BGuthrie Photos: DC Heritage Trails: Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail

DC Heritage Trails: Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail:

Bruce Guthrie Photos Home Page: [Click here] to go to Bruce Guthrie Photos home page.

Recognize anyone? If you recognize specific folks (or other stuff) and I haven't labeled them, please identify them for the world. Click the little pencil icon

underneath the file name (just above the picture). Spammers need not apply.

Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

Spiders: The system has identified your IP as being a spider. I love well-behaved spiders! They are, in fact, how most people find my site. Unfortunately, my network has a limited bandwidth and pictures take up bandwidth. Spiders ask for lots and lots of pages and chew up lots and lots of bandwidth which slows things down considerably for regular folk. To counter this, you'll see all the text on the page but the images are being suppressed. Also, a number of options like merges are being blocked for you. Note: Permission is NOT granted for spiders, robots, etc to use the site for AI-generation purposes. I'm excited for your ability to make revenue from my work but there's nothing in that for my human users or for me. If you are in fact human, please email me at guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can check if your designation was made in error. Given your number of hits, that's unlikely but what the hell.

Help? The Medium (Email) links are for screen viewing and emailing. You'll want bigger sizes for printing. [Click here for additional help]

Share: Facebook Twitter Digg
[1] TRMTP_200429_002.JPG	[2] TRMTP_200429_007.JPG	[3] TRMTP_200429_010.JPG
[4] TRMTP_200429_013.JPG	[5] TRMTP_200429_017.JPG	[6] TRMTP_200429_019.JPG
[7] TRMTP_200429_025.JPG	[8] TRMTP_200429_029.JPG	[9] TRMTP_200429_031.JPG
[10] TRMTP_200429_034.JPG	[11] TRMTP_200429_038.JPG	[12] TRMTP_200429_041.JPG
[13] TRMTP_200429_046.JPG	[14] TRMTP_200429_048.JPG	[15] TRMTP_200429_052.JPG
[16] TRMTP_200429_055.JPG	[17] TRMTP_200429_058.JPG	[18] TRMTP_200429_061.JPG
[19] TRMTP_200429_064.JPG	[20] TRMTP_200429_067.JPG	[21] TRMTP_200429_071.JPG
[22] TRMTP_200429_074.JPG	[23] TRMTP_200429_078.JPG	[24] TRMTP_200429_081.JPG
[25] TRMTP_200429_084.JPG	[26] TRMTP_200429_090.JPG	[27] TRMTP_200429_092.JPG
[28] TRMTP_200429_095.JPG	[29] TRMTP_200429_101.JPG	[30] TRMTP_200429_102.JPG
[31] TRMTP_200429_108.JPG	[32] TRMTP_200429_111.JPG	[33] TRMTP_200429_113.JPG
[34] TRMTP_200429_115.JPG	[35] TRMTP_200429_119.JPG	[36] TRMTP_200429_126.JPG
[37] TRMTP_200429_128.JPG	[38] TRMTP_200429_131.JPG	[39] TRMTP_200429_133.JPG
[40] TRMTP_200429_137.JPG	[41] TRMTP_200429_142.JPG	[42] TRMTP_200429_144.JPG
[43] TRMTP_200429_149.JPG	[44] TRMTP_200429_151.JPG	[45] TRMTP_200429_157.JPG
[46] TRMTP_200429_161.JPG	[47] TRMTP_200429_164.JPG	[48] TRMTP_200429_167.JPG
[49] TRMTP_200429_172.JPG	[50] TRMTP_200523_001.JPG	[51] TRMTP_200523_008.JPG
[52] TRMTP_200523_016.JPG	[53] TRMTP_200523_020.JPG	[54] TRMTP_200523_029.JPG
[55] TRMTP_200523_030.JPG	[56] TRMTP_200523_033.JPG	[57] TRMTP_200523_037.JPG
[58] TRMTP_200523_040.JPG	[59] TRMTP_200523_046.JPG	[60] TRMTP_200523_052.JPG
[61] TRMTP_200523_054.JPG	[62] TRMTP_200523_058.JPG	[63] TRMTP_200523_061.JPG
[64] TRMTP_200523_064.JPG	[65] TRMTP_200523_068.JPG	[66] TRMTP_200523_073.JPG
[67] TRMTP_200523_075.JPG	[68] TRMTP_200523_077.JPG	[69] TRMTP_200523_080.JPG
[70] TRMTP_200523_083.JPG	[71] TRMTP_200523_088.JPG	[72] TRMTP_200523_091.JPG
[73] TRMTP_200523_094.JPG	[74] TRMTP_200523_099.JPG	[75] TRMTP_200523_104.JPG
[76] TRMTP_200523_108.JPG	[77] TRMTP_200523_111.JPG	[78] TRMTP_200523_115.JPG
[79] TRMTP_200523_118.JPG	[80] TRMTP_200523_121.JPG	[81] TRMTP_200523_124.JPG
[82] TRMTP_200523_127.JPG	[83] TRMTP_200523_132.JPG	[84] TRMTP_200523_135.JPG
[85] TRMTP_200523_139.JPG	[86] TRMTP_200523_141.JPG	[87] TRMTP_200523_145.JPG
[88] TRMTP_200523_150.JPG	[89] TRMTP_200523_155.JPG	[90] TRMTP_200523_159.JPG
[91] TRMTP_200523_162.JPG	[92] TRMTP_200523_165.JPG	[93] TRMTP_200523_171.JPG
[94] TRMTP_200523_173.JPG	[95] TRMTP_200523_176.JPG	[96] TRMTP_200523_179.JPG
[97] TRMTP_200523_182.JPG	[98] TRMTP_200523_188.JPG	[99] TRMTP_200523_193.JPG
[100] TRMTP_200523_198.JPG	[101] TRMTP_200523_200.JPG	[102] TRMTP_200523_202.JPG
[103] TRMTP_200523_205.JPG	[104] TRMTP_200523_207.JPG	[105] TRMTP_200523_210.JPG
[106] TRMTP_200523_213.JPG	[107] TRMTP_200523_216.JPG	[108] TRMTP_200523_219.JPG
[109] TRMTP_200523_222.JPG	[110] TRMTP_200523_228.JPG	[111] TRMTP_200523_231.JPG
[112] TRMTP_200523_236.JPG	[113] TRMTP_200523_239.JPG	[114] TRMTP_200523_241.JPG
[115] TRMTP_200523_244.JPG	[116] TRMTP_200523_247.JPG	[117] TRMTP_200523_250.JPG
[118] TRMTP_200523_253.JPG	[119] TRMTP_200523_256.JPG	[120] TRMTP_200523_259.JPG
[121] TRMTP_200523_262.JPG	[122] TRMTP_200523_269.JPG	[123] TRMTP_200523_270.JPG
[124] TRMTP_200523_272.JPG	[125] TRMTP_200523_274.JPG	[126] TRMTP_200523_277.JPG
[127] TRMTP_200523_280.JPG	[128] TRMTP_200523_285.JPG	[129] TRMTP_200523_287.JPG
[130] TRMTP_200523_291.JPG	[131] TRMTP_200523_296.JPG	[132] TRMTP_200523_297.JPG
[133] TRMTP_200523_301.JPG	[134] TRMTP_200523_306.JPG	[135] TRMTP_200523_309.JPG
[136] TRMTP_200523_310.JPG	[137] TRMTP_200523_312.JPG	[138] TRMTP_200523_314.JPG
[139] TRMTP_200523_318.JPG	[140] TRMTP_200523_320.JPG	[141] TRMTP_200523_323.JPG
[142] TRMTP_200523_326.JPG	[143] TRMTP_200523_329.JPG	[144] TRMTP_200523_332.JPG
[145] TRMTP_200523_335.JPG	[146] TRMTP_200523_337.JPG	[147] TRMTP_200523_342.JPG
[148] TRMTP_200523_344.JPG	[149] TRMTP_200523_348.JPG	[150] TRMTP_200523_350.JPG
[151] TRMTP_200523_353.JPG	[152] TRMTP_200523_356.JPG	[153] TRMTP_200523_359.JPG
[154] TRMTP_200523_362.JPG	[155] TRMTP_200523_364.JPG	[156] TRMTP_200523_370.JPG
[157] TRMTP_200523_376.JPG	[158] TRMTP_200523_378.JPG	[159] TRMTP_200523_384.JPG
[160] TRMTP_200523_386.JPG	[161] TRMTP_200523_389.JPG	[162] TRMTP_200523_392.JPG
[163] TRMTP_200523_396.JPG	[164] TRMTP_200523_399.JPG	[165] TRMTP_200523_401.JPG
[166] TRMTP_200523_409.JPG	[167] TRMTP_200523_410.JPG	[168] TRMTP_200523_413.JPG
[169] TRMTP_200523_416.JPG	[170] TRMTP_200523_419.JPG	[171] TRMTP_200523_424.JPG
[172] TRMTP_200523_425.JPG	[173] TRMTP_200523_427.JPG	[174] TRMTP_200523_432.JPG
[175] TRMTP_200523_439.JPG	[176] TRMTP_200523_442.JPG	[177] TRMTP_200523_444.JPG
[178] TRMTP_200523_447.JPG	[179] TRMTP_200523_450.JPG	[180] TRMTP_200523_452.JPG
[181] TRMTP_200523_454.JPG	[182] TRMTP_200523_457.JPG	[183] TRMTP_200523_459.JPG
[184] TRMTP_200523_462.JPG	[185] TRMTP_200523_464.JPG	[186] TRMTP_200523_467.JPG
[187] TRMTP_200523_473.JPG	[188] TRMTP_200523_476.JPG	[189] TRMTP_200523_477.JPG
[190] TRMTP_200523_480.JPG	[191] TRMTP_200523_485.JPG	[192] TRMTP_200523_489.JPG
[193] TRMTP_200523_492.JPG	[194] TRMTP_200523_495.JPG	[195] TRMTP_200523_498.JPG
[196] TRMTP_200523_503.JPG	[197] TRMTP_200523_506.JPG	[198] TRMTP_200523_512.JPG
[199] TRMTP_200523_515.JPG	[200] TRMTP_200523_520.JPG	[201] TRMTP_200523_524.JPG
[202] TRMTP_200523_534.JPG	[203] TRMTP_200523_538.JPG	[204] TRMTP_200523_539.JPG
[205] TRMTP_200523_544.JPG	[206] TRMTP_200523_550.JPG	[207] TRMTP_200523_552.JPG
[208] TRMTP_200523_555.JPG	[209] TRMTP_200523_557.JPG	[210] TRMTP_200523_559.JPG
[211] TRMTP_200523_562.JPG	[212] TRMTP_200523_565.JPG	[213] TRMTP_200523_569.JPG

Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. TRMTP_200429_002.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 1 Fashionable 16th Street Today's 16th Street from the White House to Silver Spring, Maryland is one of the city's key gateways. But through the 1890s it jogged left where Mt. Pleasant Street runs today and then dead-ended at the edge of today's Rock Creek Park. After decades on the city's wish list, in 1903, 16th Street was straightened and extended to Spring Road, several blocks north of here. This improvement, coupled with the arrival of the electric streetcar, made airy Mount Pleasant an attractive location for residential building. Suddenly, it was easy to commute downtown and back. Two decades earlier, Mary Foote Hamilton, socialite developer and wife of Senator John Henderson, had begun working to make 16th Street the city's most fashionable. The couple lived in Henderson Castle (now demolished) at 16th and Florida Avenue. She lured embassies from France, Spain, Mexico Cuba, Lithuania, Italy, and Poland to 16th Street. Henderson also had the street re-named Avenue of the Presidents, but that lasted only one year. When the Kenesaw Apartment House across the park opened in 1906, it led a wave of luxury apartment building here. The Kenesaw housed members of Congress and other prominent Washingtonians. Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson and his family lived there in 1915 while their house at 1843 Irving Street was under construction. In 1913 the Kenesaw owners donated today's park land to the city. President Coolidge dedicated this sculpture of Francis Asbury, the first bishop in America in 1924.
2. TRMTP_200429_007.JPG: The luxurious Kenesaw Apartment House, left, designed by architect George M. Stone, below, contained a pharmacy, visible on left, and a caf�.
3. TRMTP_200429_010.JPG: The site plan for the Kenesaw shows old 16th St., now Mt. Pleasant St., and Kenesaw Ave., now Irving St.
4. TRMTP_200429_013.JPG: From left, Carolyn Ann, Hazel, Robert, Edwin and Walter Jr., the family of famed Senators pitcher, Walter "Big Train" Johnson, below right, on their Irving St. porch.
5. TRMTP_200429_017.JPG: Senators pitcher, Walter "Big Train" Johnson
6. TRMTP_200429_019.JPG: Mount Pleasant residents Christina and Barbara Leckie, dressed up for Easter pose next to the statue in Asbury Park in 1954.
7. TRMTP_200429_025.JPG: Architect George M. Stone
8. TRMTP_200429_029.JPG: This sample sign was designed for the renaming of 16th St. as Avenue of the Presidents in 1913.
9. TRMTP_200429_041.JPG: Rush hour traffic idles, left, on 16th St., as the Mount Pleasant streetcars turn from Columbia Rd. into Mt. Pleasant St., 1952.
10. TRMTP_200429_048.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 2 Upheaval and Activism Beginning in the late 1950s, the community leadership of Mount Pleasant changed from the exclusive Citizens Association to an array of new players. Mount Pleasant Neighbors Association was the first alternative group. It presented festivals and grappled with local poverty. The group brought Barney Neighborhood House – a social services agency – here to 3118 16th Street after urban renewal forced it out of Southwest Washington. Neighbors' Consejo another social services agency, succeeded Barney House in 2000. The efforts of local activists and tenants of the once elegant Kenesaw Apartment House led to a landmark housing law. Facing eviction in the mid-1970s, the tenants decided to buy the run-down building. Their neighbor, DC Councilmember David Clarke, co-sponsored legislation ensuring all tenants the first right to purchase their building when it is offered for sale. Thanks to this 1980 law, renters with limited incomes purchased 3149 Mt. Pleasant Street and 1611 Park Road, among many other buildings. Also at this time, the Wilson Center, now a charter school where 15th Street meets 16th, became a hub of Latino community activism. The center was named for Woodrow Wilson, who worshipped there when it was Central Presbyterian Church. The Latin American Youth Center, formed by young Latino organizers, moved next door on 15th Street. It services range from education to emergency housing. As you proceed to Sign 3, don't miss the small wooden house at 3130 16th Street. From 1927 to 1945 this was the home of John Ernest White, chauffeur to Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
11. TRMTP_200429_052.JPG: City Council Chairman and Mount Pleasant resident David A. Clarke (1944-1997) meets supporters in his backyard, 1982.
12. TRMTP_200429_055.JPG: The Mount Pleasant Neighbors Association at work.
13. TRMTP_200429_058.JPG: Father Mark Poletunow associate pastor at Sacred Heart, speaks at the 1991 dedication of 3149 Mt. Pleasant St. as a tenant owned cooperative.
14. TRMTP_200429_061.JPG: A postcard of Central Presbyterian Church in its early days. President Wilson worshipped here.
15. TRMTP_200429_064.JPG: Among Wilson Center activities have been, clockwise from left, body-building, a student snack bar, and music programs.
16. TRMTP_200429_074.JPG: Children of White House chauffeur John E. White play on the steps of their home at 3130 16th Street, 1928.
17. TRMTP_200429_078.JPG: White House chauffeur John E. White
18. TRMTP_200429_081.JPG: Children of White House chauffeur John E. White, below in car, play on the steps of their home at 3130 16th Street, 1928, right.
19. TRMTP_200429_090.JPG: Tenants march from the Kenesaw to protest condo conversions, 1978.
20. TRMTP_200429_095.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 3 Mount Pleasant Library When the Mount Pleasant Library, behind you, opened in 1925, crowds flocked to the Classical style building. Many had campaigned long and hard for this community centerpiece. The Carnegie Corporation, funder of public libraries in Mount Vernon Square, Southeast, and Takoma Park, spent extra on this branch so that it would fit in with the mansions and churches lining 16th Street. The city hired noted New Yorker Edward L. Tilton, architect of Carnegie libraries nationwide and the Ellis Island immigration station. The handsome library continues as a learning and gathering space, especially for immigrant residents enjoying its foreign-language collections. During the Great Depression (1929-1941), local artist Aurelius Battaglia dressed up the children's reading room with "Animal Circus," murals funded by President Franklin Roosevelt's Public Works of Art program. Later Battaglia worked for Walt Disney Studios on Dumbo and Pinocchio and illustrated dozens of children's books. The church at 3146 16th Street opened in 1916 as the modest, brick Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church, South. A decade later the congregation enlarged the building in the Classical style to match the new library and changed its name to Francis Asbury Methodist Church. After 40 years, the church followed the majority of its members to the Maryland suburbs, and Meridian Hill Baptist Church relocated here from Adams Morgan. In the park across from this sign is a memorial to Guglielmo Marconi, co-winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize in physics for contributions to the invention of wireless telegraphy. Marconi's innovations led to the development of modern radio.
21. TRMTP_200429_101.JPG: The Mount Pleasant Library's circulation area, 1925.
22. TRMTP_200429_102.JPG: Aurelius Battaglia, left, created these elephants for the library before he went on to draw for Disney's film Dumbo.
23. TRMTP_200429_108.JPG: Enjoying the first Mount Pleasant Youth Arts Fair, top, at the library, 2000.
24. TRMTP_200429_111.JPG: Seniors, right, take an exercise class at the library, 1982.
25. TRMTP_200429_113.JPG: Laying the cornerstone for the Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1916, and the original design for the church, right, from a contemporary postcard.
26. TRMTP_200429_115.JPG: Laying the cornerstone for the Mount Pleasant Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1916, and the original design for the church, right, from a contemporary postcard.
27. TRMTP_200429_126.JPG: Rev. Dr. O.B. Langrall and his wife Isabel (fourth from left) pose with the Francis Asbury Church Ladies' Bible Class, around 1950.
28. TRMTP_200429_137.JPG: The Sacred Heart School eighth grade graduates of 1935.
29. TRMTP_200429_142.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 4 Sacred Heart Academy Set back from the Street at 1621 Park Road, to your left, is an elegant old house, once the all-girls Sacred Heart Academy. The Sinsinawa Dominican Sisters of Wisconsin founded the Academy in 1905 and went on to operate it with Sacred Heart parish, adding a co-ed grade school in 1930. Lay educators took over in the 1990s. In addition, the school housed GALA Hispanic Theatre from 1985 to 2000. While the school always served Mount Pleasant's diverse nationalities, African Americans were excluded until 1951. Washington's Catholic schools actually began desegregating in 1949, five years before DC Public Schools. The Park Monroe Apartments, straight ahead, occupy a site where between 1913 and 1921 the family of Wisconsin Progressive Senator Robert F. La Follette lived. The senator and his wife Belle Case La Follette, worked together for world peace and human equality. Just across 16th at 3321 was the home of movie theater mogul Harry M. Crandall. Tragedy struck Crandall in 1922, when the roof of his Knickerbocker Theater at 18th and Columbia Road collapsed during a blizzard, killing 98 and injuring scores. At the time, Crandall was about to build another theater at 14th and Park Road using the Knickerbocker's architect. In shock, he hired another designer, an the Tivoli opened in 1924. Mary Henderson and architect George O. Totten built the mansion on the corner in 1920. From 1939 until 1969 it housed Capital Radio Engineering Institute, teaching radio and TV electronics. CREI later became Maryland's Capitol College.
30. TRMTP_200429_144.JPG: Sacred Heart Second Graders Juan Canales, Phuong Nguen and Elly Tsckerlclis, 1963
31. TRMTP_200429_149.JPG: Rita DiRienzo and Malvina Brown pose with Sister Caedmon during eighth grade graduation from Sacred Heart School, 1963
32. TRMTP_200429_151.JPG: Helen Hayes, seen here in 1931 as a young actress, attended Sacred Heart Academy for several years.
33. TRMTP_200429_157.JPG: Wisconsin Senator Robert la Follette and family in their Washington backyard, 1917
34. TRMTP_200429_161.JPG: Theater mogul Harry Crandall and daughter Olga, ca. 1928
35. TRMTP_200429_164.JPG: Capital Radio Engineering Institute students work with radio parts, around 1940
36. TRMTP_200429_167.JPG: A class in English as a Second Language at Sacred Heart School, 1995
37. TRMTP_200429_172.JPG: GALA Hispanic Theatre presented Raices Cubanas / A Cuban Mosaic, below, at Sacred Heart School, 1998.
38. TRMTP_200523_001.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
39. TRMTP_200523_008.JPG: Bancroft Elementary School sixth grade graduates, 1955.
40. TRMTP_200523_016.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 7 Twenty-Seven Little Flags Just like Mount Pleasant, Bancroft School is known for its ethnic and racial diversity. "at one of the spring fairs in the early 1970s, we asked people to bring native dishes, and I bought 27 little flags to mark the food," parent Gloria Mitchell remembered. The original eight-room Bancroft Elementary School was built on this corner in 1924, after a building boom added hundreds of rowhouses to Mount Pleasant. On the day it opened, Bancroft was already too small. Nine years later a new 17-room wing stretched downtown Newton Street, soon followed by an auditorium and main entry. The school honors George Bancroft (1800-1891), a historian, former secretary of the Navy, and founder of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. In the late 1960s, Mount Pleasant Neighbors Association launched a neighborhood festival on the Bancroft playground, and dozens of other community events have enjoyed the school's accommodations. In the summer of 1962, R&B star Bo Diddley lived with his wife Kay and baby Terri in an apartment at 1724 Newton Street, across from Bancroft School. The neighborhood's central location, affordable rents, and nearby music clubs on Mt. Pleasant and 14th streets all attracted artists and rising performers. Diddley connected with some neighborhood teenagers whom he'd heard "singing on the corner -- at least we thought we were singing," recalled former area resident Arthur Wong. "He encouraged us" and invited the boys to talk music and occasionally ride in his convertible. It was an experience they never forgot.
41. TRMTP_200523_020.JPG: Bancroft sixth graders, 1958.
42. TRMTP_200523_029.JPG: Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft, for whom Bancroft Elementary is named.
43. TRMTP_200523_030.JPG: Students paint a mural for the Mount Pleasant Festival, 1970.
44. TRMTP_200523_033.JPG: Eva Semple poses with her father Wolsey at her sixth grade graduation, 1974.
45. TRMTP_200523_037.JPG: Ray Murphy poses in 1938 with the family cat behind 3438 Mt. Pleasant St., since demolished for Bancroft Elementary School expansion.
46. TRMTP_200523_040.JPG: Teenager Artie Wong, left, and his buddies Eddie Morris, below, and Charlie Rivera, right, sang for Bo Diddley.
47. TRMTP_200523_046.JPG: R&B star Bo Diddley, who once lived at 1724 Newton St.
48. TRMTP_200523_054.JPG: So much for marker 8.
49. TRMTP_200523_064.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 9 Czech Row Like the Latino immigrants of recent times, Europeans left the political and economic hardships of home for a better life in the United States. Following the 1948 communist coup of Czechoslovakia a "Czech Row" or "Prague Road" enclave developed in the 2000 block of Park Road. Among its exiles were a four-star general and a former ambassador to Turkey. American Sokol, an offshoot of a Czech fitness movement, offered activities for all neighborhood children. Sokol had particular meaning for Czech expatriates as it was banned in Czechoslovakia during both the Nazi and communist eras. Czech Row's residents reveled in their tall trees and lush views of the park, recalled Dagmar Hasalova White, the general's daughter. Other European newcomers found a touch of home in this setting. Former residents Mike Najarian and Bill Katopothis recalled how their mothers made stuffed grape leaves from vines in the alley behind nearby Irving Street. For Ruby Pelecanos, living on Irving Street in the 1940s, the neighborhood included a number of Greek families who attended "Greek School" at St. Sophia's Greek Orthodox Church. Ruby's father immigrated to Washington in 1908 and operated a number of small restaurants downtown and in Chevy Chase. Her son George grew up to write thrillers set in Washington. During the 1960s, Mount Pleasant, like Dupont Circle and Adams Morgan, offered affordable housing that appealed to political activists, artists, and unconventional family groups. Blue Skies, a group housed devoted to anti-war work and social justice, owned and occupied 1910 Park Road in the early 1970s.
50. TRMTP_200523_068.JPG: The Blue Skies extended family gathers, 1977.
51. TRMTP_200523_073.JPG: Antonin Hasal was the Czech Army's top general before the communist takeover in 1948.
52. TRMTP_200523_075.JPG: Frank Stovicek, left and his neighborhood Sokol (physical education) class, 1965.
53. TRMTP_200523_077.JPG: Sandy White, dressed in a traditional Czech costume, 1970.
54. TRMTP_200523_080.JPG: Baby Jana Keopple and Frantiṡka Fogl, part of the "Czech Row" community, around 1970.
55. TRMTP_200523_083.JPG: Dagmar Hasalova White, Josepha Hasalova, and Grethe Petersen Hasal en route to a family wedding, 1960.
56. TRMTP_200523_091.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
57. TRMTP_200523_094.JPG: The Pelecanos family enjoys Thanksgiving in Ruby's parents' home, 1745 Irving St. 1962. Clockwise from left, Alice, Jeannie, Peter, Ruby, and George.
58. TRMTP_200523_104.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 10 Voices at Vespers This secluded building on the edge of Rock Creek Park was built in 1911 as the House of Mercy. It provided, as its founders wrote "a refuge and reformatory for outcast and fallen women," especially unwed mothers and girls entangled in prostitution. This home, a mission of St. John's Episcopal Church, trained the young women in domestic skills to prepare them to earn an honest living. Once their babies were born, mothers could keep them or offer them for adoption. Neighbors remembered seeing groups of expectant mothers taking walks in the neighborhood. "At 4pm every afternoon, the girls would sing at vespers," recalled Honora Thompson, who grew up nearby. "Their voices were lovely." By 1972 the maternity home had closed, and the facility became the bilingual Rosemount Center/El Centro Rosemount, offering early childhood education and family support. The new name honors the old "Rosemount" estate. Its manor house, once located in the trees beyond Rosemount Center, was demolished around 1890 as Rock Creek Park was created. Leading into Rock Creek Park, along Klingle Road, is Canto a la Esperanza ("A Song for Hope"), a mural designed by Jorge Somarriba and painted by members of the Latin American Youth Center in 1988. The mural, featuring, regions of the world and hopes for world peace, covered a wall of graffiti. Until recently, the remnants of an old ford were visible in the creek just south of Klingle Road. Drivers remember the pleasures of splashing through the water on this paved roadway. It was removed to help fish navigate the creek more freely.
59. TRMTP_200523_115.JPG: House of Mercy Board members, above, visit their young wards, 1942.
60. TRMTP_200523_118.JPG: A House of Mercy nurse teaches a new mother essential skills, 1970.
61. TRMTP_200523_121.JPG: A typical four-person bedroom, right.
62. TRMTP_200523_124.JPG: Honora Thompson, seen here in 1930 with her father, grew up nearby at 2014 Klingle Rd.
63. TRMTP_200523_127.JPG: A joyous moment at Rosemount Center, 1973.
64. TRMTP_200523_132.JPG: Crossing the creek at the Klingle Rd. ford, around 1915.
65. TRMTP_200523_135.JPG: Latin American Youth Center muralists at work, 1988.
66. TRMTP_200523_139.JPG: This 1866 map shows the location of the Rev. J. French's Rosemount estate.
67. TRMTP_200523_145.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
68. TRMTP_200523_150.JPG: House of Mercy residents exercised in the courtyard, around 1920.
69. TRMTP_200523_155.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 11 Defying the Restrictive Covenants In 1948 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that covenants prohibiting the sale of houses to individuals of certain races could not be enforced. Two years later, Dr. Robert Deane became the first African American to purchase a house in Mount Pleasant that carried the old covenant. But it wasn't easy. The Deanes bought 1841 Park Road from Lillian Kraemer Curry. Curry had inherited the house, built in 1909, from her father Charles Kraemer, a German immigrant wine and spirits merchant. In the 1920s the all-white Mount Pleasant Citizens Associations began circulating a covenant binding homeowners never to sell their houses to "negroes." Kraemer and most of his neighbors signed it. Even though the Supreme Court had outlawed this practice, when Kraemer's daughter sold the hose to the prominent black gynecologist in 1950, a small group of neighbors sued to stop the sale based on the old covenant. The neighbors lost in court, and Dr. Deane owned the house until his death in 2001. Although 1841 remained a single-family home, beginning in the 1930s housing shortages and tight budgets led some families to take in boarders. During the 1950s, Malvina Brown's Armenian-born parents rented rooms in their Park Road home to newcomers from Greece, Mexico, Turkey, and Venezuela. As you continue to Sign 12, notice the stone walls in front of 1833 and 1827 Park Road. The wall at 1833 is made of Kensington tonalite, and 1827 has a wall of Potomac bluestone. Both locally quarried stones are found throughout the city.
70. TRMTP_200523_162.JPG: From left, Linda, Marjel, and Sharon Deane pose in the side yard with their father, Dr. Robert Deane, 1956.
71. TRMTP_200523_165.JPG: The Deane family elders gathered in the front hall of 1841 Park Rd., about 1950.
72. TRMTP_200523_171.JPG: From left, Marina Rodriguez, a boarder, poses with Ebrouka and Malvina Brown. At right is Lily Jones, who rented rooms from a neighbor.
73. TRMTP_200523_173.JPG: Below, Malvina Brown and her mother Ebrouka pose in front of their home, 1957. The Deane house is in the background.
74. TRMTP_200523_176.JPG: he house at 1841 Park still displays a German beer pitcher, right, and a moose head collected by original owner Charles Kraemer.
75. TRMTP_200523_179.JPG: This 1891 advertisement promoted local Potomac Blue Stone as "cheaper than brick."
76. TRMTP_200523_182.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
77. TRMTP_200523_188.JPG: The Smart Set women's club met in the basement rec room of 1841 Park Rd., 1950s. Hostess Miriam Deane is fifth from left.
78. TRMTP_200523_198.JPG: Byron S. Adams, below, advertised his printing business on his delivery truck, around 1920. The family home is seen in the 1930s, bottom right.
79. TRMTP_200523_205.JPG: When the Starlite switched from country to rock, so did its matchbooks. The "IITYWYBMAD" written on the matchbook spine stood for "If I tell you, will you buy me a drink?"
80. TRMTP_200523_210.JPG: Byron Adams's mansion at 1801 Park Rd, was saved from demolition in 1978.
81. TRMTP_200523_213.JPG: Mount Pleasant's Charlie Waller, top right, and the Country Gentlemen, 1959.
82. TRMTP_200523_216.JPG: Fred Hays, paperboy to the stars, 1956.
83. TRMTP_200523_219.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 12 Changing Fashions Around 1900 this successful suburb attracted successful business leaders, who set a grand standard for home building. Printer Byron S. Adams commissioned architect Frederick Pyle to design 1801 Park Road in the Colonial Revival style. Pyle also contributed 3303 18th Street. Developer Lewis Breuninger built 1770 Park Road for his family, as well as rowhouses along Park Road. Completing the luxurious landscape was the large house at 1802 Park Road (since demolished for rowhouses). This enclave was short-lived however. During the Great Depression of 1929-1941, the houses at 1801 and 1802 Park Road became homes for the elderly. In the 1950s, 3303 18th Street became a rooming house. Twenty years later, social service providers operated from dozens of Mount Pleasant's houses, large and small. More recently these well-built, convenient buildings have gone back to single-family use by people of means returning to in-town living. After World War II, Mount Pleasant enjoyed a brief heyday as a "hillbilly" (now country) music destination. Singer (and later sausage salesman) Jimmy Dean found fame hosting a local TV show, Town and Country Time, but Mount Pleasant knew him first as Jimmy Dean and the Texas Wildcats, the Starlite Restaurant's house band. Dean roomed at 3303 18th Street, where neighbor Fred Hays delivered the Washington Daily News: "I'd walk through the unlocked front door, up the stairs and throw one over the railing. That's where Jimmy Dean lived." Charlie Waller, founder of the Country Gentlemen bluegrass band, grew up in his mothers rooming house at 1747 Park Road. When country gave way to rock 'n' roll in the 1960s, local clubs followed suit.
84. TRMTP_200523_222.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
85. TRMTP_200523_228.JPG: Jimmy Dean, playing accordion, opens Eig's new Georgia Ave. liquor store, 1952.
86. TRMTP_200523_236.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 13 War and Peace The mansion of Samuel P. Brown, Mount Pleasant's founder once stood in the middle of the block to your left. During the Civil War, Brown bought 73 acres here for a song from William Selden, a former U.S. treasurer. Selden believed the Confederacy would win the war, so he sold his holdings and retreated home to Virginia. Brown planned to sell Selden's land as building lots once peace arrived. As the war raged (1861-1865), Union camps and hospitals filled these hilltops. Brown regularly hosted wounded soldiers from Maine, where he had been a state legislator. The Union's wartime occupation of Washington left the city in terrible shape. Congress debated moving the nation's capital to St. Louis or another heartland location. Fortunately, after Alexander "Boss" Shepherd's Board of Public Works rebuilt and improved the city, the government decided to stay. Well-connected land speculators such as Brown, who was also a member of the Board of Public Works, profited as a result. In 1906 a group of neighbors purchased this triangle in order to stop commercial construction here. The group then sold the property to the city for use as a public park. In the process they also revived the Mount Pleasant Citizens Association to bring community concerns to the three presidentially appointed commissioners then governing Washington, DC. During the early 1960s, the triangle park was a favorite hangout for area teenagers. "You could always find your friends there or at the Argyle drug store," recalled Bob Sciandra, a former resident.
87. TRMTP_200523_239.JPG: Samuel P. Brown, left, and the mansion where he hosted Civil War wounded.
88. TRMTP_200523_241.JPG: Samuel P. Brown, left, and the mansion where he hosted Civil War wounded.
89. TRMTP_200523_244.JPG: From left, Joan Nottingham, Sue Tinsley, April Best, and Gracie Tamborelle hang out at the Park Road triangle park, around 1963.
90. TRMTP_200523_247.JPG: Charlene Arnold and Dandy Weadon, Mount Pleasant teens of the early 1960s.
91. TRMTP_200523_250.JPG: These early wood frame houses once stood where the 3336-3360 Mount Pleasant St. apartments are today.
92. TRMTP_200523_253.JPG: An 1867 Boyd's City Directory ad for Samuel P. Brown's businesses.
93. TRMTP_200523_256.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
94. TRMTP_200523_259.JPG: Civil War wounded recuperated at Mount Pleasant Hospital, east of 14th St. and north of Park Road.
95. TRMTP_200523_269.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 14 Main Street In 1903 a street car line arrived on Mt. Pleasant Street and so did new businesses. In this block were Sophia Weiss's notions shop, Domenico Pappalardo's shoe shop, and Lee Sing's laundry. The block's first commercial building (3215) was completed in 1906, designed by the prominent African American firm J.A. Lankford & Brother. There has been a family-run bakery here since 1922, beginning with Bohemian immigrant Frank Novotny's shop at 3215 Mt. Pleasant. German immigrant Paul Riedel owned it next. Then in the early 1930s, brothers August and Ludwig Heller, who had learned the family trade near Frankfurt, Germany, acquired the business. About 1940, Heller's moved to 3221, where some family members lived upstairs. Everybody in the extended Heller family worked in the bakery. Even the children assembled white cake boxes or cracked eggs. Soon Heller's drew customers from all over. As Heller's outlets sprouted around the city, all the baking was still done here. According to Greg Heller, at its height in the mid-1950s, Heller's operated 24 hours a day with a multinational workforce of 50. By 1960 many of the neighborhood's European immigrants had moved on, including the Hellers. But the family continued to bake here until they sold Heller's in 1983. Subsequent owners have retained the name and many original recipes. Mt. Pleasant Street's businesses included nightclubs. In the 1960s, the Fox Lounge at 3253, with its discreetly covered-up windows, quietly catered to Washington's gay community. The Crosstown Lounge at 3102 and the Oasis at 3171 drew citywide audiences for rock 'n' roll.
96. TRMTP_200523_291.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
97. TRMTP_200523_296.JPG: An old streetcar idles on Mt. Pleasant St., photographed around 1935.
98. TRMTP_200523_301.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 15 Streetcar Suburb Lamont Park, across from the number 42 bus stop, was once the turnaround for the numbers 40 and 42 streetcars. Back in the 1940s, "when the conductor called 'end of the line,' passengers stepped onto a yellow wooden platform," recalled former resident Elizabeth Slattery Clare. "Then, to turn around, the car proceeded slowly through a small park that we called 'the loop.'" Starting in the 1870s a horse-drawn coach carried villagers downtown from Mount Pleasant's first commercial center, 14th Street and Park Road. In 1903 an electric streetcar line opened here, spurring another commercial center and urban style residential development. Soon this part of Mount Pleasant transformed from village to suburban neighborhood. Residents loved their streetcars. Just before buses replaced streetcars in 1961, fans held a funeral procession. Elizabeth Walbridge, an heir to the old Ingleside Estate on Newton Street, owned property here when the streetcars arrived. She did well selling building lots. Architect Glenn Brown, a planner of Rock Creek Park, designed 1711-1713 Lamont with their unusual Potomac bluestone pillars, as well as 1715-1717. Walbridge and her family lived in 1717. Some neighborhood businesses came under assault here in April 1968, when rioting broke out around Washington in response to the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nearby 14th Street suffered the heaviest damage, but looters hit shops here too. Carmen Marrero recalled that many "African Americans and Hispanics [residents]...stood in solidarity as a shield" alongside business owners to prevent looting. Over the succeeding decades, Lamont Park attracted illegal activity. In the early 1990s resident persuaded the city to restore it as a family-friendly, outdoor community center.
99. TRMTP_200523_329.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
100. TRMTP_200523_332.JPG: The number 40 streetcar at Lamont St., 1951.
101. TRMTP_200523_344.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 16 The First Bodega The 1960s saw this neighborhood develop a Latino presence, and this became its Main Street. The storefront at 3161 Mt. Pleasant Street once housed Casa Dilon�, the first bodega (grocery) here. From 1962 until 1998, Casa Dilon� sold products familiar to immigrants and embassy staffers from Latin America and the Caribbean who lived in the area. It was a social center for Washington's Spanish-speakers and attracted other Latino-oriented businesses. Francisca Marrero Dilon� and F�lix Dilon� lived above the store with their six children, who also worked there. Customers eventually moved on, but many returned for holiday lech�n asado (roast suckling pig) and Puerto Rican pasteles (ground root vegetables steamed in banana leaves), hand-made by Francisca and daughter Carmen. Washington's Latino community was still small in the 1940s when Francisca immigrated from Puerto Rico and F�lix from the Dominican Republic. The late 1950s brought Cubans, followed by Central and South Americans in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of the recent arrivals fled war, economic disruptions, or other political turmoil, By the 1980s, Mount Pleasant was known for its Salvadoran community. In fact, campaigning for Salvadoran elections became a regular event here. In 1990 Salvadoran �migr�s Haydee and Mario Alas operated Trolley's Restaurant where, 20 years earlier, customers had lined up out the door for the Loop Restaurant. In 1974 the activist, ecumenical Community of Christ church moved to 3166 Mt. Pleasant Street from Dupont Circle. Many congregants, dedicated to a simpler and more communal existence, moved here as well. The group's La Casa provided space for community activities and the Life Skills Center, founded by a church member.
102. TRMTP_200523_378.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
103. TRMTP_200523_384.JPG: Francisca Marrero Dione, left, visits with Carmen Rivera, around 1991.
104. TRMTP_200523_386.JPG: So much for historic tour stop #17.
105. TRMTP_200523_392.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
106. TRMTP_200523_396.JPG: Rush hour traffic idles, left, on 16th St., as the Mount Pleasant streetcars turn from Columbia Rd. into Mt. Pleasant St., 1952.
107. TRMTP_200523_401.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 1 Fashionable 16th Street Today's 16th Street from the White House to Silver Spring, Maryland is one of the city's key gateways. But through the 1890s it jogged left where Mt. Pleasant Street runs today and then dead-ended at the edge of today's Rock Creek Park. After decades on the city's wish list, in 1903, 16th Street was straightened and extended to Spring Road, several blocks north of here. This improvement, coupled with the arrival of the electric streetcar, made airy Mount Pleasant an attractive location for residential building. Suddenly, it was easy to commute downtown and back. Two decades earlier, Mary Foote Hamilton, socialite developer and wife of Senator John Henderson, had begun working to make 16th Street the city's most fashionable. The couple lived in Henderson Castle (now demolished) at 16th and Florida Avenue. She lured embassies from France, Spain, Mexico Cuba, Lithuania, Italy, and Poland to 16th Street. Henderson also had the street re-named Avenue of the Presidents, but that lasted only one year. When the Kenesaw Apartment House across the park opened in 1906, it led a wave of luxury apartment building here. The Kenesaw housed members of Congress and other prominent Washingtonians. Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson and his family lived there in 1915 while their house at 1843 Irving Street was under construction. In 1913 the Kenesaw owners donated today's park land to the city. President Coolidge dedicated this sculpture of Francis Asbury, the first bishop in America in 1924.
108. TRMTP_200523_442.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 2 Upheaval and Activism Beginning in the late 1950s, the community leadership of Mount Pleasant changed from the exclusive Citizens Association to an array of new players. Mount Pleasant Neighbors Association was the first alternative group. It presented festivals and grappled with local poverty. The group brought Barney Neighborhood House – a social services agency – here to 3118 16th Street after urban renewal forced it out of Southwest Washington. Neighbors' Consejo another social services agency, succeeded Barney House in 2000. The efforts of local activists and tenants of the once elegant Kenesaw Apartment House led to a landmark housing law. Facing eviction in the mid-1970s, the tenants decided to buy the run-down building. Their neighbor, DC Councilmember David Clarke, co-sponsored legislation ensuring all tenants the first right to purchase their building when it is offered for sale. Thanks to this 1980 law, renters with limited incomes purchased 3149 Mt. Pleasant Street and 1611 Park Road, among many other buildings. Also at this time, the Wilson Center, now a charter school where 15th Street meets 16th, became a hub of Latino community activism. The center was named for Woodrow Wilson, who worshipped there when it was Central Presbyterian Church. The Latin American Youth Center, formed by young Latino organizers, moved next door on 15th Street. It services range from education to emergency housing. As you proceed to Sign 3, don't miss the small wooden house at 3130 16th Street. From 1927 to 1945 this was the home of John Ernest White, chauffeur to Presidents Wilson, Harding, Coolidge, Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt.
109. TRMTP_200523_467.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
110. TRMTP_200523_473.JPG: Tenants march from the Kenesaw to protest condo conversions, 1978.
111. TRMTP_200523_477.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
112. TRMTP_200523_480.JPG: Fellow members of Columbia Elks Lodge No. 85 conveyed Rev. M. Cecil Mills to Canaan Baptist Church's new home, June 1963.
113. TRMTP_200523_485.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 5 Avenue of Churches To Your Left is Canaan Baptist Church. Its relocation here from Georgia Avenue in 1963 was the fulfillment of pastor Rev. M. Cecil Mills's dream to preside over the first African American church on this avenue of churches. The congregation paraded from their old church to the new and celebrated for an entire month. Canaan Baptist replaced Gunton-Temple Memorial Presbyterian Church, whose white congregation had moved to Bethesda, Maryland. Like many white Washingtonians in the period following World War II, they left because of school desegregation and also because the suburbs offered newer housing. Just across 16th Street is St. Stephen and the Incarnation, known as the first racially integrated Episcopal Church in the city. During the controversial tenure of Father William Wendt (1960-1978), St. Stephen's also became, known for its political activism. Father Wendt came under fire in 1967 for inviting civil rights activist H. Rap Brown to speak in the church. In 1974 he was censured by Episcopal Church leaders for permitting a woman to celebrate the Eucharist before the practice was accepted. During the riots following the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, St. Stephen's distributed emergency food and supplies. The Northbrook Apartments across Newton Street were built in 1916 by prolific developer Harry Wardman, known for his blocks of substantial rowhouses and grand apartment buildings. As you walk to Sign 6, be sure to notice two of Mount Pleasant's original wood frame houses: 1626 and 1640 Newton Street.
114. TRMTP_200523_534.JPG: Village in the City Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail 6 Village Life This was the western edge of Samuel P. Brown's Mount Pleasant Village. Across the street and a few steps ahead at 3423 Oakwood Terrace is "Oakwood," an original village house built in 1871 for city politician J.W. Buker. Brown reserved the land to your left for his family, and sold lots to your right, from 17th Street to today's 14th Street. You can recognize Brown's earliest streets on the trail map on the other side of this sign by the way they angle off 17th Street. Brown's settlement attracted Civil War veterans and government employees, mostly New Englanders. They found these breezy hills healthier than the congested lowlands of the City of Washington (bounded on the north by Florida Avenue). Villagers organized the Mount Pleasant Assembly, which ran a horse-drawn coach from 14th Street and Park Road to the Treasury Department downtown. It also built Union Hall for meetings and worship services, and a school on Hiatt Place. In 1883 Samuel Brown's son Chapin began subdividing the family estate. You'll see the subdivision's first house -- 1701 Newton Street -- as you walk to Sign 7. Even before Rock Creek Park was set aside in 1890, the wild woodlands bordering the village were a happy part of daily life. The young sons of developer Luther Fristoe and his wife Caroline, who moved here in 1887, often played at the creek and the zoo. Others came from farther away: Theodore Roosevelt, president from 1901 to 1909, rode horseback, hiked, and even skinny-dipped in Rock Creek Park. He arrived so often via 17th Street, one street over, that Washingtonians dubbed it the Roosevelt Entrance.
115. TRMTP_200523_539.JPG: Chapin Brown continued his father's work developing Mount Pleasant.
116. TRMTP_200523_544.JPG: This 1887 Hopkins map shows Mount Pleasant Village. Old 16th and 17th sts. are now Mt. Pleasant St., Piney Branch Rd. is now 17th St., and Park St. and Pierce Mill Rd. are today's Park Rd.
117. TRMTP_200523_550.JPG: Village children were educated in this four-room schoolhouse, seen here in 1876.
118. TRMTP_200523_552.JPG: Villagers built Union Hall, above, for church services, parties, and public meetings.
119. TRMTP_200523_555.JPG: President Theodore Roosevelt, avid outdoorsman, often rode into Rock Creek Park on 17th St., at the center of this 1927 view, right.
120. TRMTP_200523_557.JPG: The Fristoe family house once stood at 3309 17th St. The two active Fristoe boys, Roy, left, and Edward, pause in the front hall.
121. TRMTP_200523_565.JPG: Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from. The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community. Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome! Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson, chair; Mara Cherkasky, Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye Haskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong. Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
122. TRMTP_200523_569.JPG: Edward Fristoe rides his bicycle at the corner of Park Road and 17t St., around 1898.
Bigger photos? To save server space, the full-sized versions of these images have either not been loaded to the server or have been removed from the server. (Only some pages are loaded with full-sized images and those usually get removed after three months.) I still have them though. If you want me to email them to you, please send an email to guthrie.bruce@gmail.com and I can email them to you, or, depending on the number of images, just repost the page again will the full-sized images.
Connection Not Secure messages? Those warnings you get from your browser about this site not having secure connections worry some people. This means this site does not have SSL installed (the link is http:, not https:). That's bad if you're entering credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal information. But this site doesn't collect any personal information so SSL is not necessary. Life's good!
Photo Contact: [Email Bruce Guthrie].