This Month
4 History in Your Own
Backyard
7 Congress Market: A
Hundred Years of
Groceries
9 Eastern Market: A
Hill Ritual
12 The Fleishells: Eight
Generations on
Capitol Hill
14 An Interv i ew with
Adele Alexander
D e p a rt m e n t s
Vo i c e M a i l . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
Ask Judith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 0
Spencer Say s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 1
Business Bits . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 2
Business Serv i c e s. . . . . . . .2 6
D o w n L o a d. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 8
Capital Kids . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 4
Kids’ Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . .3 8
Community Calendar . . . .4 0
In The Stars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 0
C l a s s i f i e d s. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 2
Vol. 1 No. 10 January 21 2000
o f
T h e
H i l l
A century of serv i n g
up the necessities of
l i fe on Capitol Hill.
A century of serv i n g
up the necessities of
l i fe on Capitol Hill.
I AM IN FAVOR OF ST. COLETTA ON THE HILL.
NAME:_________________________________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS: _____________________________________________________________________________________
COMMENTS:___________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________________
c Dear Capitol Hill Friends and Neighbors,
All of us at St. Coletta School are excited at the prospect of starting a new campus on Capitol Hill. For
those of you who do not know us, St. Coletta has, for forty years, served children and adults with mental
retardation and autism. We are an independent, non-profit, non-sectarian institution that currently
occupies a beautiful, state-of-the-art facility in Old Town, Alexandria. Over 80% of our current student
body lives in the District of Columbia as do many of our staff members. Our enrollment is 115 students
and 85 staff members serve them.
In attempting to purchase and develop the land at 1214-1232 Pennsylvania Avenue, we are responding to
the critical need for services for our most worthy and most vulnerable citizens. Anyone who reads the
Washington Post is aware of the need for appropriate special education services for children with disabilities
as well as services for adults. We are committed to the wonderful people we serve and it is our hope this
expansion will allow us to include the nearly one hundred individuals on our waiting list.
We have met with the neighbors on E and 13th Streets S.E. and have been thrilled with their warm
support for this project. We have, however, been surprised and dismayed at the opposition we have
encountered from the Capitol Hill Restoration Society (CHRS) and the staff of Historic Preservation
Review Board. St. Coletta has agreed to move a Victorian house that fronts on Pennsylvania Avenue and to
stabilize and restore the historic portion of the shotgun house which fronts on E Street. The
preservationists are insisting that we keep the entire shotgun house including an addition that dates from
1938 and that we also keep, stabilize and restore a dilapidated 1917 garage. Without access to the E Street
lot, which is entirely obstructed by the garage, we cannot safely bring in buses to offload our students.
We cannot do this project without your help. We are compiling comments from the Capitol Hill citizens to
present to HPRB and BZA. Please use the form below to tell us how you feel about the prospect of “St.
Coletta on the Hill.” As a resident of Capitol Hill for twenty-five years, I know you, and I know that you
will take our special children and adults into your very big hearts. Please let CHRS and HPRB hear how
you feel about the meaningful development of property that has too long been an eyesore. Our children are
counting on you!
Sharon Raimo
Return coupon below to
St. Coletta School
207 South Peyton Street
Alexandria, VA 22314
and more families are deciding
to stay in the city, and on the Hill.
For example,I can’t find a central
location for information such as: What
charter schools are nearby and what are
they all about? (I know about the World
Public Charter School,but what else is
there?)
What are the public schools in the
neighborhoods,what are the school district
lines,and what public school choices
do I have? What private schools are
on the Hill,and what are they known
for?
If you can pull together the imformation
right away, this would be especially
timely as January 28th is the deadline
for registering kids for out-of-boundar y
public programs. (Include a sidebar
about registering deadlines and forms
needed to register.) The information is
out there,it just never seems to get
pulled together in a way that is relevant
to Hill dwellers.
Over the summer you can do a similar
profile on local day care centers, as they
frequently form new classes in
September. Or perhaps a spring issue
on summer activities for kids....
I know that you are not a parenting
magazine per se. However, many of your
readers are parents struggling with
tough choices about where to send their
children to school and whether to move
to the suburbs. A gung ho,informative
article on local school choices would be
SO appreciated!
Please let me know if you think that
this is an idea that you’d like to pursue.
Thanks!
SUSAN CHAPIN
Susan’s letter went directly into the edi -
tor’s “ask and ye shall be asked to do it
yourself” box,since we were already in
production for this issue of the Voice, and
didn’t have a brain cell to spare. See
page 36 for her gung ho,informative arti -
cle on early childhood education choices.
Thank you Susan! Great job!
To the Webmaster:
Re: The map at
http://voiceofthehill.com/images/CapM
ap.jpg:
You show access [to the Freeway] via
Massachusetts Avenue,NW. I don’t
think that left turn from Massachusetts
onto the ramp is even vaguely legal.
And even if it’s legal (which I doubt),it’s
a good way to get killed. (You can be
rear-ended or hit by oncoming
Massachusetts Avenue traffic going 55
mph; take your pick.)
Better route is via H Street, which you
can hop onto by going up New Jersey
Avenue—1 block from Massachusetts
Avenue. (This is
what the “access
to 395” signage
says to do,BTW.)
M A R K
E C K E N W I L E R
P.S. Congrats on your first year. You
folks have added much fresh perspective
(and useful info,like *everything*
on the web site) that was lacking in the
Hill Rag, which had become dull,predictable,
and (IMHO) essentially irrelevant.
I hope you prosper for many years
to come.
(Note: BTW= By the way; IMHO=In my
humble opinion)
To the Editor:
Re: Puck Statue Update
The response to your wonderful article in
the September 12,1999 issue of the
Voice has been overwhelming. Once
again,thank you for writing such a super
story on the Folger’s Puck statue.
Enclosed is a short update on what
has happened since September. Just
this morning the conservator from Save
Outdoor Sculpture! informed the Folger
that he will be ready to begin work on
Puck in January 2000. We have no date
set yet for Puck’s removal from his
base,but I will let you know as soon as
I learn it.
Again,thank you so very much for
your time and your interest in Puck’s
plight. Everyone at the Folger, and me
especially, looks forward to a happy ending
to this stor y...
All donations to the Puck Appeal are
gratefully accepted and are 100% taxdeductible.
Checks should be made out
to Folger Shakespeare Library with the
notation “For Puck.” Send to: Give Puck
a Hand, Folger Shakespeare Library, 201
E. Capitol St., SE, Washington,DC
20003,or call 675-0303 for more information.
Sincerely,
M A RY W. SCHAL LER
Romance writer, Mary Schaller, writes
under the name Tori Phillips,and has
served as a docent at the Folger for the
last 21 years. Last spring she began a
campaign to restore Puck,the playful
statue that has stood in front of the
library since 1932.Puck has badly deteri -
orated from exposure to the elements,
and is missing his right hand along with
various other parts. Schaller’s enclosure
says,in brief,that so far $13,000 has
been netted for the restoration,a little
more than half of what’s needed.
www.voiceofthehill.com 3
Vo i cem a i l The Voice of the Hill is published and
distributed monthly to Capitol Hill
residence and business locations.
The focus is on the community and
includes contiguous neighborhoods
from Gallaudet University to the Navy
Yard and from the Capitol to the
Stadium Armory Complex.
Publication and distribution is the
third Friday of each month.
Advertising deadline is the first of
the month preceding publication.
Voice of the Hill
120 11th St.,SE,Rear
Washington DC 20003
202-544-0703 Main office
202-544-2557 Editorial
202-547-5133 Fax
www.voiceofthehill.com
bruce@voiceofthehill.com
stephanie@voiceofthehill.com
adele@voiceofthehill.com
Staff
Stephanie Cavanaugh,
Editor
Bruce Robey
WebMaster
Adele Robey
Graphic Design and Production
Jill Silva
Robert Shamo
Advertising
Gene Miller, Church Editor
Larry Kaufer, Sports Editor
Shaun Koiner, Circulation Manager
Phoenix Graphics,Inc.
T/A Voice of the Hill
and Stephanie Cavanaugh
Publishers
Contributing Writers
Judith Capen
Susan Chapin
Stephanie Deutsch
Kristen Hartke
Memberships
Printing & Graphic Communication
Association
Printing Industry of America
Capitol Hill Association of Merchants
and Professionals
Art Directors Club of Metropolitan
Washington
Barracks Row Business Alliance
Cover photo: From the Collections of
The Jewish Historical Society of
Greater Washington.
VOICE o f
T h e
H i l l
Celeste McCall
Laura Scott
Duncan Spencer
Bonny Wolf
To the Editor:
I read with interest Duncan Spencer’s
“It’s Time for a Charter High School on
the Hill?” (December 17,1999). I
would like to correct the statement
regarding St. Peter’s Interparish School.
St. Peter’s Interparish is not subsidized
by the Archdiocese of Washington.
The only direct assistance to the school
is a nominal contribution provided by the
Capitol Hill parishes of St. Dominic,St.
Joseph,St. Peter, and St. Vincent De
Paul (hence,the “Interparish” in the
school’s name). Any financial assistance
provided by the Archdiocese is
given directly to families,on an “asneeded”
basis.
My thanks for the contribution that
your newspaper is making to the neighborhood.
Sincerely,
FR. MICHAEL J . O’SUL LIVAN
Pastor, St. Peter’s Parish
To the Editor:
Duncan Spencer can help the children of
the District of Columbia by using the
power of his pen to urge parents to participate
in their child’s education. He
can write about parents who are successful
in motivating their students to
achieve. He can interview DCPS graduates
who are presently in college. He
can sponsor a tour of local colleges for
6th and 7th graders. He can interview
Arlene Ackerman who shoulders the obligation
to educate our children with grace
and hope. He can encourage those parents
he is addressing to get involved
with Ben Bonham to build up support for
technology initiatives and facilities initia -
tives that would reflect to children that
they truly are invited to participate in the
21st century.
CATHERINE PFEIF FER
For more comments on Duncan
Spencer’s December column, please see
page 21.
To the Editor:
I have really enjoyed your paper. It is a
wonderful addition to Capitol Hill living.
Recently, I have been wishing that you
would profile local (no,I’m not talking
about St. Albans or Burgundy Farm)
schools.
As a parent of a 3-year-old who may
start school next fall, I would LOVE to
see a profile of all of the schools on—or
very near to—the Hill. Like most Capitol
Hill residents,I don’t want to drive to far
NW to take my child to school.
I am sure I am not alone, as more
4 www.voiceofthehill.com
them the remains belonged to
horses.
“They put the bones in a trash
bag, but not before a kid picked up
a skull and took it home. His
mother was understandably upset
and called the cops. The
Smithsonian estimated the bones
were 100 years old, and from
between four and six bodies. We
still don’t know how the people
died, but it was probably NOT
from natural causes,” says Wolf.
So—does Capitol Hill have a century-
old murder mystery?
“When a house was redone
across the street they found an old
gun in the rafters,” adds Wolf.
“Remember, back in the 1900s,
this was a rummy neighborhood,
with bootlegging, prostitution,
people living on the margins of
society.”
That was 100 years ago, and the
crime has not been solved. In fact,
it was long forgotten until 1973,
when a group of Capitol Hill
neighbors decided to renovate
their circa 1900 tin garages, in the
100 block of 11th Street, SE.
Dick Wolf, a Capitol Hill activist
for 35 years and past president of
the Capitol Hill Restoration
Society, recounts the bizarre tale:
“A group of us were redoing our
garages. We had a contractor digging
up the concrete floor behind
150 11th St., SE, on Philadelphia
Row. We came back from work one
day and found a bunch of police
cars in our alley. The contractor
had dug up some bones. When he
recognized them as human, he
realized he had a problem and
called the police. The police held
off curious onlookers by telling
The Lallys also unearthed medicine
bottles, high button shoes,
Indian head pennies, invitations
to the 1895 Texas State Society Ball
and class notes from the
Columbian University Law School,
the forerunner of George
Washington University. Not surprisingly,
the original homeowner,
M.M. Parker, was an 1898 graduate
of Columbian. He later served on
its board. Parker was also an original
District of Columbia
Commissioner.
“We used these discoveries as a
springboard for further research
on our house, to find the original
owners,” said Lally. “I took the
stuff to Nancy Kassner (archaeologist
of the historic preservation
division of the District of
Columbia’s Department of
Consumer and Regulatory Affairs).
Less dramatic but more enlightening
was a discovery by Pat and
Rosemary Lally, who live in a “prototypical
Capitol Hill row house”
in the 700 block of Third Street, NE
The two-story brick Victorian
structure dates from 1891. Inspired
by his longtime involvement in
the Capitol Hill Restoration
Society, Pat wanted to research his
historic home.
“When we excavated our basement,
we found two dozen artifacts,”
says Pat, director of New
York City Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani’s Washington office.
There was a heap of cheap potter y,
considered the ‘paper plates’ of the
era. Some of it was ear thenware,
other pieces were inexpensive
exports, porcelain dishes decorated
with floral decals, typical of the
period.
On Plates, and Bones and Oyster Shells
It was a foggy night and the gas lamps we re
f l i cke ring. A hors e - d rawn cab pulled up to a
fashionable house on Philadelphia Row. T h e
we l l - d ressed couple climbed down from the carri a g e ,
the lady holding her skirts from the muddy st re et as her
husband took her hand. A fter paying the hack dri ve r, th e
gentleman unlocked the front door and the pair entered th e i r
d a rkened dwe l l i n g . T h ey we re never to be seen aga i n .
BY CELESTE MCCALL
www.voiceofthehill.com 5
She
helped me
find out what it was
and how to put it in context. I
then did more in-depth research
on our house and neighborhood.”
The Lallys plan to mount and
display their treasures, which were
not considered treasures 100 years
ago. “This stuff was not precious, it
was garbage,” Lally says. “Back
then, people didn’t have trash
pick-up, dumpsters or garbage
bags. People just threw things into
their back yards or basements. Lots
of our artifacts cor respond with
our home’s original occupants. If
we didn’t have those artifacts, we
wouldn’t have a road map of the
past.”
Two items keep cropping up in
Hill back yards: lumps of coal and
oyster shells. Dick Wolf explains,
“Back then, back yards were not
cutesy little gardens. They were
working parts of homes, which
were heated by coal. If they didn’t
have coal bins, people just piled
their fuel out
back.”
As for the
oyster shells,
experts have
two theories:
shells could
have been used
as lime-rich soil
nutrients, or
perhaps they
were discarded
by a tavern or
restaurant.
“People ate a lot
of shellfish in
those days,” says Lally. “And they
just pitched the shells.”
Jeff Cooper of Cooper
Renovations, who does a lot of
work on Capitol Hill, offers another
reason: Until the practice was
outlawed, driveways were made of
crushed oyster shells. “They made
beautiful driveways, but [officials]
were afraid of bacteria.”
Cooper adds that he finds layers
of bricks and old bottles in many
yards. “People just threw things
out back,” he says. “Because of all
the layers of soil, bricks and broken
glass, eventually the level of
back yards rose. I’ll bet that 100
years ago, when you went out your
back door, there were two steps
down. Your house isn’t sinking,
your back yard level is rising.”
In spite of all of our amateur
backyard digging, few formal
archeological digs have been conducted
on the Hill. In July 1979,
there was an excavation at
Friendship House (619 D St. SE),
which was built in 1796. The dig,
under the auspices of the Resident
Associate Program of the
Smithsonian Institution, sought to
determine if digging a trench to
waterproof the basement
would harm any
“significant archaeological
resources.”
Second, they wanted
to recover any existing
artifacts. Long-time
Hill resident and historian
Ruth Ann
Overbeck served as
project officer and
coordinator. The actual
digging was done by
30 Smithsonian
Resident Associate
members. All they
unearthed was some
badly done restoration work dating
from the 1930s.
Archaeologist Nancy Kassner
recently worked on a site at
Potomac Avenue and I Streets SE,
which dated from the early 1850s.
There she found oyster shells, what
might have been a well, a patio
and a deeper “feature,” perhaps
a posthole? Kassner
surmised the location
might have been a tavern,
which could
explain the oyster
shells.
A graduate of
SUNY (State
University of New
York) at
Binghamton,
Kassner was
inspired by excavations
in lower
Manhattan’s South
Street Seaport area. She
readily admits there’s a dearth
of such activities on Capitol Hill.
But she’s looking, and needs our
help. “If you find things in your
yard or basement, please call me,”
she pleads.
On this day a visiting
Capitol Hill resident
is showing
Kassner her treasures,
all dug up from her
back yard on South
Carolina Ave. SE: a
handful of circa 1950s
marbles, a bent copper
spoon (19th century),
a hand-made nail
and some greentinted
bottle glass.
Plus, of course,
umpteen oyster
shells.
“If you do find
something, try not to
disturb it,’ adds
Kassner. “But whatever
you do, call me!”
Kassner’s phone number
is 202-442-4663. FAX: 442-
4860. E-mail: nancykassner@
hotmail.com.
Capitol Hill writer Celeste
McCall is a frequent contributor to
the Voice of the Hill
Your Backyard May Tell a Tale or Two
6 www.voiceofthehill.com
O n eSto re ,
T h r e eFa m i l i e s ,
O n e C e n t u ry
www.voiceofthehill.com 7
America married a Washington
salesman named Howard England,
making her full married name Mrs.
America Burns England. At leas t
for a time, the Burns and the
Englands lived together over the
store on E. Capitol Street.
Mom and Pop grocers often put
in long hours so that the children
can go to college. True to form,
Charles Jr. became a mechanical
engineer; his younger brother
James went on to medical school.
And when the children leave,
who runs the store? Charles and
America Burns left the grocery
business in 1930 when Charles was
60. The market at 421 E. Capitol
was taken over by Max Lenkin and
his son Samuel, who ran it until
1940, when the Gimbles took over.
Congress Market
Isadore Gimble and his wife Sadie,
were born in Russia. They came to
the US through Ellis Island. You
can go and see their names on the
memorial there. At fir st, Isadore
worked in a luggage factory gluing
suitcases together. The fumes from
the glue made him sick, so he
came to Washington to recuperate
at his brother Abe’s house.
As it happened, Abe had a small
grocery store in the H St., NE cor ridor,
and Isadore clearly took notes.
In 1931, he moved his family to
Washington and bought a market
at 23rd and M, NW. Around 1940,
Isadore and Sadie sold that business,
but within the year were
open again at 421 E. Capitol St.
When Isadore wondered what to
name this new grocery, his sons
Sidney and Abe lobbied for
“Congress Food Market.” The boys
won, and the name stuck.
Sidney, Sadie and Isadore’s eldest,
is now retired and living in
Florida. He recalls that a typical
day began at 5 or 6 in the morning
and ended at 10 or 11 at night. The
family took a half-day break on
Sunday mornings, when most
other stores were closed.
“Those small neighborhood grocery
stores might be considered
the city cousins of the countr y
general store, except without the
pot-bellied stove,” says Sidney.
“We sold a variety of things
besides groceries: dry goods, hardware,
kerosene, bags of coal, and
bundles of kindling. We used to go
to get our produce from the whole -
salers along the waterfront in
Southwest, about where Phillips’
Seafood Restaurant is now. Eggs,
poultry and dairy products came
from the wholesalers at 5th and
Florida, NE. My father had to be
his own butcher. We’d get a side of
BY GENE MI LLER
Mom-and-Pop
grocery stores
are a tough but
enduring way
of making a living
in America.
You buy a small store cheap, live
upstairs, keep it open 18 or so
hours a day, seven days a week,
and use your family instead of hiring
help. There has been a Momand-
Pop grocery store at 421 East
Capitol Street for more than a hundred
years. It has had only three
owners, with several more proprietors.
The Lee family has been in
residence since 1984 and they all
pitch in to keep it running from
7:30 AM to 11 PM, seven days a
week.
Jae Lee is the proprie tor and eldest
son. He is in his mid-30s and
has a quick warm smile. “Our
whole family helps whenever the
store is open. We don’t think
about working regular hours.” On
a bright January day, Jae Lee’s
mother rings up a purchase while
his younger brother and his sisterin-
law restock the shelves, the
beeps of the electronic register play
against the hissing zip of ripping
cardboard, the rattle and clink of
metal cans. Caviar (red on the
right, black on the left), chili con
carne, corned beef hash.
Charles Burns, Grocer
Ninety years ago, the young people
stocking shelves would have been
the children of Charles and
America Burns who owned the
market until 1944. The Boyd City
Directory for the era simply lists
the store under grocers as “Charles
Burns, 421 East Capitol.”
The Burns family started the
business in 1899, when the frame
dwelling on the corner of 5th and
East Capitol was razed and the cur -
rent brick structure was built.
Their customers were a mix of
Congressmen–three Senators and
two dozen Representatives lived
within a few blocks–government
employees, working class and
tradespeople. They did well
enough to buy the building in
1902.
Charles Burns was a native-born
Washingtonian. His father was
from Pennsylvania and his mother
from Virginia. He married a
Virginian named America. By
1920, their family included a son,
age 22, Charles, Jr., a daughter, age
20, also named America, and 7-
year-old James.
In a union no less euphonious
than her mother’s, daughter
Bellman’s at 510 1st SE and
Belton’s at 609 I NE. There was
Bers at 603 G SE, Blaubund’s at 901
9th St., NE, and Blumenthal’s at
829 9th NE. The list goes on and
on: Bogmovitz’s, Berdow’s,
Bronstein’s, Deckelbaum’s,
Friedman’s, Ginzburg’s. There were
dozens of Mom and Pop groceries
on the Hill in the 1940’s, most of
them owned by Jewish immigrants.
Then there were the chain
stores. If he looked out his front
window cattywampus towards the
west, Isadore could see the
Sanitary Food Market across the
street at 400 E. Capitol. Sanitary—
which later changed its name to
Safeway—had over 100 outlets in
Washington to compete with the
likes of Congress Food Market.
That meant that Isadore’s meat
and produce had to be a little
fresher, his store had to be a little
cleaner, open longer hours, and he
beef and he’d cut it into steaks and
roasts. We got our hams and
bologna from Auth’s.”
“We used to deliver groceries for
free, too. First, we took the back
seat out of our car to do it, but
later, we bought a navy blue Dodge
panel truck that had ‘Congress
Food Market’ on the side in gold
letters. I was the fir st one of the
sons to get a license, so I drove the
truck.”
The Gimbles’ customers were a
mix of civil servants and working
class neighbors, just as the Burns ’
customers had been. But the
Gimbles may have had to work
harder to keep their customers
happy, there was plenty of competition:
Moder’s deli at 411 E.
Capitol, Honikman’s at 723 E.
Capitol, and Sol Chotin’s at 915 E.
Capitol. Almost every direction
Isadore Gimble walked, there was
another Mom-and-Pop grocery.
There was Beiser’s at 135 C NE,
Jacob (left) and brother Jae Lee,proprietors of Congress Market
8 www.voiceofthehill.com
his wife and three sons to America
in hope of better things. But what
to do? They had little money and
their English wasn’t up to intricate
and subtle transactions.
“I was only 19 when we came to
the United States. At first, we lived
in Fredericksburg, VA, but there
just wasn’t much work for us there.
I worked in car washes and flower
shops–all sorts of jobs. There was
never much money. But then our
family decided to work together in
a grocery store. ”
Jae Lee got married a few years
ago and he and his wife now have
a five-year-old daughter. One of his
brothers also has a young daughter.
Business is good. In time their
children will grow up, go to
school, and probably forge different
careers from their parents.
Another new owner will be behind
the counter at 421 E. Capitol
Street.
In the meantime, there are
shelves to stock and customers to
be waited on. Jae Lee waves a warm
farewell from the storefront, and
goes back to work.
Historian and writer Gene Miller is
the Voice of the Hill’s Religion Editor
had to offer a more personal touch
if he wanted to stay ahead. And
stay ahead he did, until he could
no longer run the business.
Of Isadore and Sadie’s children,
only Sidney stayed in retail, and he
opened a clothing store, not a grocery.
The second son became a
physician and the third a lawyer.
Their only daughter married and
moved away. Isadore and Sadie
retired from the grocery business
in the mid ’60s and Isadore soon
passed on, followed shortly by
Sadie. Their children continued to
own the building, although others
operated the market until the Lee
family took over in 1984.
The Lees
Jae Lee and his family left Korea in
the early 1980s, well before the
economic boom in Southeast Asia.
Back then times were hard, money
tight, and opportunities few. The
family had relatives in the
Washington area, so Jae Lee’s
father left a job teaching agriculture
in a university and brought
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www.voiceofthehill.com 9
BY BONNY WO L F Early one Saturday morning
in 1926, Tom Kelly
went with his mother
Annie to the Eastern
Market and was pecked
by a chicken. The chicken wasn’t
really after Tom, but rather the
stub of pencil the 3-year-old was
holding.
The acquisitive chicken was one
of many live birds in crates
brought in by farmers from Prince
Georges County who lined the
curb outside the market with their
produce and livestock.
“You picked your chicken, the
farmer took it out, twirled it
around his head and that was the
end of the chicken,” Kelly says.
It has always been a question of
whether you pick the Eastern
Market or it picks you with its fresh
meats and produce—a case of
mutual attraction.
And Eastern Market serves much
the same function today as it did
that Saturday morning young
Kelly had his encounter with the
chicken.
The 127-year-old market at 7th
Street SE and North Carolina
Avenue is the only remaining public
fresh food market in
Washington. It has survived drives
to tear it down and others to build
it up. It has survived largely
because the community it ser ves
and the vendors who serve them
have fought to keep it open.
Pierre L’Enfant had public fresh
food markets in his original layout
of the city of Washington during
the presidency of George
Washington. Such markets were
considered signs of progress and
were designed by the best architects
of the day.
German-born architect Adolph
Cluss was a popular designer in the
mid-1800s, and he was chosen to
design the Eastern Market. Cluss,
who fled Germany after the 1848
revolution, has been credited with
changing the look of Washington
from that of a small town to a big
city. He also designed the National
Museum Building (now Arts and
Industries).
Cluss chose the popular
Victorian style for the Eastern
Market. The bull’s eye windows
and lofty interior ceiling buttressed
by steel and cast-iron trusses
were typical of inner city mar -
kets across the country in the last
century.
The Eastern Market was built in
1873 at a cost to the D. C. government
of $90,000, and has been in
continuous operation since it
opened.
The north section of the mar -
ket—now Market 5 Gallery—was
added in 1908. And in the ’20s, the
shed which still hangs over the
farmers line was put up to protect
shoppers and vendors from the
elements.
Municipally owned food markets
were established so residents of
city neighborhoods could get produce
from local farms.
Like they are today, the owners
of the stalls were usually there, and
often passed the business to the
next family generation.
Charles Glasgow was born on
Capitol Hill in 1917. His grandfather
was a baker whose breads were
sold at the market and the young
Glasgow was often at the market
with his wagon. He bought the
market’s seafood business in 1938
and his sons and nephews remain
there today.
Little boys were a common sight
at the market in its earlier days.
Small children would accompany
their mothers—Kelly says he was
often the only male besides the
vendors—and as they got older,
they would come back to earn
pocket change by helping shoppers
carry their baskets home.
George Butler recalls these
young entrepreneurs in his book
Simpler Times:
“These boys, lined up with their
little express wagons, would shout
in chorus, ‘Baskets carried!’ I
couldn’t wait to join their ranks,
and as soon as mother let me, I
became one of them.
“My goal was to develop regular
customers, ladies who were satisfied
with my work and would
select me each week to carry their
baskets. The usual fee for a block or
two was 10 cents. Once in a while,
when a customer lived beyond
Lincoln Park, I was rewarded with
a whole quarter! Earning 50 cents
on Saturday morning ensured a
good week and meant that I could
consider myself rich.”
Public fresh food markets were
important in every community in
every city across the country when
the last century turned. People
came to market for sustenance –
for both commodities and community.
They would visit with their
to market
to market
A Hill Ritual fo r
M o re Than a
C e n t u ry
10 www.voiceofthehill.com
late 1950s when rents went up,
business lagged and his son went
to medical school and he had no
one to leave the business to.
By 1960, only the Glasgow
brothers’ Southern Maryland
Seafood Co. and Union Meat Co.
and Leon Becker’s La Poulet au Pot
chicken stall were left as perma -
nent market tenants.
In the early 1960s, there was a
proposal to use the market as the
National Children’s Theater and
Art Center. Then in 1963, the New
Center Market, successor to the
Center Market—the biggest and
finest of the city’s public markets—
evicted its merchants. A group of
12 dislocated vendors came to
Eastern Market, among them Chris
Calomiris who remains the senior
vendor at the market today.
In 1966, the following appeared
in The Washington Post:
“A vanishing part of city life is
the farmer’s market. On Capitol
Hill, folks have shopped for their
bread, their meat and vegetables
for nearly a century at the Eastern
Market. It is an institution regarded
with affection by Hill residents.
Threatened with destruction from
time to time, it has been saved at
neighbors, and they knew the
butcher by name.
The Eastern Market’s first meat
stand opened the same year the
market opened, and Castell’s Meats
continued through three generations
of Castells. In 1957, Mrs.
George M. White of 110 6th St. SE,
is quoted in The Washington Post,
saying: “I’ve been shopping here
since 1921. I still come here
because Mr. Castell has such wonderful
meat and the fruit and vegetables
are so nice and fresh. But I
remember when all the stalls were
occupied and you could buy such
lovely flowers and all kinds of different
things.”
Certainly, fewer stalls were occupied
than in 1921. With refrigeration,
supermarkets, and the developing
suburbs, shopping patterns
changed and market activity went
down.
In 1955, the House of
Representatives deleted a $21,000
budget request for maintenance
and repair on the market after
hearing recommendations that the
market be closed. Tenants even
offered to pay higher rents to keep
the market open.
George Castell finally left in the
The scene above was common at the Eastern Market in the late 1870s—snap peas spilling from wooden barrels in front of a wagon advertising Harper’s Cephalgine,
“nature’s remedy” for headaches and neuralgia.
Outrside the north end of the Eastern Market on a summer weekend.
www.voiceofthehill.com 11
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the 11th hour by district officials.
The market is a cozy neighborhood
spot, where personal attention is
lavished on the customer.… Here
the Hill people can catch up on
the week’s happenings and greet
old friends behind the fish counter
or enjoy the aroma of bread and
rolls, still warm from country
ovens. Shoppers initially are lured
by bargains or a desire for fresh
eggs, but they usually return to
chat and gossip. This community
market … cements the neighborhood.”
And when it looked as though
the market was really in danger of
closing, that neighborhood came
together to save it. Merchants and
members of the community
mounted a campaign to have the
market designated a historic landmark.
In 1971, both the exterior
and interior were so designated.
Since then, there have been a
number of government studies on
how best to renovate the market,
including multi-million dollar
plans to add more floors, more
stalls, more restaurants, elevators
and a grocery store—what many in
the neighborhood call “boutiquing
it up.”
Most recently, the District
passed a new law requiring the city
to hire a non-profit organization to
manage the market. The market is
currently managed by Richard and
Chad Glasgow of Eastern Market
Corp. and Southern Maryland
Seafood Co. The Glasgow family
has managed the market since the
1950s.
Under the new legislation, the
market manager is to run day-today
operations and develop a master
plan for renovations. Shortterm
repairs have begun and the
city says more than $2 million is
available to repair and restore the
market.
In the meantime, Hill residents
will continue to shop the way their
forbears did in the last century and
enjoy the small-town attributes of
a big-city institution.
Bonny Wolf is writing a book about
the Eastern Market – its history and
place in the community. If you have
stories, memories or other informa -
tion you would like to share with her,
please e-mail her at bwolf@his.com or
write to her c/o The Voice of Capitol
Hill.
12 www.voiceofthehill.com
A Tale of Two Fleishells
Eight Generations
on Capitol Hill —
and Counting
BY KRISTEN HARTKE
www.voiceofthehill.com 13
The Tune Inn is bustling
on a Friday at lunchtime,
just as it has for more
than 50 years. The old
wooden booths are filled
with administrative assistants and
construction workers, young
women with ponytails and old
men in suspenders, digging into
drippy cheeseburgers and fragrantly
steaming bowls of she-crab
soup.
On the surface, the restaurant
resembles the other old-time eateries
in the neighborhood, its walls
stained by decades of cigarette
smoke and grease. But it is the
inhabitants that tell the true story,
a tale of native Washingtonians
whose families have lived on
Capitol Hill’s side streets for generations
—even predating the Civil
War—in a city which is famed for
its transient population.
Anyone glancing at the
Fleishells, Junior and Senior, would
not guess that these two men represent
the sixth and seventh generations
of the Fleishell presence on
Capitol Hill. Bill, age 78, and 38-
year-old Will look like any ordinary
father and son out for a bite
to eat and a quick chat with other
Tune Inn patrons. There’s the pretty
waitress who is the g randdaughter
of Old Joe, the late owner of the
Tune. Just on his way out the door
is Ed Fogle, one of the architects at
the Capitol, who represents the
fifth generation of his own Capitol
Hill family.
According to Will, “The Hill is
full of families who go way back,
but most of them kind of keep it to
themselves. Sometimes historians
seem to distort things, so it makes
the old families a little wary.”
It is Bill’s memories and a treas -
ury of family photographs and
documents which paint a true
image of Capitol Hill in days gone
by. A time when neighborhood
homes were filled with Bill’s relatives
and long-time family friends,
with names like Shank, Dibble,
O’Bold, and Lusby.
There were grandmothers and
aunts who kept a sharp eye out on
little Bill, who says “I wasn’t even
allowed to walk past the Avenue
Grand (the movie theater which
was at 645 Pennsylvania Ave.,
SE)—those women kept a pretty
tight leash on me!”
Bill’s grandparents, Dave and
Annie Shank, lived at 100 C Street,
SE, a striking red brick house right
on the corner of Fir st and C Streets.
The house stood across the street
from the Cannon House Office
Building, which was razed in the
1960s, along with the entire square
block from First to Second Streets
and C Street to Pennsylvania
Avenue, to make way for the
Madison Building of the Library of
Congress. Some 1000 homes and
businesses were lost.
Dave and Annie’s was a streetfacing
house, of the type where
Capitol Hill’s middle-class and
upper-middle-class families lived.
Although it could not boast
indoor plumbing, even during the
1920s and ‘30s, there was a sizable
privy out back to ser ve the family
as well as the Cong ressmen who
rented rooms. A tributary of the
old Tiber Creek ran underneath
the privy.
Behind the street-facing houses
like that of Bill’s grandparents was
a bustling world of another sort, a
neighborhood-within-a-neighborhood
where Capitol Hill’s working
class families lived.
While today it is somewhat fashionable
to live in the old car riage
houses which are tucked away in
Capitol Hill’s alleys, in Bill
Fleishell’s youth those dwellings
were reserved for immigrants,
blacks, and Appalachians who not
only lived in the alleys, but also
ran stores and other businesses.
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Great grandfather Fleishell’s diary showing his thoughts on the death of Abraham Lincoln
14 www.voiceofthehill.com
A Capitol Hill childhood
between the two World Wars has
given Bill rich memories that only
a Washington-bred child could
have. On Inauguration Day, 1933,
Bill and cousin Dave Bowie (Does
the Maryland suburb strike a bell?
Yes, it’s the same family.) ran
alongside President Franklin
Roosevelt’s car as he was driven to
the White House from Capitol
Hill.
Bill remembers that the alley
behind Annie’s house had a grocery
store, a hat shop, a shoemak -
er, and other shops necessary to
the daily life of Washington’s
working poor. Will, who now owns
two of Capitol Hill’s old carriage
houses, says ruefully “My g randmother
would just roll over in her
grave if she knew I lived in an
alley.”
brushes attached to the front
which went up and down the trolley
tracks to clear off the snow.
Hot summer nights were spent
sleeping in the open out at Hains
Point.
Fleishell family members could
be found throughout the city, in
Georgetown, Anacostia, and
Manor Park (now known as
Brightwood). Other relatives
included Bill’s uncle, Henry
Addison (Metro’s Blue Line to
Addison Road? Yes, same family.),
who was the last mayor of
Georgetown.
Another uncle, Wooten Young,
served on the board of directors for
the Washington Senators back in
the days when going to see a base -
ball game meant a quick trolley
ride to Griffith Stadium. Bill
remembers going out to Walter
Johnson’s farm in Germantown,
where the famed pitcher raised
exotic birds, and he chuckles with
chagrin when he thinks of all the
autographed baseballs he used to
have: “I don’t know whatever hap-
Sometime during that same year
Bill and some of his school chums
hijacked a trolley from a trolley
barn across the street from their
school on Georgia Avenue. “We
drove that trolley all the way out to
Military Road and back,” g rins Bill.
Did they get in trouble? “No, no t
really, except for that we didn’t
stop to pick up any passengers.”
While the Southwest waterfront
district was “a real ghetto” back
then, you could go down there and
catch a boat to Marshall Hall, an
amusement park out by Mount
Vernon.
Or you could go out to Benning
Road and pay 75 cents for a train
ride to Chesapeake Beach, a trip
Bill remembers taking often with
his grandmother, saying “It was an
old steam engine, and it was all
open. It had green velvet seats, but
they were all covered in soot. I
always remembered those beautiful
seats, coated in that black
grime.”
On snowy winter days, there
were horse-drawn trolleys with big
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Theater Alliance:
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Call for times and tickets
Films on the Hill:
THE CAMERAMAN
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Friday, Feb. 11
7:30 p.m.
A Buster Keaton classic
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Art League Gallery
Talk: PRIMARY
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Thursday, Feb. 3
7:30 p.m.
Photos over the next 3 pages are from Will Fleishall’s family archives of life on the Hill.
www.voiceofthehill.com 15
pened to any of those balls. We
probably just played a baseball
game with them.”
The Fleishell name itself can be
traced back to 1855 on Capitol
Hill, when Jacob Fleishell, a stone
cutter, moved from his hometown
of Baltimore to work on the extension
of the wings of the U.S.
Capitol building. Jacob lived with
his first wife, Margaret, and two
sons at 408 Fourth St., NE, a neighborhood
that had a high concentration
of stone cutters in residence.
A few years later, the Fleishell
name surfaced prominently in a
September 1858 edition of the
Evening Star when Jacob took a fall
from a poorly-constructed scaffolding
while working on the
Tennessee marble grand staircase
on the Capitol building. The newspaper
was eager to report the grisly
details of this near-fatal accident,
concluding that “Mr. Fleishell is a
first rate workman, a valuable citizen,
and is much respected by a
large number of persons to whom
he is known, and who will regret
to learn of his misfortune.”
While Jacob was forced to give
up his stone cutting career as a
result of his unfortunate accident,
his family continued to thrive and
flourish. Jacob busied himself
keeping a record of local events—
mostly the numerous deaths of
neighbors and relatives—in a small
notebook which is now in Will’s
possession.
The book tells of Jacob’s new
home, located at 17 Fourth St., NE,
which was completed for a sum of
$500 in 1867. Myron Weinstein,
who bought the same house some
100 years later, began researching
the house on his own. He became
intrigued by the Fleishell family,
particularly when he discovered
that they were still in the neigh -
borhood. “Myron found out some
things about our family that none
of us knew,” says Will. “He really
seemed to get a kick out of it.”
In the complicated way that
families and neighborhoods
become interwoven, Jacob Fleishell
Wa rm Holiday Wishes
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Many thanks for your business during 1999
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and Myron Weinstein’s home has
now passed into the hands of
Monica Miller and her family,
where her two-year-old daughter
represents the third generation of
Capitol Hill residents.
Miller lived in the neighborhood
as a child and went to school at
Brent Elementary. When she was
house hunting she was primarily
interested in the house at 15
Fourth St., NE (once the ancestral
home of the O’Bolds, another
branch of the Fleishell clan). It was
there that her parents met (as
inhabitants, respectively, of the
first and second floor apartments)
and then later married in 1961.
Myron Weinstein’s papers conveyed
with the mortgage, so Miller
knows all about the Fleishell residency.
She is now primarily concerned
with restoring the original
interior details which have been
either diluted or deleted by 100-
plus years of renovations.
Perhaps the most infamous, and
still unconfirmed, relation in the
Fleishell clan is Mary Jenkins
Surratt, who was hanged—some
think unjustly—as one of the conspirators
in the assassination of
Abraham Lincoln. Mrs. Surratt ran
a boardinghouse at 541 H St., NE,
which is also where she was ar rested,
and her family had long been
affiliated with St. Peter’s Catholic
Church on Capitol Hill.
Will Fleishell has traced his fam -
ily to a Thomas Jenkins, who was a
blacksmith with the Navy Yard in
the 1830s. The Surratt Society,
which operates the historic Surratt
House in Prince George’s County,
has indicated that Jenkins was
indeed related to Mary Jenkins
Surratt—although Will is quick to
point out that this has not yet
been officially documented.
Interestingly, old Jacob Fleishell
did make a comment in his notebook
about Mary Surratt and the
circumstances surrounding her
death: “Executions of Mrs. Surratt,
Payne, Herrold, Atezerote was
hung at the penitentiary on Friday
July 7th 1865 for the murder of
Abraham Lincoln at & in the theater
on Good Friday night the 14th
of April 1865. Mrs. Surratt was
innocent & prejudice hung her but
God received the great sacrifice.
God have mercy on her soul.”
Jacob does not indicate whether
or not he knew and/or was related
to Mrs. Surratt, but she and many
Fleishell family members were
buried at the Catholic Mt. Olivet
16 www.voiceofthehill.com
401 M Street, SW 2400 14th Street, NW 725 8th Street, SE
202-554-8840 202-986-7360 202-547-6540
Washington, DC Washington, DC Washington, DC
Cemetery on Benning Road, NE.
While Will has been active in
obtaining more information about
his family’s history, he is also
hopeful that successive generations
will take on the task and dig
even deeper. One of Will’s sisters,
Sheila, also lives on Capitol Hill
www.voiceofthehill.com 17
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A presentation of the theater alliance
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Christ Church 620 G Street, SE on Capitol Hill
directed by stephen jarrett
music direction by jeffery watson
tickets and info
202.547.6839
with her son, John Myers, who
represents the eighth generation of
the Fleishell family in this contin -
uing Capitol Hill saga.
But not everyone in the family
has always been consumed by the
Fleishell story. Will’s mother,
Isabelle, came to Washington with
Bill from a Philadelphia family of
Scottish descent, and was instantly
thrust into a city full of Fleishells
and other relatives. Bill says “My
wife never did understand why all
this local history was such a big
deal. She was more interested in
learning about her own family
back in Scotland!”
The Fleishell father and son duo
are artists who, like the long line of
stone cutters, carpenters and other
artisans from whence they came,
have engaged in careers involving
some aspect of Washington’s main
economy: government.
Bill laughs that he “spent 30
years drawing elephants,” as an
artist for the Republican National
Committee, where he created the
familiar star-spangled elephant
logo.
Will is engaged as a master
engraver for the Bureau of
Engraving, where he is one of the
talented artists who creates, in
incredible detail, the glorious
images that you can find on the
U.S. currency in your wallet.
Here in the dawn of the 21st century,
people often bemoan the loss
of small towns and family homesteads
as fast food restaurants and
strip malls stretch from city to suburb
and back again. Yet in the city
there are still families with roots
that go back to the birth of our
country, to a time when the popu -
lation was so small that practically
everyone was related to practically
everyone else.
Nearly every block of Capitol
Hill houses a family which dates
back at least two or three gener ations,
and often even farther. The
Fleishells, and families like them,
are a living history of our neigh -
borhood in days gone by, proving
that Capitol Hill is still really just a
small town, and the family homestead
is right next door.
Kristen Hartke is a Capitol Hill-based
writer whose own family fought in the
Revolutionary War. She’s probably
even a third cousin, 25 times
removed, of the Fleishells. opening january 22, 2000
18 www.voiceofthehill.com
Kennedy administration, working
at the National Security Council.
“We were going to stay two years,”
Adele says. But they never left.
In the Johnson administration
Clifford chaired the EEOC and
served as Counsel to the president.
He practiced law during the Nixon
years.
By 1974, the Alexanders were
sufficiently committed to
Washington that Clifford jumped
into the city’s first election for
mayor. With Adele helping to run
his campaign, he challenged
Walter Washington for the nomi-
Capitol Hill resident, historian and
writer, Adele Alexander used to
describe herself as “the world’s second
oldest graduate student.”
Second oldest because she says she
thought there was probably someone,
somewhere, at work on an
advanced degree and older than
she. But she also says she didn’t
care. “I figured I could have thirty
years of good work still in me and
it seemed enough.”
Since returning to academia at
Howard University in 1986 when
she was in her mid-forties,
Alexander has earned a PhD. in
history, taught at Howard, the
University of Maryland, Trinity
and George Washington
University and published two
books.
Her doctoral thesis grew into
Ambiguous Lives, Free Women of
Color in Rural Georgia, 1789 - 1879,
published in 1991 by the
University of Arkansas Press. This
spring, Homelands and Waterways,
the American Journey of the Bond
Family, 1846 -1926 appeared to
enthusiastic reviews. Dan Rather
called it “important history beautifully
written.” John Hope Franklin
described it as “nothing less than a
tour de force.”
For years, though, Adele
Alexander was more interested in
architecture than in history. She
grew up in New York City, in the
racially mixed, very diverse
Washington Heights neighborhood,
then went to Radcliffe
College where she majored in
architectural sciences.
In 1959 she married lawyer
Clifford Alexander, the son of
friends of her family and a g raduate
of the high school she had
attended. “When I was in 8th
grade he was the captain of everything
and president of the student
council,” she says. They both loved
New York and assumed they would
be there forever. “Neither of us
ever wanted a lawn.”
Government service brought
them to Washington. In the early
sixties Clifford was part of the
Their kids went to Georgetown
Day and Sidwell. Their daughter
Elizabeth is now a published poet
and fellow of the Whitney
Humanities Center at Yale. Their
son Mark became a law professor
and is now serving as the issues
coordinator for the Bill Bradley
presidential campaign.
It was while her children were
completing their university studies
that Alexander began to discover
her passion for history. A friend
was doing research on black
women and the suffrage movement
and interviewed Adele about
her grandmother and namesake,
Adella Hunt Logan.
Alexander knew the family stories
about Logan, that she had
grown up in Georgia, the product
of a white father and a mother of
both black and white ancestry.
She was a gifted student, went to
Atlanta University and then was
recruited to teach at Tuskegee
Institute, the school Booker T.
Washington had founded in
Alabama to train black teachers.
There Adella met and married
Washington’s good friend and col -
league, Warren Logan.
What Adele Alexander did not
realize was that her g randmother
had been quite a significant figure
in the early suffrage movement,
attending conferences and meetings
where she was welcomed
because her light-skinned complexion
allowed her to pass for
white, then reporting back to the
black community about what was
happening. She also became
Alabama’s only life member of the
National American Womens
Suffrage Association and led
debates on the subject at the
Tuskegee Woman’s Club.
Alexander’s friend also helped
her appreciate both the political
and the personal stresses of her
grandmother’s life. As she became
increasingly active in the suffrage
movement, Adella allied herself
with W.E.B. DuBois, contributing
to his publication, The Crisis. At
Tuskegee, though, DuBois’s archnation
but lost in the primar y. A
few years later he was back in the
federal government as Secretary of
the Army in the Carter administr ation.
Meanwhile Adele was working in
a variety of jobs from architectural
drafting to work on the staff of
Senator Adlai Stevenson III of
Illinois. Her stint with Stevenson
included service on the Senate
District Committee at the time of
the Home Rule legislation.
She and Clifford bought houses,
first on C Street near the Eastern
Market, then closer in, on A St. SE.
AD E L E AL E X A N D E R:
A LI F E BE AU T I F U L LYWR I T T E N
BY STEPHANIE DEUTSCH
www.voiceofthehill.com 19
rival, Booker T. Washington, was
firmly in control and was, in fact,
the Logans’ next door neighbor.
In addition, Adella had nine
children, three of whom died
young. Her last child, Alexander’s
father, was born when Adella was
in her late forties and had significant
physical problems. It was all
too much for her. “She had always
been considered ‘high strung’ and
a bit difficult,” Alexander explains.
In 1915, Adella Hunt Logan was
sent to a sanitarium.
She returned, fragile and uneasy,
just as the dying Booker T.
Washington was making his way
by train back home to Tuskegee.
His death put great strain on
Warren Logan, who was a possible
successor to Washington, and
plunged Tuskegee into extravagant
grief. The day of Washington’s
funeral, Adella Hunt Logan took
her own life.
Former President Theodore
Roosevelt, who was a trustee of
Tuskegee, was one of the mourner s
at her funeral.
It’s easy to see how such a story
would be compelling but Adele
Alexander was drawn less to its
sensational aspects than to the
way her grandmother’s personal
drama played out in a specific his -
toric context. It kindled an ongoing
interest in the role race plays in
every aspect of American his tory.
“African American history is
American history,” says Alexander
emphatically. “Race has always
been a major issue here; it perme -
ates everything.”
Alexander’s current book
explores the life of another member
of her family. The cover is a
striking photograph of her greatgrandfather
on her mother’s side,
John Robert Bond, a handsome
black man wearing the uniform of
his Grand Army of the Republic
veterans unit.
Bond was born in Liverpool,
England, the son of an African
father and an Irish Anglican mother.
He was, Alexander explains, an
anomaly. “A black Anglo-Saxon
Protestant.”
Bond came to the United States
as a very young man, served in the
U.S. Navy during the Civil War
and was severely wounded.
Following his lengthy recuperation
in the Portsmouth Naval hospital
in Virginia, he met and married a
former slave from the Tidewater
named Emma Thomas.
The book traces the family John
and Emma created; it tracks them
from Virginia to the Hyde Park
neighborhood outside of Boston
and follows their son, Percy, to
social prominence in Washington,
D.C. and Highland Beach, a
Maryland vacation community
founded by Frederick Douglass’s
family.
Alexander spent much of last
summer and fall promoting her
new book. There was a big party
and book signing for friends and
colleagues held under a tent in
Highland Beach, where her mother
had summered as a child. Ther e
were readings, bookstore appearances
and television interviews.
The most exciting events of the
period, though, had nothing to do
with the publication of the book.
Alexander’s son and her daughter
each provided her with a new
grandchild, bringing the total to
five. It is clear, as she whips out a
photograph of her two smiling
children surrounded by laughing,
scampering kids and babies in
arms, that Adele Alexander is a
proud parent and doting grandparent.
Asked to describe her feelings as
a historian about the new millennium,
Adele answers that she sees
the increased interest that many,
herself included, are expressing in
recording family history. It is a way
of combating the sense of going
into the unknown that one feels at
a milestone such as the advent of
the year 2000. “Family is something
people can hang onto,” she
says. “It’s something they comprehend.”
That said, Adele’s next project
may actually take her away from
family subjects. She’s thinking
about writing a life and times of
Homer Plessy. Plessy was considered
to be a black man but he
looked white; his ride in a “whites
only” railroad car resulted in his
arrest and led to the Plessy v.
Ferguson court case which in 1896
codified the concept of “separate
but equal,” making Jim Crow not
just the custom of the country but
the law of the land.
Homer Plessy made a decision to
challenge an accepted practice he
saw as wrong and to test the con -
cept of racial identity. What made
him do it? What did he achieve?
Will understanding their history
keep young minority kids from
becoming increasingly angered
and alienated? These questions
are critical to Adele Alexander and
she’s seeking answers to them —
from her twin perspectives as a historian
and as a g randmother.
Stephanie Deutsch is a Capitol Hillbased
writer and frequent contributor
to the Voice of the Hill
Adele Alexander in her Capitol Hill
home.
20 www.voiceofthehill.com
Ask Judith
H&W Contracting, Ltd.
MAURICE HILL, CEO
Home Improvements
Don’t let your house get you down.
Let H&W Contracting keep it up.
We can take care of it all.
Home Improvements
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Dear Judith:
We ’re redoing our kitchen and my husband
wants all white: white floor, white cabinets, the
whole works. How can I dissuade him?
— S CARLET O’HILLA
Dear Scarlet:
If his favorite way to kick back after a long day is
pulling on the rubber gl oves, taking out th e
toothbrushes, rags, and cleaning supplies, and
grooming the kitchen for his recreation, let him
go with white. Or, if he is retired and at a loss to
fill his days with meaning, I suppose cleaning
the kitchen is an option.
From your comment I assume cleaning obsessively
is not your interest. The thing about white
is that it looks really nice when it’s brand new.
From there it is downhill into the depths of
gunk—unless you clean and clean and groom
and polish.
We Americans seem to imbibe an irresistible
desire for the new with our homogenized milk.
But, we don’t imbibe the necessary coro l l a ry
interest in cleaning and maintenance that keeps
new looking new.
I know of an expensive Poggenpohl kitchen,
white cabinets and appliances, that was, as far as
I could see, ripped out and replaced with a new
kitchen for no discernable reason other than
gunk. And there’s the case of buying a new toaster
oven for the critical mom’s visit rather than
tackling the crumbs on the old one.
When a former architectural student of mine
bought a new suburban “townhouse” he insisted
that he would keep the white tile and grout in his
foyer clean—with a toothbrush if necessary—
and he did. Then he got married, had an adored
baby girl, got a life. Now he confesses that the
white tile and g rout doesn’t look so hot and he’s
lost interest in grooming it when he could be
playing with his daughter.
White is an act of denial, wishful thinking that
clean will arrive in your house.
Besides the fact that picking white is like setting
a land mine for yourself, it is technically not
a color. For that matter, neither is blac k.
White is the presence of all colors. Think about
sunshine split into a rainbow by a prism. Black is
the absence of all color. We have an office policy
against the use of either of these non-colors in
projects. For walls or ceilings where we want
high reflectivity, we usually use a “white” that is
really slightly warm or cool. When we want the
pipes and ductwork above to disappear, we use
very dark, rich, saturated colors like Charleston
greens, deep blues, dark purple or the like. These
hues offer camouflage while contributing a richness
not possible with black. I will confess to my
personal exceptions to these rules: I wear black,
we paint our iron fences black, and often use
white toilet fixtures.
Color is an opportunity to say someth i n g ,
about who you are, how you live, how you want
to live. Don’t you have a favorite “real” color?
Something that is about you?
The wife of a colleague of mine liked to greet
the day slowly and gently, so they painted their
bedroom dark. Another acquaintance, realizing
he only used his dining room at night for rather
formal meals painted the room very dark so the
candles would create pools of light at the table,
focussing the room on the food and the people.
A lot of times people are decision-ed out by the
time they get to choosing colors for a project.
Just painting all the walls basic white at that
point is ok. You can always add color later. But I
would never advise picking white for permanent,
built-in items like cabinets or flooring.
Judith Capen, AIA, practicing restoration architect,
is the author of many of the Capitol Hill Restoration
Society’s award-winning guidelines for work on
Capitol Hill Homes. Judith Capen, AIA, practicing
restoration architect is the author of many of the
Capitol Hill Restoration Society’s award-winning
guidelines for work on Capitol Hill Homes.
VOICES UNHEARD
Concert of the Lesbian & Gay Chorus of Washington,
D.C., Ray Killian, Music Director
with special guests:
Bread & Roses Feminist Singers and the
Maryland Gay Men’s Chorus
Saturday, February 5, 2000, 8 pm
Sunday, February 6, 2000, 4pm
(sign language interpreted for the deaf)
Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church X
4th and Independence avenue, SE
Tickets $15, general admission
For ticket information 202-5467-1549 & www.lgcw.org
Some complimentary tickets available—funded by Whitman-Walker Clinic &
DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. On day of performance, 1/2
price tickets available only at TICKETPLACE, 12th and PA Ave., NW
www.voiceofthehill.com 21
Spencer Says
Riding the Real Estate Wav e
Housing Prices: Then, Now and To m o rr o w
BY DUNCAN SPENCER
Ibought my house in 1970 during a down
market. It was a gamble. It happened this
way. After coming to Washington, and living
in a rented house on Independence Avenue
SE, the owner offered to sell to me. It was a small
f rame house with a deep ya rd, no part i c u l a r
a rch i t e c t u re, and rushing commuters at th e
doorstep. At $30,000 the price seemed too steep.
I didn’t know it at the time, but that investment
would have been as good as buying
America On Line five years ago.
Back in 1965, when I arrived in Washington,
people were still talking about “block busting”
and “white flight.” Many homeowners raced to
leave in the terrible racial tide that panicked
Washington after President Dwight Eisenhower
ordered the schools desegregated. Then, it was
said, brick row houses on the Hill could be had
for $6,000; in fact many of them were simply
deserted by owners.
It’s hard to imagine how different things were
then. East Capitol Street was dotted with tourist
homes, some sporting green carpet and neon
signs in windows. 7th Street—both SE and NE—
was considered “beyond the pale” as far as gentrification
was concerned.
When the riots began in April of 1968, Capitol
Hill was a little circle of calm surrounded by
flaming outrage. 8th Street, SE suffered some
damage and looting, but H Street, NE was devastated,
and 7th Street NW was set aflame.
A sage investor once told me once that the best
of all times to call your broker was when bombs
are falling or people were fleeing in panic. 1970
seemed a good year to buy here. DC was truly
depressed.
The wake of the riot turned out to be as good a
time to buy in Washington as can be imagined.
For me, however, it was fool’s luck.
I was not wise, but being a New Yorker, I could
not believe that big, solidly built row houses, a
few blocks from the Capitol of the US, were selling
for under $50,000. But they were. A fear of
Washington had taken hold—the suburbanites’
secret ter ror that chaos will engulf him and his
car somewhere near downtown.
That fear was the dominating fo rce in
Washington in the late ‘60s, though few would
speak of it, and it created the now- f a m i l i a r
“doughnut” urban syndrome. But that phenomenon
could not endure in Washington, unless
one believed that the Congress and the White
House would pick up and move to Sterling, VA or
some other outpost.
But back to the money. I invested $52,000 in
an 1888 brick house on East Capitol Street, 6
blocks from the Dome. Its value has risen and
fallen rather dramatically several times over the
years. The city now values it at over $400,000.
Chances are, given the cur rent housing boom, it
would sell for considera b ly more. There ’s an
e qu a l ly good chance that, some time in th e
future, it could sell for less. That’s the way the
coaster rolls.
Capitol Hill has not seen steady growth since
the 1968 riots. There have been several nearly
disastrous periods for buying and selling real
estate on the Hill over the last 30 years.
The first real “crash” was 73-74, under unfortunate
President Jimmy Carter. The fuel shortage
sent prices to (then) unbelievable prices, and
interest rates soared to over 18 percent. House
sales virtually stopped. It was nearly impossible
to sell a house, or buy one—unless you could
assume a mortgage.
By 1978 prices for Hill houses were rising again,
and for a while speculators were buying houses
one day and selling them days later for considerable
profits.
In 1979, the first $300,000 houses began to
appear on the market. But by the end of the year
interest rates rose to 16 percent, ending all but
sacrifice sales.
By 1983, new mortgage instruments appeared;
short term, long term, adjustable. Speculative
momentum developed which drove people to
believe that the market would continue to rise.
By 1989 there were less than 100 houses on the
market available for sale.
And then the bottom fell out. People had big
expectations. They put houses on the market
and refused to lower prices when they didn’t sell.
And they didn’t.
The city was going through a crisis of confidence
—which may or may not have been a reaction
to city deficits, city leadership, crime, and
drugs. When people could not sell their houses,
they put them up for rent and got what they
could.
This period of stasis remained until th e
Control Board took over the financial reins in
1996. All at once the city seemed a different, less
volatile place. Whatever your beliefs in the right
of self-gove rnment for Wa s h i n g ton re s i d e n t s ,
people were ready to accept the main element in
the board’s name—control.
Since ’96 there has been a gradual acceleration
and steadily rising prices have prevailed. Once
again, houses on the Hill are hard to find. Young
couples have pushed gentrification into
No rth e a st, close to the Thurgood Mars h a l l
Federal Judiciary Building on Second Street NE.
Evidence is plentiful that developers think this
period is a new ballgame. The planned development
of 45 new row houses by a suburban developer
at the site of Bryan School at 13th and
Independence Avenue SE is a cosmic shift in confidence.
What does the Hill need most today? More
apartments. As Pardoe Real Estate broker Don
Denton says, “if there were two or three hundred
one-bedroom apartments on the market today,
they’d be gone.” He adds that if you work inside
the Capital Beltway today, the choice of living in
the city is logical.
Meanwhile, in the background of the boom, is
a curious reverse of the scene I sensed but hardly
understood in 1970 when I saw the large, slightly
run-down three-story building on East Capitol
which has been my house through all the ups
and downs of the market.
It seems that those who fled the city for the
suburbs are now afraid themselves—of the delays
and uncertainties their commuting pattern s
caused, of the problems which followed them
into their bedroom community paradise. Some
have returned, others are thinking about it.
Can the present housing boom go on? Of
course not. Neither will the stock market boom.
They’re just the same. No tree, you will notice,
grows to the sky.
But neither will Washington again slide back
into the chaotic state of the late ‘80s. For better
or worse, people are no longer laughing at my big
real estate gamble.
Duncan Spencer is a regular columnist for The
Voice and The Hill newspapers
22 www.voiceofthehill.com
Business Bits
You’ve passed it a hundred times, the
grand double-wide bri ck house in
the 600 block of East Capitol Street
with the big bay windows and frolicsome
statuary poking up through the
shrubbery like playful imps. Michelle Taylor take
note, the next time you plan a Hill gallery walk,
here’s one for the list.
It’s a gallery, you say? Why I had no idea....
Um, no. It’s the home and office of dentist
Larry Bowers. But it is also a constantly evolving
showplace for arts and crafts, much of it neighborhood
grown. Take the metal sculpture in the
front yard. That’s by Dierdre Saunders, who also
designed the hopscotch mural that romps across
the bridge behind Union Station. There’s another
of Dierd re ’s pieces in Bowe rs’ side ya rd ,
glimpsible from your cushy dental chair in one
of the procedure rooms.
Another chair, ano ther room, a view of fantasyland
painted on the airshaft wall. This, courtesy
of Ed Huse, famed for his cover art for the
Hill Rag.
In the waiting room an 8-fo ot rain st i ck
mounted on a custom pivot stands like an ornam
e n tal column guarding the offices beyo n d .
This by 2nd graders at Capitol Hill Day School,
and bought at a Day School auction. Go ahead,
give it a whirl.
Now flop in one of the waiting room chairs
and take careful study of the David Cochran
painting on the wall above the leather couch. It’s
wall-sized, and 40’s noir. A supper club somewhere
on the Bayou. A saxophonist is getting
down in the corner while a hot tamale in a slinky
dress shakes her booty to the beat. No wait, she’s
shaking her brushy. That’s a hot red toothbrush,
not a microphone, snapped between her fingers.
What’s the name of this joint anyway.... There it
is, glimpsed in reverse above the bar room door,
Bowers Bar and Drill. Keep looking, the more you
do, the more you’ll see.
Though he demurs, “I’m a dabbler. I play,”
Bowers is a fine artist himself. He carves things:
intricate jewelry for his wife of 18 years, Susan
Eubanks; fabulous sandcastles at the beach; sleek
futuristic model cars. Some of his work is on display
in the office, along with a growing collection
of hands, that includes a green giant sized
rubber glove mold and an 1800 year-old hand
from a Buddhist statue.
The place is filled with eye candy. Guess it’s in
place of the real stuff (he is a dentist after all).
Paintings by Imogene Drummond, Pa t ri c i a
Dubroof, Clay Hoffman, and several more David
Cochrans. Coming soon, ceiling murals in each
of the examination rooms. Seems K Williams
(that’s her whole name, K), a stage manager at
the Kennedy Center, was undergoing who knows
what involved procedure, and took sudden inspiration
from the blank ceilings—or maybe it was a
whiff of laughing gas, or one of the massage pads
that cushion each dental chair jiggled loose a
vision.
Anyway, K decided she was tired of looking at
the hung ceilings and suggested hauling in a set
designer to paint them. “One’s going to be a
Magritte sky, another’s going to be a greenhouse
arbor, the others.... Who knows?” Larry shrugs
amiably, “I tend to let people roll with things.”
Model cars by Larry Bowers, DDS and sons
Still Life with To o t h b ru s h
The artist himself,Larry Bowers
www.voiceofthehill.com 23
H a p py New l l e n n i u m !
from Fr a g e r ’s Hardwa r e
As we usher in the New Millennium and New
Year, Frager’s wishes you and yours a very successful
and prosperous new century.
In the year 2000, you will witness many
improvements and added services. Some changes
to look forward to are:
Our name will change from Frager’s ServiceStar
to Frager’s True Value. Because of this
change in affiliation, you will see us participating
in more nationally advertised promotions and we
will be able to offer you a wider selection of
merchandise. In keeping with our entry
into the 21st century, you will be able
to “shop at home” via the Internet. Of
course our name change will not affect our commitment
to the same great service you have
come to expect from Frager’s. We are the same
people with the same customer service philosophy
—to make your shopping experience a satisfying
and learning endeavor.
Our recent purchase of the building at 1101
Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, will allow us to expand
our rental items from 50 to over 500. This diverse
selection will include everything from drills to
party rentals, generators to concrete saws. Look
for this expanded selection when Frager’s “Just
Ask Rental” program is rolled out in the
spring of 2000.
Our paint department will be converting to
True Test paints, one of the highest rated paints
by Consumer Reports. These paints offer top quality
at a competitive price. Look forward to a wider
selection of colors as well as new color charts for
you to take home with you. We will still be able
to utilize our color matching computer to recreate
paint colors you have purchased from other
dealers.
The lawn and garden department will continue
to expand and increase it offerings based on your
suggestions and needs. Look for a new line of
ornamental concrete statuary, birdbaths, fountains,
etc. to appear in the outside Lawn and
Garden area in early February.
As we look forward to the excitement and
challenges of 2000 and beyond, we realize that
we can better serve you by responding to your
suggestions, comments and criticisms. Please feel
free to offer all three at any time. We will do our
best to satisfy your concerns.
Happy Newllennium... We look forward to seeing
more of you this year!!
Fr a g e r ’ s
Tr u e Va l u e
1101-1115 Pennsylvania Ave.,SE
Washington,DC 20003
Phone 202-543-6157 Fax 202-543-9048
Email and Website: to be announced
Hours Monday-Friday 7am - 7pm
Saturday: 7am-5:55pm,Sunday: 8am-5:00pm
And how’d this art come about? “We have a
very incestuous relationship with our patients.
We do their teeth and they work on our office.”
Bowers’ office is a place where all kinds of
things come to g eth e r: Home, family, wo rk ,
neighbors, and community. “It’s very old fashioned.
We support each other. You try to do business
with the people who do business with you.”
People like John Weintraub of Frager’s Hardware,
Jan Cammarata of JET Travel, and Jon Haberman
who built the exquisitely detailed cabinetry in
the waiting room. “It’s kind of like the barter system,”
says Larry, “you just use checks as your
barter.”
His whole roll-a-dex is crammed with locals
who can do stuff: plumbers, roofers, electricians.
He makes plenty of referrals. “When you’ve lived
here for a very long time, and become really par t
of the community you eventually build up quite
a library of people. Which is nice.”
It’s also helped him build his practice. “When
I talk to young dentists just starting out I say set
up somewhere where you can live. It will make a
huge difference in growing your business and the
satisfaction you get out of it.”
The Hill has been just such a place for Larry.
“Whenever one of my specialist friends comes to
Capitol Hill, and we’re sitting out for lunch at
Tu n n i c l i f f’s, he’s always just amazed at how
many people come walking by and say hello.
What’s really different from the guy who’s working
downtown is that you’re part of the community,
and you get to know all these people. You
don’t know them just from the dental office, but
f rom East e rn Market, or walking dow n
Pe n n s ylvania Avenue or just from wa n d e ri n g
around. People come here and say, ‘Wow! This is
so wonderful.’ And you don’t think anything of
it.”
Living in a house like Larry’s has some wonderment
about it too. These digs lend new meaning
to the concept of living over the shop. A Dr.
Kingsman built the place as a home-office in
1896. In 1926 a dentist, Dr. Butz, set up practice.
Larry and Susan, and sons Langley and Case,
moved in 13 years ago. So it’s always been a doc -
tor’s office, and a home.
Above the dental office are the living quarters.
Four bedrooms and an expansively elegant living
room that dwarfs boy-droppings and other family
clutter. An old-fashioned dining room and an
inviting eat-in, hang-out, kitchen. There are also
a few peripheral rooms, an office for Susan’s
growing antiques business, a playroom for the
kids. Upstairs is as art-filled as down, with new
stuff constantly coming—and frequently rotating
from home to office and back again. Over
Thanksgiving, his cousin-in-law, Anne Gray, a
New York-based artist who specializes in murals
and faux finishes, arri ved with stencils and
brushes in hand. The foyer floor now boasts an
intricate illusion of parquet tiles.
Larry says, “I like the arrangement. It’s great
for raising kids. There’s always someone home
when th ey come home,” he laughs, “eve n
though someone’s not really home. Plus they get
to see you at work.” Though, he notes, neither of
the boys has expressed much interest in becoming
a dentist yet.
Never mind that the arrangement “adds year s
to your life in not commuting. Both in time, and
in the extra years you’re probably going to live
Bowers Bar & Drill by
David Cochran
24 www.voiceofthehill.com
Mel, Sr. Mel, Jr.
MARKET POULTRY
Eastern Market
Winterize your palate with a large
selection of turkey products
225 7th St., SE
Washington, DC 20003
202-543-7470
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because you didn’t get stressed out.”
It also leaves him time to become engaged in
community activities. He’s a long-time supporter
of CHAMPS, the Capitol Hill Association of
Merchants and Professionals, and the CHAMPS
Community Foundation. He hires kids fro m
neighborhood job-training programs. He’s also
the leader of Cub Scout Pack 230.
This easy flow between home, and work and
community wasn’t always so. Ten years ago he
had 2000 patients, twice the number he sees
today, and twice as many people on staff. He
wasn’t enjoying himself. Then one of his mentors
told him, “the answer is not in how many
people you see, how big a practice you build. It’s
how well you take care of the people you have.”
Larry says, “It ’s a real leap of faith when you’re
used to building things faster and bigger to slow
down and see fewer patients.” But he did.
Now he maintains a fairly low volume of
patients, bet ween 800 and a thousand, and
spends more time with each, concentrating on
long-term, comprehensive care, “making teeth
last a lifetime.”
Dentistry ranks fairly low on the list of most
people’s interests. It’s also an easy one to neglect.
There are two big reasons that people put off
d e n tal wo rk, says Larry, money and fe a r.
D e n t i st ry is cost ly — p a rt i c u l a rly when yo u’ve
been putting it off. “The reason that we’re so
adamant about patients getting in for regular
maintenance is that most dental problems don’t
have any symptoms at all until they get to be
major problems. The idea is that you want to
c a t ch problems while th ey’re real small—th e
smaller they are the easier they are to take care of,
and the less expensive they are to take care of.”
But even if you’ve delayed, “Finances can be
worked through. Once we know what you want,
we can work out a plan to get there, whether it’s
done over a period of years or six months. If we
do it right the first time, we don’t have to do it
over again.”
O ve rcoming fear is another subject, and a
Bower’s specialty. His slogan is “We Cater to
Cowards.”
It helps that things have changed from the
olden days. Dentistry is now, “absolutely less
painful... It shouldn’t be painful at all. I can’t
believe how many times people come in and say
‘it sure has changed since I was a kid.’”
If you’re still a wobble of Jell-O when it comes
to the chair, Larry offers “laughing gas, and plenty
of anesth e s i a .” Sometimes a small hit of
Valium is in order, “just enough to take the edge
off, but still let you drive home.” Then there’s the
massage chair, music, and headphones to muffle
the purr of the drill. “And a huge thing,” Larry
stresses, “is having an empathetic staff member
to sit and hand-hold while the mean old dentist
is doing his work.”
W h a t’s the number one treatment people
request? Making teeth whiter. “We think teeth
look really really good when they’re really really
white. I don’t know if it’s because of film, or TV
stars that they see, or marketing and advertising,
but people want their teeth white—and many
want them whiter than what you’d even consider
to be natural. As one woman who had her face
done, and her make-up done, and her hair done,
said, ‘if you think I want it natural I wouldn’t
look like this.’”
Generally though, most people want something
“on the ‘enhanced’ side of natural. They
don’t want to look artificial.” Whether the goal is
buffed ivory or chiclet white it’s a simple enough
procedure, and not particularly costly. You don’t
need caps, drilling, or shots. Larry constructs a
mold that perfectly conforms to your teeth and
holds a lightening solution. In two or th re e
weeks, your teeth are white. The cost? “ A little
less than $400, and you can retouch it later without
going through the whole process.”
The one hitch is that you can’t bleach teeth if
you have a bridge or caps, since artificial teeth
won’t change color. “That gets back to planning
the treatments at the beginning,” says Larry. “A
lot of times whitening is done before restorative
work because we want to match the color. So
patients get to have the part they really want
right up front. It’s not something they have to
wait for.”
Given all this love of art and beauty, how’d he
become a dentist anyway— not, say, a plastic surgeon.
The 6’6” (just thought you’d like to know. I
did) dentist says, “I don’t know that there’s any
d i f fe rence. Wi th plastic surgery you have to
anticipate what things are going to look like after
you make changes.... and I think it’s probably
more difficult. At least whatever I do stays that
way.”
Yet, dentistry can often perform as magical a
makeover as a facelift. Larry says bad dentures
and missing teeth can cause considerable wrinkling
around the mouth, “when you bring someone
back to their proper bite height with a proper
fitting set of dentures, a lot of times the wrinkles
disappear.” Veneers are another enhancement
that can change the shape, color and
length of teeth and correct some overlapping
and crookedness, upping the voltage of a grin.
It’s all “easy cosmetic surgery. When a person’s
smile looks better, they look a lot better. And
they haven’t done anything to their face.”
Larry Bowers, DDS
711 East Capitol St., SE
202-544-0086
Welcome to the Wild West. Sheridan’s 1874 Old
West Steakhouse was firmly in the saddle by New
Year’s Eve, to the near shock of co-owner Steve
Sabatini. He, partner Sandy Thompson, sta f f ,
and work crews had less than a month from getting
all approvals and permits to get the place
ready for revelry. It’s done, and it’s a wow.
Downstairs, a shaggy buffalo head surveys the
bar scene, and mirrored walls reflect the country
western hoofing on the dance floor.
In the upstairs dining room, red oriental rugs
lend warmth to the pale buffed floor, and crystal
chandeliers draw the eye to the ornate stamped
tin moldings. The effect is somehow both spare
and posh, with enough whimsy tossed in to
make it fun.
The menu is definitely cow country (though a
few nicely thought out vegetarian items are on
the bill): Miss Kitty ’s Filet is topped with oysters
and brie, buffalo steak is marinated in stout and
the 12 ounce New York strip is rubbed with
b l a ckening spices and crumbled bleu ch e e s e ,
topped with a roasted garlic demiglaze. Entrees
are priced from $10 to $23. There’s lighter fare
too, chili, salads and burgers for between $6-$8.
Pig out. At this place you can work it all off
after dinner. Sheridan’s is at 713 8th St., SE. 546-
6955.
Creating a Little Home Away from Home. Roasters
on the Hill will be back in a new incarnation this
Fe b ru a ry. Lori Johnston, owner of Ben and
Jerry’s, leased the coffee bar at 666 Pennsylvania
A venue, SE, redubbing it Sto mp i n’ Gro u n d s .
Renovations should now be underway.
Featured will be Roaster’s coffee and beans,
plus other hot and cold beverages and sandwiches.
Lori’s emphasis will be on creating a cozy
www.voiceofthehill.com 25
CELEBRATION 2000 JAZZ BRUNCH
SUNDAY, JANUARY 2, 2000 FROM 1-4 PM
MILLENNIUM NEW YEAR’S JAZZ CELEBRATION
DECEMBER 29 AND 30
Closed December 24 - 29, 1999 and
December 30, 1999 - January 1, 2000
424A 8TH STREET, SE ON CAPITOL HILL • 202-546-8308
WEDNESDAY-SATURDAY 6:30PM THRU CLOSING
SUNDAY 12-4PM
A CHAMPAGNE LOUNGE
AND GARDEN CAFE
Banana Cafe
& Piano Bar
Serving the Best Cuban,
Puerto Rican, & Mexican
Food in the City!
Open for lunch, dinner
& Sunday Brunch
No Cover!
Piano Bar
Upstairs
Tues-Sat
Performances
by Deena Javor
and Chuck Smith Happy Hour
Tues-Fri 5-7:30 Upstairs only
Drink Specials with Free Hors
d’oeuvres
500 8th St, SE
1 block east of Blue/Orange Eastern Market Metro / 202-543-5906
neighborhood gathering—and lingering—spot.
She says there will be “newspapers, magazines
and children’s book on hand, as well as two gaming
tables for those that want to play chess,
backgammon, cards or Chinese checkers.
S eve ral art i st friends are contributing uniqu e
to u ches, creating display ra cks and Sto mp i n’
G rounds mugs (that will be available for sale). Fo r
the re st of the re-do, Lori ’s buffing the hard wo o d
f l o o rs, painting the walls in earthy tones, and
putting in mellow antique furn i t u re and floor
l a mps. The wall that used to hold bins of beans
will be cleared for a black and white mural of
E a st e rn Market at the turn-of the (last) century.
M o st imp o rta n t ly, says Lori, “the ord e ri n g
counter will offer the speedy service and smiling
faces that everyone seems to be looking for.”
Papa Moved Mountains. Monique Greenwood,
executive editor of Essence, recently wrote a moving
story for her magazine about Greenwood’s
Transfer and Storage, the business her grandfather,
Benjamin Ordway Greenwood, founded in
DC in 1922. By the late 1970s the company was
the oldest Black-owned business in DC, and listed
as one of the country’s top 100 Black-owned
businesses.
It was not an entirely smooth progression from
beginning to then. When “Papa” wanted to
modernize in the late thirties, he “knocked on
countless doors before one small bank, National
Capital, put racial prejudice aside and granted a
line of credit to a Black man who always paid his
bills on time.” The National Capital Bank is still
here, still under the same family ownership, and
still making loans to those who pay their bills on
time.
NCB, by the way, reports record annual earnings
for 1999. The 111-year-old bank had a 10%
increase in net earnings, a 9.42% increase in
deposits, and those loans? They grew 6.8%, from
$ 6 8 , 025,393 to $72 , 6 54 , 202. National Capital
Bank. 316 Pennsylvania Ave., SE. 546-8000.
Alice Sells the House. When (in)famous fight
p ro m oter Ro ck Newman was having tro u b l e
moving his mini-mansion off Foxhall Road he
called in Alice Wilson, manager of Antique and
Contemporary Leasing, for a consult. Newman
and his wife had already moved out, and the cavernous
space was intimidating buyers. As Alice
told the Washington Po st in a recent Home
Section, “the living room was huge, about 40 by
50 feet, and people couldn’t figure out what to do
with it...So we set up four different seatings to
m a ke it look lived in and comfo rta b l e .” The
property, which the Newman’s purchased for
$1.2 million in 1974, sold for $1.9 million.
ACL frequently works with real estate agents
and homeowners to spiffy up houses for sale.
They’re called upon just as often by homebuyers,
and renters, who want to look settled—fast. If
you haven’t been in, don’t miss the third floor
bargain center, there are always hot deals on furniture
and accessories that are being moved out
of inventory. Antique and Contemporary Leasing
and Sales. 709 12th St., SE. 547-3030.
Winter Sale at Art & Soul. You got slippers, bon
bons and a scale. A copy of Dutch, and a pair of
rhinestone reading glasses. No slinky chemise.
No lacy jabot. And sadly, Santa fo r g ot th e
mink...again. Make it up to yourself. Cinderella
stuffs await (with reductions of up to 25%) at Art
& Soul, 225 Pennsylvania Ave., SE. 548-0105.
Whoa, Get a Bargain on a Braley? Going on now
at The Village—save 25-50% on winter clothing
(including fabulously soft Pashmina shawl s ) ,
jewelry and charming tchotchtkes from around
the world. AND, for the first time ever, 25% off a
selection of Alan Braley’s wondrous watercolors
in the upstairs gallery! The Village is at 705 North
Carolina Avenue, SE. 546-3040.
The Business Bits section is written by Voice editor
Stephanie Cavanaugh
Log On!
w w w. v o i c e o f t h e h i l l . c o m
Your daily newspaper
for Capitol Hill
WESTERN WEAR
WHERETHE REAL COWBOY SHOPS!
C h e ck out our
Holiday Wear &
Sale Items
202-546-5566
641 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
Washington, DC
(1/2 block from the Eastern Market Metro)
26 www.voiceofthehill.com
Picture Framing
Frame of Mine
522 8th St.,SE 543-3030
See our ad on page 8
Newman Gallery and Custom Frames
511 11th St.,SE 544-7577
See our ad on page 31
Plumbing & Heating
Leakbusters Plumbing & Remodeling
202 544-5000
Real Estate
Valerie M. Blake
Prudential Carruthers Realtors
5025 Wisconsin Ave,NW 202-362-1348,x111
www.DCHomeQuest.com
Thom Burns
Coldwell Banker Real Estate
109 8th St. NE 547-5805
Larry C
Pardoe Real Estate
605 PA Ave.,SE 546-7000
Tom & Alice Faison
REMAX Real Estate
220 7th St.,SE 547-5881
John C. Formant
John C. Formant Real Estate
225 PA Ave.,SE 544-3900
Pardoe Real Estate
605 PA Ave.,SE 546-7000
See our ad on the back cover
Yarmouth Management
309 7th St.,SE 547-3511
Jackie von Schlegel
REMAX Real Estate
220 7th St.,547-5600
Phyllis Jane Young
Pardoe Real Estate
605 PA Ave.,SE 546-7000
Antiques
Antiques on the Hill
701 North Carolina Ave.,SE
See our ad on page 30
Attorneys
Davis & Gooch
920 Pennsylvania Avenue,SE 543-3600
Rick Halberstein & Karen Byrne
705 D St.,SE 543-1110
Arts Center
Capitol Hill Arts Workshop
545 7th St.,SE 547-6839
See our ad on page 14
Association
CHAMPS
621 PA Ave.,SE 547-7788
Bank
National Capital Bank
316 PA Ave.,SE 546-8000
See our ad on page 31
Book Buyer
Riverby Books
419 E. Capitol St.,SE 547-3228
See our ad on page 42
Chimney Cleaning
Winston’s Chimney Service
Washington DC (301)571-8546
See our ad on page 27
Church
Christ Church Washington Parish
620 G St.,SE 547-9300
See our ad on page 41
Clothing & Gifts
Art & Soul
225 PA Ave.,SE 548-0105
See our ad on page 25
Red River Western Wear
641 PA Ave.,SE 546-5566
See our ad on page 25
The Village
705 N. Carolina Ave.,SE 546-3040
See our ad on page 32
Computer Consultant
Better Computer Solutions
623 N. Carolina Ave.,SE 546-8084
See our ad on page 32
Drug Store
Grubbs Care Pharmacy
326 E Capitol SE 543-4400
See our ad on page 16
Garden and Landscape
Holler Landscapes
543-5172
See our ad on page 29
Ornamental Garden
544-7831
See our ad on page 20
Grocery
The 8th Street Market
419 8th St.,SE
Groceries Greens & Other Things!
Hardware
Fragers Hardware
1115 Pennsylvania Ave.,SE 543-6157
See our ad on page 23
Health & Fitness
GI Jane
645 Pennsylvania Ave.,SE 547-7906
See our ad on page 30
Home Furnishings
Woven History
311 7th St.,SE 543-1705
See our ad on page 29
Home Repair
Federal City Iron
321 K St.,NE 547-1945
See our ad on page 29
Handyman on the Hill
Washington DC 206-7185
See our ad on page 41
H&W Contracting, Ltd.
398-7117
See our ad on page 20
Hotel
Capitol Hill Suites
200 C St.,SE Washington DC 543-0209
See our ad on page 18
Income Tax Services
Jackson Hewitt Tax Service
8th St.,SE 554-8840
Mortgage Lenders
Apex Home Loans
1-800-914-8475,ext. 2075
See our ad on page 13
Pet Supplies
Doolittle’s Pet Supply
224 7th St.,SE 544-8710
See our ad on page 24
Photography
Asman Photo
924 Penn. Ave,SE 547-7713
See our ad on page 8
Motophoto
666 PA Ave.,SE 547-2100
See our ad on page 11
Business Directory Listings:
Voice of the Hill is including a yellow-pages style directory of businesses and services that cater to the Capitol Hill community. To
be included in the directory businesses must commit to a one-year contract,payable in advance by check, Visa or Mastercard.
The annual fee is $250. Display advertisers on annual contracts will be included in the directory at no additional charge.
Each business will be given three lines in the directory; two must be used for the company name,address and phone number. An
extra line is available for your name,a description of your business or service,or a direction to see your ad. Additional lines may
be added at an annual cost of $60 per line (per year). If you would like to be included in the next directory, please fill in the following
form and send it,along with your check or payment information, to: The Voice of the Hill, 120 11th St.,SE, Washington,DC
20003. If you have questions please call Bruce Robey at 544-0703.
Your Name:_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Company Name: ________________________________________________________________________________________________
Address: _______________________________________________________________________________________________________
Phone: ________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Business Description: (30 character maximum) _____________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please charge my Mastercard or Visa
Name on Card:__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Card Number: _______________________________________________________________________Expiration Date:____________
Real Estate Settlement
Capital Home Title
703 D St.,SE Washington DC 544-4300
See our ad on page 27
Congressional Title
650 PA Ave.,SE 544-0800
See our ad on page 28
Eastern Market Title
210 7th St.,SE 546-3100
See our ad on page 32
Restaurants
2 Quail
320 Massachusetts Ave. NE 543-8030
See our ad on page 17
Banana Café
400 8th St.,SE 543-5906
See our ad on page 25
Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream
327 7th St.,SE 546-CAKE
See our ad on page 30
Bluestone Cafe
327 7th St.,SE 547-9007
See our ad on page 19
Caffe Italiano
1129 PA Ave.,SE 544-5500
See our ad on page 29
Ellington’s on 8th
424A 8th St SE 546-8308
See our ad on page 25
Hawk ’n’ Dove
329 PA Ave.,SE 543-3300
See our ad on page 29
Las Placitas
518 8th St.,SE 543-3700
See our ad on page 28
Park Café
106 13th St.,SE 543-0184
See our ad on page 41
White Tiger
301 Mass. Ave.,NE 546-5900
See our ad on page 33
Business Serv i c e s
www.voiceofthehill.com 27
Business Serv i c e s
Salon
RPM Salon
225 PA Ave.,SE 543-6481
See our ad on page 27
Social Services
Capitol Hill Group Ministr y
421 Seward Sq.,SE 544-0385
Schools
Capitol Hill Day School
210 S. Carolina Ave.,SE 547-2244
See our ad on page 37
Edmond Burke School
2955 Upton St.,NW 362-8882
See our ad on page 37
Levine School of Music
2801 Upton St.,NW 686-9772
St Peter’s School
422 3rd St.,SE 544-1618
See our ad on page 36
Spiritual Advisors
Corrin Bennett
920 G St.,SE 543-5825
See ad on page 33
Gabrielle Hill
639 E. Capitol SE 544-438
See ad on page 33
Vacation/Travel Consultatns
Jan Cammarata
Judiciary Express Travel
7th & Penn SE, 547-3007
Yoga Studio
Dancing Heart Center for Yoga
221 5th St.,NE 544-0841
See our ad on page 33 Winston’s
Quality Service since 1976
Cleanings • Repairs • Relinings
Expert second opinion
Air duct cleaning
301-571-8546
Licensed • Insured • Certified
202-CHIMNEY
(244-6639)
Recommended by
Washingtonian Magazine
1984-1987
DCHIC #3615
Chimney Ser v i c e
Free Hair Masque
with shampoo, cut and blow
dry at regular price
Tuesday & Wednesday only
Thru February 18, 2000
(must mention ad when booking appointment)
————————
“On Track” Facial
with skin scanner
$25
with this ad
Tuesday-Friday Only
Thru February 18, 2000
————————
Classic Spa Manicure
1/2 Price
with this ad
Tuesday-Friday Only
Thru February 18, 2000
225 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
202-543-6481
www.RPMSALONS.com RPM HAIR & SKIN CARE CENTER
CAPITAL
home title, llc
703 D Street, SE
Washington, DC 20003
Phone 202 544-4300
FAX (202) 544-7876
E-mail
capitalhometitle@erols.com
Michael Hines
Other Settlement Locations
Georgetown Chevy Chase
Columbia, MD Camp Springs, MD
Rockville, MD Annapolis, MD
Bowie, MD Greenbelt, MD
Crofton, MD Baltimore, MD
Across from the
Eastern Market Metr o
17 years
51 Stars*
LA COLLINE
*A Washingtonian Magazine
Three Star “Blue Ribbon Winner”
since 1982
Log On!
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Your daily newspaper
for Capitol Hill
Capitol Hill’s Best French Dining Value
Serving Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner
(closed Sunday)
Private dining rooms for groups of 20 to 80
Complimentary parking in the
building garage after 5PM
400 North Capitol St., NW 202-737-0400
28 www.voiceofthehill.com
d o w nL o a d
Salvadorian and Mexican Cancun Cantina is now
Cuisine and Great Margaritas known as
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Buy one entree, get a Great Mexican & NEW
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We have been located on
Capitol Hill for more than 20
years serving the District of
Columbia and Maryland
Let us make your refinance,
purchase or sale hassle free
with no stress
Call us
202-544-0800
650 Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Suite 170
Washington, DC 20003
St. Coletta’s School vs. The Forces of
Preservation
Point/Counterpoint
The St. Coletta’s School’s plan to construct a new
facility on Capitol Hill has run into some opposition
from the Capitol Hill Restoration Society
(CHRS) and DC’s Historic Preservation Review
Board (HPRB). The school, which has cared for
children and adults with physical and mental
disabilities in their Old Town, Alexandria complex
for many years, is hoping to build a DC
b ra n ch in the 1200 block of Pe n n s ylva n i a
Avenue, SE.
Nancy Met z g e r, chair of CH R S ’s Histo ri c
District Committee, says the issue is not with the
school. Her committee agrees that St. Coletta’s
“is a fine organization with an excellent reputation
for care of the handicapped.” They do not
oppose various elements of the plan, including
tearing down two badly deteriorated structures
on Pennsylvania Avenue, and moving a third
further down the block.
Metzger’s committee feels the architect’s plan
for the school “is headed in an acceptable direction,”
though they would like to see some modifications
in the design to make the building
more compatible with Hill architecture. “They’re
all issues,” says Metzger, “that can be worked
out.”
The problem piece is on E Street, SE. In the center
of the block is a shabby little shack that turns
out to have great historic merit. It’s a shotgun
house—so named because if you fired your musket
through the front door it would exit through
the back door. The style is rare in DC, although
common in places like New Orleans. This one
happens not only to be architecturally rare, it is
also one of the Hill’s oldest structures. The two
front rooms (it’s just three rooms deep) date back
to the 1850’s.
St. Coletta’s would like to pave the alley alongside
the house and use it as an entrance for their
school buses. For buses to have clear access to the
school’s sheltered entrance, St. Coletta’s would
need to demolish the back of the house, which
was added in the 1930’s, and the large brick outbuilding
that was erected in about 1917. The
school is willing to restore the original portion of
the house.
Sharon Raimo, a Hill resident and executive
d i re c tor of St. Colet ta’s, feels this E St re et
entrance is essential to their plan. These children
have severe handicaps and must be able to reach
the school safely from their buses—not be put off
on Pennsylvania Ave. The fear is that they might
dash out into traffic.
But Metzger argues that the 1200 block of E
Street is a “charming residential block, with a
great number of architectural styles. [The shotgun]
is restorable and could be a residence for a
single person or a couple. It has parking and a
brick out-building usable as an artist’s studio or
writer’s loft.” Metzger notes that there’s a similar
house on 9th Street, SE between G and E that was
nicely restored a few years ago.
Beyond danger to the house, CHRS has other
issues with the plan to create a bus entrance on E
Street. “Making a private alley out of a residential
lot is a terrible precedent,” says Metzger. “If we
allow this for a good cause, who’s to say what the
next request will be.”
Then there are the other houses along E Street
that would have noise and exhaust from buses
for 45 minutes (Raimo’s estimate) each morning
and afternoon. And there is Watkins Elementary
School on the north side of the street, whose
children would be exposed to hazards from the
additional bus traffic.
HPRB has yet another issue, the brick outbuilding.
Their report says that it may have had
original use as a “cottage industry” business,
“once typical on Capitol Hill, particularly for its
working-class residents.” They recommend that
archeological testing be done on the property.
St. Coletta’s was to have met with HPRB on
December 16 to discuss the plan, but the meeting
was deferred until later this month.
A Po i n t / C o u n t e rpoint with position sta t ements
from St. Coletta’s, and the Restoration
Society and HPRB is now on line at www.voiceofthehill.
com, and readers are weighing in on
both sides.
A Capitol Hill snail darter…and its prettified cousin.
www.voiceofthehill.com 29
311 & 315 7th Street, SE • 202.543.1705
www.wovenhistory.com
Store Hours: 10-6, Tue-Sun. Eastern Market Metro
Woven Hi s t o ry and Silk Ro a d
Federal City Iron, Ltd.
All Ornamental Ironwork
Expert Cast Iron Stair Repairs
Window Bars & Security Gates
Fencing & Tree Boxes
Metal Repairs
SPECIALIZING IN CAPITOL HILL STYLES
202-547-1945
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Jerry McCully is representative of many of the
pro-St. Coletta forces, saying “Tear this eyesore
down. I walk past this property daily and cannot
believe that anyone in their right mind would
consider trying to save this ugly piece of slum. If
the school is going to beautify the blight that has
occupied Pennsylvania Ave. for so many years,
l et them help bring a little sunshine to “E”
Street.”
Siding with the pre s e rva t i o n i sts is St e p h e n
Morris, who writes “It seems that all the invective
and animus being directed at the Capitol
Hill Re sto ration Society and the Histo ri c
Preservation Review Board in this case should
more properly be aimed at the property owner
who has held this property for years and let it
decay to the point where neighbors are desperate
for anything to replace it—this person, not CHRS
or the HPRB is the true villain...The shotgun
house is historic, no matter how small, ugly, and
run down. DC’s historic districts are not in place
only to protect large, conventionally attractive
properties built for rich people—working-class
residences such as this one are part of our history
and deserve to be preserved.”
Check it out, have your say.
Spencer’s Storm
Readers Take Issue with Voice Columnist’s School
Column
Duncan Spencer’s article on creating a charter
high school for the Hill in last month’s issue of
the Voice stirred up a tempest. The Voice has
re c e i ved quite a few let t e rs and e-mails, and
promises of more to come. All were sent by parents
who are committed to quality education in
our public schools, and working hard to make it
happen. All were very thoughtful, and deserving
of publication. Since most were very lengthy,
this was not possible. We chose to excerpt from
some of the best:
Wrote Randy Norton, “Duncan Spencer’s col -
umn in December’s edition was a terrible disappointment
to me... Mr. Spencer apparently felt
that to write an article extolling the benefits of
charter schools it was necessary to disparage the
public schools on the Hill.
I have no complaint with Mr. Spencer’s argu -
ment that a charter high school on the Hill
might be a good education alternative for Hill
students... However, as a parent who is about to
complete seventeen years with two children in
the DC public schools, and as the schools coord
i n a tor for this paper who has re p o rted th e
achievements of the Hill public school students
for the past nine months, I know how misinformed
Mr. Spencer is and how damaging the
broad stereotypes he repeats can be.
I am not Pollyanna. I know that there have
been and remain problems in the DC Public
Schools. Any parent, teacher or principal has
sto ries of how “Dow n tow n ,” as the centra l
s chool bure a u c racy is unive rs a l ly known, has
short-changed a school or stifled a promising initiative.
But at the same time, every one of us connected
with the public schools knows dozens of
stories of a parent, teacher, or administrator stepping
in and solving these problems. And it’s getting
better...”
Linda Nickerson feels that the “article was a
slap in the face to all the hundreds of parents
who have dedicated countless thousands of
hours of volunteer work to the public schools on
Capitol Hill, and an insult to their children who
have attended those schools, received outstanding
education’s there, and gone on to succeed at
the schools of their choice...”
Jeff Serfass adds, “My respect for my favorite
paper, the Voice of the Hill, just plummeted. The
19 November 1999 article by what I assume is
your new school critic, Duncan Spencer, is an
affront to all of us who have been working hard
within the public school system to make the
Capitol Hill Cluster School an option we can all
respect... There are two sad points to be made
about his off-base article: 1) Those of us using the
Cluster Schools strongly disag ree with his negative
caricature of public schools on Capitol Hill;
and 2) Many outside this school system probably
share Spencer’s misguided views.
The schools are what we as a society want to
make of them. We, as parents of three, have chosen
to support this public institution for the benefit
of all children and find them to be a wonderful
way to bring up we l l - rounded yo u n g st e rs
with an ability to interact with a diverse society.
And the notion that “the sad fact is that DC public
schools are not how to get the Hill’s sons and
daughters in Harvard or Cornell”.... well that is
flat wrong. We are proud of our son, educated
through the Cluster Schools and on through
Wilson High School, another public school... he
graduates from Dartmouth this spring. He never
felt cheated out of a good education.”
Gary Carleton chose to weigh in on the website
under the header “Duncan Spencer Needs to
Do His Homework Regarding Public Schools.”
Carleton says, “Duncan Spencer wrote quite an
irresponsible and inaccurate article in this past
month’s Voice of the Hill regarding the “horrific”
state of our Capitol Hill public schools (including
the Capitol Hill Cluster School). For a man
who claims to have a lot of reporting experience,
Spencer would get an “F” for that article—given
the fact that he did not do his homework in
preparing the article...Parents, be smarter than
Spencer. Do what you tell your children to do—
Do your homewo rk in selecting the pro p e r
school for your child. Money does not buy everything.
Check out the public schools. Talk to the
teachers (many of whom have their children in
the public schools) and the students. Come
when there is an open house and find out that
there are quality public schools on Capitol Hill.”
M a rk Ecke nwiler “seconded” Carl eto n’s
remarks. “...It’s one thing to acknowledge that
DCPS in the aggregate has many problems. (I’d
be the first to agree about that.) It’s another
thing entirely to dismiss each and every DCPS
school on the Hill, when the evidence of success
—and of satisfied parents and students—is so
readily apparent in places. Instead of perpetuating
a one-sided, outdated view of the public
school options available on the Hill, perhaps [the
Voice] could provide cur rent, informed coverage
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the outdoor re c reational facilities which will
include regulation football, baseball, and soccer
fields complete with bleachers, lighting, and an
announcers box. Marines will have first dibs, but
the fields will also be available to residents of
nearby public housing and neighborhood sports
teams.
This new discovery may have an impact on
some of these construction plans, but Nancy
Kassner says it’s way too soon to say. A full report
on the findings, and what needs to be done, will
take three to four months. That will not delay
progress on the barracks, said Lucas, since funding
for construction won’t be allocated until later
this year.
(Thanks to Brian Stansberry for being the ear
to the ground on this story)
The Millennium Arts Center
It’s Showtime on I Street
Pssst. Something very, very exciting is happening
just a blink off the Hill at 65 I St., SW. Would
you believe The Millennium Arts Center, a combination
Torpedo Factory, gallery and art school
e red belonged to seve ral houses, including a
Not l ey Maddox, and to the original East e rn
Market, which was built in the early 19th century
and stood at this location until around 1870.
Among the artifacts uncovered—Kassner has not
seen them all—were pieces of pearlware, bluish
tinted ta b l ewa re manufactured bet ween 17 9 0
and 1820. She surmises that these items probably
belonged to the occupants of the houses, not
to the market.
Captain Lucas says the investigation will not
have an impact on the demolition of the four
Capper buildings scheduled for re p l a c e m e n t ,
since that work will not disturb the findings. The
buildings will be razed in the next three weeks.
The Marines intend to construct a four-story,
166-room building to house the approximately
300 enlisted men and women who are now scattered
about the metropolitan area. Additional
indoor and outdoor re c reational facilities are
also planned, as well as a 3 1/2 story-parking
garage that will have space for 273 cars and 15
motorcycles.
A particular boon to the community will be
of what’s really happening in our local public
schools. That, and not the usual bromides about
DCPS, would better serve the Hill community.”
To the parents who wrote, and the parents
who haven’t yet put furious fingers to keyboard,
we hope the article by Laura Scott on the Cluster
School on page 34 of this issue, and the overview
of early childhood education options by Susan
Chapin on page 36, will provide the necessary
balance.
At the risk of stirring up another storm, please
keep in mind that Spencer’s article was intended
to explore the idea of creating a charter high
school for Capitol Hill. Currently our options are
few, and many folks are now sending their child
ren across town to Wilson, School Wi th o u t
Walls, or one of the private schools. There are
plenty of parents who would like an opt i o n
that’s closer to home. So, can we talk?
Can You Dig It?
Marines Uncover Buried Treasure on Capper Lot
How serendipitous can you get? In this issue
Celeste McCall writes about finding shells and
shards of various stuffs in our backyards, while
Bonny Wolf takes on the early days of Eastern
Market. Then, just a few days before we go to
press, the Marines begin turning up buried treasures,
and what may be the foundation of the
original Eastern Market, at 7th and Virginia Ave.,
SE.
M a rine Public Affairs Officer, Captain Ke n
Lucas, says contractors were digging test trenches
near the Arthur Capper Housing Project ball
field on January 18th. The work was in preparation
for demolition of several buildings and construction
of new bachelor quarters and recreational
facilities on the site. Lucas says the worke
rs got about four fe et down, and “whoops!
We’ve got something here.”
What they’d turned up were building foundations,
old house bits, and various artifacts, all
cushioned and protected in layers of fill.
The Marines dutifully called in DC’s Historic
Preservation Division. Nancy Kassner, an ar cheologist
with the department, says she hasn’t yet
seen the report of the archeologist assigned to
the project, and so was extremely cautious with
her comments, stressing that “the research is
extremely preliminary.”
But she suspects that the foundations uncov-
New home to the arts in Southwest.
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that will also offer a sculpture garden, a café, an
a p a rt m e n t / h otel for visiting art i sts, re h e a rs a l
and performance space for local theaters, ballet
companies, and other performers, a summer arts
camp for young people, and retail space?
This is not pie in the sky. Behind the grand
scheme is master showman Bill Wooby, grandson
of the swo rd - s wa l l owing, knife - th row i n g ,
tattooed lady of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show
and the show’s musical conductor. The son of
restaurateurs—and himself a mean hand in the
kitchen. A many-time nominee for the Mayors
award who has 8 volumes of press clippings from
his nearly 30 years in the Washington arts scene.
This is the guy who rented
a projector and flashed
Ro b e rt Mappleth o rp e ’s
controversial nudes on the
front of the Corcoran when
Jesse Helms demanded the
cancellation of the show
back in 1987.
This is the guy who
opened The Collecto r
re sta u rant and ga l l e ry at
Dupont Circle and later created Art on the 6th
Floor, a celebrated gallery and exhibit space in
the Washington Design Center.
Now, after years of wrangling with the DC
D e p a rtment of Education over this deal, Bill
Wooby has finally moved into the old Randall Jr.
High School with a lease with option to buy. He
hopes to finalize the purchase of the 125,000
square foot “surplus” school with its 700-seat
auditorium, gym, 70 rooms, parking for 180, and
courtyard big enough for a sculpture garden and
café by early spring.
M e a nwhile eve ry th i n g ’s falling into place.
Artists and illustrators will begin setting up studios
by the end of Januar y. This summer two 50-
seat movie houses will open, featuring foreign
and independent films. By late summer or early
fall a large outdoor sculpt u re exhibit will be
established in the courtyard.
Museums, which have been in on the concept
from the beginning, are calling about space for
large-scale exhibitions. Theater and dance companies,
who’ve also been eagerly waiting, are
negotiating for use of the stage and the gymnasium
for rehearsals and performances.
Then there’s the developing connection with
DC Parks and Recreation. Wooby’s working with
Robert Newman, the department’s new director,
on several arts projects for the spring. Teens will
be interviewing senior citizens for a filmed oral
h i sto ry, using equipment donated by Apple
C o mp u t e rs and Sony. Another project will
involve both teens and adults in creating handmade
tile furniture for neighborhood parks.
I t’s all coming to g ether so ra p i d ly th a t
Wo o by’s already thinking of expanding.
Celebrated architect Michael Graves has been
through several times in the past few months, at
f i rst discussing the hotel design, then a new
wing, and now a complete renovation.
W hy the Randall School and South we st ?
Because it was affordable. “Everyone wanted me
downtown on 7th Street. There is not a building
cheap enough downtown to take over and turn
into an art center. This location is a mystery to
most people, divided off as it is by the freeway
and the railroad tracks. It’s like an untouched
castle. To be able to live on the river for very little
money? It’s unbelievable. The views are great
and no one knows how beautiful it is.” If Bill
Wooby has his way, they’ll soon be finding out.
Bryan School Sale Update
Market Rate Condos and Townhomes Planned for
SE Site
The Bryan School in the 13 00 block of
Independence Avenue was re c e n t ly sold to
No rth e rn -Virginia based deve l o p e rs, Eakin/
Youngentaub Associates (EYA). Toby Millman,
director of acquisition and development for EYA,
says they hope to finalize the contract with DC
Public Schools by the end of January.
The tentative plan is to retain the older school
building that fronts on Independence and convert
it into condominiums. The adjacent annex,
which was built in the 1950’s, will be razed. The
rest of the lot, which includes the playground
and parking areas, will be filled with approxim
a t e ly 45 3-sto ry townhouses that will be
reached from a new through-street that will run
b et ween Independence and South Caro l i n a
Avenues. Houses will face onto the new road and
the avenues.
Millman says that the new complex will be
similar in feel to one now being constructed at
7th and G Streets, SW, a block off the Maine
Avenue waterfront. However, EYA will work with
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n e i g h b o rs, neighborhood groups and th e
Historic Preservation Review Board to make the
design consistent with the immediate neighborhood.
“That is always the goal,” st re s s e s
Millman. “ In five years, once it’s worn down a
little, it will look like it has been there a hundred
years.”
It is anticipated that the new homes will range
in price from $250,000 to $400,000, which is
also simi