Voices at Vespers rosemount avenue and klingle road nw
This secluded building on the edge of Rock Creek Park was built as the House of Mercy. It provided, as its founders wrote, a “refuge and reformatory for outcast and fallen women,” espe- cially unwed mothers and girls entangled in prostitution. The home, a mission of St. John’s Episcopal Church, trained the young women in domestic skills to prepare them to earn an honest living. Neighbors remembered seeing groups of expectant mothers taking walks in the neighbor- hood. “At 4 pm every afternoon, the girls would sing at vespers,” recalled Honora Thompson, who grew up nearby. “Their voices were lovely.” By 1972 the maternity home had closed, and the facility became the bilingual Rosemount Center/ El Centro Rosemount, offering early childhood education and family support. The new name honors the old “Rosemount” estate. Its manor house, once located in the trees beyond Rose- mount Center, was demolished around 1890 as Rock Creek Park was created. Leading into Rock Creek Park, along Klingle Road, is Canto a la Esperanza (“A Song for Hope”), a mural designed by Jorge Somarriba and painted by Latin American Youth Center members in 1988. The mural, featuring regions of the world and hopes for world peace, covered a wall of graffiti. Until recently, you could see the remnants of an old ford in the creek just south of Klingle Road. Drivers remember the pleasures of splashing through the water on this paved roadway. It was removed to help fish navigate the creek more freely.
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