Lanier Heights lanier place and ontario road nw
banker archibald mclachlen and Smith- sonian Institution naturalist George Brown Goode developed Lanier Heights in the early 1900 s. Goode laid out streets and encouraged Smithsonian colleagues to purchase lots.McLachlen built the elegant Ontario apartments on then-rural Ontario Road.More apartments and rowhouses followed. By 1935 Lanier Heights was considered a close-in city neighborhood. In 1908 the city built the Mission style firehouse at 1763 Lanier Place.Generations of neighborhood children played in front of it,considering the fire fighters their personal guardians.The community saved the deteriorated facility from demolition in 1975. During the 1920 s,most residents of these blocks were German Jews.Many came up the economic ladder and up the hill from Old Southwest,includ- ing Rabbi Moses Yoelson, father of entertainer Al Jolson ( 1787 Lanier Place).Like much of the area, Lanier Place eventually grew less affluent as fami- lies of means left for newer,suburban housing. In the 1960 s Adams Morgan’s affordable housing attracted a younger,more mixed population,giving the area a reputation as organized 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 work- ers,and the Berrigan brothers (Catholic priests and anti-war leaders) all passed through.The Mayday Tribe,anti-Vietnam-War organizers,creat- ed a commune at 1747 .After a bombing at the U.S. Capitol in 1971 ,FBI agents staked out 1747 in search of witness Leslie Bacon.She was chased along the rooftops of these houses and apprehended.
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