Community Builders 14TH STREET and OTIS PLACE NW
Harry Wardman, Washington’s prolific devel- oper, built nearly all of the 3 00 houses around this sign between Monroe Street and Spring Road. The English immigrant and self-made millionaire became known for his rowhouses, whose front porches allowed neighbors to visit easily. These date from 1 9 0 7 to 1 9 11 . Adjoining Wardman buildings at 3 –105 3 05 3 1 4th Street once housed the Danzansky Funeral Home, originally opened in 1 9 12 by Bernard Danzansky on Ninth Street, NW, as DC’s first Jewish funeral home. Soon after, he moved his residence and business here, as affluent Jews moved uptown from the old city. The Jewish Social Service Agency as well as a mikvah—a ritual purification bath—were nearby. Danzansky helped found the Hebrew Home for the Aged and the Hebrew Academy of Washington. His wife Nettie was a leader in charitable work, and his son Joseph was president of Giant Food and headed the city’s Board of Trade. When the funeral home relocated to Maryland, the Washington Urban League moved in, remaining for 3 0 years before moving to 1 4th and Harvard Streets. Across 1 4th Street is Hubbard Place apartments. Long known as the Cavalier, the originally ritzy building was constructed by Morris Cafritz, a top DC developer. It was later converted to low-income housing, and in 002 9 was renamed to honor the late community activist Leroy Hubbard. In the 1 98 0 s growing crime led to the formation of the “red-hat” Citizen Organized Patrol Effort ( COPE ) to walk the neighborhood and alert police to loitering, vacant properties, burnt-out streetlights, and other conditions that contributed to crime.
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