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Worthy Ambition
LeDroit Park/Bloomingdale Heritage Trail
8 Water for the City
You are entering Bloomingdale. Its name recalls the estate of Navy Commander George Beale, who served in the War of 1812, and his wife Emily, the daughter of Commodore Thomas Truxton. The estate occupied the land now bounded by Florida Avenue, T Street, Lincoln Road, NE, and First Street. By 1891 the real estate subdivision of Bloomingdale extended to Bryant Street. The arrival of an electric streetcar line on North Capitol in 1894 encouraged the building of urban rowhouses for commuters.
Across Bryant Street to your left is the Bryant Street Pumping Station, which opened in 1904 to distribute filtered water from McMillan Reservoir. The modern pumping station propelled clean drinking water to elevations higher than its source and decreased dependence on local springs. This meant fewer cases of water-borne diseases such as typhoid fever. Pressurized water also made five hydrants reliable for firefighters.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had built the reservoir and filtering system up the hill a few years earlier. Then as now, Potomac River water flowed to McMillan through the tunnel from the Georgetown and Dalecarlia Reservoirs. Originally waters was filtered slowly through sand and stone in football-field-sized underground beds. Rapid filters replaced the slow ones in 1985.
Actor Chita Rivera (Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero) grew up two blocks away at 2134 Flagler Place, where she helped her brother host weekend movies in their basement. "He charged a nickel for the movie and a penny for the popcorn," remembered neighbor Thomas Heggans. Rivera attended Dunbar and trained at DC's prestigious Jones-Haywood Dance School. She became a Broadway star when she created the role of "Anita" in the 1957 musical West Side Story. |