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Roads to Diversity
Adams Morgan Heritage Trail
7 Lanier Heights
Banker Archibald McLachlen and Smithsonian Institution naturalist George Brown Goode developed Lanier Heights in the early 1890s. Goode laid out streets and encouraged Smithsonian colleagues to purchase lots. McLachlan built the elegant Ontario Apartments, visible ahead and to the left on then-rural Ontario Road. More apartments and row houses followed. By 1935 Lanier Heights was considered a close-in, city neighborhood.
In 1908 the city built the Mission style firehouse mid-block to your left. Generations of neighborhood children played in front of it, considering the firefighters their personal guardians. The community saved the deteriorating facility from demolition in 1975.
During the 1920s, most residents of this block were German Jews. Many came from Old Southwest [D.C.], including Rabbi Moses Yoelsen, father of entertainer Al Jolson (1787 Lanier Place). Like much of the area, Lanier Place eventually grew less affluent as families of means left for newer suburban housing.
In the 1960s Adams Morgan drew a younger, mixed population, giving the area a reputation as activist and community conscious. Lanier Place became a hub of anti-establishment politics. Members of Students for a Democratic Society lived at 1779 Lanier Place. Black Panthers, American Indian Movement workers, and the Berrigan brothers (Catholic priests and anti-war activists) all passed through. The Mayday Tribe, anti-war organizers, created a commune at 1747. After a bombing at the U.S. Capitol in 1971, F.B.I. agents staked out 1747 in search of witness Leslie Bacon. She was chased along the rooftops of these buildings and apprehended. |