barbara tells us.
Hilton Garden is not named after
the famous hotel group; the moniker
came from a school (named after
educator Charles E. Hilton), which
stood on the land from 1898 until
1947. The building was demolished
in the early 1950s. For years, an ugly
(and noisy!) vehicle impoundment
lot occupied the space. After that
annoying eyesore was finally
Green Group Efforts
Community Gardens
on Capitol Hill:
S O M E T H R I V I N G , S O M E I N D A N G E R , S O M E A L R E A D Y G O N E
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
12 www.voiceofthehill.com
imprinted their individual character
on their plots. One participant has
erected a cold frame for an assor tment
of lettuces, which are already
growing. A stone leprechaun guards
Pat and Rosemary Lally’s plot. Off to
one side is a trio of cleverly designed
compost bins and a communal tool
shed, which the group members
built themselves. “We even had a
“shed raising,” says LePoer, “complete
with a fiddler.”(The musician—
a Hill resident—was Joel Bailes, a
mainstay at local gatherings.)
Gardeners share the tools. And,
since Hilton is a true community
project, there’s a picnic area with
several tables and even a horseshoe
pit. “We sometimes have potluck
suppers,” says Barbara. “We’ve made
so many friends here...even though
we’ve lived on the hill for 25 years,
we didn’t really know that many
people until we started this garden...
Now, on any summer evening,
we can come out here and someone
is in the garden. It’s a real community
gathering place.”
A Garden’s Last Hurrah?
Sadly, this might be the last hurrah
for a 12-year-old community garden
sequestered behind the townhouses
between 12th and 13, and C and D
streets NE. While it has no official
name, some call the space “the Rear
12th Garden.” The garden is located
on valuable, privately-owned land,
which the owner plans to develop,
perhaps in the fall. Somewhat smaller
than others we’ve seen, the garden
has 10 plots–some of them
raised—tended by about 16 neighbors.
Jean Waskow and friends have
already cleared away weeds and
underbrush and are ready to attack a
pile of compost provided by the city.
“We also get ‘zoo-doo’ from the
National Zoo,” Waskow chuckles.
More manure comes from the
National Park Service.
A huge rosemary bush–which has
weathered several winters—dominates
the garden, and along the
brick pathway we see mint and
bright green sprigs of dill poking
through the ground. Daffodils are
everywhere.
“I grew up in Iowa, and I learned
to garden and nurture....and this gar -
den is a learning process for a lot of
people,” says Waskow, adding that
the space had once been a haven for
removed in the early 1990s, neighbors
Mary Wyman and Alice Birney
got together and planned a group
garden. They sought participants by
plastering the neighborhood with
flyers, “and it went from there.” The
group found a contractor who
removed asphalt from the now
vacant lot “for a reasonable price.”
The city donated mulch, the members
divided the garden into sections,
and the project was off the
ground.
But not until they contacted Judy
Tiger, who heads up GROW, (Garden
Resources of Washington), a local,
non-profit organization which offers
year-around advice to groups starting
gardens and gives annual minigrants
to support community and
youth gardens. “It’s been a lot of
work, but it came out nicely,” say the
LePoers. Their garden opened in
June 1993.
Even this early in the season,
Hilton Garden’s spring planting is
well underway. Perennials and annuals
are going strong. Several large
rosemary bushes, Swiss chard, cab -
bage and Brussels sprouts are
holdovers from last season. Some
members, including co-founder
Alice Birney, tend their plots year
around. She’s already put in lettuce.
“I plant garlic on the shortest day of
the year–December 21, and harvest it
on the longest day, six months
later,” says Birney, citing an old folk
adage.
Hilton Garden is well laid out,
with wood-chip-strewn paths separating
the 26 plots (and half plots).
“This way, you can reach anything
in the garden without stepping on
any plants,” says Barbara. Again, the
community has helped out:
CHAMPS donates bales of straw from
its annual Halloween street party;
oaken boards come from Charley
Horse Carriage Co. (which provides
buggy rides to tourists). Those wood
chips–also free—come from nearby
tree cutting and pruning projects.
“They’d rather give the chips to us
than haul them to the city dump,”
says Barbara. The watering hose
snaking over the ground originates
at the home of co-founder Mar y
Wyman. “We pay her for the water,”
says Ken, explaining further that the
money comes out of Hilton’s dues (a
modest $25 per year for a plot,
$12.50 for a half).
Many of Hilton’s gardeners have
Hours of Operation:
Monday-Friday 8:30 am - 7 pm
Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday 11:00 am - 3:00 pm
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 13
Urban community gardening is hardly new. During World War
II, citizens in the United States (and Canada) banded together to
plant vege table gardens–patriotically called “victory gardens,”
to ensure an adequate, healthful food supply for civilians and
allied troops fighting overseas.
From 1942 through 1945, millions of victory gardens flourished
as Americans plowed backyards, vacant fields (there were
lots more of them back then!), baseball diamonds, parks and
even schoolyards to set out plots. A garden could be a small as a
window box or even an indoor planter or as big as a parking lot.
From Maine to Florida to California and certainly on Capitol
Hill, families worked together to plow, fertilize, plant, weed,
water and otherwise tend these precious plots.
“Planting a victory garden was the thing to do,” recalls retired
journalist Tom Kelly, who was born on Capitol Hill almost 79
years ago. He now resides near Constitution Avenue with wife
and fellow writer Marguerite. “Victory gardens were patriotic,
and they also put food on the table,” he adds. “As I recall, there
was no severe food shortage. I was stationed in the North
Atlantic (with the Navy) during the war, but when I came home
in 1945, I remember my sister Mary Theresa was still trying to unload zucchini
from her victory garden; apparently they grew like weeds! I suppose
everyone was doing that.” Kelly also remembers that victory gardens
hung on for some years after the war; most had disappeared by around
1950.
Everyone pitched in to ensure the success of victory gardens. The federal
government, private foundations and schools provided
gardening advice, while seed companies and other businesses
donated their products. Colorful posters which read: “Plant a
Victory Garden, Our Food is Fighting, A Garden Will Make
your Rations go Further,” appeared in public spaces everywhere.
According to the Smithsonian Institution, some 20 million
Americans planted victory gardens. The idea was to produce
enough fresh vegetables throughout the summer to feed one’s
family and immediate neighbors. Any excess produce was preserved
–usually canned or pickled— to last the winter until
next year’s crop was ready to harvest.
Kelly also points out a fascinating but not surprising fact:
Back in the 1930s and ‘40s, Eastern Market vendors were all
farmers, mainly from nearby Prince George’s County. There
were no flowers or antiques. Moreover, virtually all the farmers
grew their own produce; no one purchased foods from wholesalers.
Kelly fondly recalls Country Gentleman corn, with its
small, sweet kernels, and huge, juicy, beefsteak tomatoes.
“Back then, many people on Capitol Hill had grown up on
farms,” Kelly adds. “So they took to victory gardens as a matter of course.
He added that what are now sprawling suburbs and strip malls were once
“garden farms.” Even today, you’ll see such farmers hawking their produce
around the Eastern Shore.
Today, the Kellys still maintain a garden at their home near Fourth St.
and Constitution Ave. NE. Now, they grow only flowers.
Remembering Vi c t o ry Gardens:
Patriotism That Put Food on the Ta b l e
drug dealers and abandoned cars.
“Now, our neighbors look out for
each other.” Helping repel intruders
is a rosebush–full of thorns–mean -
dering along the wire fence. “Natural
barbed wire,” quips Waskow, who
lives right behind the garden, visible
from her balcony. To tend her plot,
all she has to do is run out her back
door.
As we chat, another garden member,
Gail Giuffrida, stops by with a
friend, Muriel Martin-Wein, who is
interested in sharing a plot. The
group discusses weeding and trashhauling
and are happy to learn that t
the Capitol Hill Garden Club is lending
the group–free of charge–a tiller
to turn over the earth.
“We always knew there was a
chance the owner would develop
this space,” says Waskow with a sigh
of resignation. At this time, the
group has no plans to relocate their
garden; members will probably go
their separate ways.
Already gone is Binders Garden,
located near 13th and E streets NE.
Although the space has already been
bulldozed and a foundation partially
laid on the site, apparently neighborhood
activists are still trying to
save it. The law firm of Keith Andrew
Perry, who is running against Sharon
Ambrose for the Ward 6 City
Council seat, is representing the citi -
zens in an attempt to either stop the
planned townhouse construction or
relocate the garden to a field next to
the former Kingman school.
Judy Tiger of GROW stresses that
Washington has many kinds of community
gardens: Some–like the
examples in this story—are vacant
lots where neighbors maintain their
plots. Others are school youth gar -
dens (there’s one at Watkins
Elementary School), as well as clientbased
gardens at senior housing,
condos and other community facilities.
Other projects include neighbors’
beautification efforts in city
parks (such as Turtle Park at Seventh
Street and Independence Ave. SE,
across from Hayden’s Liquor store)
and even street-side tree boxes.
The District government encourages
community gardening by
donating mulch–usually leaves—and
other supplies. Assistance also comes
from GROW, which has helped
launch 80 gardens citywide since its
inception in 1982. As for those folks
on waiting lists or tending plots in
gardens slated for demolition, Tiger
urges them to consider starting their
own on available land in their neighborhood.
Tiger concedes that starting
a garden is a slow, sometimes
frustrating, process, “but it’s rewarding!”
Located at 1419 Vermont Ave. NW,
GROW maintains a website:
www.needsyou.org; the phone number
is 202-234-0591.
Hill resident Celeste McCall is a regular
contributor to the Voice of the Hill.
Liber Antiquus
Early Imprinted Books
15th to 17th Century Books
On Capitol Hill
Monday-Friday 9-5, or by appointment
19 D Street SE, 3rd Floor
202-546-2413
WWW.LIBERANTIQUUS.COM
environmentally aware,” she says.
“We’re tapping into water that
comes off of roofs for rain gardens
with rain barrels. I’m promoting that
a lot with clients – especially in view
of the drought we’ve been experiencing.
“Most of the work I do is on the
Hill, where you’re dealing with a relatively
small scale,” she continues.
“People are starting to grow more
edibles – not an entire vegetable garden,
but maybe some strawberries
sprinkled in. We’re mixing the ornamental
and the edible toge ther,
because in an urban garden, there
isn’t as much space. It ’s also important
to utilize native plants in the
landscape – there is less of a need to
water and use pesticides in maintenance.”
Brenegar’s attention to your
garden doesn’t stop with plants –
“I’m also encouraging bird and bat
houses – it makes the garden more
than just a place for plants – it creates
a little ecosystem.”
Brenegar is a landscape contractor
– someone who designs, installs, and
maintains her clients’ landscaping.
“With the urban gardens, you’re
more likely to find someone like
me,” she explains. “It’s atypical in
suburban areas to have someone
design, install, and maintain. You
have a designer, a landscaping contractor,
and someone else who does
maintenance – which means more
people schlepping in and out of your
house.”
Although credentials are important
in hiring any contractor,
Brenegar says that rapport and repu -
tation are also key factors. “Ask to see
some of their work and a reference
list, but regardless of someone’s cer-
Capitol Hill is famous for its visually
striking historic row houses, but
nothing detracts from the neighborhood’s
distinctive architecture more
than an unkempt lawn or garden.
Plantings can be just as important to
the look of a home’s façade as a fresh
coat of paint. But landscaping does -
n’t just beautify the yard – it creates
an oasis that keeps us in touch with
Mother Nature after a hard day of
navigating the urban jungle.
Capitol Hill is filled with extraor -
dinary gardens. Although most of us
don’t have the sort of yard that
requires a John Deere lawn tractor,
we more than make the most of the
space we’ve got.
Although we would all like to take
credit for the lush vegetation that
surrounds our homes, some of us
have had a little help with our gardens.
Capitol Hill has many expert
landscapers who are well aware of
the look of the neighborhood, and
are eager to get their hands on your
little neglected stretch of lawn. Kim
Brenegar, of Ornamental Gardens,
and Anya Sattler, of Art Garden
Design, are both “landscapers,”
although their job descriptions are
very different. But they do share one
thing in common – they want your
patch of land to look as beautiful as
it possibly can.
Kim Brenegar—Landscape
Contractor, Ornamental
Gardens
Hill resident Kim Brenegar has been
in the landscaping business for over
10 years, and has noticed several
recent landscaping trends that can
be seen throughout the neighbor -
hood. “There is a trend to be more
height and breadth. Think very
clearly about the space. Do you see it
in the winter? Consider how it will
look bare. Do you hold parties there?
Stay away from plants that attract
bees. If you have kids, you won’t
want anything that has poisonous
berries.
Although it is an exciting profession,
the world of a landscape con -
tractor isn’t all roses. Brenegar has
run into some interesting specimens
during the course of her work. “In
my travels, I have found a semi-automatic
shotgun under a shrub, I’ve
found crockery, bottles, needles,
condoms, wallets – all of the urban
things.”
“In the early days, when I was still
doing lawn care, before contracting
it out, my lawn mower rolled out
and into the intersection of
Maryland Avenue and 8th Street.”
Anya Sattler—Landscape
designer, Art Garden Design
Sattler’s Art Garden design has been
in operation since August 2001.
With a background in both sculpture
and landscape architecture,
Anya Sattler is interested in bringing
an artistic flair to her clients’ projects
“One of the objectives of my
design practice is to bring together
local sculptors and clients interested
in adding unique art elements to
their gardens,” she said. “There are
two ways of getting the artists
involved. The first, and more common,
way is placing a finished piece
within the garden. The other is to
collaborate with artists during the
design process in order to incorpo -
rate materials such as mosaic,
wrought iron, stone or glass into the
garden’s palette.”
Sattler is a landscape designer, but
she is often lumped together with
landscape contractors, like Brenegar,
and simply referred to
tification, the bottom line is: are
they talented and are their cur rent
clients happy. I’m not a landscape
architect. I don’t have a certificate,
but at lot of times with smaller gardens,
you don’t need the formality
of landscape architecture.”
Trust is another essential requirement.
“I know my clients’ dogs; I
have keys to their homes,” Brenegar
says. “You want to make sure that
you click personality wise. Always
trust your intuition – you’ll get a feel
immediately whether or not you like
someone. This person is going to be
in your backyard, private areas, lugging
stuff back and forth – there has
to be a certain level of trust.”
For those who choose to design
and plant gardens or home landscaping
without the help of a professional,
Brenegar recommends
simplicity as well as careful planning.
“When in doubt, go simple;
when in doubt, go with
less variety,” she said.
Instead of taking
one of this and
one of that,
do three of
the same
thing. Also,
think about
what you’re
choosing to
use will look
like in three
to five years
when it’s at
its mature
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
14 www.voiceofthehill.com
G reen On the Hill:
The Right Landscaping
Can Create an Oasis in
the Neighborhood
BY SARAH GODFREY
A garden plan by Ar t
Garden Design.
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 15
Grounds were removed, including
six memorial trees,” says Fontana.
“Eighty-five trees will be replanted
following construction. Eight
memorial trees were transplanted.
Six were removed because they were
either too old, or in such a state of
decline that a successful transplant
was not probable.”
Among the 14 uprooted memorial
trees was the Liberty Tree Seedling,
grown from the 400-year old Liberty
Tree in Annapolis, Md., that was cut
down in 1999 after being severely
damaged in a storm. Additionally,
cuttings from all 14 trees were taken
and will be used to replant trees lost
elsewhere on the Capitol grounds.
“Two of the memorial trees
impacted were already second generation
— not the original memorial
tree planted,” Fontana continues.
“Another of the 14 memorial trees
impacted by the project was one
planted by the then former Vice
President Thomas Marshall in 1911.
The tree was outside the project footprint,
but leaned so acutely that it
posed a serious hazard to pedestr ians.”
The Architect of the Capitol operates
according to strict historic
guidelines in any alterations to its
grounds, something Hill residents
can readily relate to.
“The Architect of the Capitol is
keenly aware of the historic significance
of the Capitol grounds and is
extremely sensitive to the original
landscape scheme as envisioned by
Frederick Law Olmsted back in
1874,” says Fontana.
According to Olmstead’s plan, the
grounds were designed as a “parklike”
setting that would focus attention
on the Capitol. “You will notice
BY SARAH GODFREY
The planned three-level, five-acre
Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) project
will provide a much-needed area for
Capitol guests to gather. “The
Capitol Visitor Center will make the
U.S. Capitol more accessible, comfortable,
secure, and informative for
all visitors,” reads an overview of the
project on the Architect of the
Capitol website.
“The need for the Capitol Visitor
Center was recognized as early as the
mid-1970s,” said Tom Fontana, CVC
Project Communications Officer, in
a recent email. It was events that
occurred during the 1990s, however,
including the 1993 World Trade
Center bombing and the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing, that punctuated
the need for a place where
visitors could be screened remotely
and vehicles could be kept away
from the face of the Capitol.
Fontana says the events of
September 11th underscored the
need for the project.
Although the estimated completion
date for the project is mid-2005,
pre-construction work, including
tree preservation activities, began in
late 2001. The tree preservation
phase includes the removal and
transfer of some of the trees present
on the Capitol grounds that would
be affected by the construction.
The plan to remove trees immediately
captured the attention of Hill
residents. Even if they’re on federal
land, anytime we learn that trees in
our neighborhood are being cut
down, tempers flare. Fontana
explains that the project isn’t nearly
as menacing as it sounds.
“In all, 68 trees on the East Capitol
no colorful flowerbeds on the East
Front that would take attention
away from the Capitol,” says
Fontana, citing one example.
Olmsted even once wrote in a letter
that the grounds “were secondary to
the needs of the Capitol.” Fontana
also notes that Olmsted’s plan called
for the removal of more than 400
trees when the West Terraces were
constructed in the 1880s and 90s.
‘Doesn’t Look Like a Battle’
Although local tree activists don’t
dismiss the loss of any tree, they
have largely decided to sit this battle
out.
“The longer I’m a volunteer, the
more my attitude becomes that of a
professional—I have sympathy with
those making those sort of decisions,”
says Margaret Missiaen, Vice
President of Trees for Capitol Hill.
“We have to pick our battles, and
fighting Congress is not something I
can do productively.”
The Capitol Hill Restoration
Society (CHRS) has responded similarly.
“This one doesn’t look like a
battle,” says Charlotte Furness of
CHRS. “They are not wiping out that
many trees - most will be bac k.”
The Architect of the Capitol has
shown itself to be extremely sensitive
to the wellness of its trees, and
dedicated to saving as many of them
as possible—even those not sponsored
by, or planted in honor of,
political dignitaries and other
prominent figures.
“In regard to non-memorial trees,
most of those affected are tulip
poplars along East Capitol Street,
and many of these are near the end
of their natural lifespan,” says
Fontana. “A tree removed just last
week had been filled with concrete
to help keep it standing.”
The AOC is even installing sprinklers
in tops of the trees to keep
leaves free of dust during construction.
“This system will help the trees
to ‘breathe’ and absorb light to
ensure their viability during and
after construction,” says Fontana.
The project has additionally contracted
tree expert firm Davey Tree
to keep on site throughout project
construction to further “ensure the
survivability of all the trees on the
East Capitol Grounds.”
“Overall, there will be more trees
replaced on the Capitol Grounds
than are lost during construction,”
says Fontana, putting the minds of
our neighborhood’s aspiring
arborists at ease. Although opinions
differ on the construction of the
Capitol Visitor Center itself, Hill residents
can rest assured that the trees
will be well taken care of.
Freelance writer Sarah Godfrey con -
tributes many stories to The Voice.
as a “landscaper. “People say ‘landscaper,’
but there are different professions
within landscap— such as a
landscape designer or a landscape
contractors,” she said. “I’m a designer.
I design a project and then help
the client get estimates, and oversee
construction if appropriate. It ’s different
than a design-build company.
With design-build, you go with one
person throughout the process.
With the other alternative, you get a
variety of estimates to choose from.”
Sattler says that communication is
the key to any designer/client relationship.
“A designer’s work is a lot
about listening and helping clients
articulate what it is they really want.
For example, many people say they
would like to have a Japanese garden
which may not be appropriate for
the house it’s surrounding,” she
says. “When asked exactly what it is
that they like about Japanese gardens,
they will mention things like
simplicity, sense of tranquility, or a
richness of textures and greens
rather than striking bloom colors.
It’s about translating what such
clients mean by a ‘Japanese garden’
in order to weave these elements
into a garden design that belongs in
its context and works for its owners.”
In terms of design trends, Sattler
definitely supports “going native.”
“I tend to lean in the direction of
native plants because of their
resilience to local conditions but
also because they just tend to look
right,” she said. You do not have to
have any horticultural know-how to
sense that certain plants seem to
belong. Native plants help tie the
garden to its larger regional context,
making it into a more authentic ‘little
piece of nature.’”
To further serve her clients, Sattler
is working on establishing her own
plant and flower photo gallery,
which will give clients an even better
idea of what plantings are available
to them and how they might look in
a particular space. “It gives people a
good example of plants that are
appropriate to use. I want to have
photos of the same plant throughout
the year. Usually, when you see
pictures of plants, they’re flowering.
But it’s also good to see how the
plant look during the winter, to see
just how bare it will get.”
For Sattler, landscaping is a family
affair. Her husband is involved in the
profession as a landscape architect.
Sattler says that she appreciated having
a colleague under the same roof.
“He critiques my projects. It’s great
because as a one-person team, I’m
able to bring costs down because the
overhead is lower, but a solo designer
still need feedback from other professionals.
And I have that for free!”
Sarah Godfrey is a frequent contributor
to The Voice of the Hill.
To Tree Or Not to Tr e e ?
Construction of the Capitol Visitor Center
Rustles a Few Leaves
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
16 www.voiceofthehill.com
Friendship House, which was then
over on Virginia Avenue. The
District of Columbia Public Library
built its first branch in Takoma-DC
in 1911. And then nothing. Finally,
in 1921, Congress got around to
appropriating money to buy the plot
at 7th and D Streets, SE, for a second
branch, and Andrew Carnegie put
up the money for the new librar y
building—some $68,000. One
Edward Tilton was engaged to design
the building, which now looks from
the outside pretty much as it did
when it was built.
There was a great to-do at the
opening ceremony: a brass band
played on the steps, and there were
dignitaries galore. The small collection
from Friendship House had
been moved over, and the central
library added some more, until the
Southeast Branch could boast that
its opening day collection numbered
5,000 volumes—of which 1,658 were
for the juvenile collection. When
the doors opened on December 9,
1922, the neighborhood poured in.
Never mind that a local ar chitectural
Of course, it’s about books. Stacks
and stacks, piles and piles, including
the pile you see in the photo that
accompanies this story. David Gantt
frequently sees piles like it. He’s a
librarian at the Southeast Branch
Library at 7th and D, SE.
“It’s not an unusual sight,” he
says. “Particularly when we come
back from long holiday weekends.
The pile sometimes reaches from the
front door back to the steps. From
the time we open the front door, we
have 40 seconds to figure out how to
get over the pile of books, up the
steps, and into the library to shut off
the burglar alarm. If we don’t make
it, the alarm rings over at the police
station. Sometimes it takes some
athletic ability to get over them in
time.”
And with that, he lets out a great
shout of laughter. That’s the
Southeast Branch all right—a place
of books and joy. It seems to have
always been this way, ever since it
opened in December 1922.
Capitol Hill’s first lending library
was operated out of a room in
months of operation, the circulation
at the Southeast Branch had already
reached 86,822. By the time the first
year was out, the circulation was
130,875. The annual report for 1923
of the Board of Trustees of the Public
Library put it in the best bureaucratic
prose: “The branch has taken its
place in community life, most
noticeably in the case of the children…”
The pattern set there really hasn’t
faltered since. Capitol Hill has long
been a community that reads voraciously,
and the Southeast Branch
has been a community center since
it opened. Oh, some of the demand
for books slacked off when the
Northeast Branch opened over at 7th
and Maryland, NE, but the Southeas t
Branch really just never looked back.
I stopped by the library other day
to see what they’re up to these days.
The biggest draws right now are tax
forms. There’s almost a steady
stream of people traipsing, bounding,
or trudging up the steps to pick
up their 1040s and their D.C. tax
forms. One patron needs a special
form for non-profit organizations,
and David Gantt points out the
thick binder with IRS forms that can
be photocopied. “If you can’t find it
in there,” he says, “let me know, and
I’ll print it out from the IRS website.”
Gantt is also overseeing the
library’s other main attraction these
days: the Internet computers. The
Southeast Branch has two Internet
computers on the adult side. A
library card isn’t required, and they
appear to get a lot of web miles put
on them. There is a steady stream of
users during the time I am there, and
Lloyd DeVore is one of them. A D.C.
native now living in NW, he works at
the National Graduate University as
an ESOL teacher. “I haven’t got my
computer set up in my office yet, so I
come here to read my email,” he
says. “I’m here probably three times
a week at least.” And others are lined
up behind him.
On the other hand, Ms. Carrie
Sampson, a 20-year staff member at
the Branch, says with only half-exaggerated
alarm that the computers
“drive me crazy. They’re always running
out of paper for the printer, or
the people are trying to print too
many pages, or something. We’re
going to be requiring people to have
a library card and limiting the number
of pages they can print out.”
But not everybody is there to use
the computers. Janet Carter is over
by the rotating racks, looking over
the romance novels. A 30- year Hill
resident, she lives out by the
Stadium and comes by Metro. “I read
mostly mysteries and romances,” she
says. “I don’t watch TV. I read.” She
leaves with a stack of paperbacks.
The children’s programs at the
critic complained that Tilton’s specialty
seemed to have been “dark
stairways ending in blank walls, and
cubby holes too small for anything
but dust.” Nobody cared: Capitol
Hill finally had a library.
Ten days later, smoke signals went
up. “Help! Help!” went the cry from
the Southeast Branch to the central
library. “We need more books! We’ve
loaned nearly all of our books out!
And the people still keep coming!”
Children’s books were in especially
short supply: of the 1,658 volumes
in the library on opening day, only
108 were still on the shelves ten days
later. All the rest were checked out:
being read by winter sunlight,
evening gas light, or late night candlelight.
The Washington Evening
Star reported that “The children’s
room has been a seething mass of
boys and girls standing in line to be
registered for library cards….” The
librarian of the District of Columbia,
one George Bowerman, had originally
opined that he would be satisfied
with an annual circulation of 65,000
volumes, but after only seven
IT’S ABOUT THE
BOOK S
…And Much More
Despite Overcrowding and
Budget Pinches, Southeast
Branch Library Continues to
Offer its Many Pleasures
BY GENE MIL LER
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 17
Southeast Branch are almost the
stuff of legend, so I wander over into
the children’s section on the nor th
side. It’s compact, not to say crowded,
but it still has that homey,
mussed and rumpled feeling. There
are amiable collections of gadgets,
stuffed animals, brightly-colored
posters and prints on the walls.
Tucked away on a shelf is a purple
box with a slot in it. “Share Your
Stories Poems Pictures” is written on
the box. A bulletin board announces
a Winter Quest End Party on April 2.
And of course there are books. All
that is lacking at the moment is children:
they’re all in school and can’t
come to the library during the
school day without special permission
slips or their parents.
I stop back on a Wednesday morning
during story time (10 a.m. to 11
a.m.). I can hear the children laughing
and calling out as soon as I am
inside the front door. It turns out
that Miss Delphinium, the alter ego
of children’s librarian Tracy Myers, is
holding court in the children‘s section.
A group of 20 or so Ar thur
Capper preschoolers is gathered
around her, eyes bright. Miss
Delphinium has an alarming shock
of purple and silver hair, but the
children are more interested in the
stickers she is handing out now that
she has finished reading to them.
“Put them on your heads, don’t put
them into your mouths,” calls Ms.
Delphinium.
Regina, a slightly overstuffed cheetah,
then joins the party. Regina is
Ms. Delphinium’s right hand cheetah,
so to speak. The children all
reach out to pet Regina and to give
and get great sloppy kisses. “Ohhh,
you taste like pancakes,” Regina says
after one particularly juicy
exchange, and of course, everybody
else wants to know what they taste
like, too. After much talk of food,
many kisses and much petting, the
party is over. Regina retires to the
safety of a shoulder bag, and Ms.
Delphinium beats a retreat downstairs.
When Tracy Myers reappears, she
is happy to chat about her work with
the children at Southeast. “We have
the regularly scheduled events, of
course, and we’ve just added a regular
grandmother reading for
Mondays,” she says, “but some of
the best times we have here in the
children’s section are just the spontaneous
things that happen after
school. We might play book bingo or
some other game. Someone donated
some little latch rug kits, so we were
doing that the other day.
“In between times, I’ve been working
on trying to find more space for
the older kids to do homework. We
have kids up through 14 years of age
in here, and they just can’t sit at
those little tables.” She nods in the
direction of the small tables and
chairs that are obviously designed
for first-graders. “We moved a
bookshelf here in the back—the
whole corner was just being
used to stash things—and now
we have a chair and a table for
the bigger kids to sit and do
their homework. But we have so
little space.” While we are chatting,
a young man from story
hour comes up and eyes her suspiciously:
“What’d you do with
your hair?” he asks. Myers
assures him that it was Miss
Delphinium who had that
amazing shock of hair. He isn’t
quite convinced, but goes off to
find a book anyway.
The relationship between the
Hill’s public schools and the
Southeast branch is, well, complex
—and not necessarily for
the better. Myers currently conducts
regular classes in how to
use a library for the kids at Tyler, and
other schools come in to the branch
as well. “The Brent School had to let
its librarian go, so we’re now the
library for them.” It’s difficult to
imagine schools without functioning
libraries, but other librarians
echo Myers’s concern. “When we ask
kids about the libraries at their
schools, they just roll their eyes,”
says Gantt.
“It comes down to money,” says
Myers, and Shari Vollin, manager of
the Southeast branch agrees. As it
turns out, not only are the schools
short on funds for libraries, but the
public libraries themselves are
scratching and scrabbling. D.C. only
spends 0.5% of its budget on its
library system. That’s one-half of
one percent—well behind the rates
of expenditure of other large cities.
There wouldn’t be any computers at
Southeast at all if it weren’t for the
generosity of Bill and Melinda Gates.
(No, they didn’t donate Macs.)
Pinched budgets and overcrowding
notwithstanding, libraries continue
to offer their pleasures. Grace
Perry is a six-year old first-grader at
Watkins and has come to the library
on a rainy Saturday with her mother.
She carefully parks her scooter in the
corner, and then with six-year old
aplomb, shows me her library card
Southeast Branch
7th and D, SE,(202) 698-3377
There are films for preschooler s
every Monday at 10 a.m.,Arts and
Crafts on Tuesday from 6:30 p.m. -
7:30 p.m.,and Storytime on
Wednesday morning at 10 a.m.
The Friends of the Southeast
Branch library is the community
support group for the Southeast
Branch. For more information,contact
Margaret Hollister at 544-
7763.
and announces “I like chapter
books. I like a lot of books. I like this
book.” She holds up a book called
Don’t Be My Valentine, and it looks
very much like a book a six-year old
would enjoy. She and her mother
have been coming to the library at
least once a month since Grace was
four months old. She has no conception
of life that doesn‘t include
going to the library.
As far as Southeast Branch is concerned,
that’s just the way it ought
to be.
Writer Gene Miller’s byline is a frequent
sight on the pages of this newspaper.
Tracy Myers a.k.a. Miss Delphinium
and sidekick Regina the cheetah.
Story hour at Southeast Library is a
part of the almost legendary children’s
programs.
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
18 www.voiceofthehill.com
went to a restaurant
(Mr. Henry’s, specifically)
and saw “all
kinds of people being
who they were and
eating in the same
place—chatting from
table to table.”
Seven-year Capitol
Hill resident Jeffery
Watson, who lives
with his partner on C
Street NE, likewise
sees the Hill as a place
where gays and lesbians
are “fortunate
in that we don’t need
to have a ‘gay ghetto’
in order to function as couples or as
gay people, period.”
“Unlike previous neighborhoods
where I lived in D.C., Capitol Hill
has a good sense of place and community,”
states Albert Dainton, who
purchased his NE home late last
year. “Although some areas are a little
gritty, I don’t feel uncomfortable
anywhere because I’m gay.”
A ‘Hill’ Sense of
Community
John Fleming has lived on the Hill
for 14 years, currently living at 13th
and East Capitol NE. “I think
Capitol Hill residents—especially
those of us who have lived here for a
reasonably long time, have a sense of
community and neighborhood
pride, but it’s a ‘Hill’ sense of community
—not a gay one,” Fleming
says.
“I think a lack of a sense of gay
community is a problem in
Washington as a whole,” he continues.
“Dupont Circle may be the gay
center of the D.C. universe, but it’s
not a very active, vocal, involved or
inclusive community.”
“There is a [GLBT] community on
the Hill,” says Neil Glick, who has
A few months ago, an article in
D.C.’s leading gay publication asked
the rhetorical question, “Is Dupont
Circle losing its status as the city’s
‘gay mecca’?” The question spawned
several topics of discussion among
gays and lesbians. A number of them
agreed that as an ever-increasing
number of straight couples and singles
move into that neighborhood,
and businesses and social spots
spring up to serve the changing
community, Dupont seems to be
moving away from its reputation as
being “the” center of gay culture in
Washington — becoming the home
to a more diversified population.
Some residents, who are active
members of the gay and lesbian
community in Dupont, accept and
even appreciate this gradual “shift.”
Others don’t.
But for lesbians, gays, bisexual and
transgendered (GLBT) people who
live on Capitol Hill (likely the home
of the second highest concentration
of gays and lesbians in Washington),
the status of living in a “gay mecca”
alone does not seem to hold much
importance in their lives. Instead,
quite a number of GLBT residents
believe they are more comfortable
living away from what is perceived as
the focal point of the D.C. gay community
—and the Hill offers just
what they’re looking for.
“As a lesbian, [the Hill] feels differ -
ent to me than Dupont Circle,
which has always felt more gay
(male) centered and distinct,” says
Jill Strachan, who has lived on
Capitol Hill since 1977. “On the Hill,
lesbians and gays seem to be part of
the overall landscape. And the Hill is
full of places where all sorts of people
meet and greet.”
The Hill was the fir st place in her
life where Strachan saw lesbians of
color, she recalls. And it’s the first
neighborhood in D.C. where she
rently living on Capitol Hill, that
statement is true.
Newcomers and
‘Transplants’
John-Anthony Meza and partner
Doug Creef are proof of that. The
two previously lived along U Street
in Northwest D.C., and bought a
house just south of Lincoln Park last
year “because of the neighborhood-y
feeling and more affordability,”
Meza stated.
“I think many of us who move to
the Hill are a little more settled and
have a more diverse group of
friends,” he added. “And we’re taking
care of our homes, doing the
local community thing.” However,
in this process of ‘nesting on the
Hill,’ Meza adds that the presence of
gay culture isn’t quite as easy for
couples and singles to find—not as
easy as, say, Dupont Circle is for gay
men or Takoma Park is for lesbians.
“It would be nice to feel more of a
presence here,” he says.
For other newcomers, many of
whom are single GLBT Hillites, the
lack of that visibility can be somewhat
of a disadvantage. Eric Wallner,
for example, who moved to 11th and
F Streets NE just under two years ago,
agrees that the “gay presence” on
the Hill is lacking. “The Hill has a
distinct gay community, but it’s not
very visible,” Wallner believes. “At
least it isn’t in Northeast. It seems as
though there a lot of couples here.”
Wallner adds that although the Hill
is “a tolerant place in general, it ’s
not particularly gay-friendly. The
part of the Hill I live in is getting
very gentrified.”
Ajit Joshi has lived on the Hill
(15th Street NE) for six months. Like
many newcomers, Joshi was drawn
to living there because of its “feeling
of a neighborhood within a city. I
was looking for a ‘home,’ rather than
lived on the Hill for
10 years, buying a
home there in 1999.
“But unlike the
Castro in San
Francisco, or the West
Village in New York,
the Hill never feels
exclusively gay. What
distinguishes the Hill
is that it is a melting
pot of the District.”
For Ronald Nelson
and partner Luis
Portillo, who have
lived for over three
years at 10th and D
Streets NE, the sense
of community found on the Hill creates
an atmosphere where one’s sexuality
is not a prime focus of day-today
life.
“Most of us on the Hill are
engaged in our community as homeowners,
renters, good Hill citizens,”
states Nelson. “Our queerness, like
our religion and our politics, comes
second.” And as an interracial couple,
Ronald and Luis say they find
the Hill to be more ethnicallydiverse
than the Dupont neighbor -
hood.
“In every city, there are parts of
town that have a function,” Portillo
believes. “When young professionals
come to the city, one of the fir st
places they look to live is Dupont
Circle.” And for many GLBT “transplants”
to Washington, he says,
“Dupont is like a ‘gay gateway.’ It is a
way to introduce people to the culture.”
Before moving to the Hill, the couple
lived at 16th and R Streets NW in
the Dupont neighborhood. Nelson
points out that a common senti -
ment among lesbians and gays on
the Hill is that “people ‘couple up’ in
Dupont, then move to the Hill.” And
for a number of GLBT couples cur -
PRIDE ON THE HILL:
Coming Out Living
BY SCOT T SHUMAKER
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 19
[just] an apartment.”
When it comes to meeting people,
however, Joshi notes that the Hill
doesn’t offer a “diverse set of
options.” Many potential gay friends
who are of his age and “marital status”
would rather meet up in
Dupont Circle than come to the Hill,
he admits. “And I’m not into ‘going
out’ too much, which is one of the
reasons I decided not to be in ‘gaycentral’
Dupont.
“I’m happy to go out and have fun
with a group of friends,” Joshi continues.
“But in terms of dating and
meeting people, Capitol Hill doesn’t
really have that option yet—while
Dupont has a few limited options
besides the smoky, ‘attitude’ bar
scene.”
Places to Meet, Greet
and Live
There are places for lesbians and gays
to meet and socialize on the Hill,
however—each of them distinct in
its atmosphere, its focus, and the
type of crowds it attracts. Capitol
Hill offers what is likely to be the second-
highest concentration of gaycentered
establishments outside
Dupont Circle. Remington’s,
Sheridan’s, Banana Café, Mr.
Henry’s, the Lil’ Pub, Phase I—all
these locations, although not all
exclusively gay places, are nevertheless
very popular among GLBT couples
and singles. And the Hill is also
the home of many other organizations,
shops, and arts-oriented
locales that are popular among its
gay and lesbian population. And the
Hill as a community has played a significant
role in the development of
GLBT life in D.C.
A lesbian couple that has been
together for 22 years, almost all of
those years living on Capitol Hill,
notes that even in the late 1970s,
there were distinctly gay and lesbian
places in the neighborhood. One
place in particular, Lammas, a
women’s book store which was located
along Seventh Street before it
moved to the Dupont Circle neigh -
borhood (and has since closed its
doors), served as an impetus for one
woman in the couple to come out.
“At first, when I’d go in there, I was
terrified,” she admits. “Then, as I
became more comfortable and came
out, it was great—it was a place
where I could find out all about concerts
and other events, and I could
meet people other people there.
Historically, “There have always
been lots of gay men on Capitol
Hill,” she adds. “And I think a lot of
gay couples helped to make Capitol
Hill a safer place to live over the
years. They came in and bought
homes here when everyone else was
afraid to.”
“Just in the last three years, I’ve
seen our neighborhood change
tremendously,” Nelson says. “Now I
can see 12 gay and lesbian households
from our front porch.” When
he and Luis lived in Dupont, he continued,
“We lived in a building that
was 80 percent gay, and we didn’t
know anyone. Now, we’ve gotten to
know all our neighbors.”
“On my block, all the neighbor s
know each other. When there are
problems, the neighbors come
together to solve them,” Glick says.
“When my immediate neighbors
came over one night to announce
their engagement, Boone (my partner)
and I immediately offered to
throw the engagement party. It’s
because we care for each other like a
family.”
And those neighborhood families
are, for the most part, extremely welcoming
to GLBT residents. “On my
block, which is usually described as
Capitol Hill-extended, there are gays
and lesbians mixed in with traditional
families, both African-
American and white, who have lived
there for several generations and
raised families,” Strachan says.
“There are plenty of gay-owned
and gay-friendly businesses on the
Hill,” says Fleming. “The 8th Street
corridor is undergoing a renaissance.
I am surrounded by wonderful gay
and straight neighbors and friends.”
Fleming says he loves the “quiet,
residential feel of the neighborhood.
My dog gets to play with all her
friends in Lincoln Park. Eastern
Market on the weekends brings the
neighborhood (and visitors) together.
If you want the Dupont scene—
it’s 10 minutes away.”
“I’ve moved three times on the
Hill,” states Bill McColl, who currently
lives in Northeast. “It’s the
longest I’ve ever lived anywhere, and
it’s right for me. I actually came out
in the time that I’ve been here, and
it’s been the right place to do that.”
McColl agrees with Fleming—“If I
want to go to Dupont, it’s there. If I
want to go to Mr. Henry’s, Banana,
all the local places, they’re great,” he
says. “I’ve found pockets in the community
that have been very accepting
and have made friends at each
place I’ve lived.”
Raising Kids on the Hill
“Capitol Hill is very accepting,” says
one part of the lesbian couple who
has been on the Hill for over 20
years. “We feel perfectly comfortable
going anywhere.”
She and her partner are raising a
three-year old daughter. And like a
number of gay and lesbian couples
on the Hill who are also raising kids,
they find that the Hill is a “pretty
terrific place” to be a parent and a
child. Their daughter, who is in day
care on the Hill through a Gallaudet
University program that is “open
and welcome,” is making friends
among her neighbors and learning
there are many different types of
families—some with one daddy or
one mommy, some with two daddies
or two mommies, and some with a
daddy and a mommy.
“We belong to a lesbian parenting
group, and we get together with
them to talk about our kids and
what we’re experiencing,” says her
partner. “But having kids has
changed our lives—we feel so much
more connected to the community.
We have a good mix of people in our
life. Most of the folks we get together
with live two or three blocks from
our house.
“And we haven’t encountered anything
that makes us feel uncomfortable,”
she added. “It’s rare that I
even think about us being a lesbian
couple—it’s just not an issue. We just
blend in, you know—our friends are
basically other families with threeyear
olds.” One other lesbian couple
in their Stanton Park neighborhood
has a little boy the same age as their
daughter, and together with kids
from all sorts of families, a quite
remarkable children’s community
has sprung up—one filled with
parades at Halloween, visits to the
park, and a “small-town” aspect that
attracts not only this couple, but
others, as well.
So What Needs
Improvement?
But within any small town, or any
city neighborhood, are facects of living
that are in need of improvement.
Living as a GLBT citizen of Capitol
Hill has its definite advantages, but
there remains some discussion
regarding what could happen on the
Hill to make life for gays and lesbians
even better.
“We need to break down the perception
that our area is not safe,”
Joshi says. “We need to work on
breaking down the lines of race and
class that already divide the gay
community.” He also cites the need
for a well-publicized and easily
accessible set of resources for GLBT
folks on the Hill.
Watson, on the other hand,
believes that nothing is needed to
make the Hill a better place for GLBT
Members of the newly-formed “Out on the Hill” group enjoy andevening out at Banana Café
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
20 www.voiceofthehill.com
hood, Fleming adds, “lots of people,
gay and straight, are being priced out
of the neighborhood, and I think
that’s a shame.”
“I think we (including myself) all
need to get more involved in our
communities with the people who
live next door or down the street,”
Strachan believes. “We have major
divisions in our city, and we need to
bridge them.”
Nelson and Portillo have made
some initial steps to help bridge
those divisions by helping form an
organization, “Out on the Hill,”
which actually has its roots in the
discussion room on the Voice of the
Hill’s website. In January of this year,
an anonymous poster on the discussion
board asked if there were places
where GLBT Hill residents could get
together—not necessarily in a loud
and smoky bar. The discussion chain
began to grow tremendously, and to
date, well over a hundred messages
on GLBT life on the Hill have been
posted.
“We started Out on the Hill to
provide a place for GLBT people to
interact socially outside of the bars,”
residents. “It ain’t broke,” he says.
“Let’s not mess it up by trying to fix
it!”
Meza believes the Hill needs a
common organization for GLBT residents
to band together and raise
funds for either gay and lesbianrelated
causes or for the community
on the Hill as a whole.
“While the Hill does have some
vitality, more restaurants, bars and
stores are needed, whether exclusively
gay or not,” Dainton believes. The
“general mix of people” in the
neighborhood is a positive aspect of
GLBT Hill life, he says, “and it’s
something you don’t encounter in
most parts of Northwest DC.”
Fleming is encouraging of other
GLBT people who are thinking of
moving to the Hill. “However,” the
longtime resident says, “the neighborhood
certainly has changed over
the past few years. It used to be a
much more diverse neighborhood.
Many of my closest Hill friends have
moved, and I’d say the number-one
reason is due to the lack of affordable
housing.” Now that the Hill has
been declared the “hot” neighborprobably
still a lot of fear, [for GLBT
people] working for Congress or in
politics,” he says. “I hope more people
come out and work for the issues
they believe in.”
“Other people in the District need
to know there is a gay and lesbian
community here on the Hill,” Glick
concludes. “It doesn’t all revolve
around Dupont Circle!”
Indeed it doesn’t. And those GLBT
residents of the Hill are unmis takably
proud—proud of not only what
makes each one of them unique, but
also proud of living in their neigh -
borhood of choice.
For Nelson, it’s all about visibility.
“We want to be visible. We want to
be visible to our council members, to
the police—if we’re not, they’ll take
us for granted. There’s a lot of talk
about ‘Pride on the Hill,’ and to me,
that means we want people to know
that we’re here, we’re queer, and
we’re not getting off the Hill!
Scott Shumaker is the editor of The
Voice of the Hill. He can be contacted
at editor@voiceofthehill.com
For more information on “Out on the
Hill,” send an e-mail to
GLBTonthehill@hotmail.com.
Portillo states. “And I think we’re
accomplishing that.” An active email
list that continues to g row, several
well-organized get-togethers
around the Hill, along with a special
screening of the HBO documentary
The Laramie Project, based on the
life of Matthew Shephard, are just a
few of the ways in which Out on the
Hill has already made a big splash
among GLBT neighbors.
“We need to come out as active
members of our community, with
political and civil rights,” Nelson
adds. “We aren’t looking to replace
Capitol Hill’s wrought-iron fences
with white picket fences; that’s not
what we’re about. But I think the
[straight population of] Capitol Hill
would be shocked at how many
there are of us here.”
So engaged was he in the community,
Nelson ran for ANC 6A commissioner
more than a year ago.
Nelson ran as an out gay man,
against an incumbent and a challenger,
and won his seat by 12% of
the vote.
McColl observes some aspects of
local life that may be, even though
the Hill is an accepting neighborhood,
deterrents for other gays and
lesbians to come out. “I think there’s
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
www.voiceofthehill.com 21
Jan MacKinnon: Making the
Connections
Jan MacKinnon, the librarian at
Peabody School, came to
Washington from
California in the early ‘60s.
Why? “Well, John Kennedy said ask
what you can do for your country
and I did!,” she says. “I came to
Washington to be part of that.”
It helped that her father worked
for a Congressional committee and
that she had been “thrilled” by what
she saw of Washington on a visit
with him here.After college at
University of California at Riverside
and a year at the Eagleton Institute
of Politics at Rutgers, Jan came to
D.C. and got a job on the staff of
Rep. Don Edwards of San Jose.She
later worked for the D.C. budget
office under Mayor Walter
Washington.
Jan married architect David
MacKinnon in 1967, and they talked
about joining the Peace Corps, but
ended up starting their family
instead—buying the house on
Seventh Street Northeast where they
still live.Soon they had three children:
Rebecca, Tim and Emily, and
Jan was a stay-at-home mom.“I was
fortunate to be able to do that,” she
says.
But she didn’t stay home for
long.By the time her youngest was
in kindergarten, Jan was co-campaign
manager (along with
Charmaine Yochim) of Bob Boyd’s
run for School Board.Boyd was
elected, and Jan went downtown as
anassistant on his staff.But what
she was doing as a mother of children
in the public schools—going
on field trips, helping expand the
arts offerings for the upper g rades,
volunteering in the library and considering
possible uses of computers
there—was every bit as compelling
as what she was doing in the
office.“I just kept inching towards
the schools,” says Jan.
She continued her own education,
earning an MA from the
University of Maryland in a
program specifically
designed for school librarians
and was offered a job at
Stuart-Hobson Middle
School by Veola Jackson, the
charismatic principal of the
newly-formed Capitol Hill
Cluster School whom she
had gotten to know well as a
volunteer mom.
“Unfortunately, I never got
to work for Veola,” Jan
remembers.“She was sick
and left just as I started.”
What Jan did now seems
ordinary, but was then an
intriguing new program.
The concept was to combine
research and writing
resources in one room, the librar y,
and to build on the tremendous
excitement the children felt about
using computers to look for information
and digital photography in presenting
it. “The schools of the
Cluster were the first here to make a
huge commitment to their libraries,”
says Jan.“Now these three schools
(Peabody, Watkins and Stuart-
Hobson) have the finest libraries in
the city.” Jan worked closely on this
with her friend Cathy Pfeiffer, the
Watkins school librarian who this
winter died in a car accident.
Sitting in the large, bright librar y
of Peabody, where the books are in
bins low enough to hit visitors in the
shins but just the right height for
kindergartners, and where the com -
puters are at the back of the room
(mainly as a resource for teachers),
Jan admits to missing the excitement
of the older students using the
computers for research.But working
with younger children has special
rewards.“I get lots of hugs every
day,” she says. “And I love picture
books.”
Thinking back on her path from
idealistic young worker to full-time
mother and into her career, Jan says,
“Living here, being part of this community,
it made me a different person.”
She says that the schools her
children started in, and the neighborhood
in general, lacked a lot in
terms of organized activities. “Well,”
says Jan, “you had three choices at
that point. You could sit back and
accept the fact that it wasn ’t there;
you could move; or you could create
things.” So in addition to volunteering
in the schools, Jan started a
scout troop when her son Tim wanted
to be a Scout, and she coached
softball when her girls wanted to
play.
“The thing is,” Jan says, “you have
to make things work, not just for
your own children but for all the
kids.I mean, you could move but
that doesn’t create a community.
You make connections doing
this kind of thing.Those bonds are
lifelong.”
John Weintraub & Ed
Copenhaver: Service
Beyond Hammers and Nails
John Weintraub and Ed Copenhaver
formed their bond as freshmen
pledging Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity
at the University of Virginia.Most of
the pledges were from the Richmond
area; John, from Baltimore, and Ed, a
Charlottesville native, the two outsiders,
hit it off.They roomed
together in college, reconnected a
couple of years later in business
school at George Washington
University, and, in 1975, together
bought Frager’s Hardware Store,
which had been on 11th Street SE
since 1920 and was at that point still
Making Our
N e i g h b o r h o o d
A Better Place to Live
and Thri ve
Capitol Hill Community Achievement Awards Honor Four Residents
BY STEPHANIE DEUTSCH
When th ey learn th ey’ve been selected to re c e i ve a Capitol Hill Community
Ach i evement Awa rd, many people have similar re a c t i o n s . “ M e ? W hy me?,”
th ey say. “I have n’t done any thing so special. I am just doing my job.”
But, as the CHAMPS Community Foundation recognizes and seeks to
e mphasize with these awa rds, we all benefit when the fo l ks around us do
their wo rk, not just to build a care e r, but with zest and dedication to th e
common good.
This ye a r’s honorees exe mplify th a t .
Jan MacKinnon
V O I C E of the Hill /April 2002
22 www.voiceofthehill.com
look out for the customer.” He said
that the partnership has gone
through its share of tough times, as
well.At one point, they turned to a
business advisor who helped them
talk through their differences and
then advised making a choice
between their differing points of
view—”even if it means flipping a
coin.” The issue was resolved, and
the former fraternity brothers still
being run by the sons of the original
owner.
John describes the partnership he
and Ed have as “productive” and “a
bit like a marriage,” forcing each
partner to adapt and change. Having
two owners has been one of the business’
strengths.
“In the early days, we could always
have one of us here,” John
says. “There was always someone to
Also fondly remembered is Lucy
Pfeiffer, who managed the garden
department while she was in high
school and even made some trips
home from college in Boston to
check on things.“She was a very
valuable person,” John
remembers.Her brother, Jack, a high
school student, works there now.
Summing up their experience at
Frager’s, John and Ed agree that the
store “kind of mirrors the community.”
As the neighborhood has flourished,
so has Frager’s.Clearly, there’s
a relationship that works, not just
between the owners but between
this business and the community it
serves.
Linda Barnes: Fond Hill
Memories Endure
Linda Barnes’ children didn’t work at
Frager’s but they did have summer
jobs at Grubb’s Pharmacy down the
street from the East Capitol Street
house where she and her husband,
Bart, have lived for almost 35 years.
Strolling down the street, stopping at
Grubb’s, chatting with the Eddie
Dillon, who hired her sons, and with
neighbors along the way, is one of
the things Linda appreciates about
life on the Hill.
She and Bart came to Washington
in the sixties from New
England.They were recently out of
college and “looking for an exciting
life.” Bart, a newspaper reporter, had
sent his resumes “down the East
coast and across the country.” At the
right moment, a job opened up at
the Washington Post, and Bart got it.
“Of course we couldn’t afford Old
Town, Alexandria or Georgetown—
any of the kind of traditional neigh -
borhoods,” Linda remembered
recently, sitting in her comfortable
kitchen.“Somehow, we had heard
about the Capitol Hill House and
Garden tour and went on it.” Right
away, they fell in love with the
neighborhood and bought their first
townhouse on a “lively” block in a
neighborhood that was “what we
used to call fringey.”
“We had a house of ill repute on
the block,” Linda recalls. “We had an
after-hours bar on the block…but we
also had wonderful parties.” She and
Bart fixed up and sold two houses
before settling on the Hill’s premiere
avenue.
Linda jokes now about how her
house came complete with a boarder.
Like many of the big houses on
East Capitol Street, as recently as the
mid-‘60s it was a boarding
house.The owner hadn’t wanted to
scare the roomers into leaving early
so had not told them the house was
for sale. Linda remembers taking her
inherited roomer, a very elderly
printer from the Evening Star newspaper,
around to help him find a
place to live.
enjoy working together. John
describes Ed as “an honest, hardworking
Southern gentleman.” Ed
says John has “a sixth sense for
what’s good to sell” and says that for
him, their partnership has been “fortunate.”
Between college and graduate
school at G.W., both John and Ed
served in Vietnam.John was in the
Coast Guard and spent a year in
Vietnam’s coastal waters on an 82-
foot patrol boat.Ed volunteered for
amphibious duty in the Navy and
did two tours on an “LST.”
“We used to call it a ‘Large Slow
Target,’” Ed remembers with a
chuckle. “Actually it was a Landing
Ship Tank. It would drive up on the
beach and unload tanks and
things.” John thinks this experience
has been useful in business. “The
military system has its merits,” he
says. “Everyone has a specific job
and certain responsibilities.It’s a
pecking order.” Learning to function
in that system has given both partners
a perspective they have found
helpful in the less rigid environment
of their own business.
In the 27 years they have owned
it, John and Ed have broadened the
scope of business at Frager’s.They
now offer a wide range of plants and
gardening materials and have
expanded into the building next
door with rentals from power tools
to party supplies.They have a
karaoke machine, a smoke machine
and a bubble machine, as well as
tables, chairs, wedding arches and
tents.
Their service to the community
h a s n’t been limited to prov i d i n g
h a m m e rs and nails, th o u g h .B oth
p a rt n e rs have homes on the Hill, Ed
w i th his companion Sharo n
M c I l ra th and John with wife Fra n
( their daughter Emily is out of college
and wo rking in Philadelphia;
Jeanne is a student at the Un i ve rs i t y
of New Hamp s h i re). Fra g e r’s support s
f u n d raising dri ves at all the Capito l
Hill schools and sponsors a baseball
team. They have donated materi a l s
to the ga rden project at their acro s s -
th e - st re et neighbor, Wa t k i n s
S ch o o l . And th ey’ve provided lots of
jobs; 40 people wo rk at Fra g e r’s ,
about half of them part - t i m e .
John and Ed light up when they
talk about the many “fantastic” kids
they have employed over the
years.One was Kate Redmond,
daughter of Paul and Katharine, who
broke the “gender barrier.”
“We never thought women wa