Vol. 3 No. 8 December 2001
o f
T h e
H i l l
This Month
4 Neighborhood
History: Overbeck
Tape Three
8 Comforting the
Afflicted, Afflicting
the Comfortable
10 Winter Revelry:
Not Just Another
House Tour
12 Holiday Theater
f rom Two
P e r s p e c t i v e s
14 C e l e b r a t i n g
Tradition: Holiday
Feasting Capitol Hill
S t y l e
D e p a rt m e n t s
Vo i c e M a i l . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Ask an Off i c i a l. . . . . . . . . . . . .4 2
O p i n i o n. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 8
Book Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 0
Ask Judith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 2
Home Design. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 5
The Business Beat . . . . . .2 7
Business Serv i c e s. . . . . . .3 1
D o w n L o a d . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 3
B a rracks Row. . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 5
Kids’ Sport s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 8
H o ro s c o p e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 0
Community Calendar . . .5 0
C l a s s i f i e d s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 4
Ready or not, h e re
th ey come…
H o l i d ays on the Hill
Earn $1,500 for Your Favorite DC Charity!!
Through the years, each of us has had a Holiday Season that was a test of our survival skills. This year we will all be challenged
to find ways to keep the message of hope and rebirth alive as we continue to be battered by the events flowing
from Sept. 11.
Capitol Hill is an incredibly plucky hometown. In the 38 years I have been here, it has faced major vicissitudes
over which it had little or no control. But the Hill has managed both to survive and to thrive because of the spirit of its
people and their recognition that progress will come if we don’t falter.
The real Capitol Hill is not about concrete barriers or National Guardsmen or fear. It is about people—all kinds
of people!—living their lives in an absolutely unique, highly spirited town that just happens to adjoin the Capitol
grounds.
And it is a town which traditionally comes alive and dances during the holiday season—a time filled with laughter,
music, friends, delighted children and celebration.
It seems more important than ever this year to show to the world—and ourselves—what the Hill is really all
about.
To me, a splendid way to demonstrate this is to Light Up the Night during the holiday season this year—to show
with brightly-lit and decorated homes our collective determination to thrive in the face of uncertainty, and in so doing
bring pleasure to Hill residents and visitors.
To encourage Hill residents to decorate their homes this year—and to give our beleaguered local charities a helping
hand, I will award a total of $3,000 to the D.C.-based charities of the winning participants’ choice. The prizes will be: $1,500
First Prize; $1,000 Second Prize; and $500 Third Prize.
The contest will be administered by the Capitol Hill Association of
Merchants and Professionals (CHAMPS). Judging will occur in the early
evening of Sunday, December 9. Homes in the greater Capitol Hill area (the
Expressway on the south, 18th Street on the east, both sides of F street on the
north, and South and North Capitol streets on the west) will be eligible to
participate. To ensure that your home is included in the judging , you should
register with CHAMPS, either by email CHAMPS@capitolhill.org, phone
(202-547-1364 —‘Woman Friday’), or via the fax at 202-543-4878.. There are
no set categories, so let your imagination go!
‘Light Up the Night’
on Capitol Hill
‘Light Up the Night’
on Capitol Hill
Hugh Kelly
A S S O C I ATE BRO K E R
120 Years of D.C. Real
Estate—Exclusively
202-588-2224
email capitalz@att.net
There are PSA list servs out
there that send out periodic
crime updates. To find yours, go
to the VOH homepage and click
under “Community”...and then go to
PSA.
Anonymous Response, Nov. 19
Eastern Market: The Movie?
Word is that the powers that be have
settled upon an optimistic target date
of 2009 to settle the various disputes
over the management and physical
decline of Eastern Market. Repairs and
improvements could then be undertaken
by 2012—but only after the
Olympics. Insiders, however, caution
against rushing ahead too quickly with
actions related to Eastern Market, suggesting
instead that a series of meetings
— perhaps 200 or 300 meetings
— be held to iron out the details. After
all, one wag noted, squabbling over
Eastern Market has become a way of
life for Capitol Hill residents. “What
would they do without Eastern Market
— focus on our schools?” he asked.
Meanwhile, reports from Hollywood are
that the screenplay for a “hilarious”
sci-fi/screwball comedy, loosely based
on the Eastern Market Wars, is drawing
surprising studio interest. The film
could hit theaters in 2004.
Anonymous posting, November 20
I recently talked to the author of the
screenplay that’s based on recent
Eastern Market controversies. She
seems to see Eastern Market largely
as it is—a marketplace with food vendors
and artisans sitting behind a
municipal swimming pool. She says the
market is a nice gathering spot but relatively
mediocre in terms of the great
marketplaces of the world.
Her take on the endless controversies
is that Capitol Hill is a comfortable,
smug and self-satisfied community, and
the Eastern Market controversies basi -
cally involve a bunch of residents looking
for something to do with their time
and energy. But instead of taking on
injustice or other issues of importance
—and she figures there are obvious
ones nearby—they start imagining
all kinds of plots, evil doings and crises
centered on the market. And at that
point, the fanciful aspects of the
screenplay take off. But that’s all I’m
allowed to say. And anyway, at best it’s
only a movie.
Anonymous, Nov. 21
Preparing for the
2012 Olympics
There have
been proposals
floating around
that a rebuilt RFK
Stadium could be
the site for track
and field and possibly the opening and
closing ceremonies. D.C. Armory is a
proposed site for boxing, and the RFK
parking lots and grounds are being discussed
as possible Olympic park sites,
whatever that is.
Unless massive and wondrous
changes are made, D.C. Jail would also
be right there in plain view, too, along
with the various halfway houses proposed
for the D.C. General campus.
This could put the international spotlight
on the fact that D.C has the highest
incarceration rate in the known universe.
Is that what we want?
I’m curious as to what D.C. and
Olympic planners hope to do with the
bundle of mixed messages eastern
Capitol Hill presents to the world. Is it
perhaps assumed that some heretofor e
unseen police agency will clean up the
nearby neighborhoods of warring drug
gangs? No police agency has succeeded
so far, and they’ve tried for a bundle
of years.
And what about the halfway houses,
drug programs and the morgue? Am I
to assume that D.C. wants to be the
host city that put its incarcerated population,
a methadone program and the
city morgue closest to the Olympic
flame? Goodness, if we play things
right, D.C. could put on the nuttiest
Olympics yet.
Anonymous Posting, Nov. 21
What Do You Do When You See A
Space Man? Park In It, Man!
For me, the issue isn’t so much too
many cars as poorly-parked cars. My
corner of Northeast must be the hub of
the parking-challenged universe. While
in this residential neighborhood we
don’t have loading zones, we do have
an inordinate number of people who
can’t be bothered to park their cars
reasonably close to other cars. Many
people don’t pull completely into
spaces. Either way, the result is they
take up two spaces. In the end, three
cars park in a section of street that
could easily accommodate four; another
section has six or seven cars parked
where nine or ten should fit, and so on.
I am not suggesting this will solve
all our parking woes, but a little additional
courtesy would certainly go a
long way.
ANOTHER SCOTT, Wednesday,
November 21
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Editor’s Note: The following discussions
have been culled from Hill Talk
Discussion on www.voiceofthhill.com.
Opinions expressed in both this column
and the website discussion list are not
necessarily those of The Voice of the
Hill or its staff. Posters should note
that anything they submit to these
website discussions may be collected
and used in this column the following
month.
Channeling Energies In Positive
Ways
The party who believes that residents
of eastern Capitol Hill are “cyncial,
bankrupt and pathetic” is not living in
the real world. As to the idea that residents
of eastern Capitol Hill should
channel their energies in a more positive
way, I wonder why, then, were two
of the few groups honored in conjunction
with the Mayor’s recent Citizen
Summit, PSA 512 and the PSA 109
East Community Group, both based in
the area where allegedly no one is
doing anything positive.
The PSA 109 East Group was honored
for being a pioneer in the police
problem-solving program against openair
drug markets; for spearheading the
redevelopment of Kentucky Courts; for
activities in support of Payne School;
AND, crazy as it may sound, for organizing
the Capitol Hill Crack House and
Alley Tour, which brought about inspections
and actions by D.C. government
agencies.
The 512 group was honored for a
massive cleanup campaign and for
working with police and other government
agencies on abandoned buildings
and other problems.
To kiss off all these community
efforts as grousing and complaining
also indicates that the writer probably
doesn’t believe the problems on eastern
Capitol Hill are real. Obviously, we
need MORE media coverage about
crime, drugs and violence. We’ll get
right on it.
Anonymous posting: 11/13
Community Policing—Where Is It?
It appears that police and residents in
the area affected by the recent rash of
street robberies aren’t getting the word
out about the situation. Whatever happened
to community policing? Now, I’m
reading about cars with loud mufflers,
etc., but has there been any notice
given to residents of the specific
streets where the robberies are taking
place? I haven’t heard any. Years ago,
we had a very effective community
policing setup with newsletters, phone
trees and and e-mail networks. Where
did it go?
Anonymous posting, Nov. 18
4 www.voiceofthehill.com
T H E O V E R B E C K T A P E S
A N O R A L H I S T O R Y O F C A P I T O L H I L L • P A R T I I I
This is part three in the serialization of my conversations with the late historian
Ruth Ann Overbeck. The slightly edited interviews transcribed here were con -
ducted over a period of 32 days, beginning on February 27. Part I appeared in
the September 28, 2001 issue of The Voice of the Hill. An enthusiastic group
of community volunteers,supported by the CHAMPS Foundation, have launched
a neighborhood oral history project in her name. If you’d like to help, go to
www.CapitolHillHistor y.org.
Ruth Ann was a woman of rare intelligence,who approached her research,
her causes, her whole life,with joy and passion. She never lost her enthusiasm
for our project, her marvelous sense of humor or her Southerner’s gift for storytelling
J O H N F R A N Z É N
Franzén: Ruth Ann, you were talking
about Friendship House, which
is what became of the Duncanson
mansion.
Overbeck: Friendship House has
a very checkered history. Its real history
in place with Duncanson’s
house belongs in the 20th Century.
Duncanson, as far as we know, did
not marry. He had a sister who came
with him, a beautiful woman. She
was well-courted by lots of important
people. [Here’s] an example of
the circles in which Duncanson
moved: his sister was a very close
friend of the wife of the man who
was the legate to the United States
from England in the 1790s, and he
was stationed in Philadelphia. So
Miss Duncanson wrote to her friend,
Mrs. Liston, to please come; she was
starving for this good company. And
she began talking about how the
women in Washington behaved.
And it’s one of the most wonderful
things – it’s not very flattering, but it
is wonderful – the men all go in one
corner, the women all go in the
other and they “simper.”
Franzén: Simper?
Overbeck: Simper and “google.”
That gives us some sort of an idea of
social life, as it was, in Washington
in 1794.
Franzén: You said Duncanson
went belly-up. When was that?
Overbeck: He went belly-up by
1800.
In the meantime, his sister died,
and Duncanson had a true friend in
Thomas Jefferson. Duncanson
moved to a smaller house that he
owned down in Southwest and tried
to make the best he could of this
scrambled mess that was going on in
court. His estate was tied up in cour t
until 1814 or 1815. The court would
have been the court in Mar yland,
because we still didn’t have a court
here in Washington at that point.
Duncanson was still alive at the
time Jefferson became President, and
by that time Jefferson proposed
Duncanson to be the first librarian
of the Library of Congress. He said
that Duncanson had remained the
one true Republican. This I find fascinating
– a man who had a sedan
chair and liveried servants and as
good a wine cellar as the President at
one point.
Franzén: Did he become the librarian?
Overbeck: It got buried somewhere,
probably in the Congress. He
never did become that. There was
an apocryphal tale that he was carried
to his grave in Potters Field [?]
on a cart. The real record doesn ’t
show that, but they weren’t keeping
good single records at that point.
At any rate, there are all sorts of
legends about this center-hall house,
which has a fan light over the door,
appropriately. It has a lunette up in
the pediment, the triangular part
that faces the street at the roof line,
and its basic configuration remains
exactly as it was in 1794 or ‘95. It
was designed by, we believe, Mr.
William Lovering, who designed a
lot of other houses on the Hill.
Now, the staircase is still in its
original place. Much of the house’s
interior has been changed pretty
dramatically over time. But one of
the things that we were able to do in
a couple of projects that had to do
with preservation was to pull one of
the nails from the attic. It was analyzed
at Yale and discovered as having
been made [under] a patent that
had been issued in England in the
1780s. Evidently, the keg of nails for
this particular house had been
shipped over from England, because
the nail would not have been available
on the local economy.
Franzén: Patented nails?
Overbeck: Yes.
Franzén: A unique shape?
Overbeck: They have almost a
rosette head, but not quite. They are
very well-made, very sophisticated.
That part of the house’s his tory is
now a matter of record, even as far
away as Yale.
Franzén: So we have a pretty good
idea what the Duncanson house
looked like. But as for all these other
houses, these far more modest houses
that you described, do we have
building plans for them? How do we
know what they looked like?
Overbeck: For the most part, you
didn’t need a building plan. If you
were a master builder, you knew
what to do. If you and your owner
walked the land and said, ‘I want it
to face here, I want the corner here, I
want the doorway here’ – they might
negotiate on it. If the master builder
said the doorway would look dumb
there, or it would not be structurally
sound, then the master builder
would know what to do and contract
out for what work he couldn’t do.
A true master builder would be a
brick mason, probably, and would
simply hire the carpenter. He’d have
his own apprentices. Apprentice
papers abound of children as young
as six and seven having been “bound
out” in Washington for learning a
trade.
Franzén: As young as six or seven?
Overbeck: They didn’t have to go
to school. They could go to school,
depending on their parents. But
they could be bound to learn the
domestic trades – the printing trade,
et cetera. And then the master,
whether it be a printer or a builder,
as we’re talking about in this case,
was responsible for providing X
number of clothes, and providing
maybe for teaching the child to read
and write – or to do sums, more particularly.
Sums were more important,
the math being the ruling
thing of the day in terms of how you
figure, how you calculate your work.
You can do that without having to
write down a word.
Franzén: So on what basis do we
know what [the houses] looked like?
Overbeck: Well, we have a few
remnants. We know we have some
that pre-date the British coming
through. And those are the ones
that are basically the models.
Now, fortunately, at least two of
them are brick. And one is on 8t h
Street, a small, two-story building.
It’s across from the Marine bar racks.
It has been changed, as any building
that has had mercantile use has been
altered to suit the merchandise
being sold from its first floor.
Typically, at this point, people
who could not afford to do anything
else but still could afford to own a
piece of property used their first
floor or at least part of their first
floor as their place of work, their
business, and then used the rest of
the house as a residence. That was
the step up to the American dream.
Once you could get past that, then
you could move on to your own full
house and rent that part, and there
you went.
Those houses look very similar to
Mr. Duncanson’s houses, they’re
simply very small. They probably
have a gable roof with the ridge pole
of the roof running parallel to the
street, rather than having the fanci -
ness of a pediment facing them.
We are talking very simple.
Franzén: Essentially symmetrical.
Overbeck: Not necessarily. Could
be asymmetrical because you wouldn’t
have had [all] center-hall houses.
If it was one room or two rooms, you
didn’t necessarily need a center hall.
Franzén: Would they have been
deep, the same idea as we have now
with our town houses that are narrow
but go way back?
Overbeck: No. For the most part,
they would be no more than one or
two rooms deep. In the fir st place,
they were built like a box.
A very interesting thing elsewhere
in the city which I have not found
on Capitol Hill are light easements,
so that no matter who builds next to
www.voiceofthehill.com 5
you, even if they build their house
right there, they have to provide you
with the easement for the light if
you have built your house right on
the side [of the lot].
For the most part, you didn’t put
windows on the sides of your hous -
es. Remember, windows were very
expensive, glass was very expensive.
For the most part, it had to be
imported.
There is a famous story of George
Washington’s Delaware Avenue
houses, up north of the Capitol,
technically on Capitol Hill ...
Franzén: Owned by Washington?
Overbeck: Yes, the only houses he
owned in the city. He was having
them built, and he sent off to Boston
for the proper size and proper number
of panes of glass. They got
shipped to Baltimore, and they were
the wrong size. That sort of thing
happened more frequently than not.
And glass was an expensive commodity.
If you planned to have your
15-foot house on your 30-foot lot
added onto, whenever you got
enough money to purchase or to
build, you certainly wouldn’t put
windows in the side where you were
going to add your rental property. So
you generally had a shaft of light
coming through the house from
front to back, back to front, and that
was pretty much it.
Most of the houses had brick
chimneys.
Franzén: The chimney would have
been at the center, the side, the
back? Where?
Overbeck: Depending on the
sophistication of the design and to
some extent the money that was
available, and their taste, it could
have been within wall or without.
“Within wall” meaning it was t otally
encased within the wall, which actu -
ally gave the owner more lot to use
because you could use the part of the
wall that was behind the chimney
and in front of the chimney as extra
width.
It was also very popular to have, if
you were building more than one
house at a time, shared chimneys.
You can see a good example of that
over in the block of Sixth Street
between E and D Southeast facing
east.
Franzén: Two entirely separate
houses – two properties, two different
owners – sharing the same chimney?
Overbeck: Yes.
In the case of the Duncanson
house, there are wishbone chim -
neys.
Franzén: Meaning?
Overbeck: Meaning that, since his
house was only four [?] rooms deep
.... He had only one chimney, but
below the roof we have this lovely
curved wishbone that came down
with a pair of chimneys for each
floor. A pair of chimneys for each
floor, one chimney per room on
each floor.
Franzén: For a fireplace in each
room.
Overbeck: For a fireplace in each
room, and those were on the outside
walls.
Franzén: Those would have been
wood-burning fireplaces.
Overbeck: Absolutely.
Franzén: No coal.
Overbeck: No coal. We don’t get
coal for quite a while. We also have
a lot of trouble during the 1790s
with people not being able to afford
a cord of wood or a bundle of wood
to heat their house. Times were really
desperate.
We have a dichotomy of this beautiful
house that Duncanson is build -
ing, and he builds it facing the
Anacostia River so that he can see
down the river, down the Potomac.
He and Thomas Law, at one point,
intended to have their version of the
East India Company here in
Washington. So that comes to
fruition, the Central Exchange, 8th
Street. Duncanson built on Sixth.
He is a block and a half off 8th
Street, a perfect position, to be right
where he needed to be to go to the
coffee houses, to the gossip center s
of the day, to get the information he
needed to be able to make his fortune.
He is probably the one man
who truly bought into the concept
of the Central Exchange to the point
that he invested so much of himself
into it.
Franzén: The Central Exchange. I
know we covered it a little bit, talk -
ing about how it was going to be
located at the foot of 8th Street,
where 8th Street meets the Anacostia
River. The original idea was that
that was going to be the center of
commerce for the Federal city.
Overbeck: Right.
Franzén: How did that go off the
track?
Overbeck: It went off the track
very early. And to be perfectly honest,
it was the idea of one other man
and Pierre L’Enfant, and the other
man was George Walker, the
Scotsman that we talked about earlier,
who invested heavily in the city
before.
There is a wonderful anonymous
tract that has been traced to George
Walker that appeared in a Baltimore
paper about a year and a half before
the Federal city actually got funded
and formed and identified by George
Washington. And if you read George
Walker’s description of what the
Federal City should be like, you’ll
find it’s almost a blueprint for
L’Enfant.
And George Walker is also the person
who in the early 1790s published
a tract saying what was going
to happen. That also talked about
the Central Exchange and 8th Street.
There is a short article about him in
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6 www.voiceofthehill.com
one of the historical quarterlies. So
the genius was taking those words
from that tract, by L’Enfant –he must
have seen the tract; he had to have
seen it. Because when he saw the
“plain” as he came across the fer ry,
and saw what he thought was the
plain, and of course terminating
with the “pedestal awaiting a monument”
that became the site of the
Capitol, he must have had this
somewhat in his head.
I think he had absolutely and
totally no intention whatever of
allowing anything spectacular to
happen east of the Capitol.
Franzén: But he went along with
that story, right?
Overbeck: He is the one who sent
the people over here. He told
L’Enfant to start doing the surveying
so people would think such and
such. He’s the one who told
Stoddard and his buddies to come
over here and invest the public
money, to get them invested over
here. Now, part of this could have
been to try to get more of a balance,
because he knew he had investors in
the Georgetown area. Those people
weren’t going to turn their backs on
something that could be so lucrative
that was so close to them.
Franzén: Georgetown was already
there ...
Overbeck: Georgetown was
already there, there was a bank ...
Franzén: Something to build
onto.
Overbeck: There were amenities,
et cetera. But in terms of George
Washington’s attitude about Capitol
Hill, I take it with a great deal of salt.
Now, it became pretty clear that
the wharves along the Anacostia
River were going to be used. That
had to happen because of the
amount of equipment that had to be
brought in, the amount of supplies
and so forth that had to be brought
in, to [build] the Capitol.
Franzén: And that was a good har -
bor?
Overbeck: That was a good harbor.
The public harbor was basically
at the foot of South Capitol Street,
which made a lot of sense because
that is the closest straight line to
haul it up that hill.
From there up, there were assorted
wharves. One was owned by the
Barry family. They were friends of
Thomas Law and William Duncanson,
and they did rather well. They
had some fairly substantial houses
that have more or less been welldescribed
by descendents, but there
is no corroboration anywhere,
so I pretty much let
those things rest.
All the way on up the river,
if you look, it is sort of snaggle-
toothed and jagged. The
wharves were supposed to be
serviced by something called
Water Street, which would be
the street that would run behind all
the wharves and connect them.
Those things didn’t really happen.
If you look at that particular section
of the Anacostia, it would have
been very difficult for it to happen,
because it is so jagged.
There were boat builders along
with Anacostia, boat repairers. The
easiest way, for years, to get to
Alexandria from Washington, and
even for a long time to get to
Georgetown from Capitol Hill, was
by boat. So there were little packets
and ferry boats that would leave on
the third hour of the tenth month,
whatever, and they would post their
departure times and their costs and
so on in the newspapers. Some of
those were in Southwest and on Mr.
Carroll’s original property, and some
of them were over on the east side of
South Capitol Street and off Mr.
Carroll’s land.
When you get back up by the seat
of the Central Exchange, we have a
titillating ad that says that the
Central Exchange is opening on
such and such a date. It has to do
with William Prout. We have no
description of whether or not there
was a real Central Exchange building.
We don’t know whether or not
these people met in Prout’s mercantile
office. It’s almost like an
ephemeral piece of smoke. It says
it’s there, and that is almost the last
we know of it, the last we hear of it.
Within three years the land is being
acquired for the Navy. Clearly, it
didn’t happen. The Central
Exchange didn’t happen anywhere
else in this town, either.
Franzén: There was an ad.
Roughly what was the date of that?
Overbeck: 1795, ’96.
Franzén: Saying the Central
Exchange was about to open?
Overbeck: Yes. It was actually
going to be a fact. That is absolutely
fascinating. Who put the scotch on
it? None of the journals that we’ve
seen, none of the collections of letters
we’ve seen – nothing.
Franzén: So there is very little
record of commercial activity actually
happening at the Central
Exchange.
Overbeck: Absolutely. Probably
no more than maybe one hundred
words, max.
Franzén: Can we assume that the
merchants of Georgetown, which
was also a river port, would have
seen the Central Exchange as competition
that they wanted to get rid
of?
Overbeck: Yes, you can assume the
merchants in Georgetown wanted to
get rid of any merchants anywhere
else.
The interesting part is we had the
tavern down along the river that was
in the old Slater house. We have
Tunnicliff’s Tavern that was at 8th
and Pennsylvania Avenue. We have
Mr. Prout’s warehouse, and we have
his mercantile house he built for his
nephew and later took over himself.
By 1800, certainly, he was running
that himself.
The leading commodity of the day
in the Federal city was alcohol…
People wanted that more than anything
else.
Franzén: And that was strictly an
import?
Overbeck: No, they weren’t making
their own. At the very least, they
would have had to import the rum,
the sugar from the islands, and there
was no place to make it. There was
going to be a sugar factory down
along the river, and there is a won -
derful painting from the 1830s that
shows the stack still standing there.
Mr. Duncanson was involved in that
with Mr. Piercy. That also went
belly-up. But there was virtually no
manufacturing going on.
Everything was done by hand or
brought in.
People have no idea how hardscrabble
—that’s an old fashioned
term – people have no idea how
hardscrabble the first decades of
Washington’s history is.
Franzén: It was whiskey, primarily,
coming in—from where?
Overbeck: The islands. There was
a big trade with the islands. There
was the coastal trade, which means
that everybody from Boston or
Charleston, whatever, was manufacturing
whiskey or rum. It could have
come in from England or the
Netherlands.
One tavern owner on Capitol Hill
in about 1796 – which was really an
awful year for Capitol Hill – said that
he did well to clear a dollar a week
on his sale of alcohol, even though
that was the single most wanted
commodity. People simply didn’t
have the money.
Franzén: Were there commodities
being shipped out from those
wharves as well? Tobacco?
Anything else?
Overbeck: By that time, there
would have been some tobacco
shipped out. Timber, maybe. But we
didn’t have any kind of mercantile;
we didn’t have any manufacturing
stimulus going on like Baltimore did.
We were losing out very fast in that
respect to Baltimore.
The only thing that could ha ve
been sent out for trade would have
been such commodities as slaves,
maybe some tobacco from east of
the river, east of the Anacostia River
up in Washington County. This
would have been very agricultural in
scope rather than what we would
think of as mercantile. We had no
weavers, no spinners, no manufacturers
of anything.
Franzén: You mention slaves.
There’s something I forgot to ask
you. I want to skip back for a
moment. For the building of these
houses, we can assume that a signifi -
cant portion of the laborers on the
building of those houses were slaves?
Overbeck: I’ve never made a statistical
assumption I can’t prove. I
will say that certainly some were,
but I know that there were so many
underemployed Irish, Scots, southern,
northern, white immigrants
here, who were so desperate for
money that they would have been
involved as well. They would have
been competing for those jobs.
Franzén: And would be first in
line?
Overbeck: It depends on the skill,
probably, and how low they were
willing to sell themselves for. For
the most part, the slaves that were in
the city appeared to be under contract
to the Capitol and the White
House buildings and, indeed, were, if
they could, allowed to live on the
economy, because that meant they
didn’t have to be provided for by the
person who had hired them from
their owner. And it was one of the
ways in which, very early on,
Washington acquired a rather substantial
free African-American population
—because they moonlighted
in the typical government way.
Some of them simply worked for
themselves, in terms of building
their own house out of scrap and
pieces of lumber.
Franzén: I think at some point
down the line we will want to talk in
greater detail about African-
Americans in the Federal city, but
let’s continue and go back to where
we were.…Ruth Ann, we had the
Central Exchange that was going to
be in that area, and along came the
decision to establish the Navy Yard.
Overbeck: The United States had
no Navy Yard until a series of properties
were acquired, including that
one, and that one essentially was
considered the first of the Navy
yards for the U.S. Navy. And therefore,
it is the queen of the Navy
yards.
The land was purchased, as we re
the other lands, to be ship-building
Navy ya rds. As such, the Anacost i a
was suitable. Its dra ft was still deep
enough for whatever kinds of ships
the Navy was going to need. We did
not produce large ships at the Washington
Navy Yard, but certainly the
lighter ones with fewer sails and
masts and so on that could dart out,
do damage, and get back to home
port.
Guns were also made there, but
they were a secondary item. The pri-
www.voiceofthehill.com 7
417 East Capitol Street, SE
202-543-4342
Paul Cymrot Steve Cymrot
riverby@erols.com
GI F T CE RT I F I C AT E S AVA I LA B L E
R i ve r by Books pre s e n t s
the R i ve r by In d e x
8 Number of Months since we first opened the store
here at 417 E. Capitol St.
99.18 Percent of days since March 15 that we’ve been open
at least 10 - 6.
2 Number of days since March 15th when a member
of the family had a rehearsal dinner and/or wedding
5743 Number of books we’ve sold in that time
164 Number of books we sell in an average week.
200 Number of books we buy in an average week.
6 Average number of times per day we aswer the
question, “Do you buy books?”
572,059 Population of Washington DC.
95,343 Approximate number of days until ever yone in DC
finally knows the answer to that question.
1/4 In miles, feet of shelves in the store.
2.33 Times taller than the Washington monument a single
pile of all our books would be.
35 Number of pages a person reads in an hour, on
average.
438,000 Number of waking hours in a 75 year lifetime.
3.26 Number of lfetimes it would take to read everything
in the store, if you read for 2 hours a day for that
entire 75 years.
551 Years ago that the Gutenberg bible was printed.
378 Years ago that Shakespeare’s First Folio was printed
357 Years ago that the oldest book in our store was
printed.
2.5 Blocks you would need to walk from our store to see
one of each of those.
1 Rank among all possible Christmas presents of a nice
used book.
2 Rank among all possible presents of a Riverby Books
Gift Certificate.
1 According to Mark Twain, the rank of statistics
among the 3 types of lies.
mary item was the ships.
Franzén: You say there was no
other Navy yard in the country prior
to this time, but there was a Navy ...
Overbeck: Right.
Franzén: Sailing ships, in need of
ships. Where did they come from?
Overbeck: Usually private
arrangement. Some of them had
been confiscated during the
Revolutionary War. Some of them
were “privateers,” in that they sailed
under a letter of mark for the private
owner to be able to participate as a
military operation.
Then the Navy did have uniforms,
it did have servicemen, and it had
acquitted itself very well during the
Revolution, and so it was logical to
extend it and continue it. Cer tainly
at that time—and it is some thing
that is very, very difficult for us to
comprehend—a Navy truly was the
only way that a nation could defend
itself from foreign invaders along
anything other than a common land
line such as between the United
States and Canada. There were no
planes, no ballistic missiles, and you
have to erase everything we know
about modern war technology to put
yourself in the frame of mind to
understand how important the
Washington Navy Yard and other
Navy yards up and down the coast
became.
Now, the Navy was under the
stewardship of the first Secretary of
the Navy, Benjamin Stoddert. He
lived in Georgetown. His house is
still standing over there. You may
recall he was one of the people
whom George Washington sent to
the eastern end of what was going to
be the Federal City, to put up the
blind, by buying properties and
making people think that is where
the city was going to be. So he was
in cahoots with the big guys.
The congressional actions that
came through and the funding levels
that came through are such that it
gave [the Navy] a whole series of
birthdays. And the tall ships that
came in June of 1999 celebrated the
last of those [200th] anniversaries.
So, it has been there [2 00] years and
it doesn’t show any signs of leaving.
Its mission has changed dramatically
over time, however.
Its importance to the neighborhood
never changed materially until
after World War II. It had basically
the same function from 1798 until
the late 1950s, and that was as a
major source of employment of people
with high technical skills to work
with their hands – whether it be sail
makers, caulkers, wood planers, gun
manufacturers, whatever.
As a commercial entity, it was the
most reliable, the most stable
employer in the District of Columbia
for well over a hundred years, far
more dependable than Congress in
terms of getting the Capitol built,
because sometimes the Congress just
ran out of money, and it wouldn’t
appropriate more. And that was
probably quite rightly done, because
we were still going through whether
or not we were going to have another
war with England, whether or not
we were going to be invaded by
France, a whole series of things that
were happening certainly up to the
1820s in terms of needing a Navy,
and we needed a Navy more than we
needed to house the Cong ressman.
After all, there were so few of
them; if they really wanted to, they
could do what they did when it was
just too cold and they couldn’t get
the [Capitol] warm enough. They
adjourned over to one of the taverns.
Franzén: Did they ever meet at
Tunnicliff’s?
Overbeck: Probably not the
Tunnicliff’s on 8th Street, but once
Mr. Tunnicliff left 8th Street and sold
it to someone else, there was a different
Tunnicliff’s tavern across 1st
Street from the Capitol.
Franzén: Right across from the
Capitol.
Overbeck: Right. And they would
meet in those taverns up there, so I
have a feeling they were at
Tunnicliff’s.
Now, in the process of all of this
hiring and construction work, you
had a very mixed group of people
who were available with their skills.
Many of them were people who were
immigrants to this country, as was
true of much of Washington—primarily
the British Isles. You had
people from the coastal states who
came to work here. There was a man
from Norfolk, for example, who
offered to bring 20 workers to work
at the Navy Yard if he was sure he
could get employment for them.
There were slave blacks and there
were free blacks who worked at the
Navy Yard.
The Navy itself has taken an awful
rap—and probably rightly so—for
some of its discrimination policies in
the 20th Century and the late 19th
Century, but certainly in its early
days down at the Navy Yard that was
not true, because some of the highly
skilled craftsmen in the shipbuilding
industry along the Atlantic seaboard
were blacks. Men like Moses
Liverpool, who received his freedom
in about 1804 from his previous
master, who died down in Virginia,
and he headed for Washington. He
basically was an extremely skilled
house carpenter, but he had enough
working knowledge of caulking that
he became a major caulker at the
Navy Yard. And that enabled him to
earn enough money to buy property
on Capitol Hill. He became part of
our very early nucleus of mixedneighborhood
owners, and helped
set the base for a different kind of
(continued on page 42)
8 www.voiceofthehill.com
Hal Gordon is maybe five
feet, seven inches tall. He
isn’t overly wide either,
although a few years have
lately gathered about his middle. But
if you think Hal Gordon is not a big
man, you don’t know Hal Gordon.
Gordon is founder and president
of Holy Comforter St. Cyprian’s
Community Action Group (CAG),
which is one of Capitol Hill’s key
agencies addressing the problems of
youth development, homeless rehabilitation,
and substance abuse treatment
and prevention. He founded
CAG—pronounced the way it
looks—in August of 1988. The organization
now has some 15 facilities
with counselors and programs, all
run out of the Car riage House at 901
Pennsylvania Ave., SE. But that’s
already getting ahead of the s tory.
We can thank President Ronald
Reagan and that Republican bandwagon
for bringing Hal to us.
Hal was working in the Commerce
Department’s regional Office of Civil
Rights in Atlanta when the Reagan
Administration decided to “centralize”
Commerce’s civil rights work in
Washington. So Hal came to
Washington in the early ‘80s and fell
in love with the city.
Then he fell in love again, this
time with a lovely colleague at
Commerce. He followed her everywhere,
including to church. It didn’t
matter that she was a devoted
Roman Catholic who attended Holy
Comforter St. Cyprian while he was
a Louisiana Baptist. “I’d have followed
her to the west corner of
Hell,” he laughs now.
“But after I went to Holy
Comforter St. Cyprian, I was really
impressed by Father Kemp’s passion
for and identification with the
homeless and the oppressed. So I
made the walk and converted to
Catholicism—but I told Father Kemp
that when I died, he had to ship my
body back to my mother in
Louisiana as a Baptist, not as a
Catholic.”
Hal married his lovely colleague
Janice Dessaso at Holy Comforter St.
Cyprian in 1987. They set up housekeeping
on Capitol Hill East, and
their interest in supporting their
priest grew. Their first idea was to
pull together 100 parishioners to
relieve the social services burden on
Father Kemp, but, as Hal recalls it
now, Father Kemp was pretty blunt:
“He told me, ‘There aren’t 100
parishioners endowed with the
power that you’ll need to do what
you have to do.’” It wasn’t an
encouraging beginning.
It was about this time that Hal and
Janice participated in some
Lifespring training sessions. They
were excited about the possibilities
for growth that Lifespring had
opened for them and took their
C o m fo rting
the A f f l i c t e d,
Afflicting th e
C o m f o rt a b l e
Hal Gordon’s Never-Ending Fight
to Help the Poor Retain Dignity
BY GENE MI LLER
www.voiceofthehill.com 9
excitement back to Father Kemp. He
was interested.
“He told us he would send us 12
people, and that we should do a
Bible study in which we tried to integrate
what we learned in Lifespring
with the Gospel. He suggested we do
it for eight weeks and then get back
to him.”
So in 1988, the group started
meeting in Hal and Janice’s basement.
After eight weeks, they ag reed
to formally band together to help
Father Kemp. “We organized ourselves
as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) and
the Archdiocese of Washington
financed us as an affiliate,” Hal
relates. “We originally did substance
abuse programs and then expanded
into working with the young people
at Potomac Gardens. We were doing
parenting kinds of things—the soft
stuff, with an emphasis on working
with youth. We bought a van and
the Archdiocese let CAG use the St.
Cecilia’s building on East Capitol
Street.” CAG was working and working
well. Everybody was happy.
Except Hal.
“I just don’t work well with kids,”
he confesses. “And I didn’t know
what to do. For two years, I prayed,
and I prayed hard. One day I was
walking the dog along Pennsylvania
Avenue and saw the Carriage House
here. It was dilapidated, but I
thought we might be able to make
use of it for our programs. I took a
proposal to Mayor Barry, and he
leased it to us with the money we
spent on making the place habitable
to be applied as pre-paid rent.”
“Then we worked with the ANC
and got the permits and all that and
finally in the winter of 1991, we got
our license. I came back one evening
with the dog to look at our building,
but a snowbank blocked the raggedy
wooden door, and I couldn’t get in.
So I started clearing away the snow
from the door and I couldn’t believe
what I found. There was a homeless
man under that snowbank.
“I thought he was dead, and he
very nearly was. It was a profound
spiritual experience for me. I heard
God’s voice saying, ‘You’re looking
for something to do? Do something
for this man!’”
Hal heard the call. “I invited the
homeless guys in out of the weather
and let them build their fires on the
dirt floor in the middle of the building.
And I asked them to help me
renovate the building.” In return,
the homeless men had two requests
for Hal—Help us in our condition,
and help us change the public perceptions
of who we are.
If Hal Gordon had been a breath
of fresh air before, he became a hurricane
then. “I did anything and
everything I thought the Spirit was
telling me to do,” he relates. “It took
a series of miracles, but after starting
out without water, heat, or electrici -
ty, we had the renovations done,
debt-free, in eighteen months.”
A key part of the assistance Hal
provided to the homeless men was
to help them provide some accountability
for themselves. They agreed
to form the Omega-Alpha
Brotherhood. The name is from the
saying in the Gospel of Matthew
about the last—Omega—being first.
All the members wore Omega-Alpha
badges, and anyone caught doing
anything unlawful while wearing a
badge—panhandling or the like—
had to sit on the hot seat at the next
group meeting and publically surrender
his badge.
“They were tough,” Hal says
admiringly. “One guy talked too
much during meetings, and they
agreed that his punishment was to
come to meetings and not to talk for
two months. He just had to sit in a
corner quietly. And he did it.”
But the depth of the needs of
these homeless men was quickly
apparent to Hal. Recovering from
substance addiction is almost impossible
for people without skills and
structure in their lives, so CAG
began to work on providing the
essential skills for daily drug-free living.
From that beginning, CAG has
continued to grow and currently
operates out of 16 properties, forming
one of the largest subs tance
abuse treatment centers in town.
CAG has 161 residential treatment
beds and 36 units of permanent
housing for CAG graduates. CAG
centers provide cognitive therapy,
anger and stress management support,
and basic life skills training.
CAG even provides work: the
newspaper you now are holding was
most likely delivered by CAG clients.
CAG boasts more than 500 g raduates,
with 65% of them still clean.
From the beginning, CAG has
reflected Hal’s belief that spiritual
development is a critical tool in the
rehabilitation process. The Sunday
morning spiritual development sessions
take place at their Fellowship
Hall at 124 15th Street, SE, just off
Independence Avenue. A recent
Sunday morning service was packed,
with worshippers ranging from a
two-year-old sleeping across her
dad’s knee to a spirited 95 year old
Mr. Roy Toodle, a Holy Comforter St.
Cyprian parishioner, giving a rousing
recitation of how church ought
to be. The CAG Choir, made up of
CAG clients and alumni, led in wor -
ship in singing, and graciously
received the applause when their
upcoming Kennedy Center appearance
was announced.
During the service, CAG’s core
mission was always front and center.
Worship leader Mr. Reginald Whren
welcomed all new CAG clients to the
service, telling them, “If you’ve got
no home, you’re home now.” CAG
alumni also stood and were greeted
and cheered. Tears of joy and sadness
were shed, including some by
Hal himself, as the g roup said
farewell to CAG staff member Mrs.
Luetta Arindell, who is returning to
her home in the Islands after a
decade of service to CAG.
The guest speaker for the morning,
Rev. William Buie from Lee
Memorial Baptist Church, preached
from Matthew 25, reminding the
group that Jesus comes to us in the
faces of the people on the margins:
the homeless, the hungry, the sick
and the imprisoned. Visitors were
greeted warmly after the service.
Considering what Hal and his
group have accomplished on Capitol
Hill in only a decade or so, it is hardly
surprising that he
gets...well...impatient with some
other efforts to help the poor on the
Hill. His voice rises: “You mean to
tell me that a big church can find a
space in the corner of their basement
for a homeless family, but can’t
find $50,000 for a facility where that
homeless family can try to live for a
while instead of being in some fish -
bowl?”
Then he eases up. “Now, you’re
going to get me in trouble with our
churches, but they’re doing mostly
the soft stuff. I think they could do a
lot more.”
He snorts when he talks about the
fate of Buchanan School—CAG
wanted it, but the District government
sold it to a g roup from off the
Hill—and gets downright thunderous
when he talks about Hill development,
including the new Navy
Yard project.
“All of these projects are going to
help improve the tax base, which is
fine, but nobody’s thinking about
where the poor are going to live.
Nobody gives a damn about the
poor. What’s going to happen to
that single mother and her children
when they get forced out of their
apartment? What’s going to happen
to the heavy concentration of drug
addicts who live down there?”
The questions hang in the air
unanswered, as they have since forever.
“The poor you always have
with you” has been used as both a
rebuke and a justification since forever,
too. It takes a big man to try to
do something about it.
Hal Gordon is a big man.
Gene Miller is the religion editor of
Voice of the Hill.
10 www.voiceofthehill.com
is considered more of a “moving
house party” than a traditional
house tour, according to Richards.
Only the first floors of the houses
will be used, and guests will be
encouraged to linger and relax so
they can enjoy the entertainment
and culinary offerings at each home.
Creative and diverse themes have
been assigned to each house on this
year’s tour. According to Mary
Procter, one of the original Winter
RUMOR HAS IT that when the
people of the 500 block of Seventh
Street NE decorate their homes for
Christmas, the white lights can be
seen overhead from the view of an
airplane. This tradition of is one of
the reasons this neighborhood was
chosen for the Capitol Hill Arts
Workshop (CHAW)’s annual Winter
Revelry House Tour. The tour, now
in its sixteenth year, has usually
been centered
around East Capitol
Street, but tour
organizers wanted
something different
this year.
Ann Richards,
one of the organizers
of this year’s
tour and a CHAW
board member,
explained that
Winter Revelry is
not necessarily
about finding the
best-looking and
best-decorated
houses, but more
about finding
homeowners who
are willing to host
one of the Hill’s
most festive events
of the season.
Though the
houses are beautiful,
Winter Revelry
the best of the Arts Workshop and
celebrating the Hill community with
loads of holiday cheer.” Other activ -
ities will include:
• The Jazz, Hip-Hop Nutcracker
put on by students from the Capitol
Hill Arts Workshop’s youth dance
class, “Pure Energy” hip-hop dancers
and Momentum Dance Theatre.
Performances will be at Hine Junior
High School on Dec. 14 and 15 at 8
p.m., and Dec. 16 at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for
youths 12 and under.
• The Snow Ball, a traditional
black-tie holiday ball. The ball will
be held on Saturday night,
December 15th, at the Capitol Hill
Club from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m. Tickets
are $70 each or $125 per couple.
• The Annual Faculty and Staff Art
Show at the Capitol Hill Arts
Workshop. Work will be on display
from Dec. 8-22, with an opening
reception on Dec. 8 from 4 to 7 p.m.
The Winter Revelry House Tour
will take place on Sunday afternoon,
Dec. 16, from 2 - 6 p.m. Tickets are
$25 for adults and $10 for youths 12
and under. A 10% discount will be
available to all members of the
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Tickets
will be available at the following
locations: The Capitol Hill Arts
Workshop, 545 Seventh Street SE;
Trover Books, 221 Pennsylvania
Avenue SE; The Forecast, 218
Seventh Street SE; and Bird in Hand
Bookstore and Gallery, 323 Seventh
Street SE.
For more information, interested
persons may contact the Capitol Hill
Arts Workshop at 202-547-6839 or
visit the group’s website at
www.chaw.org.
Here’s a preview of some
of this year’s Winter
Revelry offerings:
1. The Clapp Home,
Seventh Street NE
Theme: Lights of Norway/Going
Home for Christmas
The hadangar, a traditional
Norwegian instrument, will be
played. Also, songs by Edward Grieg,
a classical Norwegian composer, will
be performed. Authentic Norwegian
cookies and sweetbreads will be
served to guests.
Revelry organizers and this year ’s
entertainment coordinator, the
themes were selected in many cases
by starting with an interest of one of
the homeowners. For example, the
“classic jazz soiree/champagne and
chocolate” theme of Jim F ranzen’s
home grew from his love of classic
jazz. In other situations, the architecture
was influential in deciding
on a theme. The sophisticated and
elegant home of William and Beverly
Alexander, for example, seemed a
perfect backdrop for a French-based
theme.
Winter Revelry is the CHAW’s single
biggest fundraising event of the
year. The workshop, located at 545
Seventh Street SE, is a not-for-profit
organization which provides exposure
to and instruction in the arts to
members of the community. Each of
the homes will have one or more
sponsors to help cover the costs of
the tour. Sponsors identified so far
include Pardoe/ERA, Verizon,
Riverby Books, The National Capitol
Bank, Phyllis Jane Young and
RE/MAX Capital/Tom and Alice
Faisons.
Winter Revelry is just one part of
the second annual Winter
Wonderland Weekend put on by the
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop. Jeffery
Watson, director of the Arts
Workshop, said, “There will be
something for everyone, showcasing
fHolidays on the Hill
‘ Reveling’ In
D i ve rs i t y
A rts Wo rks h o p ’s House
Tour Offe ring Much
M o re Than White
L i g h t s
BY COURTNEY BELL
Seventh Street, NE…soon to undergo
a holiday transformation.
www.voiceofthehill.com 11
2. The Pontorno and Purdy
Home, Seventh Street NE
Theme: Viva Italia/Festa di Luce
A strolling violinist and opera singers
will perfo rm traditional Ita l i a n
music.
3. The McBride and
Gorman Home, Seventh
Street NE
Theme: Stars and Stripes
Forever/At Home in America
The entertainment will include a
“living Statue of Liberty” and th e
Potomac Brass Quintet.
4. The Kyte Home,
Massachusetts Avenue NE
Theme: Dasher, Dancer, Donner and
Blitzen/Reindeer Revel
The entertainment will include
singing by selected members of the
Capitol Hill children’s choir, piano
music and storytelling. Hosts will be
serving guests in reindeer apparel.
Santa Claus is also expected to make
a special appearance at this house.
5. The Alexander Home,
Maryland Avenue NE
Theme: Noel a la Versailles/French
Rococo Extraordinaire
A piano, oboe, flute and bass quartet
and a harpist will per form. Wine,
cheese and other French-style foods
will be served.
6. The Franzen Home,
Massachusetts Avenue NE
Theme: Classic Jazz
Soiree/Champagne and Chocolate
Classic jazz will be performed while
guests are served champagne, chocolate
and hors d’oeuvres by hosts in
black-tie attire.
7. St. James Episcopal
Church, Eighth Street NE
Theme: Lift Every Voice and
Sing/Celebrating Together
This larger space will be used for per -
formances by at least one choir and
Suzuki violinists.
Courtney Bell is a freelance writer based
on the Hill.
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The National Capital Bank has become a
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12 www.voiceofthehill.com
spirit or has lost it. And if you
already have it, it will make you
appreciate the Christmas spirit even
more.” Pemberton says that for the
company’s Christmas show, St.
Mark’s Players “always try to pick a
show with involvement for children,”
and this year is no different.
Pemberton believes that the mixture
of youth and adult, of veterans
and rookies, “makes for a dynamic
show”—the type of vibrant performance
that makes theater the indul -
gence that it is.
BY DARRIN BROADWAT E R
An evening of theater,
unlike going to the
movies, is an event—
an indulgence. Movies,
however, are treated
much less ceremoniously.
They are more common—
theater’s lesser cousin. Movies are
an essential part of culture, part of
the fabric that weaves together the
nation and even the world. But the -
ater is different, more interactive,
personal, esoteric.
Mostly, though, theater is an
indulgence because it is unique. In
an age when so much is prepackaged
and sold, society holds the individu -
ality of a theatrical performance in
higher esteem than ever before.
Each new performance begins with
the promise of perfection (as well as
the potential for spectacular disaster).
The playwright Anton Chekhov
was clearly mindful of this individuality,
observing that, “Narrative
prose is a legal wife, while drama is a
posturing, boisterous, cheeky and
wearisome mistress.”
Cheeky mistresses may not be new
to Capitol Hill, but neither is good
theater. Indulgence has a willing
accomplice in two local theater
groups presenting plays this month.
St. Mark’s Players will be presenting
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever,
while The Atlas Theater Project will
performThe Gospel at Colonus.
While thoroughly different, both
productions promise to be posturing,
boisterous mistresses to the legal
wife of everyday life.
Produced by Michael Pemberton
and directed by Kevin Sockwell, The
Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a show
for the entire family. The production
focuses on reclaiming—or
retaining—the Christmas spirit. The
show, according to Pemberton, “is
for anybody who has the Christmas
does the task fall to the church’s seasoned
veteran of pageantry, either.
A new couple has to coordinate the
pageant, dealing with their own
inexperience as well as the awful
Herdman kids.
Pemberton promises a unique theatrical
experience, offered in the gorgeous
chapel of St. Mark’s Episcopal
Church. The church provides the
perfect environment for the production,
with a sense of character and
individuality not found in any cineplex.
Pemberton points out that the
In the show, the children of a
delinquent family agree to participate
in the church’s annual
Christmas pageant, though for
rather dubious reasons. The pag -
eant, however, unexpectedly teaches
them the true meaning of
Christmas—something they had
never experienced. Preparing the
children for the pageant is no easy
task. The Herdman kids are
described as “probably the meanest,
nastiest, most inventively awful kids
in the history of the world.” Nor
fHolidays on the Hill
A Tale of Two Pro d u c t i o n s
Atlas Theater Project, St. Mark’s Players Offering Distinctly Diff e rent
Holiday Perf o rm a n c e s
Some of the young cast members of The Best Christmas Pageant Ever , St. Mark’s Players’ holiday offering.
www.voiceofthehill.com 13
beautiful sanctuary “adds to any
play, particularly one with a religious
theme.” The space also makes
for a very non-traditional production.
Pemberton takes great pride in
the quality of his production, and is
quick to point out that one ought
not be deceived by the non-standard
lighting and sparse set. He advises
audience members to “be prepared
for a good show.”
The Atlas Theater Project’s production
of The Gospel at Colonus, directed
by Paul-Douglas Michnewicz, has
several lofty goals, as well—one of
which is treating the audience to a
first-class production centering on
the theme of redemption.
Another—and the reason behind the
founding of the Atlas Theater
Project—is the goal of initiating a
renaissance of the vacant Atlas
Theater as a performing arts space.
Originally slated for performance
at the Douglas Memorial Church,
The Gospel at Colonus was inspired by
the layout of the church sanctuary,
which lends itself to the production.
The agreement, however, between
The Atlas Theater Project and the
church fell through, leaving the production
in need of a new home. The
Capital Children’s Museum stepped
in, offering their space and saving
the day in what theater members
hope will be a mutually beneficial
relationship, boosting attendance at
the museum, as well as providing a
performance space for the production.
Michnewicz maintains that, outside
of finding a venue, one of the
most difficult parts of the produc -
tion was orchestrating the supernatural
death of Oedipus. Despite the
logistical challenges he has faced,
Michnewicz knows that the work
will be rewarded. “The audience,”
he says, “gets to re-look at the play
with different eyes.”
The Gospel at Colonus, by Lee
Breuer, is a retelling of Sophocles’
Oedipus at Colonus as an African-
American church service, with the
story told through gospel music.
The Gospel at Colonus deals with relatively
mature subject matter, especially
for a Christmas performance,
but the rationale for choosing this
production is its focus on the themes
of redemption and forgiveness.
Michnewicz points out that “this
[production] is growing out of a
community,” and that the idea of
redemption is closely tied to community.
He is especially proud of
the mixture of people in his cast—a
group that includes professional the -
ater artists, churchgoers, and gospel
singers. Michnewicz thinks audience
members will be moved not only by
the quality of the performance, but
also by the idea of redemption that
is behind it—now more important
than ever.
One can indulge his or her
appetite for redemption at any of the
performances of The Gospel at
Colonus, which runs Thursdays and
Fridays beginning Nov. 29 and continuing
Nov. 30, Dec. 6, 7, 13, 14, 20
and 21—all at 7:30 p.m. There will
also be a Saturday performance at 3
p.m. Dec. 22. Tickets are $20, and
group rates are available; reservations
and more information are
available by calling 202-547-6839 or
logging on to www.chaw.org. All performances
are held at the Capital
Children’s Museum, 3rd and H St.
NE.
St. Mark’s Players’ heartwarming
production of The Best Little
Christmas Pageant Ever will open
Friday, Nov. 30 and Saturday, Dec. 1,
as well as Dec. 7, 14, and 15 at 8 p.m.
The Saturday, Dec. 8 shows will be
held at 3 and 8 p.m., and Sunday
performances will be held at 3 p.m.
Dec. 2 and 9. All per formances will
be held at St. Mark’s Episcopal
Church, 118 3rd St. SE. Tickets are
available at www.StMarksPlayers.org
or by calling 202-546-9670.
Darrin Broadwater is a freelance writer
based in Greenbelt, Md. Nicole Pettus, Stephawn Stephens, S. Robert Morgan and Felicia Wilson in rehearsal for The Gospel at Colonus.
14 www.voiceofthehill.com
Capitol Hill with husband Jerry, a
retired NASA official. The Rosenbergs
and Shirley’s brother David Sirota
(visiting here from New York),
explain that both families grew up in
largely Jewish, Brooklyn neighborhoods.
During Hanukkah, the only
gifts they received were Hanukkah
gelt—either real coins or chocolate
candies wrapped in gold foil.
Eventually, the Rosenbergs moved
to a neighborhood with less of a
Jewish population. “We were worried
that our children
would be envious
of families
who
cel-
Ah, Capitol Hill in
December! Family and friends
gather at Eastern Market as vendors
hawk wreathes, decorations, centerpieces,
breads, fruitcakes and hot
spiced cider. Strolling through the
Market’s avenue of Christmas trees is
like walking through a fragrant pine
forest.
The Hill’s main commercial thoroughfares,
Pennsylvania and
Massachusetts Avenues, are likewise
festooned for the holidays, and
Union Station, with its giant wreaths
outside, is a wonderland.
This year, in the wake of tragedy
and heightened national anxiety, it’s
more important than ever to gather
with loved ones and share the season’s
rich heritage.
Hanukkah. First on the calendar is
Hanukkah, observed this year
from sundown December 9
through the16th. Hanukkah,
the Hebrew word for dedication,
is celebrated for eight
days during the month of
Kislev, which usually falls
during mid-December.
Also called the Festival of
Lights, Hanukkah commemorates
the victory of
Judah Maccabee over the
Hellenistic Syrians in 164
BC. When the Jews wanted
to re-dedicate their
temple which the
invaders had desecrated,
they could not find
enough consecrated oil to
light their menorah (holy
lamp), which must burn at all
times. They came up short—
only one day’s worth—but the
oil miraculously burned for eight
days. Therefore, Jews worldwide
light one candle on the menorah
during each night of Hanukkah.
“Haunkkah is not a major religious
holiday, but it is joyous,” says
Shirley Rosenberg, who dwells on
how she once gave a latke party for
80 people. “All the Jewish guests
stayed in the kitchen, so they could
grab the latkes as soon as they were
done,” she says. “Eventually the others
caught on, and soon everyone
was in the kitchen.”
Shirley Rosenberg offers latke tips:
Fry them in small batches, and keep
them warm in the oven; make them
in advance and freeze them. Leave
the skins on the potatoes—saving
work and adding flavor and texture.
Health conscious? Bake rather than
fry your latkes.
Latkes
5 medium potatoes (not baking)
1 medium onion
14 cup all-purpose flour
1 egg, beaten
14 teaspoon baking powder
cooking oil
Applesauce or sour cream, optional
Grate potatoes, and place in bowl.
Grate onion, and add to potatoes.
Add flour, beaten egg and baking
powder. Heat oil in large fry pan.
Drop 1/4 cup of potato mixture
into oil to form a mound. Turn
over when brown. Remove and
drain on paper towels. Serve
with applesauce or sour cream.
Serves 6 to 8.
Christmas. Christmas on Capitol
Hill has myriad culinary traditions.
Blessed with an increasing -
ly diverse population, we find
Salvadoran, Cuban, Puerto Rican,
Italian, French, German, Greek and
Russian, plus American traditions
and delicacies around the holidays.
At the Canales food stand in
Eastern Market, Juan Jose Canales,
one of the three brothers operating
the business, describes holiday foods
in his home country of El Salvador.
Popular holiday snacks are tamales,
which are minced pork or chic ken
enveloped in corn meal and
wrapped in a corn husk. Tamales are
ebrated Christmas,” Shirley recalls.
“As a result, many Jewish parents
started giving gifts....I find that disturbing.
Hanukkah is not
Christmas.”
Because of the miracle of the oil
centuries ago, many celebrants serve
foods cooked in oil during
Hanukkah. In Israel, sufganiot—jelly
donuts fried in oil—are hawked on
street corners. Here in Washington,
many families serve latkes, fried
potato pancakes, often accompanied
by apple sauce and/or sour cream.
Community activist
Ellen Opper-
Weiner recalls
fHolidays on the Hill
A Taste For Celebr a t i o n
A Mi xt u re of Tra d i t i o n s,Old and New,
Ma kes Up Tod ay’s Ho l i d ay Fe a s t s
BY CELESTE MCCALL
www.voiceofthehill.com 15
best enjoyed with a glass of vino
tinto. So are empanadas, savory little
turnovers filled with pork, ham,
chicken or cheese.
For the main event, El Salvador
Christmas tables offer pavo relleno,
turkey stuffed with spicy sausage,
raisins, garlic and plenty of cumin.
You’ll find similar delicacies at
Canales: plump empanadas ($2.50
each) with various fillings, and
tamales stuffed with beef (beef is not
prevalent back home, as El Salvador
is too small to maintain herds of cattle).
As in years past, the Canales will
offer fully-roasted turkeys weighing
up to 16 pounds ($2.99 per pound),
and orders will be taken up until
almost the last minute (Christmas
falls on a Tuesday this year).
Interested persons may call (202)
547-4471.
For the holiday feast, turkey still
reigns supreme among Americans.
But don’ t restrict yourself. In Great
Britain, roast beef with Yorkshire
pudding graces many a table.
Germans and Eastern Europeans
favor goose, which is absolutely delicious
when cooked properly. My
mother was German, so I like to
maintain childhood traditions.
Several years ago, I was, well, cooking
my goose when the oven caught
on fire. No damage was done, and
the goose was delicious. However, we
did have to call the fire department
to suck the smoke from our house.
Lesson: Goose is very fatty, and some
of it should be removed beforehand;
other grease is syphoned off with a
bulb baster during cooking. A rack,
which allows grease to drain off into
the pan, is highly recommended.
Speaking of oil, deep-fried turkey
has caught on. An expert in this cuisine
is Warren Gaines, retiree and
amateur chef who fries turkeys for
family and friends. Some folks make
do with a crawfish or lobster pot, but
Gaines uses a rig with a 26-quart pot,
strainer, hook (for lifting the turkey)
and propane burner ($129.99 at
Frager’s hardware). If this seems like
too much of an investment, folks
can rent a pot, burner and propane
tank next door at Just Ask Rental—
$42 for 24-hours. You’ll also need
five gallons of peanut oil (available
at Costco).
When deep-frying a turkey, preparation
takes a while. After injecting
the bird with a spice mix (Cajun is
best), marinate it overnight. The
next day—outdoors—bring the oil to
a boil, and pop in the gobbler. A 10-
pounder cooks in about a half hour.
This is a lot of work, but the result is
moist and flavorful, a vast improvement
over dried-out, overcooked
turkey we often endure each year.
Eastern Market Poultry will offer
fresh turkeys and geese from Dec. 1
until just before Christmas.
For more exotic tastes, Melvin
stocks every kind of game imaginable
(most of it frozen): alligator,
muskrat, elk, wild boar and even raccoon.
Capitol Hill Poultry (544-
4435) offers similar fare, plus
smoked turkey breast and turkey
scrapple. Priced at $1.85 per pound,
the latter goes well in stuffing, and
seems to be more healthful than regular
scrapple, which contains every
part of the pig but the oink.
Pavo Relleno
(Stuffed turkey)
Recipe from Clotilde Benitez
(Puerto Rico)
1 fresh turkey, 10 to 12 pounds
12 cloves garlic
Oregano and thyme
Olive oil
A sampling of the wares at Canales in Eastern Market.
16 www.voiceofthehill.com
for about 4 hours, basting occasionally.
Serves 6 to 8.
Kwanzaa. Kwanzaa, which means
“first fruits of the harvest” in
Swahili, is a week-long festival focusing
on family, community responsibility,
commerce and self-improvement.
The primarily African-
American observance was founded
in 1966 by Civil Rights leader Dr.
Maulana Karenga and is now celebrated
by about 10 million
Americans. Observed December 26
through December 31, Kwanzaa is
based on nguzo saba (seven guiding
principles), one for each day: umoja
(unity), kujichagulia (self-determination),
ujima (collective work and
responsibility), ujama (cooperative
economics), nia (purpose), kuumba
(creativity), and imani (faith). For
Kwanzaa, celebrants need a kinara, a
seven-candle candelabra representing
the seven principles; mishamaa
saba (candles: one black, three red
and three green); mkeka (straw or
kente cloth place mats), mazao
(fruits and vegetables), vibunzi (an
ear of corn for each child in the
household), kikombe cha umja (communal
cup), and simple gifts. Most
of these items are available at East-
2 to 4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
Remove giblets from turkey, and
reserve. Rinse bird thoroughly and
pat dry with paper towels. Combine
remaining ingredients in a mortar
and pestle, and make into a paste.
Rub mixture all over bird, inside and
out. Cover and marinate (refrigerated)
overnight.
Dressing:
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 pound ground beef, pork or turkey
Minced giblets (optional)
13 cup chopped onions
12 cup seedless raisins
18 seedless prunes
2 tablespoons capers
8 to 10 stuffed (green) olives
1 (7-ounce) jar pimentos, with liquid
4 hard boiled eggs, chopped
1 (1-pound) can applesauce
Heat oil in large skillet. Brown
ground meat and giblets (if using
them). Add onions, and cook until
golden-brown. Add remaining ingredients,
and stuff loosely into turkey
and truss with heavy string (dental
floss also works!). Place on rack over
pan, breast side down. Cover loosely
with foil, leaving vents to prevent
bird from steaming. Roast at 350 F
ern Market’s
Afro-centric vendors.
Mamory Keita,
who comes from
Mali, carves
mahogany figures
and has kineras
ranging in
price from $40 to
$50. So does
Takoma Park resident
Saiyd
Khalid.
Communal cups
can come from
Eastern Market’s
talented potters,
among them
Barbara
Chowney, who
also sells ceramic
Advent wreaths.
In addition to
these items,
many people
decorate their
homes with
streamers and
balloons in
African colors.
Kwanzaa items
are arranged in a
private parties • celebrations • special events
2 Quail 2 Quail
www.voiceofthehill.com 17
straw basket or bowl for a centerpiece.
Each child places an ear of
corn on the place mat; households
without children should include
corn to symbolize the African concept
of social parenthood.
The karamu (feast) is usually held
December 31. Folks planning to celebrate
New Year’s Eve might want to
start early in the evening. For the
menu, many people incorporate
ingredients brought by African
slaves to America: yams, okra,
sesame (benne) seeds, black eyed
peas and collard greens. It’s easier to
serve a buffet than a sit-down dinner,
especially for a large group.
While dining, guests may take turns
presenting a program (originally
orchestrated by Dr. Karenga) and
concluding with a call for g reater
unity.
From the communal cup, it ’s customary
to pour a libation (usually
water, the essence of life) to symbolize
ancestors. The beverage is poured
in the direction of the four winds:
north, south, east and west. Then
the cup is passed to family member s
and guests. “Dr. Karenga thought
Christmas was getting too commercial,”
said Diane Freeman, who sells
handmade children’s articles at
Eastern Market. “He decided we
needed something besides toys and
gifts, something spiritual.” Freeman
plans to celebrate Kwanzaa with her
two young grandchildren, “definitely
this year, because of the added significance.”
Also observing Kwanzaa is Linda
“Ma” Brown, the Eastern Market pie
lady. For the feast, Brown serves an
array of dishes, including a tasty vegetable
nut-loaf. Other items, such as
corn pudding, reflect her
African/Native American heritage.
But Kwaanza means more than food,
she believes. Brown, an ordained
minister in the Yoruba religion,
stresses the holiday’s spiritual
aspects.
“It’s meant to strengthen character
in the black community,” she
says, adding that the only Kwanzaa
presents in the Brown household are
homemade. “One year I made plum
wine for all the adults,” she recalls.
As for her pies, she bakes all day
and night for her Saturday customers
at Eastern Market. In addition to her
butternut squash, Southern pecan
and Derby pies, she’ll make coconut
custard for the holidays. Want a
recipe? Forget it. They are closely
guarded “family heirlooms,” some
dating back to slave days. However,
Ma Brown will take orders until the
Saturday before Christmas. She can
be reached at 202-489-4314 or 703-
618-8246.
Vegetarian Stew
Peanut oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 to 3 garlic cloves, minced
1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed
(and reserved) and leaves chopped
2 medium yams, peeled and sliced
1 large can (16 ounces) garbanzo
beans
12 cup raisins
12 cup rice, uncooked
1 large can (28 ounces) tomatoes,
with juice
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce, to taste
Heat oil in large skillet. Saute onion,
garlic and white stems of chard until
limp. Add chopped leaves. Add
sliced yams, garbanzos, raisins,
tomatoes, salt and pepper. Cook 2
minutes over medium heat. Make a
well in the center of the mixture,
and add raw rice. Pat down until all
the rice is moistened. Cover and simmer
about 25 minutes, or until rice is
done. Add hot sauce to taste.
Serves 4.
Celeste McCall is a freelance writer,
based on the Hill.
Here’s looking at you…
Randolph Cree
hair etc.
Redken • Keune • American Crew
325 7th Street, SE • Eastern Market • 202-547-1014
Stylists
Dusty De Loach (Redken Color Educator)
Kelly Martina, Stacy King
and Evan Pehrson
Special thanks to our support staff:
James Crowder, Sia Mullen, Peter Von Streeruwitz,
Cortney Bright, and Sylvia and Lily Lopez
Randolph Cree
At St. Mark’s on Capitol Hill,
we worship in the ro u n d .
Coming together, face to
face, each Sunday, we are
s t rengthened by the symbols
of our Christian faith. But we
also live our community life
in the round. Looking at our
lives from all perspectives.
N u rturing our children and
young people. Caring for each
o t h e r. Learning from each
o t h e r. Enjoying each other.
Empowering each other to
engage boldly in life. Come
visit us. Be a part of us. Our
door is open.
INT H E THIRD AND A STREETS, SE, JUST BEHIND THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. SUNDAY SERVICES AT 9:00 AND 11 : 0 0 .
w w w. s t m a r k s . n e t
2 0 2 . 5 4 3 . 0 0 5 3
I suspect this holiday season will be diffe re n t .
And I’m ready for it.
Although the calendar didn’t really officially
decree the day as being anything special, I chose
Nov. 20 as the day I began listening to holiday
music this year. I chose Handel’s Messiah on that
first day, and as I walked to the Metro stop, the
soundtrack that accompanied my commute was
“For Unto Us a Child is Born.” By the time I got to
work, the “Hallelujah Chorus” had just wrapped
up. I was ready to face my day.
I normally eschew all rushing of the holidays. I
can’t stand being forced to think about Christmas
before Thanksgiving. I don’t want to be made to feel
guilty because I haven’t made my own ornaments. I
don’t like to go to any store during the holiday
rush—not because I don’t want to shop; I just don’t
like the attitude that faces me (from clerks and
shoppers alike) once I battle my way there.
But I suspect things will be different this year.
I know, you’ve all heard it before, in ways far
more eloquent than this. You’ve heard how, in
times of great stress and distress, the one true thing
we can cling to is our family, our loved ones, the
most cherished aspects of life. And I’m not here to
argue that point—at all. Because it’s true. But in
addition to the time set aside for meditation and
reflection, we need a little more. We all need a little
Christmas, or a little Kwaanza, or a little Hanukkah,
right this very minute. Now. Like, yesterday.
The calendar will bring us these days soon
enough. The question is, what do we do with these
days when we get them? How do we spend this
time?
I can’t imagine many of us will passively celebrate
the holidays this year. I can’t imagine we
won’t pause to think about what we have—perhaps
what we’ve lost—and give an extra hug, a longer
conversation, a more thoughtful gift. We may even
write a personal note in a card or two.
We may mark this time of year as if it’s the last
one we’ll spend. We may go all out in terms of
spending (which would be the best gift we could
give the economy right now). We may extend our
vacations to spend more time in the mountains,
the small towns, the beaches, the cities we call our
homes. We may never stop listening to fe st i ve
music.
Then again, we may never listen to the music at
all. We may not send a card, for fear that its
addressee will be hesitant to open it. We may not
decorate a single thing in our home. We may not
exchange gifts at all. The fearful wind that’s been
b l owing for the past few months may, as th e
Pe n n s ylvania Dutch say, “outen our lights” fo r
good.
So, in many ways, things will be different this
time around.
I look forward to the season’s soundtrack. Some
days, when the wet snow falls in the early darkness
after the work day, will be Charlie Brown Christmas
days. Some days I’ll praise the newborn king with a
re n ewed vigor hereto fo re found only in rev i va l
services. Some days I’ll “wish I had a river I could
skate away on.” Other days I’ll rock around the
Christmas tree. But the music will keep on coming.
That’s the beauty of holiday music. It constantly
renews itself, even though its catalog may show
signs of age. And it’s comforting that the music has
been around for decades. It’s an anchor th a t
reminds us where we’ve been. It gives us support for
the uncertain days that lie ahead.
And they are uncertain. But they’re also joyful.
And they make us think, and thank, and celebrate
—on whatever level we choose.
So it will be different this year when these days
roll around. But isn’t it always different? Isn’t it
a l ways magical? Isn’t it always, if nothing else,
something to remember?
Let the music play.
Scott Shumaker can be contacted at editor@voiceofthe -
hill.com
18 www.voiceofthehill.com
We Need a Holiday
Things Will Be Different This Year, But How Different Depends On Us
BY SCOTT SHUMAKER
O p i n i o n
YO GAAT CHRIST CHURC H
620 G Street, SE
with Corrin Bennett, Certified Yoga Instructor
WI N T E R CL AS S E S
S TA RT I N G JAN UA RY 9, 2002
8 week sessions
Private instruction available
Info/registration call
Corrin Bennett
202 543-7437
Come by and see us! Currently, we’re featuring:
$10-30 Gift Baskets
Winter Canned Food Drive
December’s Art Exhibit by
Local Photographer Avner Ofer
And of course, all your favorite
hot beverages and snacks!
Stompin’ Grounds Coffee House
Your Locally-owned Coffee Shop
546-5228 • 7th & Penn
Happy Holidays from
A mariner’s compass in an impressionistic background is the 2001 Christ Church
quilt, which will be raffled off at the church’s Christmas Bazaar on Dec. 8.
The compass rose is a most fitting theme, because it is incorporated in the
logo of the Worldwide Anglican Communion. The inspiration for this design
was a wall hanging that one of the founding members of the local quilting
group saw during a visit with friends in Virginia. The wall-hanging was adapted
to make a queen-size quilt, with an approximate size of 88 x 94 inches.
Since last June, the Quilters and friends have been searching their fabric
stashes for pieces of cotton cloth in the range of colors, from neutrals to bright
yellows to rich blues and purples. Surrounding the yellow/gold/orange compass
rose on a field of white are a multitude of 6-inch squares, each made of seven or
more smaller pieces. No two squares are identical in pattern or choice of fabric.
The squares radiate out from the compass rose in color and intensity from light
to dark. The quilt is both hand- and machine-pieced and will be hand-quilted.
The Mariner’s Rose Quilt is the 18th in a yearly series of quilts to be raffled off
at the annual bazaar. Each Christ Church quilt has been one of a kind. Some
have been based on traditional patterns; others have translated architectural
features to fabrics; and some have memorialized contemporary events.
For additional information, interested persons may contact: Linda Mellgren
(202-547-1839), Andrea Harles (202-547-3288), or Marian Tebben (202-546-
1223).
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Editor’s Note: This column marks the fir st written by
Paul Cymrot, who will be writing a monthly review on
a selection of books written by Capitol Hill authors.
WORKS REVIEWED: Spring in Washington, by
Louis J. Halle. William Sloane, NY, 1947. Illustrated
by Francis Jaques; Wild Birds, by Wendell Berry.
North Point Press, SF, 1986; The Sign of Jonas, by
Thomas Merton. Harcourt Brace, NY, 1953; Wisdom
of the Desert Fathers by Thomas Merton. New
Directions, 1960.
BY PAUL CYMROT
We look around us these weeks. I think
of family and community and
Thanksgiving, as people have looked
and thought before me. There comes
with fall a certain g reat sense that something has
come full circle, and will begin again.
In the new early dark of evening, I have been
reading, in the works of three patient and underappreciated
writers, a broader definition of community
than I formerly understood. I am reading into a
perspective of community that includes the passage
of years and generations as much, if not more,
than the passing of days. They are great writers of
place, these three, in whose writing the locations
and the lays of their lands seem to create the characters
and the stories—Louis Halle, whose Spring in
Washington belongs on every reading list and every
b o o kshelf in the neighborhood; Wendell Berry,
who writes and teaches and farms in Kentucky; and
Thomas Merton the monk.
“We do not recognize our own setting as we
ought to,” writes Merton in The Sign of Jonas. “It is
important to know where you are put, on the face
of the earth,” (p.201). Merton was in Kentucky
when he kept the journal that became The Sign of
Jonas, in the late 1940’s. He was in Kentucky for the
greater portion of his life, having joined a Trappist
monastery there. Merton wrote at great length of
the transformations that come over a person, not
only when he or she dedicates the self to one purpose
in life, but when the self is dedicated to one
place, as well. A hill and A brook become The hill
and The brook, and one’s life becomes rooted in
that place. Only then does one begin to become a
part of that place, and through it, of the world at
large. Such was Merton’s revelation, and his perspective.
In Spring in Washington, Louis Halle dedicates
himself to that proposition of a singular place. He
writes, “The sun crossed the equator on March 21,
i n a u g u rating the ast ronomical season of spri n g
throughout the northern hemisphere. The days
were now longer than the nights and, at the North
Pole, the sun rose to remain for six months. In
Washington, the day was marked by cloudiness and
that intermittent slanting rain which is a unique
feature of spring” (p.64).
It is a special sort of groundedness that enables a
person, especially a person enduring an intermittent
spring rain, to recognize its relationship to the
wobble of the world at large. It is a comforting dedication
to place that recognizes the return of spring
in the first call of a cardinal in March. As I read of
that spring, while the last leaves of this autumn fall,
I find myself thinking of the cycle of the seasons.
That we who are here, hunke red down in our
homes (those who are alone now will remain alone
to read and to write long letters, as Rilke said), will
again be visited by a procession of guests in the
form of seasons, one after the next. If only we chose
to take notice.
“The City of Wa s h i n g ton has never had th e
praise it deser ves from those of us who do not give
ourselves altogether to city life,” (p.6) writes Halle.
Yet for the length of his book, Halle does his best to
remedy that. He is a sort of transcendentalist with a
desk job. He records the arrival of the spring of 1945
with aspirant prose. From the mergansers on the
Tidal Basin to the new leaves of the elms along the
avenues, Halle’s observations are as accurate now as
then—as ever.
As we read the familiar progression from January
to June, Halle makes us aware of Washington as a
part of the landscape, rather than as just a city. “The
setting preceded the city,” he writes, “and will survive
it” (p.4). In Spring in Washington, people are in
short order. It is a meticulous and beautiful natural
history, yet Halle gives short shrift to the many
among us who, like him, take notice of the certain
slants of light. As for the human population here,
Halle makes a unch a ra c t e ri st i c a l ly gre ga ri o u s
acknowledgement that it is collective experiences
and memories that make a mere location into a
community.
“The appreciation of birds, indeed the appreciation
of all the phenomena of spring, cannot be dissociated
from the accumulations of memory. The
appearance of a familiar bird immediately awakens
a train of forgotten associations, and this makes
each spring transcend its predecessor” (p.69-70).
And this brings us to Wendell Ber ry.
Berry has dug himself in down in Kentucky, and
there he has written a series of most excellent stories
about the township of Port William. His mem-
20 www.voiceofthehill.com
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ory is overflowing with the stories of this town.
They reach back to the turn of the last century,
quite a feat, considering that Port William is imaginary.
In Wendell Berry’s stories (in the several collected
in the volume, The Wild Birds), we are invited
to witness the town not merely through special
events in the lives of people who live there, like outof-
town relatives might, but with the novel perspective
of long intervals in the life of the town
itself —sometimes missing a nearly a whole generation
of its inhabitants bet ween visits –like th e
cicadas that visit us here in Washington.
With his tales, Berry shows us the evolution and
continuity of a community in a place. Writing gently,
Berry suggests that the place selects the people
who live in it. He suggests that there are certain
ways of life that fit a location and make it work as a
neighborhood. It isn’t simply who owns the land
that makes it a neighborhood, although from time
to time the price is the starting point. “Everything
about a place that’s different from its price is a gift,”
writes Ber ry, “The life of a neighborhood is a gift.”
He continues, “You are friends and neighbors, you
work together, and so there’s lots of giving and taking
without a price —some that you don’t remember,
some that you never knew about. You don’t
send a bill. You don’t, if you can help it, keep an
account. Once the account is kept and the bill presented,
the neighborhood is finished” (p.72-73).
Berry writes about a sort of neighborhood that
has become increasingly rare, but which we have
here about us here on the Hill. We know bikes
leaned up against the wrought iron fences at the
corner stores, little triangular parks with concrete
turtles where the avenues intersect the streets, front
stoops, basement apartments, church and CHAW
musicals, CHDS auctions. “The way we are,” he
writes, “we are members of each other. All of us.
Everything. The difference ain’t in who is a member
and who is not, but in who knows it and who
don’t” (p.136-137).
I have enjoyed the widening perspective of these
books. It seems altogether fitting and proper, as the
h o l i d ay season appro a ches, to think about th e
steady and cyclical passages of time, and the work
that has gone into making this place into th i s
neighborhood. It is a blessing be reminded that it
has been no accident, and to consider the theory
that a place chooses its inhabitants, not vice versa.
These may be times when it seems a great deal is
being asked of us just to get through the week. Just
as often, though, th e re are times when all th e
neighborhood asks of us is that we sweep the leaves
on the front sidewalk or deadhead the marigolds.
There is as noble a line of succession behind even
those acts as behind breaking new ground.
As my grandfather did, as my father does, so do I.
Merton quotes Abbot Mathios, the 4th century hermit,
“Better light work that takes a long time to finish
than a hard job that is quickly done.” Let us be
thankful that right now, sitting on our stoops in
these last warm days of autumn may be the appropriate
light work.
Paul Cymrot grew up on Capitol Hill, and now he and
his father run a used book store there (when they are
not elsewhere).
www.voiceofthehill.com 21
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directed by Kevin Sockwell
Nov. 30, Dec. 1,7,8,14 & 15 8:00 pm
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or call 202-546-9670
St. Mark’s Episcopal Church
corner 3rd and A Sts., SE
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December 13, 2002, 10:00am-2:00pm
4th and East Capitol Streets
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202-543-4400
Dear Judith:
I’ve been thinking how nice it would be to have a
roof deck. What do you think?
S H O R T OF YARD SPA C E
Dear Short:
On cramped city lots, the idea of a roof deck can be
seductive. It seems like a good idea to use the roof
of the house or garage for something besides just
keeping the water off.
Putting roof decks on top of either house or
garage is totally feasible, technically, but fraught
with significant pitfalls, aesthetic and technical.
In both ins tances, the hardest thing is reconciling
the competing needs of the roof and the deck.
The roof wants a nice slope to move the water off it,
while the deck wants to be flat for standing, sitting,
tables, and chairs. Thus, the two systems want to be
separate, usually with the deck structure floating
above the roof as not to inter fere with the roof.
The thorny part is maintaining access to the roof
below. If the roof is a metal roof, you need to be
able to paint it every few years. Even if the roof is a
membrane roof, requiring little or no maintenance,
you will inevitably have a leak that you will probably
want to fix. And someday, the roof will need
replacement. Membrane roofs are considered to
have a 20-year life. Demolishing your entire lovely
deck with all its plantings to replace the roof might
not seem like such a good idea a few years down the
road. Just replacing a roof is bad enough.
The bottom line is that the same deck that can be
built on dirt pretty cheaply becomes much more
complex, therefore expensive, when built above a
roof. It probably means steel structure running
from bearing wall to bearing wall and being fabricated
in such a way, like in removable sections, that
you can get at the roof below for maintenance,
repair, or replacement.
This leads to one of the major aesthetic pitfalls of
roof dec ks: the railing. Since the roof slopes and
the deck does not, and since you want to keep the
deck above the roof to maintain drainage, the deck
floats higher and higher above the roof and the
tops of the walls. You end up with a substantial gap
between the bottom of the deck and the top of the
roof at the low end of the roof. At some point, this
starts to look pretty silly. If you just install a railing,
willy-nilly, not thinking about this gap, you can
end up with an odd-looking enclosure sort of
perched above the roof.
If you tour the Hill looking
u p wa rd, you will see some
p retty stupid railings at th e
tops of some of our historic
buildings. Seve ral equ a l ly
imbecile appro a ches include
sheets of pressure-treated lattice
tac ked up to some framewo
rk, the basic steel ra i l i n g ,
and the railing found on your
suburban cousin’s deck.
Basically, all these approaches
s c ream “Expedient!” and
“Cheap!” and “What’s wrong
with this picture?! Duh!” The
railing issue is a thorny one
requiring finesse. It is more
e a s i ly solved on top of th e
garage because you can imagine terrace or porch
railing. You might even be tempted to roof it for
shade and to keep the rain off —then you have
“porch” vocabulary and you’re home free, aesthetically.
On the other hand, it is hard to imagine any reason
for a railing on top of one of our tall, Victorianera
houses. Thus is posed the essential contradiction.
What is that railing doing up there, anyway?
Some sensible choices include to configure it so it
doesn’t show from below, or to figure out some
clever solution, such as using a parapet wall as a railing.
Unfortunately, the parapet idea works best
with new construction. Like so much else in construction,
the railing quandary translates to money.
To do it right and have it look good on your building,
you are going to have to spend a lot more
m o n ey than you imagined when the casual
22 www.voiceofthehill.com
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thought, “Why don’t we put a deck up there?”
crossed your mind.
Roof decks on top of the house or on top of the
garage differ significantly in how you get to them—
access. I know Hill residents whose garage roof terrace
is about at the same level as their kitchen, and
they use it quite a bit. I also have a client with a
three-story-plus-basement house in Kalorama that
has a pretty decent stair to the roof deck, not to
mention an electric hatch. They use it once a year
for the view of the 4th of July fireworks. Quite an
investment for once-a-year use…
We once did a roof top deck, complete with hot
tub, wired for sound, for a fellow whose house occupied
virtually all of his lot. We ran the main house
stair all the way up to the roof, fully enclosed and
full of light. His roof has become a highly-used
additional floor to his house.
Short and not so sweet: roof decks are high in the
it-sounded-good-at-the-time ideas and, with plenty
of money and good design, can indeed be a good
idea!
Dear Judith:
What should I plant in my front yard?
IN NEED OF GREEN
Dear Green:
Now is a good time to be thinking about planting,
since you have plenty of time until spring. And, of
course, it’s best to plant some things in the fall.
As to what to plant, that depends. My friend
Nancy Metzger discovered that grass was all the
rage in our little front ya rds back in the late-
Victorian era. This doesn’t surprise me, since the
invention of the lawn mower earlier in the 19th
century made it possible even for the residents of
our row houses to imagine themselves as landowne
rs with lawns, until then the province of th e
wealthy because of the labor to maintain them by
hand or sheep.
However, grass, except for decorative grasses, is
probably not a good idea in our yards for reasons
other than historic accuracy. In the 1880s and ‘90s,
when grass was the rage, our street trees were either
not planted or were very small. Take a careful look
at your street trees before you consider grass. I had
a moderately crazed neighbor once (who, whether
he is happy or not, is at least now far away, probably
living in a suburb) who first tried to grow grass in
his back yard, on the north side of his house in a
yard bounded by a carriage house on one side, containing
a very large black walnut tree and good
sized Magnolia, with a nice stand of evergreens two
yards to the west. You get the picture. Deep shade.
For some reason, he took the failure of his grass very
personally. He’s also the guy who topped the street
tree in front of his house for more light. He probably
has a lawn service now that is poisoning his pet
and children as they keep his grass lush.
What was the question again?
Besides my feeling that grass is never the answer,
at least on private property, and while it may have
been a fleeting historical anomaly here on Capitol
Hill, you can’t really go there today with our growing
conditions. After all, very few of us have our
19th century kitchens or baths intact.
So, what should you plant? That is totally a matter
of personal preference, but if you wanted to use
some of the same plant materials that Victorians
might have used (besides grass), you can find lists of
f avo red materials in many ga rdening books. I
would advise non-invasive native species as much
as possible for ecological reasons, perhaps leavened
with a few exotics beloved of the Victorians.
Our houses we re ve ry modest exa mples of
Victorian-era dwellings, so the front gardens were
undoubtedly pretty modest, too. But if you wanted
to know more about what the blue-collar owners of
many of our houses might have been aspiring to,
you can consult one of a number of fascinating
books on the Victorians and their gardens. As you
would expect, Victorians loved the sentimental,
the picturesque, and the romantic. All of that was
manifest in fashionable features like statues, parterres,
rockwork, and fountains.
Above all, they loved flowers. Various flowers
had different meanings. The lily personified chastity;
the fo r g et - m e - n ot appealed to the Victo ri a n
taste for melodrama and chaste blind devotion; the
rose and holly h o ck we re perennial ro m a n t i c
favorites. In a time of cheap labor, bedding out (the
planting of massed flowe ring plants that we re
removed when past their prime and replanted with
something else just coming into bloom) was popular.
This is not unlike what the National Park
Service does for us today at some locations about
the city. Plants that were exotic a hundred years
ago, especially in England, were all the rage. Plants
l i ke pampas grass, bamboo, rh o d o d e n d ro n ,
Japanese anemones, mahonia, winter jasmine, and
forsythia were exciting treasures in the fashionable
garden.
You can probably find that any and all of your
personal favorites were beloved of the Victorians. It
could be fun to pursue a garden in a Victorian way.
You could go for Victorian excess, incorporating as
many objets in your garden as you could, then a few
more. You could compose a sentimental little story
in the garden using the Victorian language of flowers,
creating a secret sort of botanical monologue in
public space.
Don’t forget to enjoy your garden. Think of it as
a work in progress, an experiment in the possible
and a palette for a living exploration of whimsy,
color, form, nostalgia, and truly a very Victorian
activity. Gardening is an activity that is little different
in its essentials today than it was a hundred plus
years ago.
Dear Judith:
Last month you said to turn off the ceiling fan
when you leave the room. I was wondering about
my ceiling fan at the top of a two-s tory space in my
house…
A FA N
Dear Fan:
Excellent question! What your fan is doing in your
house is a little more complicated that what our
typical ceiling fans do in a single room (create a little
air movement). If we wanted to be very grand,
we could call your fan an anti-stratification device,
which is, indeed, what it is. In a tall space or, for
that matter, in our multi-floored row houses, you
can have an amazing temperature difference from
top to bottom. Actually, it’s the same bottom to
top—cooler down low, warmer higher up. In our
office, located on four floors of a Capitol Hill row
house, we keep the fan for the central heating/cooling
sy stem on all the time just to reduce the temperature
difference from the basement to the third
floor.
You might want to keep your ceiling fan on all
the time in the winter to keep pushing the warm air
that is accumulating at the top of the house down
to the first floor where, you told me, the thermostat
is. That way, the thermostat won’t think the whole
house is cooler than it really is. In the summer, it is
a little tougher call. Maybe having the second floor,
where you sleep, a little warmer is ok. Or maybe
you turn on the fan depending on where you are in
the house. If you are upstairs working in a study,
and you turn on the fan, it is going to tend to push
24 www.voiceofthehill.com
the warmer air down, which is going to make the
thermostat think it is time to turn on the cooling,
which in turn is going to make the second floor
where you’re working cooler. I personally favor
having a thermometer in every room, or at every
desk in the office, so we can know what the correlation
is between thermostat settings, fan on or off,
opening and closing blinds, and our individual
feelings of thermal comfort. Thus, we can tinker
with all these variables to get to temperatures that
seem comfortable.
Sorry for the lack of an absolute answer on this
one. You’ll have to think about it a bit. Knowing
that your fan, running, will tend to make your cooling
in the summer come on more, and make your
winter heating come on less might help you judge
whether to keep it on or not. Or, another w ay t o
think about it, is that running your fan will tend to
make the temperature more uniform in the whole
house…not to mention air movement…All clear,
now?
Dear Judith:
We think the outside of our 70s Barrett Linde house
with the salmon-colored brick and white trim is
extremely bland. What can we do?
SEEKING AN ALT E R N ATIVE TO PEACHY BRICK…
Dear Peachy:
What a wo n d e rful opportunity to re c o m m e n d
painting the brick! This is, of course, totally contrary
to the advice I have been giving for years,
which just demonstrates the exception that proves
the rule. Those houses, although many of them
have significant assets in the generosity of their
rooms, were misguided in their exterior stylistic
pretensions. My theory is that when they were
being built, “Victorian” was still in bad odor and
people thought “old” equaled Colonial, so builders
like Linde built phony-Colony, quasi-Federal looking
buildings, with garage doors. This means that
what you have is not only weird (a garage door on a
Federal wannabe?), but has no business being in
our late Victorian-era neighborhood. (The Federal
was well before much was built on the Hill).
T h e re fo re, I think you have carte blanch e .
Besides the above, dating from the ‘70s, your house
is not considered either to be historic in or a contributing
structure to our historic district, so the
rules are looser. As a matter of fact, if you painted
your brick brick red, you would be making it less
prominently nonconforming…
Dear Judith:
We have a corrugated metal “garage” that is just a
little too short for the mini-van. How expensive
would a real garage be?
WANTING A GARAGE SALE
Dear Garage Sale:
Plenty. Figure in the $50,000 to $60,000 range.
And why? you might ask. Several reasons, designed
for your health, safety, and welfare, as well as that of
the rest of us.
First: because of fire safety laws, you cannot just
build something over the weekend with your brother-
in-law and all the new power tools you used the
garage as an excuse to buy. Because we live cheek by
jowl, building right up to (and sometimes over*)
our property lines, the law tells us we need a certain
amount of fire separation between the two properties.
That usually means masonry, which is more
expensive than Home Depot 2 x 4’s and vinyl siding.
But hey, if we wanted vinyl siding, we’d be in
Gaithersburg, right?
Second, because we live in a historic district, the
exteriors of all our structures are regulated for their
c o n fo rmance with the histo ric building fabri c
around. That means whatever you propose will
have to be reviewed and approved by the Historic
Preservation Review Board staff, and they are not
going to let you build the garage equivalent of a
large Hechinger’s shed (which you don’t really
want anyway or you’d be in Burke). However, making
your new garage look right is likely to be more
expensive than its expedient junky alternative.
Finally, you should be aware that there are other
restrictions related to building on alleys. One of the
most shocking to many people is the height limitation.
Sorry—you will not be allowed to build a
three-story, or even a two-story, structure out there
under which to park your car. The code restricts
alley structures to a maximum of 15 feet tall, measured
on the side toward the house. So, a new
expensive garage may not be the ultimate solution
to your storage issues or your mother-in-law.
Then there are other reasons it will cost more
which I consider to the surcharge we pay for living
in such a great neighborhood. These include the
fact that it is harder to build a new garage at the
back of your narrow row house lot than it is to build
the glorified shed in Burke.
In Burke, the load of lumber and materials can
just be dumped in the side yard. Here, the big truck
with the concrete block is likely to get stuck at the
turn in your alley, and you pay extra for all
that swe a ring and maneuve ring. In
Gaithersburg, the guys who are actually
doing the work and who drive in from
Hagerstown can park on the street or in
the drive and don’t have to fight the rush
hour so much. To them, Capitol Hill is
the equivalent of Outer Mongolia complete
with meter maids. The contractors
who either live on the Hill and thus have
Zone 6 stickers, or who understand working
on the Hill, tend to be more expensive
than the slash and burn guys.
There are also some other things about
building a garage on the Hill you should
be aware of. First, even though you have
an existing “ga rage” you may not be
allowed to build a larger one. In the R-4
zone (“two family flat”), which is most of
the Hill, we are restricted to a maximum
lot occupancy of 60%. That means the
land covered by our houses, porches, and
garages cannot be more than 60% of our
total lot area. This calculation requires a
little finesse because most of our fro n t
yards are public space and thus not part of
our lot. Also, many of our front porches or
front bays are also in public space, so they
don’t count toward lot occupancy. But,
our little light wells at our doglegs do
count toward lot occupancy if they are less
than five feet wide, which they mostly are.
There are other fine points to the calculation
procedure, so you want to make sure
you know where you are before you knock
down the corrugated garage. Once it’s
gone, you may not be able even to replace
it if it was exceeding the allowable lot
occupancy. Which raises another issue—
even though you look at your corrugated
shed and see something you want to be
history, the District of Columbia regulatory agencies
see a potential source of toxic contamination.
This means you are not supposed to have all your
friends over to drink beer and make it go away over
the weekend. You are supposed to get it inspected
for the possible presence of lead, asbestos, or other
toxic substances. You are also supposed to have it
inspected for electrical, gas, or other utilities. And
get a demolition permit.
If all this is making the corrugated garage look
better and better, a solution to the problem of size is
to buy a smaller car. I have also seen cases in which
people have added a little bump out to an existing
garage to allow them to nuzzle the nose of their car
into it.
*This is not to imply law breaking: we are allowed by
law to center our party walls on property lines. Thus, if
you need an 8” wall, it can straddle the property line
with the legal understanding that your neighbor has the
right to attach to it.
Dear Judith:
I really like your columns, but why don’t you use
more illustrations?
A FAI THFUL READER
Dear Faithful:
Thank you. I’m with you: I think the more illustrations
the better, so I try to supply plenty to my editor.
I don’t know what determines whether they
use them or not— probably the exigencies of space.
You’ll have to take it up with the editor and paperdesigner!
Garages…corrugated and under construction.
www.voiceofthehill.com 25
Designing for Hearth and Home
At this time of year we are ga th e ri n g .
Families, friends and neighbors gather for
religious and cultural observances, to
review the year past, and to express hopes
for the future. This year, we are keenly aware of
wanting to be together and to hold on tight to
those who we love. We also want to compare experiences
and get to tell our version of current events
minus the somewhat cloudy filter of the media. We
want to see how much the children have grown and
to meet the new boyfriend.
Many people in Washington travel from here to
celebrations far away, leaving their parking places
available to the many for whom Washington is
their hometown. Sure proof that the love of family
is stronger than fear are those who will come by
trains, planes, buses and automobiles to be with us
here in the District. They are the ones making the
trip, so it ’s up to us as hosts to make them feel welcome,
comfortable, and treated as we would like to
be treated. Pampering immediately comes to mind.
Visitors love to be pampered. Parents and grandparents
particularly love it, because it reinforces
their notion that they taught you well, and that
there is hope for the future of civilization. Here in
city homes, however, the full suite or room dedicated
solely to guests seldom actually exists. Space
considerations send us in myriad directions when
we are faced with the luxury of an extra bedroom.
Just ask any child who has ever gone off to college
how long it takes for the transformation process to
begin.
The reality is more often that most of our rooms
serve more than one purpose. This doesn’t mean
that we don’t have room for guests.
Company’s Coming
First of all, step back and take a look at the “big picture.”
Ask yourself some questions: Who do you
invite to come, and for how long? Do they know
how to get there? Is your house number prominently
displayed to that guests or cab drivers can
read it, even at night? Will your guests share a bed,
or do they require privacy and more than one place
to sleep? Are there children in the mix? Do they
require a crib or highchair? Are there special needs
for elderly or disabled guests? What meals will your
guests be eating with you? Are they coming to primarily
to spend time with you or will they want to
see the sights?
The Pampered Guest Room
A look first at what can go into the ideal guest space
will help us figure out how we can accommodate
our own guests.
Decorating a room to be used as a guest room is
one of the more exciting projects in the home.
Because there is no specific tenant in mind, your
imagination can run wild. This is the perfect place
to use that deep paint color or wallpaper that you
love, but don’t think that you could live with on a
daily basis. Fabrics or antiques that are too fragile to
withstand the wear and tear of constant use can be
enjoyed by you and by those who visit. It’s also a
good place to display items or art that you have collected.
Why struggle to find storage places for them
when you can put them out to be enjoyed by your
guests? Before they drift off to sleep, relatives and
friends might enjoy looking at the old family scrapbooks
or the photographs that you took when last
together. Along with some good books and magazines,
make sure that you have a good reading light
for each side of the bed if it sleeps more than one.
Clean sheets, an assortment of blankets, quilts
and pillows should be available to suit va ri o u s
sleeping preferences. Remember that many people
suffer allergies to wool or down, and provide alternatives.
Find a place for a tray with
a cara fe, pitcher or bottles of
water, glasses and maybe a dish
with a few chocolates or holiday
t reats for a befo re-bed snack. A
small basket or box can contain
p e rsonal sized to i l et ries (save d
from your travels) and basic, inexpensive
toothbrushes and a plugin
nightlight. If you do not have
room to put these things out, at
least try to have them on hand in
case th ey are needed. Include
brochures about places of interest
or reviews of plays that you’ll be
seeing. And don’t forget to include
the ever imp o rtant Visito rs’
Pa rking Pe rmit if you live on a
zoned block.
Your guests will need space to
put their things. Luggage racks are
easy to find in housewares stores
or catalogs and can easily be folded
away and stored when not in
use. Condense those out-of-season clothes that you
store in the closet and make sure that there is at
least a little free hanging space for your guests. This
can also be accomplished with an over-the-door or
a free-standing clothes rack. A few fresh flowers or
plants bring life into the room, but be aware that
many people have allergies to them and to the
many fragrant products and candles that are so
popular right now. Around the holidays you might
want to decorate the room with a Christmas tree or
little boxes with Hanukkah treats to be opened each
morning.
The Virtual Guest Room
Wi th a little imagination, an enticing “guest
room"”can be created almost any w h e re in yo u r
home by following through with the same elements
that make a room comfortable for guests.
I n stead of thinking, “What can I buy?” th i n k
“What do I already have?” Fi rst and fo re m o st ,
guests need a place to sleep.
For most hosts, planning for guest accommodations
involves the old standard sofa bed. The obvious
answer to multi-purpose rooms, sofa beds can
be wonderful or not so hot. If yours has had frequent
use, spend a night, or just take a nap on it. If
Christmas Company, And
W h e re to Put ’Em
Pampering Your Holiday Guests Doesn't Have to Be Complicated
BY LINDA NORT O N
Be sure to check to see if the window coverings provide sufficient privacy.
You can give your guests the same luxury amenities, even if they are sleeping
on the sofa.
the mattress is shot (and they don’t hold up as well
as standard mattresses), consider replacing it. Both
1-800-MATTRESS and Mattress Discounters can get
a new one to you within a couple of days. Any mattress
can be improved by the addition of a shearling
mattress pad or featherbed. Those of us without a
sofa bed or day bed genera l ly opt for a futo n ,
Murphy bed (yes they are still available), or even a
camping mattress and sleeping bag. Sturdy, electrically-
inflatable mattresses are widely available in
standard bed sizes, from stores such as Linens &
Things and Bed Bath & Beyond, both now located
in the Pentagon City area. These are comfortable
and deflate for easy storage. If you’re going to have
guests sleep in rooms not usually used for that purpose,
check to see if the window coverings will provide
them with sufficient privacy. Providing the
same luxury amenities that an actual guestroom
has easily completes the transformation to a pleasant
guest accommodation. Remember, these people
are on vacation!
If camping is your cup of tea, you pro b a b ly
already own the main ingredients for your "virtual
guest room.” Most dome-style tents are freestanding
and can be set up indoors. This works well for
adults or children. The kids will especially get a kick
out of an indoor “camping out” experience. Set up
a tent, or make one out of blankets and quilts, in a
home office, parents’ bedroom or almost anywhere.
Add camping mats, sleeping bags, pillows, snacks,
bottled water, flashlight, and all of the toys and
stuffed animals that they bring with them. You’ll
have not only a “cool,” cozy place to sleep, but a
playroom to use, and contain their toys during the
day. They won’t mind, or even notice, that you’ll
put them "on the floor."
Meals, or “I’ll get it, just tell me
where it is”
It seems that guests are always hungry, and the
more they eat, the hungrier they get. Try not to
drive yourself crazy by having on hand dishes that
you’ve prepared ahead of time. Make some snacks,
beverages, and breakfast foods (along with paper
cups, plates, bowls) available for the “grazers” and
show them how to start the coffee maker and operate
the microwave. Remember, YOU’RE on vacation,
too!
Larger meals may require more seating capacity
than you normally have at one table. A great way to
accommodate more people is by serving buffetstyle
and supplementing the dining table using
smaller tables such as card tables scattered throughout
your va rious rooms, re sta u ra n t - st yle. Oft e n
extra chairs, tables and dishes can be borrowed
from friends who will be spending their vacation
time elsewhere. Also, all of the items I’ve mentioned
in this article and much, much more can be
rented from Just Ask Rental (Frager’s rental division).
Stock is limited, so reserve early.
The Trusty Kit for Visitors
Guests will appreciate the extra minutes that you
have taken to put together an information packet
for them. Items that you might include are:
• Your address and phone numbers
• Map—Use an online map service and create a
map of the neighborhood, or use AAA to get an upto-
date packet of local maps
• Metro map, guide for using Metro and farecards-
all available from the business kiosk at Metro
Center
• House keys on a distinctive chain to avoid confusion,
and burglar alarm instructions
• Schedule for the visit, if times are critical
• Visitor Parking Permit, if you live on a zoned
block
Enjoy your holidays, and try to remember that it
isn’t how your rooms are furnished, but the life that
takes place within them that is important.
Linda Norton is a professional interior designer and
longtime Capitol Hill resident.
26 www.voiceofthehill.com
Hours:
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
10-9
Friday, Saturday 10-6
Sunday 12-6
522 Eighth Street, SE
202.543.3030
• Drymount & Lamination
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Major Credit Cards Accepted
Frame of Mine offers custom
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to put it all together.
You leave with a picture
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www.frame-of-mine.com
THE BEST
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Kids especially will get a kick out of this cool indoor
camping space.
When did holiday shopping
become such a chore? When did
fighting th rongs of det e rm i n e d
shoppers who will gladly resort to
fisticuffs over a pair of faux fur
earmuffs become a hallmark of the holidays?
The advent of shopping malls has completely
changed the game – instead of receiving individual
attention from cheery clerks who provide thoughtful
gift suggestions, we wander aimlessly from store
to store, faced with too many choices and too little
time and money.
The shopping ethos of old never died on Capitol
Hill. We are almost completely devoid of huge,
mega-chain stores, and the individualized service
that comes from building a rapport with neighborhood
merchants is still alive and well. Although
your 19-year-old niece would, like, totally die if you
bought her a sweater from anywhere other than
Banana Republic, and your cousin’s new baby may
require a trip to Toys’R Us, everyone else on your list
can probably be squared away at the variety of
stores on Capitol Hill. Unique items, personal service,
accommodating hours, and even refreshments
in some cases, make the Hill a veritable shopping
W h oville sure to satisfy even the cra b b i e st of
Grinches.
If there is one thing that Alan and Claire Braley,
owners of The Village, cannot stress enough, it is
“Shop Early!” Even the stuffed Santa who greets
customers upon entering the store waves a little flag
expressing the Braleys’ holiday motto for this year.
Along with co-proprietor, Winston, the couple’s
poodle one may occasionally find milling around
the store, the Braleys have owned and operated The
Village for five years. The store’s focus is on handmade
goods from across the globe, and their holiday
stock is ripe with international goodies.
I n t e re sting nativity scenes from around th e
world, made of interesting materials in colors other
than the usual red, white and green, decorate the
entire store.
“We ’ve had a nativity scene eve ry year – it’s
become somewhat of a tradition,” says Claire. The
couple adds new nativities each year. This year,
scenes from Guatemala, Mexico, the Philippines,
Ke nya and Tanzania are pro m i n e n t ly displaye d .
The crèches vary in price from a ceramic nativity
from Peru available for $44 to a larger, carved wooden
set from Guatemala priced at $155.
The Braleys don’t pull cus tomers into their store
by advertising sales and super deals. “We price
things as low as we possibly can all year,” says Alan.
“People are already bombarded with sales from the
malls, and the prices are usually inflated – they’re
not really sales at all.”
Indeed, the Village offers a ton of holiday steals.
The store carries designer Nicole Miller’s line of holiday
socks with Hanukkah and Christmas scenes
($8.50), embro i d e red Chri stmas sto ckings fro m
U z b e k i stan ($25), and funky ornaments, like a
blown glass hot dog ($10.50).
If you’re really in the mood to spread good w