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Cultural Convergence
Columbia Heights Heritage Trail
6 Holmead Legacy
This spot once was the center of the Holmead family estate, "Pleasant Plains." The property stretched from today's Spring Road to Columbia Road, and from Georgia Avenue to Rock Creek. In 1740 the Holmeads built a house near here.
In 1802, two years after Congress arrived in Washington, Col. John Tayloe leased land from the Holmeads to open the city's second racetrack (the first was walking distance from the White House where the Organization of American States is today on Constitution Avenue, NW). Congress regularly recessed to make post time at the one-mile track, which extended from today's 10th to 16th Streets, bordered on the south by Tayloe's Lane, now Columbia Road.
During the 1800s Holmead descendents gradually sold off Pleasant Plains. In 1883 William and Mary Holmead laid out Holmead Manor, with 50-foot wide building lots. For themselves they built a large house at 3517 13th Street (behind you). That structure remains today, adapted for apartments. You can see its carriage house, tucked into the alley that you'll pass on your left en route to Sign 7.
In 1909, shortly after 11th Street was built, the Anacostia & Pacific River Railroad's 11th Street line ended at Monroe Street. Added to existing lines on Georgia Avenue and 14th Street, the new line made this DC's best-served "streetcar suburb."
As you proceed on Monroe to Sign 7, notice the small park at the end of the block where streetcars once turned around to head back downtown. Then turn right on 11th and continue to Kenyon Street. |