VOICE
Vol. 5 No. 1 April 2003
of
The
Hill
This Month
12 A Neighborhood Story
Part IV
16 Longtime Businesses
Part Deux
18 Meant for Each Other
22 Fire in the Belly
24 The Envelope Please…
Our Own Award Winners
26 He’s Art’s Real Deal
28 A Mother-Daughter
Super Team
30 Riding the Rails
32 Geting a Soccer Fix
34 Catalyst for Change
36 Living with Art(ist)
38 A Millennium Arts
Scene
40 Girding for Battle: A Trip
to the DMV
38 A Unique Cast of
Characters
Departments
VoiceMail.........................................3
City Desk ........................................4
DownLoad .....................................10
Ask Judith .....................................42
Home Design.................................44
Ask the Vet....................................46
Health and Fitness.........................48
H Street Report .............................50
Barracks Row ................................52
KidSites ........................................53
Opinion .........................................54
Kids’ Calendar...............................56
Community Calendar......................57
Horoscope.....................................59
Classifieds ....................................59
Business Servces..........................60
Grub Street ...................................62
Celebrating Lifeon
Capitol Hill ! The
Voice starts its
fifth year.
Celebrating Lifeon
Capitol Hill ! The
Voice starts its
fifth year.
1916 17th Street, NW #206 (Selling Agents) $258,000
305 C St., NE #106 (Listing & Selling Agents) $179,000
305 C St., NE #208 (Listing & Selling Agents) $159,000
301 G Street, NE #11 (Selling Agents) $265,150
1417 Chapin Street, NW #502 (Selling Agents) $349,400
1610 Gales Street, NE (Listing Agents) $149,900
129 4th Street, SE (Selling Agents) $699,000
5613 N. Capitol Street, NE (Selling Agents) $299,900
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Pete’s March Activity:
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1327 F Street, NE (Listing Agent) Under Contract
808 4th Street, NE (Listing Agent) Under Contract
305 C Street, NE #303 (Selling Agent) SOLD
11 2nd Street, NE #104 (Listing & Selling Agent) Under Contract
Garages b/w 12th & 13th/ E & F NE (Listing Agent) Under Contract
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Todd and Stan’s March Activity:
COMMERCIAL
UNDER CONTRACT
and the fact that it appears to
be incapable of being resolved
to anyone’s satisfaction. If that
is the outcome, then the surrounding
neighborhood, as well as
the Capitol Hill community as a
whole, will continue to “suffer” this
unnecessary eyesore because of the
intractability of the principal parties
involved.
I, for one, would appreciate it if the
CHRS would please address the following
questions: Now that the HPRB has
ruled, does the city have both the will
and resources to force the property
owner to restore the building to the
extent that it will become a habitable
and an attractive addition to our neighborhood
and to Capitol Hill in general?
According to testimony from
Councilwoman Ambrose before the
HPRB last fall, there are no funds available
in the city budget to enforce the
regulations that HPRB applied to this
issue. If that’s the case, then what? Or
is it only the intent of the CHRS and the
HPRB to try and force the owner to stabilize
the building in some way so that it
no longer deteriorates beyond its current
state?
If it’s the latter, then those two organizations
will not have accomplished a
thing other than the empty victory of
defeating, at least in this round, their
nemesis Larry Quillian. If stabilization of
the property is the only outcome of all
this, and if there are no city funds to
force the owner to rehabilitate the property,
then the clearly-expressed wishes
of the citizens living in the surrounding
area, as well as the local ANC and city
leaders, will have been completely
ignored once
again.
No one is defending
the actions of
the owner in letting
the property deteriorate
over the years,
although I do think that
not every one of his arguments should
be dismissed out of hand. And no one,
including this writer, thinks that the
CHRS is not an important and needed
organization on the Hill. But I have yet to
hear one thing from either the CHRS or
HPRB that will ensure a result that will
culminate in making this property a
worthwhile addition to our community.
Unless it is going to be completely
restored, and restored quickly, let it be
taken down. Then work with our neighborhood
to ensure that whatever is proposed
as a replacement will be something
we can live with and be proud of.
PETER A. THEIL
An ‘Imperial’ Society
To the Editor:
It’s no small accomplishment to make
someone like me actually feel sympathy
for a perpetrator of demolition by neglect,
considering its devastating impact
on my NE neighborhood, but the
indomitably imperial Capitol Hill
Restoration Society has pulled it off.
Their high-handed dismissal of the
economic realities of profitable development
—to say nothing of neighbors’ concerns
—over the infamous “Shotgun
House” makes owner Larry Quillian
sound like the absolute soul of reason
by comparison. As the long-suffering
neighbor Peter Theil pointed out in his
December letter to The Voice of the Hill,
we’re all for historic preservation, like
many other laudable goals in life, but
only insofar as it stays within the realm
of common sense and is not pushed
into fanaticism by arrogant absolutists
spending other peoples’ money.
Robert Nevitt and particularly Barbara
Eck (who can’t be bothered to refute or
even correctly cite Mr. Quillian’s letter)
would do well to consider the damage
they are doing to their broader mission
of historic preservation by cementing
this CHRS’s reputation as a homeowner’s
nightmare—unless their real agenda
is a Capitol Hill populated exclusively by
those who are wealthy enough to afford
the right kind of windows in their alley
garages.
SCOT MONTREY
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 3
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Barbara Wells
To the Editor:
I was pleased to see that my article in
the January issue of Voice of the Hill
(Facade Easement Donation: A Gift to
the Street and Yourself) has sparked an
ongoing dialogue in VoiceMail concerning
facade easement donations. Mr.
Christovich’s letter raised some thoughtful
questions, and Mr. Maywalt provided
the benefit of his organization’s experience
in responding to those questions.
These letters focused on the substantial
financial benefits that accrue to the
easement donor, which, of course,
should be a major factor in the analysis
a prospective donor should undertake
prior to deciding to make an easement
donation. However, homeowners considering
an easement donation should also
include in their analysis the fact that an
easement donation is a “gift to the
street” which will continue to contribute
to the character of the community for
future generations.
JIM WRIGHT
Wright Rowland, LLC
202-543-9477 (voice)
202-543-2968 (fax)
Back-and-Forth Over
Shotgun House Only Proves
Community Divisiveness
To the Editor:
It seems to me that all the back and
forth by this writer, as well as by CHRS
board members, the property owner
(Larry Quillian), and decisions by the
HIPRB concerning the “Shotgun House”
have accomplished only one thing. It has
highlighted the divisiveness of this issue
One Hundred Words from the Hill
The Voice Launches New Contest for Readers
What can you say in 100 words? Plenty.
And beginning in our May edition, The Voice of the Hill is giving our readers
the chance to express themselves in 100 words. Each month, we’ll give you a
different theme, and let your creative juices flow!
We will select our favorites each month and publish them in that edition.
Winners will receive a special prize. Guidelines are as follows:
1. Entries must follow the assigned theme for that month (examples: love,
home improvement, vacations);
2. Entries must be sent via email to votheditor@hotmail.com, or via snail
mail at 120 11th Street, SE (Rear), Washington, DC 20003;
3. Entries must include the author’s name, address, and contact number
and email address.
The first installment is on the theme of GARDENS/GARDENING. We will
publish the winners in our May edition. The deadline for entries is April 10.
Be creative, share your impressions with our readers, and have fun with
summing up your thoughts on gardens and gardening in 100 words!
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
4 www.voiceofthehill.com
cityDesk
COVERING THE HILL’S POLITICAL SCENE AND MORE
Ward 6 ANCs Make Good Showing at
Oversight Hearings
Commissions Discuss Goals, Issues for Coming Year
BY MARY FARRELL for The Voice of the Hill
D.C. Councilmember David Catania, Chair of the
Council’s Government Services Committee, is
holding a series of oversight hearings on the city’s
Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Those from
Wards 6 and 8 testified, as scheduled, on the
evening of Thursday, February 21.
As a result of redistricting, Ward 6 now reaches
from the Anacostia River on the east to Ninth
Street, NW, on the west, and thus encompasses portions
of both the Northwest and Southwest quadrants.
The southern boundary of the ward is the
Potomac River, and the northern boundary is
roughly New York and Florida Avenues. The area is
split into four commissions—A, B, C, and D—all of
which sent representatives to testify before Catania
February 21.
Councilmember Catania, a former ANC commissioner
himself, takes determined interest in building
the capacity of the Advisory Neighborhood
Commissions, sponsoring and shepherding through
the legislative process the “Comprehensive Advisory
Neighborhood Commission Reform Amendment
Act of 1999.” According to the Councilman’s website,
“This initiative represents the only major overhaul
of the ANC movement in its 25-year history.
Among other things, the legislation strengthened
ANC financial accountability, created a centralized
office to provide support to ANCs, and addressed
dozens of other procedural matters.” The ANC support
office is now staffed by Gottlieb Simon, formerly
the Executive Director of ANC6A (Southeast
Capitol Hill) and ANC2D (Southwest). Simon is thus
particularly familiar with Ward 6 issues as well as
many of the players, problems, and strengths of the
Ward 6 commissions.
Each Ward 6 commission received in advance of
the hearing a nine-page questionnaire about the
management of their respective operations—location
of the office, election of officers, schedule of
meetings, manner of public notice, location of
commission records, status of bylaws, etc. Also
included were questions about the ANCs‚ top five
major goals and issues for the coming year.
Throughout the hearing, Catania repeatedly
stressed the important role that the ANC played in
giving District residents a direct voice in government
decision making and made clear his interest
in further strengthening that role. For example, he
specifically mentioned the need to place ANC representatives
on boards and commissions and suggested
that ANCs should be given the authority to
review and comment on District agency budgets
that directly affect their neighborhoods.
ANC 6A
[The new boundaries for ANC6A are roughly Florida
Avenue and Benning Road, NE (north); 7th and 8th
Streets, NE (west); East Capitol Street, NE (south); and
19th and 22nd Streets, NE (east). New officers are Joe
Fengler, Chair; Wanda Stevens-Harris, Vice Chair;
Michael Musante, Secretary; and Nicholas Alberti,
Treasurer. Regularly scheduled meetings are held from 7
to 9 p.m. on the second Thursday of the month in the
new student cafeteria of the Myrtilla Miner School,
located at 601 15th Street, NE. The entrance is located
on 16th Street NE.]
Newly-elected Chair Joe Fengler testified for ANC
6A, with the assistance of Vice Chair Wanda
Stevens-Harris and Secretary Michael Musante.
Fengler was able to respond positively to all the
Councilman’s questions about the management of
the ANC, except the one about an established
office. The ANC continues to work on that problem.
It has not had a permanent home in cityowned
space since it had to move out of the firehouse
on Maryland Avenue. The five major goals
and issues that Fengler submitted were as follows.
Goals
• Resolve Commission operation and financial
problems;
• Create opportunities for public input on residential
and commercial development;
• Enhance Commission interaction with the community;
• Reduce crime and create better communication
with the PSAs; and
• Decrease the number of vacant properties in the
neighborhood.
Issues
• Continued community input on the H Street
Strategic Development Plan;
• Securing funding for a new R.L. Christian Public
Library by fiscal year 2005;
• Working with the DC Department of
Transportation to address traffic and transportation
issues on the major corridors of the ANC;
• Working with the Council to develop standard
criteria for the placement of half-way houses in the
neighborhoods; and
• Pressing for a timely and effective program for
removing abandoned cars in the area.
Catania commended the progress of ANC6A,
which has had a troubled history in recent years, as
documented in this newspaper. The Councilmember
said he was pleased with the improvement
he had seen so far this year, and wished the commission
good luck in its endeavors.
ANC 6B
[The new boundaries for ANC6B are roughly East
Capitol Street SE (north); the Anacostia River (east); the
Southeast Freeway, M Street SE, and the Potomac River
(south); and South Capitol Street (west). New officers
are Julie Olson,, Chair; Will Hill, Vice Chair; Scott
Cernich, Secretary; and Keith Smith, Treasurer. Regular
meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the second Tuesday of the
month, at the Old Naval Hospital, 921 Pennsylvania
Avenue, SE.]
Councilmember Catania welcomed the ANC6B
delegation to the table by remarking that they were
one of the best-managed Commissions in the city.
He also acknowledged former Chair Ken Jarboe,
who was present, but not testifying. Newly-elected
Chair Julie Olson and Treasurer Keith Smith testified
for the ANC. Olson indicated, in answer to
questions about routine administrative tasks, that
the ANC’s house was in fairly good order, but that
the Commission, in formulating its annual goals,
had earmarked certain areas for improvement.
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VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 5
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Goals
• To establish an operative website and email
address and to create a new logo and corporate
“brand” for 6B;
• To publish information about ANC activities in a
more deliberative and professional way;
• To work to ensure that the Historic Preservation
Review Board provides more than ten days notice to
the ANC, gives “great weight” to ANC decisions,
and is more amenable to community concerns;
• To ensure that “great weight” is given to ANC
decisions regarding community-based facilities in
the 6B area; and
• To create and maintain a better and more open filing
system to enable Commissioners to find records
they need more easily.
Issues
• Infill development, particularly its affect on parking,
additions to existing houses, and the development
of Reservation 13; and
• Traffic, which is increasing in volume and speed
and backups on the SE Freeway.
The Councilmember asked Olson about the status
of the Naval Hospital and expressed concern
that the ANC not lose its quarters there. She replied
that the ANC was also concerned and was following
the situation closely.
ANC 6C
[The new boundaries for ANC6C are roughly New York
Avenue, N Street NW, and Florida Avenue, NE (north);
7th and 8th Streets, NE (east); Pennsylvania and
Constitution Avenues, NW and East Capitol Street, NE
(south); and 6th and 9th Streets NW (west). New officers
are Rob Hall, Chair; Mark Dixon, Vice Chair; Karen
Wirt, Secretary; and Bill Crews, Treasurer. Regular
meetings are held at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the
month at the Capital Children’s Museum, 800 3rd
Street, NE.]
Chair Rob Hall and Treasurer Bill Crews appeared
for 6C. Hall pointed out that 6C was a completely
new ANC, established as the result of redistricting
after the last census, and that its primary focus at
the moment was establishing itself and ensuring
that its affairs were being handled in accordance
with all applicable laws and regulations. He
acknowledged the assistance of Gottlieb Simon in
helping them overcome hurdles in their efforts.
Hall also reported that the ANC had established
three committees:
• Planning and Zoning Committee, co-chaired
by Charley Docter and Bob Morris;
• Licensing and Economic Development
Committee, chaired by Lawrence Thomas; and
• Public Safety and Security Committee, chaired
by Mark Dixon.
Hall said the commission, in concentrating on
establishing its organization and on its growing
workload, had not yet had the opportunity to discuss
and agree upon its major goals and issues
for 2003. Councilmember Catania responded by
pointing out that this particular ANC included
areas with skyrocketing real estate values, and that
the results of this phenomenon were tensions and
dislocations similar to those of Columbia Heights.
He acknowledged this was typical of areas with new
Metro stations, such as the one being built on the
northwestern edge of Capitol Hill at Florida and
New York Avenues, and advised the ANC that if
they could take a proactive stance on helping current
residents achieve home ownership, “it could
be a great story of how to do things right.”
Catania specifically urged the commissioners to
work closely with the DC Department of Housing
and Community Development to make sure that
residents of the area were able to take full advantage
of all home ownership programs and opportunities.
He said he regretted that home ownership rates
in DC were, at 42%, substantially lower than the
national average of 62%.
Hall acknowledged this to be the case and said he
had seen the value of his own house increase by
200%. He pointed out that the city’s new practice
of reassessing property annually had essentially
tripled the rate of increase. He agreed there was a
vulnerable population of renters in ANC6C and
that efforts should be made to ensure they were not
driven out. He said he was personally aware of
instances where houses were sold and tenants were
not given the right of first refusal as required by law.
Treasurer Crews pointed out that there was no particular
reason that increases in property values had
to lead to a comparable increase in taxes, implying
that the tax rate could be lowered if the city were
really concerned about displacement caused by
increased taxes. Catania thought it unlikely that
the tax rate would be lowered, given the city’s need
for revenue.
Catania also raised the issue of the H Street
Bridge, which he feels creates an “insurmountable
barrier” between Union Station and the H Street
commercial corridor. He suggested that the ANC
should investigate reopening the underpass under
the tracks. Hall said he, too, regretted that the
direct vista to the downtown had been obscured by
the bridge.
Catania then asked what improvements the 6C
commissioners would like to see. Hall responded
that a means should be established to make it easier
for the Commissioners to communicate among
themselves, and a greater effort should be made to
define the concept of the ANC’s “great weight,” to
explain precisely what that means in practical
terms. Crews said that he would like to see a
brochure on citizen’s responsibilities, informing
people of their need to shovel snow from their
walks, recycle their trash, etc. Catania responded
very positively to that suggestion, saying he
thought it an excellent idea.
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ANC 6D
[The new boundaries for ANC6D are roughly
Independence Avenue NW, the SE Freeway, and M Street
SE (north); the 11th Street, SE Bridge (east); the
Anacostia River (south); and the Potomac River (west).
New officers are Ahmed Assalaam, Chair; Roger Moffat,
Vice Chair; Bob Siegel, Secretary/Treasurer. Regular
meetings are held the second Monday of the month,
between 7 and 10, at 400 I Street, SW.]
Chair Ahmed Assalaam was able to give affirmative
answers to the Councilmember’s questions
about whether routine administrative tasks had
been attended to, but the chair told Catania that
6D had not yet had the opportunity to establish its
major goals and issues for the year.
In response, Catania again raised the subject of
affordable housing. He suggested that the ANC
focus efforts on creating home ownership opportunities,
particularly in the James Creek development.
Assalaam took exception and stated that
James Creek should probably remain rental housing,
as there was a need for pool of temporary housing
to help people through difficult transitions,
after which they could and should move on.
Treasurer Siegel spoke of a need for a reference
“library” for ANCs, commended the auditor for
good work and DC’s Office of Cable Television
(Channels 13 and 16) for its good coverage, but
complained that the ANC was being “steamrolled”
by the Office of Planning, shortchanged by new
Alcoholic Beverage Control Board rules, and its
powers being usurped by the Office of Boards and
Commissions and by the Mayor’s many task forces.
The Councilmember expressed general sympathy
and understanding for these views. Siegel also
spoke directly to those watching the hearing on television,
urging them to take an interest in their
neighborhood and to get directly involved with
their Advisory Neighborhood Commission.
Auditor Restores Funds to ANC 6A
Move is Good News to New Commissioners
BY MARK SEGRAVES
Deborah Nichols, DC Auditor, informed Advisory
Neighborhood Commission 6A (ANC 6A) on
February 26 that she was going to release the funds
that have been frozen by the auditor since last year.
Nichols confiscated the ANC's checkbook and froze
all its funds after a confrontational meeting with
the former commissioners at a meeting last year.
Nichols and the commissioners from the previous
commission had a strained relationship that went
from bad to worse after the auditor released a report
that found the ANC had mishandled thousands of
dollars in District funds.
Only Wanda Stevens-Harris remains from the
previous commission, and Stevens-Harris had
almost nothing to do with the confrontation with
Nichols, although she was a part of the commission
that lost complete control of its finances. Two other
commissioners more closely tied to the problems
with the audit (Rob Hall and Daniel Pernell) now
serve in ANC 6C. Pernell, in fact, had called Nichols
a liar and insisted that she was ignoring evidence
that would have cleared the commissioners of
wrongdoing. Hall was associated with the problems
by virtue of being elected as treasurer for the last
year of his term at ANC 6A.
The move by the auditor comes as good news for
the new commissioners, who had been diligently
working to restore order to the finances. The auditor
has yet to re-instate the quarterly allotments
that would continue to fund the ANC. However,
the return of the checkbook allows the ANC to
operate in a more normal fashion and to pay bills
that are long overdue.
According to Commissioner Nick Alberti, treasurer
for the ANC, the commission has $5,581.81 in a
checking account and $4,057.34 in a savings
account, for a total of $9,639.15. The commissioners
wasted no time in spending some of that money.
They approved the rental of a post office box, the
purchase of a new check ledger and the payment of
the ANC bond required for all ANCs. Unfortunately,
the news comes too late to save the contents of the
N O W O P E N !
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 7
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commission's storage facility. The ANC defaulted on
its contract with H Street Storage, and the contents
of the unit are set to be sold at auction.
The commissioners also approved the quarterly
report for the 4th quarter of fiscal year 2002.
Colleen Harris
For the third month in a row, Commissioner
Colleen Harris was not in attendance at the meeting.
Harris, who has been a commissioner in ANC
6B for the past two years and won re-election, but
due to re-districting is now serving in ANC 6A, had
not been sworn in as a new commissioner as of the
March meeting. Harris missed every meeting that
ANC 6B conducted in 2002 and several of them in
2001. As of press date, Harris has not returned calls
from Voice of the Hill nor has she been in contact
with members of the ANC.
ANC commissioners cannot be re-called in the
first six months of a term and then can only be
removed by petition. According to Kathy Fairley,
Registrar of Voters, in order to remove a commissioner,
a registered voter must file a re-call form
with the Board of Elections and Ethics (BOEE).
After a ten-day notice period, a petition of re-call
will be issued. Ten percent of the registered voters in
the commissioner's single member district (SMD)
must sign the petition. For more information on
this process, interested persons may contact the
BOEE at 202-727-2525.
Zoning
The commissioners voted to oppose the request for
a use variance at 714 10th Street, NE. The owners of
the property are seeking to use the house as a business
office with seven employees. The current owners
bought the property under the impression that
it was zoned for commercial use. When they
applied for a certificate of occupancy, however,
they learned that it was zoned residential.
The commissioners acknowledged their sympathy
for the property owner's dilemma, but voted
unanimously to oppose the request. Commissioner
Wanda Stevens-Harris recused herself from the vote.
The commissioners also voted to support residential
parking signs in the 1300 block of D Street, NE.
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
8 www.voiceofthehill.com
Presentations
The commissioners heard two community presentations
at the meeting. Laura Canfield of the
Stanton Park Neighborhood Association spoke
about the group's efforts to restore a park at 8th and
Constitution. The project was a group effort with
support from CHAMPS and a local Boy Scout troop,
among others. Work on the park is nearly complete.
The Department of Parks and Recreation gave a
presentation on the Sherwood Park Recreation
Facility. The center at 10th and G Streets, NE, is due
to open this summer. The $4 million project will
include 20,000 square feet of recreation space in a
two story building. For more information on the
project, interested persons may log on to
http://www.bellarc.com/sherwood.htm.
ABC Committee
The commissioners approved the membership of
The Alcohol Beverage Licensing and Public Safety
Committee. The committee will hold its first meeting
Wednesday, April 9, at 7 p.m. in the Miner
Elementary School. Any residents interested in
serving on any committee should contact the ANC.
Attendance
Commissioners in attendance were Joe Fengler,
Cody Rice, Wanda Stevens-Harris, Jessica Ward,
Nick Alberti, Gladys Mack, and Michael Musante.
Colleen Harris was the only absent commissioner.
The next regular meeting of the ANC will be held at
7 p.m. Thursday, April 10, in the Miner Elementary
School. The new entrance for Miner is located on
16th Street.
Heated Debate Over Zoning Request
on 12th Street Marks ANC 6 B
Meeting
BY MARK SEGRAVES
At its March meeting, Advisory Neighborhood
Commission 6B (ANC 6B) voted to oppose the
request for a zoning variance by the owners of 244
12th Street, SE. The owners are seeking to have the
property classified as a multi-family unit. The commissioners
heard from residents on both sides of
the issue in a very passionate debate on what was in
the best interest of the community.
The property owners argued that changing the
classification would benefit the neighborhood
because it would allow them to rent three separate
and smaller units to couples, rather than renting
the existing two larger units to groups. Neighbors
who opposed the request were concerned about
issues such as parking and density.
Community activist Jim Myers spoke in favor of
granting the request. Myers told the commissioners
the property owners had refurbished an apartment
building near his home that helped to rejuvenate
the surrounding neighborhood. Myers described
the property owners as “people of good will.”
Myers and Commissioner Neil Glick both
implied that if the request was not granted the
owners should use the property as a halfway house.
Commissioner David Sheldon called that notion
“morally reprehensible.” Sheldon took it upon
himself to act as sergeant-at-arms for the meeting
several times, instructing both sides to remain civil.
“This isn’t Jerry Springer,” Sheldon told them as
they began to bicker at one another.
ANC Chair Julie Olson re-focused the discussion
on the matter at hand. “Our intent is not to mediate
disputes between neighbors,” Olson said. “The
intent is to determine if this is a hardship.”
The threshold for receiving a change in classification
is either a financial hardship or extreme circumstances.
In the end, the commissioners voted
six to two in favor of opposing the request.
Commissioners Glick and Daryll Snowden voted in
the minority.
In another zoning issue, the ANC voted to support
the request for a variance by the owner of 1420
A Street, SE. The variance is to allow an addition to
the house.
Vacancy in ANC 6B-05
Michael Simpson has resigned as an ANC commissioner.
Simpson, who petitioned successfully last
“The used key is
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year to fill the seat vacated when Anne Black moved
and then won re-election in November, notified the
Board of Elections and Ethics that he was not going
to serve the remainder of his two-year term. No reason
was given to ANC commissioners.
Any resident of ANC 6B-05 who is a registered
voter may petition to fill the remaining term. For
more information, call the BOEE at 202-727-2525.
To view a map of the ANC boundaries, log onto
http://www.voiceofthehill.com/images/ANC6B.gif.
One other seat is vacant in ANC 6B. ANC 6B-11 is
the single member district for the D.C. Jail.
Barracks Row Construction on Pace
Bill McLeod, Executive Director for Barracks Row
Main Street, told the commissioners that the construction
along 8th Street is proceeding on schedule
and should be completed by October 2003. The
current construction will continue toward the
Navy Yard and then return to the section between
Pennsylvania Avenue and E Street, SE. The on-ramp
at Virginia Avenue and 8th Streets will be closed for
up to six months during the construction, the
commissioners were told.
One other community construction note, The
Natatorium at Eastern Market is due to re-open on
May 1.
Alcohol Beverage Control
The ABC committee voiced concern with the
owner of Pacific Café in the 1100 block of
Pennsylvania Avenue, SE. Complaints had been
received about noise and trash, and it was determined
by the committee that the owner had failed
to comply with a voluntary agreement with the
ANC.
In that agreement, the owner was to apply for a
curb cut to service the parking lot behind the
restaurant. The owner told the committee that he
had applied for the permit months ago. Upon
obtaining a copy of the permit application, it was
learned that the owners misled the commissioners
about the timeliness of the application. The commissioners
made clear to the owner that he was
treading on thin ice and was put on notice to comply
fully with the agreement or risk having his
liquor license protested.
In other business, the commissioners voted to
approve a new logo for the ANC.
Attendance
Commissioners in attendance were Will Hill, Julie
Olson, Neil Glick, Mary Wright, David Sheldon,
Scott Cernich, Daryl Snowden, Francis Campbell,
and Keith Smith. No commissioners were absent.
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The next ANC 6B regular monthly meeting will be
held Tuesday, April 8, at 7 p.m. in the Old Naval
Hospital.
ANC 6C Meets
Chairman Adds Egg Timer to the Mix
BY MARK SEGRAVES
The March meeting of Advisory Neighborhood
Commission 6C (ANC 6C) was running at a brisk
pace 45 minutes into the meeting and more than
halfway through the agenda, when it looked as
though it was about to hit a bump in the road. The
discussion on the size and membership of the ANC
committees appeared to be taking longer than anybody
would have liked.
In the past, not only at this ANC but at civic
meetings all across town, a discussion like this
would bog down a meeting—something ANC 6C
Chairman Rob Hall had clearly seen one too many
times. Hall quietly produced an egg timer and set it
for two minutes as Commissioner Bill Crews told
the commissioners how he thought the committees
should be designed.
Two minutes later, as Crews was just getting his
final thought off his lips, it went off. “In order to
move forward,” Hall said with a smile, “I purchased
an egg timer. And when the egg timer speaks, everyone
listens.”
It was as easy as that. Very little explanation
needed. Ten minutes later, the matter was decided,
and everyone from the commissioners to the community
members gathered was able to get their two
cents in. Or in this case, their two minutes.
‘Show Me the Money’—Treasurer Does Just That
According to the treasurer’s report, ANC 6C still has
not received its first allotment of District funds. The
commission is allotted $5,700.88 for the second
quarter of fiscal year 2003. The Catch-22 is that it
cannot receive its funds until the commission is
bonded and has a bank account. It cannot have a
bank account with no money to open it and the
commission can’t be bonded until it pays the
District $25.
As a means to the solution, Commissioner Crews
donated $100 to the ANC so it could open the bank
account. At the meeting, he was authorized to loan
the ANC an additional $25 to cover the bond. The
allotment check should follow shortly.
The ANC established a post office box. Its address
is ANC 6C, P.O. Box 77876, Washington, DC 20013-
7787.
A Baker’s Dozen it Is
The commissioners voted to establish the size of
the three ANC committees at 13 members. Seven of
those seats will be reserved for community members,
and any commissioner will be allowed to vote
at any committee meeting. The requirements for a
quorum in the committees will be determined by
the individual committees.
The lengthy discussion surrounding this issue
centered on the number of available seats for community
members. In two draft proposals, the number
of community seats was limited to three or four.
“What are you trying to achieve by limiting citizen
participation?” asked one resident. Several residents
voiced their concern that the community
was being shut out. “Free help is gold,” they told
the commissioners. In the end, commissioners
Wirt, Hall, Moriss, Docter and Crews voted to have
the 13-seat configuration with seven community
members. Commissioner Daniel Pernell abstained
from the vote.
Zoning in the Sky
The commissioners voted unanimously to support
two recommendations from the zoning commission.
The first recommendation was to oppose
request by the Washington Development Group
(WDG) for an extension to a Planned Unit
Development (PUD) for the air rights over the
Center Leg Freeway at New Jersey Avenue and K
Street, NW. The PUD expired in 1999, and WDG is
seeking to have the PUD declared to be still valid.
The second recommendation was to support the
Office of Planning’s proposal to change the definition
of building height. The definition deals with
how the height of a building is measured.
The commissioners also discussed ways to coordinate
with ANC 6A on matters relating to the H
Street corridor.
Other Business
The commissioners discussed the possibility of
changing the date of the regular monthly meetings.
Commissioner Mark Dixon, who was absent,
wanted to move the meeting from Tuesday to
Thursday. After reflecting on the minutes of the
January meeting, at which the commissioners
voted to hold the meeting on the first Tuesday of
the month, they decided to make no change.
A member of the community asked if the commissioners
who were absent had sent in any excuse.
The commissioner responded that Commissioner
Dixon had a scheduling conflict, and that
Commissioners April Hall and Lawrence Thomas
were ill. April Hall has missed all three meetings
this year.
Attendance
Commissioners in attendance were Rob Hall,
Daniel Pernell, Bill Crews, Bob Morris, Karen Wirt
and Charles Docter. Absent were April Hall,
Lawrence Thomas and Mark Dixon. The next regular
monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday, April
1, at 7 p.m. in the Capital Children’s Museum.
Mark Segraves can be reached at mark@voiceof
thehill.com.
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
10 www.voiceofthehill.com
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Grand Prix of DC Cancelled for 2003
Statement from Bobby Goldwater—DC Sports &
Entertainment Commission
“The D.C. Sports and Entertainment Commission
is deeply disappointed in the combination of circumstances
that has resulted in the cancellation of
this year’s Grand Prix of Washington, DC. The
event promoter, National Grand Prix Holdings, has
repeatedly failed to meet commitments and obligations
over the last several months to the
Commission and others. We appreciate the recognition
by the American Le Mans Series regarding
the Commission’s dedication to this event.
“The commission is proud of its role in bringing
a world-class event to the Nation’s Capital that generated
$12 million in direct spending and international
attention for the District in the Grand Prix’s
inaugural year. We remain committed to our goal of
brining more events, along with their economic
development potential, to the city, including future
motor sports events. As we explore more event initiatives,
the commission will continue with its
ongoing community outreach with RFK Stadium
neighborhood residents as well as it regular communication
with the business community and
other District officials and organizations.”
Complete ‘Ask Judith’ Files Now
Online
The Voice of the Hill website is proud to offer readers
a complete archive of one of our most popular features,
“Ask Judith.” Simply log on and click on the
month you’d like to read. You can also browse all
the columns and search them by key words.
Judith’s home improvement/architectural expertise
is invaluable to many Capitol Hill residents. And
now, you can access her work anytime, via the
Voice’s website.
April 8 Overbeck History Lecture:
“Capitol Hill Before L’Enfant”
If you’ve ever wondered what Capitol Hill looked
like before it had a Capitol, you won’t want to miss
the Overbeck History Lecture on Tuesday, April 8.
George Washington University professor and longtime
Hill resident John M. Vlach will take us back to
“Capitol Hill Before L’Enfant”—to the woods,
streams and plantation land that were here before
the grand design for a federal city was superimposed.
Some signs of that era remain, he says, if you
know where to look.
Vlach is a professor of Anthropology and
American Studies at George Washington
University, where he’s taught for the past twenty
years, and in the world of folklife historians, his
name turns heads. He’s the author of ten books,
including Charleston Blacksmith, The Afro-American
Tradition in Decorative Arts, and Folk Art and Art
Worlds. He’s also curated a number of exhibitions
for the Smithsonian’s Museum of American History
and other institutions around the country.
The lecture will be held on Tuesday, April 8, at 8
p.m. at the Naval Lodge Hall at 330 Pennsylvania
Avenue, SE. As with all Overbeck lectures, admission
is free, but seating is limited, and a reservation
is required.
If possible, please reserve by email (info@ Capitol
HillHistory.org) to facilitate confirmation and any
updates, but you may also leave a message at 202-
544-1845. If you phone, please provide your name,
phone number and email address, and lecture series
coordinator Kristen Miller will get back to you.
Tales From Ovid Receives Helen Hayes
Nomination
First Production at the H Street Playhouse
In the category, Outstanding Choreography,
Resident Production, the Helen Hayes judges nominated
Sam Elmore and Kelly Parsley for Tales from
Ovid produced by The Theater Alliance. The popular
show was the first production at the H Street
Playhouse, 1365 H Street, NE.
Stanton Park Neighborhood
Association Scholarships
The Stanton Park Neighborhood Association
(SPNA) on Capitol Hill is seeking applicants for its
13th annual scholarship competition. In recent
years, SPNA has offered some half dozen scholarships
of about $1,500.
Applicants must be high school seniors, graduating
from DC schools, who plan to start college next
fall. They must demonstrate academic ability and
financial need. Students must live in the District of
Columbia, and first consideration will be given to
students residing in the Stanton Park neighborhood
and the greater Capitol Hill area.
Students wishing to apply must complete an
application form that requests their name, high
school, and a list of colleges where they have
applied. A recent transcript, proof of financial
need, and a one- to two-page essay on the student’s
goals for the future and how the SPNA scholarship
will help to realize those goals must accompany the
application. Two letters of recommendation,
including one from a teacher or school official,
must also be provided with the application.
Applications are due by April 15. For details, students
should contact their high school’s guidance
counselor or scholarship coordinator. For additional
information, they can call or write to SPNAScholarship
Committee, P.O. Box 75085, National
Capitol Station, Washington, DC 20013-5085, or
call Jeff Johnson at (202) 872-6072 (days) or 546-
0908 (evenings).
SPNA is a non-profit organization, and it funds
the scholarships through local neighborhood activities
and accepts donations to the scholarship fund.
Local Singer-Songwriter Presents
‘Righteous Spring’
Eclectic Performance Scheduled for April 6
DC-based singer-songwriter Scott Shumaker is presenting
a one-man show, “Righteous Spring,” set
for 8 p.m. Sunday, April 6, at the H Street Playhouse,
located at 1365 H Street, NE.
“Righteous Spring” will feature some of
Shumaker’s original songs on guitar and piano, as
well as a number of cover versions played on piano
and keyboard.
Shumaker has been performing for seven years.
In 2002, his DC debut show, “All These Voices,” was
a great success. He followed up with performances
as part of the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop’s summer
concert series, and in a cabaret performance called
“Time and Love” in November 2002.
For several songs in the April 6 show, Shumaker
will be joined onstage by a harmony group—comprised
of local singers Yolanda Nelson, Angela
Johnson and Michelle Forrester. Other guest musicians
are also slated to lend a hand.
A donation of $10 per person is suggested.
Donations will go toward The Thomas Circle
Singers (TCS), a 36-voice concert choir in
Northwest D.C., which gives all of its concert proceeds
to beneficiaries in the Washington area.
Additionally, the Theater Alliance, the resident
company at the H Street Playhouse, will benefit
from donations.
Refreshments will be served at the April 6 show.
The playhouse will also be home to a display of
photography by local artist Courtney Bell.
For more information on “Righteous Spring,”
interested persons may call 202-387-0862. More
information about Thomas Circle Singers and the
Theater Alliance is available by logging on to www.
thomascirclesingers.org or www.theater alliance.com.
U.S. Capitol Historical Society
Announces New Season of Public
Tours of Capitol Exterior
The United States Capitol Historical Society
announced that it has resumed regularly scheduled
public tours of the Capitol building exterior. These
acclaimed tours, which assemble at Union Station
Metro, provide a unique perspective on the Capitol,
including historical anecdotes about the Congress,
the construction of the building, and the meaning
of the democratic form of government.
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 11
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“These tours constitute an important new service
to the public, providing a focus on the neglected
West Front of the building,” explained Society
President Ron Sarasin, who served in Congress
from Connecticut 1973-1979. “The response to
these tours last year showed us that local citizens
and visitors from outside the area are eager for this
different approach to interpreting the history of
the building from the outside, along with a careful
look at the grounds and surrounding area.”
The Walking Tours are now available Monday
mornings at 10 a.m. at a cost of $10 per person. The
groups meet at the top of the outside escalator at
the Massachusetts Avenue Metro exit from Union
Station. From there, groups are guided on a twohour
walk around the Capitol building, including
the Senate Park, the new Visitor Center construction
site, the spectacular view from the Capitol’s
West Front, and the surrounding buildings.
The tours will be offered every Monday—with
emphasis on Monday holidays—now through
November 24. Group tours are also available at
other times by reservation.
The U.S. Capitol Historical Society is a private,
non-profit, non-partisan organization, chartered
by Congress to educate the public about the history
and heritage of the U.S. Capitol, its institutions,
and the people who have served therein. Society
membership is open to the public. The Society publishes
the definitive guidebook to the Capitol, We
the People: The Story of the United States Capitol,
which has sold millions of copies, with the 15th
edition (40th anniversary) published in 2002.
April 11 is Deadline for CHAMPS
Community Foundation Grants
The CHAMPS Community Foundation is now
accepting applications for grants of up to $1500 to
support good works in our neighborhood. Particular
areas of interest are education and enrichment for
children, the arts, and neighborhood beautification
—but the Foundation is happy to support any
work that benefits the people who live and work on
Capitol Hill. The foundation receives generous donations
from residents and businesses, and it is anxious
to put that money to work in the community.
The deadline for the spring cycle of grant awards
is April 11. Interested parties must submit a short
proposal, accompanied by the application worksheet.
Application guidelines, the required worksheet,
and any further information are available by
contacting Stephanie Deutsch at 202-547-8624. She
can also be reached by fax at 202-547-6333 or by
e-mail at scd@his.com.
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VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
12 www.voiceofthehill.com
ety store, two veterinary surgeons,
and one liquor store.
Altogether, 30 of the businesses in
the directory were on H Street within
the study area. No other street
had an equal concentration. Most of
the businesses in the area served
people who lived nearby, and
because of the limited types of businesses,
residents would still have to
go out of the neighborhood for most
of their needs. Most of the buildings
erected in the study area in the 19th
century were residential, and those
that contained businesses were most
often a combination of business and
residence.
Architecture of the 1870s
Based on what appear to be the oldest
surviving houses, some observations
can be made about the
dwellings erected in the 1870s,
before the requirement for brick
construction. They were largely
Business Development in
the 1870s
The business directory of Boyd’s City
Directory for 1874 lists only three
businesses in the study area: all were
grocers. The1880 directory shows
the extent to which commercial
activity progressed in six years. At
that point, there were 75 businesses
listed in the study area: by far the
most numerous were grocers. There
were 39 grocers listed: of these, 15
were located on H Street between
2nd and 15th, and the rest were scattered
through the neighborhood.
Besides grocers, the study area had
two bakers, four blacksmiths, two
tobacco sellers, two coal and wood
dealers, a cooper, two dressmakers,
two druggists, a dry goods dealer,
two flour and feed dealers, two gardeners,
three milk dealers, a perfumery,
two physicians, a stenographer,
a stone and marble yard, a
stove maker, three tinsmiths, a variopment
facing one of the streets on
the short dimension of the block.
Several lots were left vacant between
each house pair. In a number of
squares the houses are placed so that
they shared a common wall on the
lot line, but did not abut the other
lot line, thus creating an open side
yard.6 This arrangement would certainly
have made for an open and
attractive suburban-looking
streetscape with ample yard space. It
would also have had the advantage
for developers of spreading out the
houses and making the squares look
more occupied. This distinctive
development pattern can be appreciated
only on old maps. The blocks
where it persisted the longest have
been destroyed for new housing and
a school in the late 20th century.
On some blocks, however, examples
of the house pairs can still be seen
sandwiched between later row houses.
7 The one place where some appreciation
of the possibilities of this
paired house arrangement can be
gained is on Pickford Place, a oneblock
street running from F to G
between 8th and 9th Streets. The
two identical rows of small brick
house pairs that face each other
across narrow Pickford Place were
built after 1887. Each pair has a
stepped roofline and side entrances
reached from the yards that separate
the pairs. The resulting rhythm of
alternating buildings and open yards
creates one of the most charming
streets in the study area.
1880s and 90s
The transportation corridor of H
Street appears to have been a generator
of development in the Near
Northeast. With several notable
exceptions, the squares that flank
the street filled up first and with
more substantial houses. The streets
south of H Street, closer to the established
neighborhoods of Capitol
Hill, were more fully developed in
the 19th century, with the exception
of the blocks between F and G
(squares 778, 810, 834, 860, 891) that
remained sparsely built through the
turn of the century. While there
were many large houses built north
of I Street in the 19th century, there
was also more open land there. Some
squares (831, 908, and 980) were
totally empty, and many, especially
those through which the train ran,
had only a few houses. These blocks
did not fill up until the first quarter
of the 20th century.
Lot ownership patterns varied
considerably within the area. D.C.
Assessment records for 1886-87 show
that some squares had many owners
who possessed one to five lots each.
At the other extreme, one investor or
group of investors owned entire
squares. William G. Pearson owned
half of the lots in square 855 as well
as parts of four other squares.
frame with flat fronts, flat roofs and
simple Italianate details. Buildings
that fit this description have survived
throughout the study area.1
A particularly interesting example
of this type is located in the center
of the 500 block of L Street. The
square on which this house was built
was one of the first in the study area
to be developed and contains the
historic Mount Olive Church. In the
1870s and 80s, houses were placed
around the square with open space
between them. This house, although
altered architecturally, has survived
through the years with open lots on
either side of it and is a visual
reminder of the less dense setting in
which many of the earliest houses
were erected.
The simple late Italianate style
persisted into the 1880s and can be
found in brick buildings as well.
Typical examples are at 401 K Street
and across the street at 400-404 K. A
handsome row of Italianate commercial
buildings still stands at 401-
411 H Street. One has received a new
front, and the rest have had storefront
modifications, but they once
had continuous bracketed cornices
and brick label moldings over the
three-bay second-story windows.
Since several of these buildings were
still shown as dwellings on the 1904
Sanborn map, it is possible that all
were built as residences with a side
hall plan and two windows on the
first floor. By 1880, number 401, the
corner building, had become the
grocery store of William Brahler.2 It
remained a grocery for most of its
history: from 1920 through 1940, it
was one of several locations of the
Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea
Company (A&P) on H Street.3
Telltale bracketed cornices peeking
out from above altered shop fronts
up and down H Street are remnants
of this period and reminders of the
longevity of some of the buildings
there.4
Off of H Street, in the residential
parts of the study area, many examples
of the simple brick Italianate
row house from the 1870s and 80s
can be found. A representative, and
little altered, row stands on the east
side of 4th Street in the 700 block.
These are very much like the frame
row houses described above with flat
roof and bracketed cornice, but with
walls and window details made of
brick.5 Early maps reveal that,
instead of fitting snuggly in the
urban streetscape as they do now,
these early rows would have stood
alone when built with little other
development around them.
The 1887 Hopkins Map reveals an
interesting pattern of early residential
development in several squares
in the central and eastern part of the
study area. Paired frame houses were
spaced out evenly around the block,
sometimes with more intense devel-
HA Neighborhood’s Story
Part IV
BY NANCY SCHWARTZ
Street
Introduction
What follows is the fourth installment of a brief history of the Capitol Hill
North/Near Northeast neighborhood. The first installment appeared in the
January issue of the Voice, and all installments available on the website at
www.voiceofthehill.com/history.htm. This history is the product of the first
phase of a multi-year cultural resources survey undertaken in October 2001 by
the Near Northeast Citizens community organization with the support of a
federal Historic Preservation Fund grant. The first phase of the project focused
on gaining a broad historical overview of the survey area. Future phases will
include additional research on the neighborhood as a whole as well as documentation
of individual buildings. The survey area is roughly bounded by the
Union Station railroad tracks/2nd Street NE (west), Florida Avenue (north),
Maryland Avenue (east) and F Street NE (south). This area, platted as part of
the original L’Enfant plan for the Old City of Washington, is comprised of 66
city squares and over 3,500 buildings.
The project’s Principal Investigator and the author of this history is Nancy
Schwartz, a former Chief Historian of the federal Historic American Buildings
Survey, the author of What Style Is It?, a popular guide to architectural styles in
the United States, and the Architectural Historian for the Eastern Market
Historic Structure Report.
RICHARD LAYMAN
Project Administrator
Capitol Hill North/Near Northeast Cultural and Social History Study
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 13
Augustus Jay was another large landholder,
owning large parts of squares
773, 775, 805 and 806. John H.
Ketcham owned land in four
squares, while he and his partner
Henry A. Willard owned all of the
lots in squares 909 and 932. The
Washington Brick Machine
Company, which had a large brickmaking
establishment at the corner
of Florida Avenue and Bladensburg
Road, owned most of squares 1002
and 1003. William W. Corcoran
owned nearly half the lots in the
adjoining squares 810 and 834. Even
Alexander R. Shepherd owned a few
lots in square 891.
The rate and nature of development
in the study area was also variable.
Some squares were subdivided
and covered with houses within a
few years. Others were built up a few
buildings at a time. The size of the
subdivided lots was a reflection of
the kinds of buildings the developer
expected to create and who the tenants
or prospective buyers would be.
Very small lots meant modest houses
and working class residents. Certain
squares in the Near Northeast—especially
on the small streets that bisect
blocks—had lots for small houses.
An example is square 1003, developed
by the Washington Brick
Machine Company. The company
may have wanted to provide convenient
housing for the workmen in its
large brick making facility directly
across Florida Avenue. Census
records show that a number of the
residents of square 1003 did indeed
work as hod carriers, brick makers,
and laborers in the brickyard.8 The
houses erected by the Washington
Brick Machine Company are examples
of the speculative building that
characterized much of the development
in the study area. There are
numerous examples of houses that
are different from their immediate
neighbors, but a far more common
pattern in the study area is the row
of identical or coordinated houses
built at one time by a speculator and
varying from a few buildings to a
long row of houses.
Architecture of the 1880s
and 90s
Despite a nation-wide depression in
the early 1890s, the period was one
of growth for the study area. Of the
$3,972,028 spent to erect private
buildings in the city in1894,
$2,122,523 was spent in the northwest
quadrant, $463,110 in the
northeast, $224,10 in the southeast,
and only $155,140 in the southwest.
The northeast also led all but the
northwest quadrant in the number
of building permits issued.9 The
extent of building in the 1880s and
90s can be seen by looking at the distribution
of the characteristic house
types of those decades. Although
there were some smaller houses with
flat fronts and corbelled cornices,
the most popular house of this period
in the study area—as in the rest of
the city—was the asymmetrical row
house with a full-height projecting
bay. Most bay fronts were made of
sharp-edged machine-made red
brick set with very fine mortar
joints. Bays could be round or polygonal
in shape, but were most often
square. On the more elaborate buildings,
roofs or parapets topped the
bays. Decorative details were also of
brick and included corbelled cornices
at the roofline, champhered
corners on the bays, belt courses and
panels, zones of decorative brick
bonds like herringbone and basket
weave, windows and doors edged
with moulded brick buttons and
knobs, and inset plaques of terra
cotta in floral or geometric designs.
Bay fronts were often built on a
raised basement, and the recessed
door was approached by a cast iron
staircase. These houses could be
quite modest, with a plain square
bay, flat roof, corbelled cornice, and
simple decoration consisting of integral
brick patterns or moulded terra
cotta inserts. Examples of this common
row house can be seen at many
other places throughout the study
area.10 The larger bay fronts, often
three stories high, embody more of
the picturesque and eclectic aesthetic
of the late 19th century. Their
bays have a variety of shapes and
end with picturesque roofs, balconies,
or crenellations. Corner buildings
often have towers or multiple
bays to dramatize their visible corner
location. These larger and more
architecturally sophisticated bay
fronts represent the most affluent
end of the building spectrum in the
study area. As in the Capitol Hill
Historic District to the south, these
houses are scattered throughout the
district sometimes occurring on the
same block as, or even next to, much
older or more modest houses. The
sense of variety created by these
uneven juxtapositions is part of the
unique quality of the streetscapes in
both of these East Washington
areas.11 At the turn of the 20th century,
the bay-fronted form continued
to be popular, but underwent
subtle changes. Classically-derived
details were substituted for the more
robust corbelled cornices and
moulded brick decoration, wall sur-
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East Egg Gopher Prairie
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Notes
1 Examples can be found at 1023 and 1026 5th
Street, 503 and 507 M Street, 816 4th Street, and
726-32 6th Street.
2 1880 Census, 1880 Boyd’s City Directory
3 Boyd’s City Directories 1914-1970
4 At the second floors of 712 and 716 H Street
can be seen the remains of what was once a row of
flat front brick buildings that filled the entire 700
block of H on the 1887 Hopkins map, and that
were originally slightly recessed from the street.
The two buildings that have not been entirely
altered have cornices with two large decorative
brackets and incised modillions, dentils, and rope
moldings. The three second-story windows are
framed with brick segmental arches and drops.
Another reminder of what H Street once looked
like can be found at 912 H. This small-scale frame
building has a heavy Italianate cornice and three
small 6/6 light windows on the second floor. It
was once part of a row of similar buildings that
lined the north side of the block.
5 Examples of this house type can also be seen
in a number of places in the study area, including
the 900 block of 9th Street and 603-627 10th
Street.
6 This can be seen in Square 889 (between 7th,
8th, H, and I) with intense development along H
Street and frame house pairs in the rest of the
square facing 7th and 8th. A similar pattern existed
in Square 934 (9th, 10th, G, and H) with
intense development again along H St. In this
block, more infill houses have been built on 10th
Street by 1887, but they had also been added in
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
14 www.voiceofthehill.com
NOTE: The Capitol Hill North/Near
Northeast Cultural and Social History
Study has been funded with the assistance
of a matching grant from the US
Department of Interior, National Park
Service, through the State Historic
Preservation Grant-in-Aid Program,
Historic Preservation Office, Office of
Planning, District of Columbia, under
provisions of the National Historic
Preservation Act of 1966, as amended.
faces were smoother, without the
typical champhered corners, and
colors of brick, besides the ubiquitous
red, were introduced.12 Another
variation on the turn-of-the-century
row house sported central oriel windows.
Unlike those with full-height
bays, these houses had windowed
bays of brick or metal that did not
reach the ground. The style was
popular for both residential and
commercial buildings.13
To be continued next month
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pairs maintaining the pattern of house pairs with
an open space, although much smaller, between.
The next square south, # 935 (F to G) has four
groups of frame house pairs facing 9th and 10th
and three pairs along F where the lots run perpendicular.
This square was one of first in the area to
get water in 1871-3, so probably the houses were
built or about to be built at that time. This development
pattern continues to be seen in Square
913 (F, G, 8th and 9th), but here the three house
pairs were widely spaced down 8th St. This square
retained its early arrangement of large lots, and
there was no row of perpendicular lots across one
end. A similar pattern can also be seen in Square
892 (7th, 8th, E and F) just outside the survey
area. In this small square the original lots have
been subdivided and there are four pairs of houses
on both 7th and 8th. Individual paired frame
houses with side yards can also be found, individually
or in small groups, in Squares 933 (NE
quad), 958 and 1005 (one pair), 983 and 959 (2
pairs).
7 Two are in the 1100 block of G Street. 1127-
29 G Street are frame Italianate dwellings with
one-story porches across the front. Another pair
remains at 1119-21 G. A particularly handsome
example of paired houses can be found at 927-29
10th Street. These frame Italianate dwellings have
one-story bays with triple windows above them
on the second floor and entrances in recessed ells
on the side of the building. A simpler example
can be found at 717-19 10th Street.
8 U.S. Census, 1880.
9 “District of Columbia Report for 1894—
Building Operations.” Evening Star, January 1,
1895, p.10, c.3
10 The east side of the 1100 block of 6th Street
and the north side of the 700 block of L are examples.
The two-story, raised-basement houses at
1220-22 H Street are also typical of period. They
have three-sided bays with simple brick trim, and
1222 retains its cast iron stairway. They are also a
reminder that H Street was once largely a street of
houses, not stores.
11 The house at 1252 Maryland Avenue is one
of the grandest in the study area with its corner
turret and rusticated sandstone Romanesque
details. A particularly dramatic corner house can
be found at 1000 9th Street. Its broad round tower
is topped by crenellations giving it the appearance
of a small residential castle. Interestingly, when
this house was built, the B&O Railroad ran right
through the center of the block and two-thirds of
the square was occupied by coal yards. [Sanborn
Map 1904] One of the finest rows of late 19th century
houses occupies the entire south side of the
400 block of M Street. Each corner has a towered
house, and the houses in between have a symmetrical
pattern of round and square bays. Large,
elaborate houses were also built on H Street, but
most of them have been destroyed or greatly
altered. One example can be found at 1337 H
Street. This imposing house sits on a high basement.
An unusual shaped gable tops its square
bay. The first floor bay window and double-leaf
door have the round arches and clustered
columns associated with the Richardsonian
Romanesque style.
12 Examples of this late incarnation of the bay
front can be seen at the northwest corner of 4th
and G Streets. This property had remained in the
Augustefer family and was undeveloped at the
turn of the century. On these houses, the corbelled
cornice was replaced by metal bands with
Classical swag designs. The house at 721 2nd
Street is a sampler of decorative metal banding
and cornices. It would have been an effective
advertisement for the work of the owner Albert
Reavis, a metal cornice maker whose shop occupied
the rear of the lot.
13 A six-building row at 616-26 3rd Street is a
good illustration of row houses with central metal
oriels. More can be found in the 700 block of
13th Street. Oriels were also popular on the commercial
buildings of H Street. Two pairs of buildings
at 1322-24 and 1326-28 H Street were variations
on the theme. 1322-24 is three-story double
building with square metal oriels at the second
floor level. 1326-28 is another double building in
which the oriels are capped by picturesque conical
slate roofs with ball finials.
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largest dollar volume per square foot
in the city.
What are some changes Schneider’s
has seen over the years? Mainly,
they’ve found that people drink more
wine than they used to. A lot more. In
1949, the fruit of the vine might have
comprised one percent of Schneider’s
business. Today, that figure is 62 percent,
and wine is the store’s numberone
seller. Well-traveled Washingtonians
have been exposed to wine,
and they appreciate fine dining—
practically inseparable from wine.
However, Genderson cites another
reason for vino’s popularity: In
Washington, retail stores are allowed
to import the item directly rather
than going through a wholesaler (not
surprisingly, wholesalers have been
fighting this policy for years).
“For that reason, we can buy older
vintages that would otherwise not
be available,” Genderson explains.
“We might have the city’s–even the
country’s–best selection of rare
wines.” He goes on to recount one of
the store’s most unusual (and lucrative)
requests: For a Millennium
party, a customer requested vintages
from the year 1900. That’s right—
100-year-old bottles, and Schneider’s
was able to supply a Chateau
Margaux for $4,500 and a $3,500
bottle of Chateau Lafitte. There’s
more where that came from;
Schneider’s recently sold four bottles
of 1966 Chateau La Fleur Pomeral at
$1,000 a pop.
Schneider’s of Capitol Hill,
300 Massachusetts Ave.,
NE
Established in 1949 by Abe
Genderson and Max Schneider
Saturdays are the craziest days, especially
in December. That’s when customers
from the Hill, downtown, the
Maryland and Virginia suburbs,
Pennsylvania, and even overseas converge
on Schneider’s of Capitol Hill,
located at Third Street and Massachusetts
Avenue, NE. While the holidays
are by far the store’s busiest season,
any Saturday can find folks queued
up as Schneider’s 21 employees help
them choose from 10,000 labels,
including 200 kinds of beer.
Dating from 1949, Schneider’s is
one of the Hill’s oldest establishments
selling spirits. The store was
established by Abe Genderson—
father of current owners Rick and Jon
Genderson (who look like they could
be twins)—and their grandfather,
Max Schneider. Schneider emigrated
from Latvia before World War I.
Back then, the fledgling business
was confined to a tiny basement, but
in 1959 the owners were able to purchase
four townhouses to create
Schneider’s present space. It’s a lot
bigger than the basement—but even
today, Schneider’s crams a lot of
product in its 11,000- square foot
digs. “We’ve grown expediently,”
says co-owner Rick Genderson,
adding that his store might do the
carry non-medical items like greeting
cards, cosmetics or magazines.
Gone is Grubb’s beloved, marbletopped
soda fountain (which served
great ice cream cones), which was
removed about 15 years ago to make
room for wheelchairs, canes, walkers
and other equipment. In case you’re
wondering where they store all these
items, Grubb’s maintains a warehouse
at 12th Street and
Pennsylvania Avenue, SE.
Owners Ed Dillon and Jeanette
Partilla relate the store’s long history.
Grubb’s began as Randal’s Pharmacy
in 1867. Visitors need only glance up
at the original tin ceiling to realize
this place has been around awhile.
Dillon also shows us a restored photograph
–provided by Joseph
Randal’s great-niece Goldie
Humphries (who died in the 1970s at
the age of almost 100). The circa
1895 picture shows Randal, his
employees and knickers-clad youths
in front of the store. (Look closely,
and you’ll see a sign in Randal’s window
advertising cigars. Today,
Grubb’s has a special smoking-cessation
section).
In the 1920s, Randal sold the business
to a Mr. Luckett, who–in
turn–sold it to brothers John and
Charles Grubb in 1931. The Grubbs
operated the store until 1966.
Meanwhile, Walter Reed hospital
pharmacist Ed Dillon was moonlighting
at Grubbs. When the brothers’
health failed, Dillon purchased the
drugstore. Dillon also acquired a partner,
Carl Birkner, who retired around
1980. Dillon, who lives in Berwyn
Heights, Md., befriended neighbor
Jeanette Partilla, who shared his
interest in the local Boys and Girls
Club. Eventually, Dillon offered
Partilla–who has a strong background
in business administration—a job.
Eventually she became a partner.
What are the reasons for the
store’s continued success? “We’re
very service-oriented,” Partilla tells
us, as we visit in Grubb’s upstairs
office. “We go out of the way to help
people.” A longtime customer, actor
Robert Prosky, who lives near 9th
and South Carolina Avenue, SE,
comes in. “They take care of me,” he
says. “I’ve been coming here for 40
years, and I remember years ago seeing
those bottles of colored water in
the windows.”
Concurs fellow patron Shirley Ellis,
who lives in Southeast: “This pharmacy
is fantastic.” “You don’t have to
wait, and they take the time to explain
things to you.” Likewise, Northeast
resident Donnie Graham appreciates
the service. “It’s prompt.... I like
coming here,” he says.
Another Grubb’s customer is Sen.
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD). Not only
is her office just down the street, she
serves on the Senate Health,
Education, Labor and Pensions
Committee. “She’s been very helpful
However, Genderson emphasizes
that the rest of us who want a $10
bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz to drink
with our meatloaf are equally important
as customers. “We wear different
hats,” he says. “It doesn’t matter
if you are spending a lot or a little
money. That’s the secret of our success
and longevity, we treat all our
customers like family....it’s paid off,
and they’ve become friends over the
years.”
Adds longtime employee Tom
Daire, as he rings up a sale: “It has its
moments, but working here is a lot
of fun; it’s almost a second home.”
Daire, who has been employed at
Schneider’s for a dozen years, lives
nearby at 4th and H Streets, NE.
So what are the biggest wine sellers?
“Australian is hot right now,”
Genderson responds, adding that
California, French, Italian and
Spanish wines are also in demand.
“We also sell a lot of South
American.” What Schneider’s does
not carry are pop wines or malt
liquor; nor does it sell singles, except
for boutique brews. “We’ve tried to
take care of the neighborhood,” says
Genderson. “It’s been good to us,
and Capitol Hill is a great place,
especially since its resurgence about
five years ago.” (The brothers do not
live here, however; Rick and wife
Barbie dwell in Potomac, while
brother Jon and spouse Lori are
Rockville residents). Their dad, cofounder
Abe Genderson, enjoys the
best of both worlds: he and Mom
(Charlotte) spend their summers in
Bethesda. Come winter, they clear
out and head for sunny Delray
Beach, Fla.
Speaking of escaping bad weather:
“The snow killed us,” Genderson
laments on this past winter. “People
stayed home.”
Grubb’s Pharmacy, 326 East
Capitol Street, NE
Originally established in 1867 as
Randal’s Pharmacy; purchased by
Grubb brothers in 1931. Acquired by
Ed Dillon in 1968; partner is
Jeanette Partilla.
Visiting Grubb’s Pharmacy at 4th
and East Capitol is like a trip back in
time–until you notice the very modern,
motorized wheelchairs, Ace
bandages and corn pads. On a cold
Monday morning, Grubb’s is busy.
Patrons awaiting prescriptions
and/or other services are seated, like
in a doctor’s office. In fact, Grubb’s
provides many medical services,
such as contracting with major hospice
services. Grubb’s also provides
patient counseling and screenings
for such disorders as diabetes and
high blood pressure, plus prosthesis
fittings and extensive assistance for
HIV patients.
We also notice that Grubb’s–like
pharmacies in Europe—does not
They’ve (Also) Been
Around A While
Longtime Hill Businesses Share Secrets of Success
(Part 2 of a Series)
BY CELESTE MCCALL
Left: Schneider’s Liquors. Right: Co-owner Rick Genderson with a $1000 bottle of
Chateau la Fleur Pomeral. Photos by Celeste McCall
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 17
to us in health issues,” says Partilla.
Meanwhile, the senator was admiring
the circa 1895 photo of the old
Randal’s pharmacy.
The Monocle, 107 D Street,
NE
Established in 1960 by “Connie” and
Helen Valanos, now owned by son,
John Valanos.
When Connie and Helen Valanos
launched Capitol Hill’s first “white
tablecloth” restaurant in 1960, wiser
heads warned them: “You won’t survive
at dinner time because nobody
stays on the Hill at night...everybody
eats downtown. It won’t fly. ”
Well, that was 43 years ago. The
well-intentioned but short-sighted
warning reminds Valanos of a story.
When FedEx founder Fred Smith was
a student at Harvard, he wrote a
term paper on his business proposal
for a worldwide delivery business.
Upon reading the piece, Smith’s professor
warned his student that his
idea would never fly. The rest, as
they say, is history.
Like Fred Smith, the Valanos couple
—who are first-generation Greek-
American–persisted. “The restaurant
business was in our blood,” says son
John Valanos, 46, who now operates
the restaurant. We’re seated in the
Monocle’s newest room, an upstairs
party space which was once an
office. The room is appointed with
cream-colored walls and a circular
table adorned with fresh flowers. An
entire wall is lined with a wine rack,
“for reds that turn over quickly,”
explains Valanos.
Downstairs, the Monocle’s main
dining area is a vision of brass and
burnished wood. A gas-fueled fireplace
provides a cozy touch on a
chilly March afternoon. Celebrity
photos plaster the walls: JFK, Robert
Kennedy, Bill Clinton, political
satirist Mark Russell, Sen. Max
Baucus (D-Mont), the late Sen.
Jennings Randolph (D-W.Va.), and
former Sen. George McGovern (DSD)
among them.
Besides the politicos covering the
walls, countless other bigwigs have
supped at the Monocle. Thanks
largely to its proximity to the Senate
office buildings and other government-
related firms, the Monocle
enjoys a loyal following of senators,
staffers and lobbyists. Famous regulars
have included the late House
Speaker Tip O’Neill (who feted his
family and staff at the Monocle just
before he retired), the late Sen.
Hubert Humphrey (D-Minn.), as well
as current Senators Pete Domenici
(R-N. Mex.), Dianne Feinstein (DCalif.),
Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa),
Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), owner of the
Milwaukee Bucs basketball team who
was entertaining his coaching staff,
and Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.). The
solons often bring their wives and
constituents.
Moreover, every president since
John F. Kennedy has visited the
Monocle. While still a senator, JFK
liked to have lunch there and usually
ordered the prime rib sandwich.
Often, joined by wife Jackie,
Kennedy dined at the window seat
practically in the shadow of the U.S.
Capitol. Later, when he was president,
JFK was too busy to drop by in
person, but he would send his limo
to pick up his sandwich and take it
to the Oval Office. “We normally
don’t do carry-out, but [my Dad]
made an exception in Kennedy’s
case,” deadpans Valanos.
An interesting and thought-provoking
touch is a series of political
quotes emblazoned (in faux gold) on
the white ceiling beams in the
Monocle’s main dining area. Just a
sampling—“It’s lonely up here.”
(Rep. Cardis Collins (D-Ill);
“Institutions are more powerful than
men.” (Karl Marx); “Washington is
the only city where sound travels
faster than light.” (Ronald Reagan);
and, my favorite: “An empty stomach
is not a good political advisor.”
(Albert Einstein).
Valanos credits his wife, Vasiliki,
who was born in Athens, with much
of the Monocle’s success. “She’s wonderful;
she’s totally committed to the
restaurant,” her husband says. The
couple has a 12-year-old daughter,
Eleni, and a son, Constantine, who is
10. The family lives in upper
Northwest. What about the Valanos
parents, who started all this? Connie
and Helen are happily retired in Boca
Raton, Fla. They visit occasionally—
when our weather is decent.
The younger Valanos also praises
Monocle general manager Nick Selimos,
who has been with the restaurant
for nine years. “Dynamics are
important,” Valanos emphasizes.
“You have to be able to change, but
subtly, over time. You have to know
your clientele, their needs....you want
your dinner guests to come in for dinner
and leave saying what a wonderful
time they had. You have to have a
passion for what you’re doing.”
What are some changes seen
through the eye of the Monocle?
One is the proliferation of fine dining
restaurants in the neighborhood:
Bistro Bis, La Brasserie and Two
Quail, to name a few. “The closer to
me, the better,” says Valanos. “Good
restaurants draw people to the
neighborhood.” He also adds that he
would like to attract more Capitol
Hill neighbors. “We are NOT a private
club!,” he states.
“When we first opened, lunchtime
was sea of martinis,” recalls Valanos.
“The three-martini lunch was in full
gear. One regular customer booked a
table for six, and a lot more people
showed up. They sort of rotated,
talking business and drinking martinis
for hours. Later after everyone
had left, the host came back. I asked
if he’d forgotten something, and he
replied: ‘I forgot to eat lunch.’ Those
days are gone, gone, gone.”
When customers do drink at the
Monocle (or anywhere else), they are
more likely to choose wine. Valanos
displays a pair of Australian reds he
plans to add to his already extensive
wine list. The vintages were selected
by neighbor Rick Genderson, from
Schneider’s just down the street. “It’s
nice to talk to other people on the
Hill, especially to people in similar
businesses,” says Valanos. “We share
information—which wines are selling.
It’s a learning experience for
me.”
Hill resident Celeste McCall’s work
appears in The Voice of the Hill each
month.
From far left: 1894
Grubb’s formerly
Randal’s; Jeanette
Partilla and Ed
Dillon, co-owners
of Grubbs; John
Valanos of the
Monocle; The
Monocle dining
room. Photos courtesy
Celeste McCall
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VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
18 www.voiceofthehill.com
we decided to adopt, China just
seemed like the best, well organized
program.” The one child per family
policy in China has led to the abandonment
of many infant girls.
Debbie (age 12) and Mary (age 11)
were adopted by Martin and Donna
Gleason. Debbie was born in
Guatemala, and Mary was born in
Costa Rica. Martin Gleason says,
“Where international adoptions are
possible for American parents, there
are fewer restrictions on the adopting
parents than there are in U.S.
adoptions.”
Gleason comments that the cultural,
economic, and political environment
of the country has an
impact on adoption policies. The
Gleasons had the help of the DATZ
Foundation, an adoption agency
that has offices in Vienna, Va. The
agency had good working relationships
with Guatemala and Costa
Rica and was able to guide the
Gleasons through the process.
If you want to adopt a child, it’s
worth it,” claims Capitol Hill
resident Howard Gantman. “It’s
the most unbelievable experience
in your life,” adds his wife, Ana
Levenson.
The U.S. State Department reports
20,099 international adoptions for
2002 alone. Why do so many people
adopt internationally?
“It’s very hard to adopt Americans,”
says Mary Jane Barnett. She
and her husband, Robert Sargent,
adopted Lula, who is now nine years
old. “I also wanted an infant. Lula
was 18 months old.” Barnett
explains how they decided on the
country. “For China, part of it was
our age. We were older. The Chinese
have a respect for age.”
Howard Gantman and Ana Levenson
adopted Ella much more recently.
Gantman explains why they chose
international adoption. “Domestic
adoptions usually take a lot longer
than international adoptions. When
ground checks, a financial examination,
and house inspection. Birth
certificates, medical papers, marriage
license, and if there has been a
previous marriage, original copies of
the divorce papers are all required.
Laughing, he adds, “It’s amazing
because when you go through birth,
nobody says, ‘We’re going to evaluate
to see if you can be a decent parent!’”
Even though international adoptions
are often faster than domestic
ones, Levenson and Gantman (and
also Gleason) note that the wait can
still be extended and unpredictable.
Gleason adds, “There are a lot of
vagaries and difficulties and frustrations.
It is not an instantaneous
process. You cannot do it on a
whim!”
Levenson earnestly explains that,
in retrospect, she’s not upset by the
timing. “Otherwise we wouldn’t
have Ella! She’s our baby!” Gantman
mentions a Chinese folk tale involving
a thread that connects people
and families. “For families adopting
from China,” he says, “the red
thread is very important. You think
of it as a thread that’s connecting
you to your baby who is halfway
around the world from you. It’s like
whatever happened, she was meant
to be connected to us.”
Barnett had the help of an adoption
agency in Seattle. During the
process of adopting her daughter,
Lula, the Chinese adoption regulations
changed. According to Barnett,
“You need to work with an agency
that has experience with China and
ideally has Chinese people working
for them.”
The Gleasons first attempted to
adopt a child from Guatemala. As
the process became longer and more
complicated, they started losing
hope. “So we applied for a child
from Costa Rica. Then the situation
freed itself up in Guatemala, and
very quickly Mary became available
in Costa Rica. After being married 19
years, both girls arrived in a period
of a month!”
The entire process took about two
years for Parkhurst. He had made
inquiries into a public adoption
within D.C. and tried a private adoption
from Bolivia. He also had connections
to a Vietnamese program
with Adoption Center of
Washington. The Center’s Executive
Director, Linda Brownlee, told him
about the twins in Ho Chi Minh
City. Parkhurst had not planned to
adopt two children at the same time
until the program called him. “I
knew when I hung up the phone
that I was going to do it, but I
thought I should be responsible and
tell her I needed to think it over and
sleep on it!”
Levenson and Gantman say the
day they found out about Ella was
incredible. They received informa-
Martin Gleason notes, “Some people
can be very disappointed. Perhaps
the child is no longer available, or
there is some legal or political
change, or there is an irregularity in
the papers. Our government is very
circumspect about the sources of the
children to be sure they were given
up for adoption voluntarily.”
John Parkhurst has twins, Jonathan
and Joshua (nearly age 212), and
is a former leader for the Maybe Baby
groups at Whitman Walker Clinic
(www.wwc.org/news/ maybebaby.
htm). He says, “I started out with the
District and attended the excellent
10-session course from Child
Protective Services. However, the
hoops for an adoptive parent in the
District are so high!”
The Process
Before any adoption, there is a home
study. For domestic adoptions,
inspection of the house itself is part
of the study. According to Parkhurst,
the District is particular, not only
about things like the size of the bedroom
for the child, but also about
safety. The windows in his 90-year
old house tested positive for lead,
and he would have had to replace all
of them to be a candidate for a
District adoption. “I just couldn’t do
it,” says Parkhurst.
Parkhurst comments about the
irony that the child may already be
living in conditions that are significantly
worse. “For the international
adoption, the only real requirement
is that the child will not be in an
overcrowded condition and that the
child doesn’t have to sleep in the
parents’ room. The inspecting social
worker must simply
declare that the house is
okay. She isn’t inspecting
the wiring and
pipes.”
“The home study is a
series of three visits,”
say Parkhurst.
“Ultimately you end up
with a biography of
your own growing up,
including the way you
were raised and disciplined
as well as your
our own attitudes about
discipline. It includes
your hopes and dreams
plus the practical issues
of work schedule and
plans for child care. It’s
very thorough.”
For Gantman and
Levenson, a year and a
half elapsed from the
time they began the
international adoption
process and the time
they met Ella. Gantman
describes the required
dossier. “It’s a very complicated
set of paperwork.
They do back-
MEANT TO BE
TOGETHER
Overseas Children Find New Homes on the Hill
BY LAURIE LINDSAY AOMARI
Howard Gantman and Ana Levenson’s daughter Ella.
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 19
tion about her measurements, medical
history, and basic personality
traits. For reassurance that everything
was fine, they sent the medical
records on to two different doctors
who specialize in adoptions.
Levenson reports, “In China, if you
request a healthy child, they will do
everything to honor that.” It is also
possible to adopt a child with special
needs. These children have an expedited
adoption process.
Unforgettable Journeys
Ella’s new family traveled to China
within six weeks of the good news.
They stayed in China three weeks
before bringing her home. “We went
to Changsha, the capitol of Hunan
province, with six other new parents,”
says Gantman. “We were waiting
at the hotel when suddenly the
orphanage director and other people
from the orphanage came into the
room. Right away there was a lot of
crying from adults and babies! From
then on Ella was with us. They basically
give you the baby and then
they leave 10 minutes later.” Laughing,
Gantman continues, “You’re sitting
there in the hotel room with a
crying baby saying, ‘Oh, we’re parents.
What do we do?’”
While in the orphanage, Ella’s crib
was just big enough for her body.
She and the other girls at the
orphanage weren’t allowed to play
on the floor, so even though they
were 11 months old, they didn’t
know how to crawl. Levenson
reports, “All the girls in the group
learned how to crawl before we came
home. It was incredible to see how
they used those few days and first
few months here to catch up on
everything.”
“Ella has blossomed in an amazing
way,” says Levenson. The first four
months in the United States, Ella
grew four inches. “People say that
she looks like me,” says Levenson,
who is Argentinian. “Even Chinese
people say that!”
“Lula was waiting for us and we
were waiting for her!” says Barnett.
“Lula was 18 months when they first
put her in my arms. She couldn’t
walk or crawl. She started getting to
her feet before we left China and was
walking within two months. Lula
wasn’t too skinny but she was
small.”
“We went to Guatemala three
times and to Costa Rica twice,” says
Gleason about their adoptions. In
each case, the first trip was to take
care of some of the legalities and the
last trip was to bring the daughter
home. “It was interesting to go from
no children to two adopted in a
month!”
Only two weeks after Parkhurst
found out about Jonathan and
Joshua, he was on his way to
Vietnam to meet them. During the
first visit, Parkhurst took the babies
for an American recognized physical,
got them passports, and managed
Vietnamese paperwork with the help
of a Vietnamese facilitator. During
Parkhurst’s second trip, the U.S.
Consulate approved the Vietnamese
adoption and the U.S. Embassy
granted their U.S. visas.
Parkhurst doesn’t have complete
information about the boys’ birth.
“According to the birth certificate,
they came into the world at just over
two pounds each. We assume that
they were premature.” Parkhurst says
the mother abandoned the boys
when she checked out of the hospital
48 hours after their birth. “She
may not have even dreamed that
they lived.”
The boys weighed 12 pounds
when Parkhurst brought them home
at eight months of age. Despite
other uncertainties, Parkhurst says
the boys were surrounded by love at
the orphanage. “The Vietnamese are
very touched that we are taking
these children to a better life.”
Back on Capitol Hill
Since returning to the U.S., Parkhurst
has had the support of a network
of others on the Hill who
adopted Vietnamese children.
Parkhurst says he doesn’t worry
about developmental delays with
Jonathan and Joshua. “As long as
they do everything in order and
don’t skip anything, everything is
good.”
Although the Parkhurst boys
became U.S. citizens when they
entered the country, and they were
adopted under Vietnamese law, they
went through a “readoption” in the
U.S. Parkhurst explains the reasoning
behind readoption. “The wisdom
is to get the U.S. adoption
because then you have a birth certificate
in English and not just the
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VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
20 www.voiceofthehill.com
court system to write a new code for
readoptions. Hence, there is a flux of
adoption legalities in the U.S. as well
as in other countries.
Barnett noted one more reason for
readoptions. “When we got home
we readopted. Some people were
having problems with social security
and we wanted to be sure there was
the possibility for Lula to receive it
in the future.”
Capitol Hill is an excellent place to
raise a child adopted from another
country, according to these parents.
“When Lula was small, she thought
everyone was from somewhere else,”
laughs Barnett. “All the differences
in Capitol Hill have added up to a
good deal of comfort for Lula.”
Gleason says, “International adoption
is more common on the Hill
Vietnamese where you have to get a
translation. It also makes the name
change legal. Where something happens
to the adopted parent, the ability
of the adopted child to inherit
the estate is much more clear cut
with a U.S. adoption.”
Parkhurst noted another reason
for readoption: second parent adoptions.
This can happen when a single
parent marries or a parent remarries.
It can also happen in adoptions by
gay couples because the country of
the child may not allow adoptions
by gay couples.
Over the constant sound of four
small feet running on a hardwood
floor, Parkhurst spoke about the
District’s adoption process. He says
that adoption lawyers and social
workers are working with the District
like other kids. They just live on
Capitol Hill and go to St. Peters
School. One day they will probably
get more interested, and we will
encourage them.”
What Lies Ahead
Barnett is uncertain what challenges
could be ahead for nine-year old
Lula. Barnett is optimistic, though.
“She is particularly gifted in dealing
with people. It is quite astonishing. I
was much shyer.”
Levenson is bracing herself for adolescence.
She says adopted children
frequently add an additional phrase
to their laments, “You can’t tell me to
do that! You’re not my real mom!”
Gantman and Levenson both
mention the possibility of a child
being picked on during their school
years. Gleason agrees this can happen
to any child who is perceived as
different, whether they are adopted
or not. Levenson says she expects to
teach Ella how do deal with such
things through their own behavior
on the occasions when other adults
ask them tough questions in Ella’s
presence.
Parkhurst adds, “I anticipate a certain
amount of cruelty among children
[at] about junior high [age].
That’s something we’ll have to work
through.”
Parkhurst brought up another
challenge. “I assume that their natural
curiosity will be to learn what we
can about their mother. So I have
the birth mother’s name. That won’t
get us far in a city the size of Ho Chi
Minh but I’ll do whatever they want
when they’re at an age when they
want to find out more.”
What it Takes
These parents acknowledge that
there are some necessary characteristics
for adopting internationally. Barnett
observes, “It takes effort and
money. People have to be persistent.”
than in other parts of the country.
Here it’s multicultural. There is a
higher educational level and more
international experience.”
“One of the nice things for us,”
says Gantman, “is that there’s a
strong organization called Families
with Children from China and
there’s a D.C. area group.” The organization
helps members share resources,
information, advice, and
experience through email and
through their website, www.fwcc. org.
Levenson says, “There’s even a list so
we can get in touch with people who
adopted from the same orphanage.”
Learning About Their
Heritage
These families on the Hill were
open-minded about including the
child’s culture of birth in their
American life and had ideas of how
that could happen. Levenson and
Gantman plan to offer Ella opportunities
to develop more awareness of
Chinese culture. “We want to go
back to China when she’s about
eight or 10 years old. We want to
show her where she came from.
They say that eight to 10 years old is
the best age to take them back
because they are so willing to learn.”
“Lula probably knew some
Chinese when she arrived,” says
Barnett. “I wanted her to continue
with Chinese. I hired Chinese
babysitters and had them speak
Chinese to her. It didn’t work for reasons
I don’t quite understand. It’s a
matter of will, and Lula chose
English! She doesn’t have much
interest in her heritage right now,”
says Barnett.
“We thought we would be very
involved in Hispanic culture,” says
Gleason. “While the children are
interested and aware of their countries,
they are just so involved with
other things that this has not
become a priority for them. They’re
IMMIGRANT VISAS ISSUED TO ORPHANS
COMING TO THE U.S.
Top Countries of Origin FY 2002
Rank Order Country Number of visas
1 China (mainland) 5,053
2 Russia 4,939
3 Guatemala 2,219
4 S. Korea 1,779
5 Ukraine 1,106
6 Kazakhstan 819
7 Vietnam 766
8 India 466
9 Colombia 334
10 Bulgaria 260
11 Cambodia 254
12 Philippines 221
13 Haiti 187
14 Belarus 169
15 Romania 168
16 Ethiopia 105
17 Poland 101
18 Thailand 67
19 Peru 65
20 Mexico 61
Source: U.S. Department of State, http://travel.state.gov/adopt.html
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 21
“You need to be very open-minded
and accepting about the culture,”
says Levenson. Gleason adds,
“People have to have patience and
flexibility.”
Barnett is enthusiastic. “If people
want to do it, there are risks and
problems but the outcome is usually
so wonderful that they just have to
go ahead. I have been enormously
fortunate, so lucky, and so blessed. I
think people should have more confidence
about adopting and know
how thoroughly those will be their
children. When there is the agony of
desire for a child, why don’t they
adopt?”
Gantman agrees. You have to be
sure you want to do it. Be prepared
for your lives to go through
upheaval.” Levenson adds, “It’s a
very introspective experience
because you really have to search
inside to find the answers to why
you want to adopt and what was
your life like in order to get to that
point. We would do it a million
times. There’s no other child in the
world that belongs to us. It’s Ella.”
A new benefit makes international
adoption possible for more people.
Parkhurst explains, “As of the 2002
tax year, IRS has made it so easy with
the $10,000 tax credit. It’s better
than having only the deduction for
each child. It’s like tax already paid!
The cost of the international adoption
process is minimally $15,000,
and it can go higher than that.
Using the credit, the remaining
$5000 of expenses seems a lot more
doable. There are just so many children
available that need good
homes, and there are so many of us
that have the resources to provide
those homes.”
Parkhurst advises, “What I discovered
is something I’ve never, ever felt
in my whole life. There’s so much
more reason for everything.
Everything is intentional now. The
reason I work now is for Jonathan
and Joshua and not to get ahead or
live some American dream. Don’t
hesitate. Do it.”
Laurie Lindsay Aomari, RD, LD, is a
world traveler and new to The Voice of
the Hill. Her business focuses on nutrition
communications, particularly writing
and presentations (see www.Laurie
Aomari.com for additional information).
Laurie teaches water aerobics
classes in Fairfax County. She has been
a nutrition counselor, a radio show
host, a trainer, an editor, and an international
conference manager.
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“I never had any formal training
in historic preservation; I was a
lawyer by trade, but was always
interested in community activism in
an amateurish way,” Wolfe said with
laughter.
The focus of the society, at first,
revolved around zoning issues more
than historic preservation.
Fighting the Battles
Historic preservation became more
of a focal point later, following a
series of events in which residential
and commercial properties were
being torn down, and threats by
Congress to tear down more became
prevalent. For Wolf, that marked a
critical point in the pursuit of his
vision for what the city’s communities
should be.
“We really had to gear up to fight
these battles,” he said.
The organization fought hard to
prevent the demolition of vital properties
in the Capitol Hill community
by pursuing both statutory and regulatory
remedies. Those battles eventually
led to the enactment of local
and national laws designed to protect
historic preservation.
Over the years, Wolf (who served
as president of the group for three
years in the late 1970’s) and the
CHRS established, through litigation,
the application of the DC
administrative Procedure Act to zoning,
which gave standing to community
organizations in zoning cases.
In addition, Wolf helped write and
lobby, through the DC Council, the
DC preservation law, as well as assisting
in the creation of the Capitol
Hill Historic District, which is now
recognized for its architectural heritage
in the same way that
Georgetown, the first historic district
in the city, is.
With all his contributions in
mind, Wolf said he wasn’t a primary
figure in the CHRS when he joined
in 1970. “I was more of a supporter,
an aid and abettor, for the cause.”
Once he became more
active, Wolf’s role in community
activism was as a
planner. He worked to
develop the uses for
buildings as well as the
As the stock market continues its
nearly three-year plummet and the
overall economy sinks further, real
estate has become one of the more
well-known and lucrative industries,
especially in the D.C. area. The
financial growth and appreciation
seen in both commercial and residential
properties over the last few
years has helped many individuals
prosper in a way few other investments
have come close to achieving.
It can be argued that real estate
investment opportunities in this
city, or the mere beauty for which
the city is nationally recognized,
wouldn’t be what it is today had it
not been for the commitment and
determination of Dick Wolf, an
advocate and proponent for the historic
preservation of real property in
the District of Columbia.
A Community History
Wolf, who grew up in an affluent
suburb in the Midwest and never
had contact with urban environments,
has been one of the most
active participants in promoting the
city’s historic preservation since
1964, when he and his wife, Muriel,
moved into their Capitol Hill
home—the same one in which they
currently reside.
His first venture in community
activities occurred in his own neighborhood,
when an investor sought
to turn a residential property into a
private club that would have been
called the Pedestal Club.
“A group of locals, including
myself, fought that proposed idea
because it offered no benefit to the
community,” Wolf recalled. “We
argued that an establishment where
alcohol would be served had no benefit
to the community.”
“After an arduous fight,” according
to Wolf, who recently turned 70,
“that proposal never got off the
ground.”
As a result of that victory, Wolf
decided to further pursue his
activism and joined the Capitol Hill
Restoration Society (CHRS). “I
joined the group because the people
had many of the same ideas I had
about neighborhoods and their
preservation.
both local and federal, aren’t self-acting,”
he states. “It takes concerned
individuals with a plan of attack to
get ideas pushed through. And we
have to use these regulatory systems
in order to create a beautiful, attractive
place where people want to
live.”
Wolf, in his humbled nature, is
very adamant about sharing the
credit for the accomplishments that
he is a part of. “The constant grind
that you go through to shape real
estate laws really wears on you, but
it’s the essential ingredient in making
change, and there’s no way I
could’ve done the things that I have
without the people in the various
groups that I’ve been a part of.”
Despite his affinity for his colleagues,
Wolf has been one of the
loudest voices in the crusade for historic
preservation. “I never shied
away from taking positions with
regards to historic preservation,” he
says.
A Hard-Edged Reputation
He is also well aware of his hardedged
reputation toward preservation.
“People say that I’m overly
rigid and don’t embrace other people’s
views about historic preservation.
I know that everyone is different,
and people see things with different
sets of eyes, but it’s worked for
me as good sense seems to always
prevail—my good sense,” he says
with a chuckle. “You have to have
some fire in your belly to fight the
way I have.”
One issue that really
draws Wolf’s ire is the
way in which government
funds are allocated.
The activist
believes that “a
lot” of federal
money used for
housing programs
was wasted
because it didn’t
emphasize community
building.
“It was wastefully
spent,”
according to a
frustrated Wolf.
“There weren’t any
plans integrated for
community building,
just housing.”
Wolf attributes that
overall layout and design of properties.
Wolf, a graduate from Yale Law
School, used his experience as a
lawyer in the General Counsel’s
Office at NASA to litigate and testify
in an effort to bring about legislature
changes with regard to various planning,
preservation and environmental
issues associated with real estate
in DC.
“I see this city as an unbelievably
wonderful place, architecturally,”
Wolf said. “And over the decades,
I’ve used all of my means to try and
affect a more profitable and pleasurable
place for people to reside and
feel comfortable.”
Wolf is also quick to point out
that the road wasn’t an easy one to
take. “Some form of government regulates
pretty much everything that
we try to do, and as
we all know,
governments,
Fire in the Belly
For Dick Wolf, Historic Preservation
Means Community Development
BY CHAD CLINTON
VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
www.voiceofthehill.com 23
lack of community building as one
of the reasons DC residents moved
to the suburbs. “The question is,
what does it take to retain our citizens?
The city could have done a
better job. I’m not discounting the
contributions that the government
has made, but there could have been
more focus toward the community
and not just property.”
Wolf says that money was spent
on urban renewal, but not historic
preservation, which includes preserving
the community, or a way of
living, just as much as the architecture
of historic buildings. “The
politicians want to see ribbon cuttings
on new buildings, but that’s
not what historic preservation is all
about,” Wolf says.
According to Wolf, not until
Anthony Williams took office have
we seen a mayor or other prominent
city officials take significant steps
toward city planning or historic
preservation, without extreme prodding.
“Mayor Williams has put
money into historic preservation,
but this is a never-ending battle, and
we can always use more.”
For all he’s done for DC, especially
in the Capitol Hill area, Dick Wolf
remains relatively anonymous in the
eyes of the general public. He is,
however, a well-known figure among
his peers. Wolf has received a number
of awards and acknowledgements
for his service to the community,
including the Capitol Hill
Community Achievement Award in
1998.
But when everyday citizens walking
the streets and frequenting the
stores in a Capitol Hill business district
were asked about Wolf, nine out
of 10 people had never heard of him
and were unfamiliar with his contributions
to the area.
Karen Parson, the only person
polled who had knowledge of Wolf,
said she learned about him through
his work with the Ellen Wilson
townhouse project. “I never met Mr.
Wolf, but I became familiar with his
work on the townhouse development
between 6th and 7th Streets,”
she said. A lot of bad things used to
take place over there before his
group got involved. That property
was a real eyesore.”
Pride in Projects
Wolf says that of all his accomplishments
for the community, he’s most
proud of the work with the Ellen
Wilson project. “The group [including
himself] that was involved in that
project started from absolutely nothing.
We’ve faced a lot of opposition
to this development and have been
at it for about 13 years now,” he says.
Wolf, along with others, formed
the Ellen Wilson Community
Development Corporation in 1990
to turn a vacant housing project,
named after President Woodrow
Wilson’s wife, into a 152-unit mixed
income housing community.
“We used the concept of a limited
equity co-op with cross subsidization
of lower income owners by
higher income owners, which eliminated
future housing subsidies,” he
recalls. “We also eliminated control
by either HUD or DC Housing
Authority and instead vested control
in a trust run by community members.”
The Ellen Wilson group, which
has already won an AIA Honor
Award for urban design, plans to
develop a community center in the
near future.
Continuing to Fight
Considering all that Dick Wolf has
done for historic preservation and
community building, he says that it
has never been about turning a profit.
In fact, Wolf says he’s never taken
up any cause to line his pockets.
“I’ve always worked community
activities on a pro bono basis, which
turned out to be more beneficial in
the long run because there were
never any conflicts of interest. The
only financial interest I had was
insuring that my home maintained
its value or appreciated for my family.
I have gained a lot of satisfaction
from community activism, and
that’s reward in itself.”
Wolf now serves as chair of the
city planning of the CHRS and is
also a Trustee and Recording
Secretary of a group known as the
Committee of 100. Wolf says he is
also currently on a committee trying
to create a planning commission for
DC.
Since retiring in 1998, Wolf has
fully committed himself to historic
preservation and says he will continue
to do so despite being happy with
the development of his community.
“I think overall Capitol Hill is a
successful community,” he says. “I
like the feel. But it’s a continuous
process that I’ll continue to fight for.
This is what life is all about. I’ve told
my kids to always be interested and
have passion in everything that you
do.”
Hill resident Chad Clinton is a frequent
Voice of the Hill contributor.
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VOICE of the Hill / April 2003
24 www.voiceofthehill.com
productions there while Bruce provided
music from the pit. Both Bruce
and Adele have served on the Board
and done the myriad jobs that keep
a community-based arts organization
going. Their daughter, Julia, got
the “let’s put on a show” bug too.
She was in plays there as a child and,
now 26, she’s part of the staff, working
as a program administrator.
Bruce came to the Hill in 1975. He
had studied music at the University
of Maryland, played trumpet and
been president of the marching
band there and then had gone on to
service in the Marine Corps Reserves
while selling insurance and printing
equipment. He met Adele when they
found themselves at the same printing
company and “it was love at first
sight” according to Bruce (and Adele
concurs). They were married and
moved to the Hill at the time when a
house could double its value in a few
years. They renovated one house,
making enough on the sale that they
could hire someone to do the work
on the next one.
Bruce calls his a “no coat and tie,
no resume” professional life (though
he proudly says that when he recently
did have to buy a suit, it came
from a local vendor, Joseph A. Bank
at Union Station). From a carriage
house behind their home, Bruce and
Adele brought into being and continue
to produce The Voice of the Hill
newspaper, now entering its fifth
year. Bruce’s original concept was
that the paper would truly be a community
voice, balancing advertising
and editorial content and using a
website to encourage a lively
exchange of ideas about issues and
events. What has happened, he says,
is the opposite. “Discussion on the
website, and there is a lot of it, tells
us where to send reporters.” Bruce
manages the website; he also sells
ads and delivers papers. And
although he describes the paper as a
“full time job,” it is not close to
being all Bruce does these days. As
President of CHAMPS (the Capitol
Hill Association of Merchants and
Professionals) Bruce plays a major
role in the business life of the community.
“My mantra,” he says, “is to
make CHAMPS more of a real business
association, serving its businesses.”
He would like to improve the
Eastern Market Metro Plaza, encourage
the development of Eighth Street
by working with the Main Street
project there and create an online
Shop Capitol Hill site offering
This year’s Capitol Hill
Community Achievement
award winners have volunteered
in local organizations,
run businesses and been elected
to political office here. They have
attended innumerable dinners, community
gatherings and meetings
over the last thirty years, from the
fun and glitzy to the worthwhile and
the frankly tedious. They love the
Hill for some of the same reasons as
many of us do and for others that are
distinctly personal. Their contributions
to our community are huge.
Only one winner is truly a local. “I
haven’t gone very far in life,” says
Bruce Robey with a laugh. “I live less
than a mile from where I grew up.”
Now a resident of 11th Street, SE,
Bruce had what he calls “an oldfashioned
childhood” in a brick
duplex in Anacostia. His parents had
come to Washington during the job
boom of the war years, one from
Texas the other from Virginia Beach
and both worked for the government.
“My mom would always send
me out for a loaf of bread or whatever;
we had a tab at the corner store,”
Bruce says. His family purchased its
first television set from a shop on
8th Street, SE (Bruce recalls that it
was a Muntz); he remembers streetcars
on H Street and, in 1959, shopping
there for a trumpet at Chuck
Levin’s music store. These days Bruce
plays the trumpet as part of the Not-
So-Playne Jayne Trio (along with
pianist Parker Jayne and bass player
Deborah Edge). Bruce has helped
provide free music for “all kinds of
Capitol Hill events” over the last
twenty or so years. As a Board member
of the H Street Main Street program
and a business owner there,
Bruce has made a serious commitment
to restoring the vitality of that
commercial corridor which has
never recovered from the 1968 riots.
Last year he and his wife, Adele, (a
community achievement award winner
in 1995), bought French’s restaurant
at 13th and H Streets, NE, and
turned it into the H Street Playhouse,
a professional theater specializing
in new and seldom-produced
works. “Theater can spawn community
development,” Bruce says; he
and Adele are hoping to be part of
making that happen on H Street.
The Playhouse has housed performances
by seven different companies
since it opened last summer, shows
that have been well reviewed and
well attended. The H Street
Playhouse gives free ti