DCNHT: H Street Guide

Hub, Home, Heart GREATER H STREET NE HERITAGE TRAIL

A bustling, working-class neighborhood grew up here alongside the railroad and streetcar. Mom-and-pop businesses served all comers in the city’s leading African American shopping district. Discover how, even aἀer the devastating 1968 civil disturbances, the strong community prevailed to witness H Street’s 21st-century revival.

Welcome.

In 2005 the Atlas Performing Arts Center opened in a renovated Atlas movie theater. Restaurants and clubs followed, and a new chapter began for the long-neglected H Street, NE, commercial corridor. What stories do these old brick storefronts hold? Follow Hub, Home, Heart: Greater H Street, NE Heritage Trail to meet the entrepreneurial families who lived and ran businesses here. Along the way, learn how the neighborhood became an important transportation hub and a bustling, working-class community. is k eepsake guide summarizes the 18 signs of the city’s 1 3th O cial Walking Tour.

Tom Collins, left, grandfather of local TV personality Pat Collins, was an engineer for the Capitol Limited train that ran between Washington and Chicago. Collection of Pat Collins

Distributed by Events DC 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW Washington, DC 200 01 www. EventsDC.com

Map by Larry Bowring, Bowring Cartographic.

As you walk this trail, please keep safety in mind, just as you would while visiting any unfamiliar place.

On the cover: H Street rowhouse, acrylic, by Brett Busang, 2011.

Hub, Home, Heart Greater H Street NE Heritage Trail

Sarah Shoenfeld Lead Historian

Jane Freundel Levey Editor and Historian Mara Cherkasky Writer and Historian Sarah Fairbrother Project Director Maggie Downing and Carmen Harris Project Assistants Cortney Kreer Graphic Designer A project of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the H Street, NE, Heritage Trail Working Group, Joseph A. Englert, Marqui Lyons, and Anwar Saleem, Co-chairs . Funding provided by the District Department of Transportation, Events DC, and U.S. Department of Transportation.

Introduction

THE NEAR NORTHEAST H STREET neighborhood is a child of early Washington’s largest transportation hu bs. e railroads, streetcars, and major roads brought industrial and distribution facilities to the area, while working-class families, attracted by federal building projects and factory jobs, created a community. Planners of the Nation’s Capital chose Maryland Avenue as a primary link between the Capitol and Boundary Street (today’s Florida Avenue). At Boundary Street it joined an old farm road lead-ing to Bladensburg, Maryland. During the War of 1812, British forces traveled this route on their mission to burn the seat of U.S. government. Two decades later, the B&O Railroad laid tracks from Baltimore along I Street, NE, to a terminal near the Capitol. A settlement north of the Capitol provided many of the laborers — mostly Irish immigrants and free African Americans who had

The array of railroad lines “united” at Union Station can be seen on the arrival board, 1948.

helped build the Capitol and the White House. e settlement was known as Swampoodle, thanks to the unruly Tiber Creek and its marshes, located between what are now North Capitol and First Streets, NE. Later Swampoodle residents included Italian immigrant stone carvers and masons whose hands cra ed the Library of Con- gress, Union Station, and the National Cathedral.

Photographed around 1915 were Annie O’Neill Garner, daughter of Irish immigrants, with husband George and their nine children, all of 9 K St., NW, in Swampoodle.

Gallaudet University was founded in 1856 on land donated by former U.S. Postmaster General Amos Kendall.

During the mid-1800s enduring institutions such as St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church, Gonzaga College High School, the Little Sisters of the Poor’s Home for the Aged, and the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb (later Gallaudet University) opened north and east of the Capitol to serve the community. In 1871 a horse-drawn streetcar line opened along H Street, running to and from downtown. New housing and commercial buildings soon followed. Union Station’s arrival in the early 1900s displaced many Swampoodle dwellings, and led to an expanded commercial/industrial corridor. With more jobs but less housing, families found shelter to the east along H Street, where brick rowhouses, stores and churches replaced farms, a brickyard, a brewery, and a ballpark.

Another new streetcar line soon ferried workers south along Eighth Street to the Navy Yard, long Washington’s biggest industrial employer. Two large banks opened at the streetcar transfer point of H and Eighth Streets, lending an air of dignity and permanence to the neighborhood. A 1949 view of the intersection of Eighth and H Sts. looking east with the Northeast Savings Bank at left.

Truck farmers’ stands in the shed at Union Terminal Market, 1940s.

Union Terminal Market near the railroad became the city’s largest food wholesaler and farmers’ mar- ket in 1931, when Center Market closed downtown to make way for the Federal Triangle. A Dutch immigrant named Uline opened an ice business nearby and later built Uline Arena to present ice hockey, basketball, and other public events. By the 1930s H Street bustled with shops, restau- rants, and professional o ces r un by Jewish, Ital- ian, Lebanese, Greek, Irish, and African American families. Many of them lived nearby or above their stores. Most businesses served all customers — unlike those in downtown DC where African Americans met discrimination.

Dr. Granville Moore, seen with his children Judith and Granville, Jr., in 1952, treated patients on H St. for more than 50 years.

Among the small Jewish H St. businesses of the 1920s was the Love family’s Reliable Shoe Store.

E.B. Henderson, seen here with students in 1947, forced Uline Arena to desegregate a year later.

Stonecarvers working on the Library of Congress, 1894.

H Street’s theaters and nightclubs were an excep- tion, thoug h. e Atlas movie house opened in 1938 for whites only. African Americans traveled elsewhere for movies until the Plymouth opened in 1943 a few doors from the Atla s. e popular Club Kavakos served only whites, and until 1948 Uline Arena admitted black audiences only for certain events. Finally, in 1953 the Supreme Court out- lawed segregation in DC’s public accommodations. One consequence of the decision, and the end of legal school segregation the following year, was an increase in racial change . i s s hi h ad started in the 1940s as the children of H Street’s European immigrants reached adulthood and moved on. Churches found new congregations, and the city switched public schools into the “colored division” to accommodate the increasing black population. By the end of the 1950s, with “whit e ig ht” in full gear, Greater H Street was almost completely Afri- can America n. e business community continued to cater to its neighbors and to commuters. en in April 1968 the assassination of the Rever- end Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., provoked civil dis- turbances across the city. More than 100 H Street businesses were destroyed completely, and others

The intersection of Eighth and H Sts., four days after the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s assassination, with the gutted Kay Jewelers on the right.

WOL owner Cathy Hughes on the air in the station’s H St. studio, 1994.

moved away for good . e Atla s eater held on for a few years, then closed. Although the H Street commercial corridor declined for decades, its heart — the surrounding, long-standing resi- dential community — remained strong. e 21st century has brought big changes as Greater H Street follows the city’s trend toward greater racial and economic diversity. In addition the opening of the Atlas Performing Arts Center in the old Atlas movie theater has signaled a revival, building evocatively on H Street’s strong past. Hub, Home, Heart is a bridge to carry you from that past to the present.

In 2005 workers pause while pouring concrete for the Lang Theatre, one of four in the new Atlas Performing Arts Center.

Red Cap Edward Gorham assists Mr. and Mrs. Jack McFall at Union Station, 1940. The Washington Post

All Aboard! FIRST STREET AND MASSACHUSETTS AVENUE NE WHEN IT OPENED IN 1907, Union Station was the world’s largest railroad terminal. Architect Daniel Burnham’s Beaux-Arts masterpiece, with its soaring, elegant, and ligh t- lled interiors, was th e fir st of the series of Classical buildings demonstrating the sophistication and power of the Nation’s Capital. e station’s name refers to the “union” of two competing railroad depots: the Baltimore & Ohio’s on New Jersey Avenue, NW, and the Pennsylvania’s, which occupied 14 acres of the National Mall . e merger made train travel more convenient. It removed commerce from the Mall and eliminated the danger of tracks crossing city streets. Union Station and the railroads have employed thousands, many of whom lived nearby. For a white male immigrant of the early 1900s, a railroad job meant security for his family and, o en, economic progress. For African American men the job of porter on a Pullman Company luxury rail car was among the best available. In 1925, A. Philip Randolph founded a pioneering black union, International Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. DC’s station porters, or Red Caps, were the nation’ s r st to organize a local union, the Washington Terminal Brother- hood of Station Porters. Inside the station you can see a memorial to Randolph, also an organizer of the 1963 March on Washington. e City Pos t Oce , designed to match Union Station, opened next door in 191 4. e Post Oce (sin ce reborn as the National Postal Museum) replaced Capitol Park (a.k.a. Swampoodle Grounds), where th e fir st baseball team known as the Washington Nationals played beginning in 1886.

The Washington Senators greet cheering fans at the station after a 9-1 western road trip, 1949. Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library

W ITH ITS VIEW OF THE CAPITITOL and Senate o ffice b uildings, and with the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court just a short stroll away, Union Station truly is the gateway to the heart of the nation’s governmen t. Th e station is also where o ffici al Washington mixes with the local city. Before air travel became common in the 1950s, enormous crowds gathered at Union Station to salute arriving presidents, watch protesters, view visiting dignitaries, or shriek at the Beatles disembarking for th eir fir st live American concert. Until the early 1950s, most of downtown Washington’s public accommodations were segregated. Union Station was one of the exceptions. In its dining room, African American and white patrons could sit down and eat side by side. Tra ffic a t Union Station peaked during World War II (1941- 1945 ). Thr ongs of military men and women passed through en route to training camps and battlefronts. Civilians, especially young women, arrived to sta ff t he enormous wa r eff ort. With air travel’s expansion, Union Station’s importance declined. When the station underwent major renovations in the 1980s, its grand concourse was reco nfigur ed to hold inviting shops, restaurants, and entertainment. Th e 1990s brought th e Th urgood Marshall Federal Judiciary Building named for the Howard University-trained lawyer whose strategies helped end this country’s legal segregation. Marshall later became th e fir st African American Supreme Court Justice. Gateway to the Nation’s Capital UNION STATION DRIVE AND COLUMBUS CIRCLE NE

Tiber Creek with bridges at G and H Sts. Swampoodle became dryer after the creek was diverted to an underground pipe in 1876. Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library

Swampoodle SECOND AND F STREETS NE

THIS IS THE EASTTERN EDGE of what once was the rough, working-class Swampoodle neighborhood. In the early days the marshy Tiber Creek ran between what are now North Capitol and First Streets, NE. Legend has it that lingering rain puddles (“poodles”) led to the neighborhood’s nickname. Swampoodle’s earliest residents, mostly Irish immigrants and free African Americans, helped build this city . eir hands cra ed the White House, Capitol, and other buildings. During the Civil War (1861-1865) more once-enslaved people arrived seeking work. In the 1880s Italian stonecarvers and masons found a ordable lodging here while building the Library of Congress, Union Station, and the National Cathedral. In the early 1900s, C ongress located Union Station in Swampoodle. Hundreds of homes and businesses disappeared as railroad tracks were laid and the station rose. Many of the displaced moved east, settling today’s H Street corridor. Swampoodle’s large Irish immigrant Catholic population drew two institutions honoring Jesuit Saint Aloysius Gonzaga: St. Aloysius Catholic Church, dedicated in 1859, and Gonzaga College High School, founded in 1821 and relocated beside the church on North Capitol Street in 1871. In the early 1950s, Father Horace McKenna revived a shrinking St. Aloysius, refocusing its mission to serving the neediest. Father McKenna founded So Others Might Eat (SOME), Martha’s Table, and other enduring programs providing meals, clothing, child care, and shelter.

This ad for Washington Brewery shows its large facilities in 1892. Collection of Wes Ponder

Roll Out the Barrel THIRD AND F STREETS NE

Stuart-Hobso n Middle Schoo l , at Fourth and E Streets, NE, was built in 1927 on the site of an old brewery, one of nearly two dozen that operated in DC a er the Civil War. Most of the breweries were run by German immigrants who specialized in lager, a light alternative to the English-style ales produced by American brewers. George Juenemann opened his brewery and beer garden there in 1857, ten years a er he came to the United States. For nearly 30 years Juenemann’s Mount Vernon lager, dance pavilion, bowling alley, and dining hall entertained Washington’s German American fami lies. e Juenemanns lived nearby, and some employees lived on the site. Cincinnati brewer Albert Carry bought the complex a er Juenemann’s 1884 death, but sold it a few years later . e Washington Brewery Company, as its new owners renamed it, operated until Congress, with exclusive jurisdiction over DC, closed all city breweries in 1917, two years before Prohibition took hold nationwide . e only remnant of the brewery, the façade of its ice house, still stood at Fourth and I Streets, NE, in 2011. In 1830, when this area was still considered the country, Concordia (Lutheran Evangelical Church, of the Foggy Bottom section of Northwest DC, established its cemetery here. Nearly 30 years later, the city passed an ordinance prohibiting burials within its limits (then Boundary Street, today’s Florida Avenue, on the north. So Concordia relocated the graves to Prospect Hill, about two miles away on North Capitol Street.

Residents play cards at the Little Sisters of the Poor home, 1939. Star Collection, DC Public Library; © Washington Post

Community Caretakers THIRD AND H STREETS NE

THE ELEGANT ROMANESQUE PORTION of this condominium complex started life in 1874 as the Little Sisters of the Poor’s Home for the Aged. St. Aloysius Church member Ellen Sherman, wife of Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman, helped the Sisters secure congressional appropriations to build the facility . Th e Little Sisters begged for donations on DC streets to support their free care for the elderly, regardless of race or religion. In 1976 the city built the current overpass carrying H Street above Union Station’s tracks. With a dangerous on-ramp just feet from their front door, the Sisters moved their home to the Catholic University neighborhood. In 1979 the Capital Children’s Museum took over the old convent and moved the entrance to the rear . Th e museum moved to Maryland in 2004. Dr. Tom Collins, born in 1905 and raised at 322-324 H Street, was the son of a railroad engineer and descendant of Irish laborers recruited to rebuild Washington a ft er the War of 1812. “ . Do c” Collins opened a medical practice in his home about 1935 and in the 1940s charged seven dollars for house calls, recalled his son, broadcaster Pat Collins. He treated everyone, from residents of the Little Sisters’ home and Gonzaga High School football players to members of Congress. Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle was a patient, as was a Union Terminal Market butcher who paid Collins in fresh meat. Although devoted to this community, Doc Collins moved away a ft er the 1968 rio ts left m uch of it in ruins.

Mary Wells led the bill at a 1979 "oldies" concert at the Washington Coliseum. Collection of Mara Cherkasky

The Iceman’s Arena THIRD AND M STREETS NE

ULINE ARENA WAS BUILT i n 1941 by Migiel “Mike” Uline to present ice skating, hockey, basketball and tenni s. e Dutch immigrant had made a fortune patenting ice production equipment and selling ice from his plant next door. For years Washingtonians rode the streetcar here for sports, worship services, concerts, and cook-o ffs. J udge Kaye K. Christian recalled that during the 1950s and ’60s her mother Alice Stewart Christian won the Afro- American Newspaper ’s cooking competition three times at Uline. Arnold “Red” Auerbach began his professional career in 1946 coaching the Washington Capitols at Uline Arena. He later coached the Boston Celtics to nine NBA titles. Mike Uline segregated his audiences. African Americans could attend boxing and wrestling, but not supposedly higher-class attractions: ice hockey, the Ice Capades, and basketball. In response E.B. Henderson, a Harvard-trained health and physical education specialist and civil rights leader, led actions against Uline’s policy. As audiences dwindled, Uline buckled to the economic pressure. In 1948 he opened the facility to all. In 1959 Uline’s estate sold the aren a. e renamed Washington Coliseum presented the Beat le's fir st live U.S. concert in 1964. Bob Dylan, the Motown Review, Chuck Brown, and Rare Essence also performed here. In May 1971 the Coliseum became a holding cell for many of the 12,000 protesters arrested during demonstrations against the Vietnam War. Live concerts ended in 1986. A er years of storing trash the arena awaited redevelopment in 2011.

George “Shorty” Echols, at age 89 a 60-year veteran of the Union Terminal Market, 1976. Star Collection, DC Public Library; © The Washington Post

Provisions for the City 400 BLOCK OF FLORIDA AVEN UE NE

THIS HIGH GROUND near the B&O Railroad tracks has been Union Terminal Market since 19 31. at year the federal government razed Center Market on Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, to make way for the National Archives. Vendors seeking new locations clustered here. Before the market, this land was part of the Brentwood estate, and then the World War I-era Camp Meigs, an army training post. In the 1920s the Hechinger lumber yard replaced the camp. Jewish, Greek, Italian, and African American vendors dominated the original market. In the late 1950s, more arrived as urban renewal closed the Southwest wholesale market. Among them were Fred Kolker's Kolker Poultry, and Washington Beef Company, belonging to Fred’s uncle Sam. Every week Washington Beef employees unloaded and butchere d ve rail cars of beef carcasses. And each night a crew cleaned equipment to prepare for the daily federal inspector’s visit. Sam’s sons and grandsons continued the business into the late 1980s. e next wave of immigrant entrepreneurs, most from China, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Korea, succeeded the European Americans in the 1980s. Civil rights activist Nadine Winter, concerned about homeless people at the market, created Hospitality House to assist them. In 1962 she opened a family shelter at 507 Florida Avenue. Winter later helped establish a community credit union on H Street, worked for federally supported urban homesteading, and, in 1974, was elected to th e r st of four terms on the DC City Council, representing Ward 6.

Gallaudet football players in a huddle, around 1950. Gallaudet players invented the huddle in 1894 to shield their sign language

from opponents’ view. Gallaudet University Archives

Education for All FLORIDA AVENUE AND EIGHTH STREET NE

GALLAUDET UNIVERISTY is world-renowned as the premier institution for higher education for deaf and hard of hearing students. It opened as the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and Blind in 1856 on land donated by former Postmaster General Amos Kendall. In 1864 Congress chartered its collegiate program, which President Abraham Lincoln signed into law . e school’s current name hon- or s omas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the fir st U.S. school for the deaf and father of the university’ s fir st president, Edward Miner Gallaudet. Gallaudet was designated a university in 1986. Two years later it selected i ts fir st deaf president a er students, supported by faculty, sta , alumni, the national deaf community, and national lead- ers, demanded a “Deaf President Now! ” eir e ort launched a movement leading to important laws expanding access to communications, including the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Gallaudet students study in both American Sign Language and English at the university recognized as the center of American Deaf Culture. “Gallaudet College” is a National Historic Landmark, and the original campus (1866-1878) is in the National Register of Historic Places. Just east of the Gallaudet campus is the Trinidad neighborhood, named for the former estate of DC banker and philanthropist William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888). Among Corcoran’s legacies to his city are the former Riggs Bank, Oak Hill Cemetery, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art. In 1875 Corcoran donated Trinidad to Columbian College (George Washington University’s prede- cessor), which sold it to the Washington Brick Machine Company.

C ampr e Girls parade on Trinidad Ave. for voter registration in 1 964, the rst time Washingtonians could vote in a presidential election since the city’s founding. Collection of Mrs. Korea Strowder

Brickyards to Buildings

1000 BLOCK FLORIDA AVENUE NE

THE TRINIDAD NEIGHBORHOOD got its start in the 1890s a er the Washington Brick Machine Company used up the clay in the soil here. With Greater H Stre et lling in with houses and businesses, the company sold its land for housing lo ts. e rowhouses that arose sold to white families, many of whom walked to work on H Street or at Union Station. Once the brickyard closed, the American Baseball League built a short-lived ballpark here. Around 1900 John Fisher operated a wholesale candy business in his home at 1008 Florida Avenue. Sons John and Edward Fisher continued the family business until 1941. e Arthur Nock family owned the large house nearby at 1001 K Street. A er hardware salesman Arthur died in 1930, his widow Louise took in boarders. During the Great Depression (1929-1941), hungry dr i ers, alerted by a previous hobo’s mark on the back door, knew to rap on the door for something to eat. Between 1945 and 1960, many white Washington- ian s left t he city. Some wanted newer, suburban- style housing. Others, a er 1954, were unwilling to send their children to newly desegregated DC schools. Like many older neighborhoods, Trinidad changed very quickly from white to African American. Construction foreman Charles “Bob” Martin and family moved to Trinidad Avenue in 1948, and railroad dining car steward Joseph Strowder and his wife Korea arrived on Queen Street in 195 0. ey joined other newcomers to create community, leading DC’ s fir st African American Camp fir e Girls, a Boy Scout troop, and Mount Olivet Heights Civic Association.

Young Atlas Theater movie fans rally to support the armed forces in World War II. Historical Society of Washington, D.C.

Culture and Commerce 1300 BLOCK H STREET NE

WHEN THE ATLAS PERFORMING ARTS CENTER opened in 200 5, it gave hope to an area still recovering from the destruction following the assassination of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1968. But when K-B’s Atlas movie hous e fir st opened in 1938, this was a bustling commercial strip. Th e Atlas originally admitted whites only. African American movie-goers traveled elsewhere until 1943, when the Plymout h Th eater opened in an old auto showroom at 136 5 H. Th en in 1953 the Supreme Court outlawed segregation in DC’s public accommodations. But H Street’s shops, run by families of many nationalities, had always served all. Most owners, like Meyer Greenbaum of Greenbaum’s Bakery, 1361 H Street, lived above or behind the stores and worked long hours. Carroll Barber Shop opened next to Greenbaum’s in 1931 as one of H Street’s fir st African American businesses. A few years later Meyer “Mike” Kanter opened I.C. Furniture at 1353 H, selling inexpensive goods. Kanter’s son Ted later opene d Th eodore’s in upper Georgetown. Beginning in 1951 Jake Napier ran Ultra-Modern Barbershop at 1338 for nearly 50 years, hiring and training local young men. In the mid-1970s, Marcus Gr iffi th made and sold his patented hair care products at Hairlox, 1315 H Street. Despite entrepreneurs’ post-rio ts eff orts, progress was slow . Th en in 2002, in cooperation with H Street Community Development Corporation and the Linden Neighborhood Association, the nonpro fi t Atlas Performing Arts Center began renovations and H Street began its latest revival. Between 1981 and 2009, t he northeast corner of 13th and H Streets hosted the Robert L. Christian Library, honoring the former teacher who founded the Northeast Neighborhood House.

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Hub, Home, Heart: Greater H Street NE Heritage Trail is a n Offici al Washington, DC Walking Trail. e 3.2-mile route i s defin ed by 18 illustrated historical markers, each capped with an H H .

Sign 1 is located at First Street and Massachusetts Avenue near the entrance to Metro’s Union Station stop on the Red line, but you may begin your tour at any sig n. e walk o ers about two hours of gentle exercise.

Ringling Bros. elephants on parade on H St., 1979. Star Collection, DC Public Library; © Washington Post

The Hub MARYLAND AVENUE AND 15 TH STREET NE

The star burs t inters ectio n of five major roads marks this spot as a transportation hub for the neighborhood and the region. Shortly after Congress arrived in Washington in 1800, city leaders turned an old farm road into a private turnpike to Bladensburg and points northeast. Its toll booth once sat at this crossroads. During the War of 1812, British forces used the turnpike to reach the new capital city, where they burned the Capitol, White House, and other key buildings. In 1871 the turnpike became a city street. A horse-drawn streetcar line opened, linking this spot to downtown via H Stre et. en the streetcar line pushed farther east along Benning Road, spurring real estate development. A new rail line took commuters from here to Baltimore or Annapolis. With so much tra c, t his starburst hub soon anchored a busy commercial area. In the early 1900s, developers invited traveling circuses to use their vacant parcels so that audiences would see the area and consider buying here. A tradition was born: crowds of all ages lined H Street to watch thrilling circus parades with camels and clowns and elephants lumbering by. Circuses later set up near Union Terminal Market, in Uline Arena, and along Benning Road. In 1930 Sidney Hechinger opened a salvage and hardware store on Benning Road. Hechinger’s soon became a Washington institution. A er the 1968 riots many businesses abandoned the area. But in 1981 Sidney’s son, John W., Sr., showed his commitment to the city by building Hechinger Mall on Benning Road, anchored by his modern hardware store.

Evelyn Kogok, daughter of Lebanese immigrants, on her wedding day at 1328 Maryland Ave., 1951. Collection of Thomas Hier

Mediterranean Imports 1300 BLOCK MARYLAND AVENUE NE

MARYLAND AVENUE IN THE 1930s was home to immigrants from around the Mediterranean. Evelyn Kogok Hier, who grew up at 1328 Maryland Avenue, remembered her next-door neighbor, Reverend Ayoub (Job) Salloom, hosting a er- church gatherings where men shared a hookah, the ancient water pipe. Rev. Salloom ministered to the neighborhood’s tight-knit “Little Lebanon” community. Many of the neighborhood’s Greek immigrants started up the economic ladder selling produce from huckster wagons, then renting stalls at the wholesale markets before opening their own, o en food-related, businesses. In the 1940s the Pappas and Callas families operated produce stands at Union Market on Florida Avenue . e Cokinos family had been running the nearby Goody Shop confectionery since around 1910. Greeks owned the Rendezvous Club and the Paramount, Kavakos, Chaconas, and Bacchus grills on H Street. Although African American families had long lived here, deeds originally restricted some blocks, including this one, to whites. African American educators James L. and Gustava Eubanks operated a music school at 12th and G before moving it to 1252 Maryland Avenue in 1947. Just across Maryland Avenue is Linden Court, where in 1897 more than 100 African American families lived in tiny , at-fronted rowhouses alongside stables and worksho ps. e houses on the north side of the alley were demolished in 1937 to make way for the Atla s eater, but enough remain to give th e avor of the old community. Noted African American architect Lewis Giles, Sr. (1893-1974) grew up nearby at 1200 Linden Place.

Chuck and Marge Levin in their music store, 1960s. Collection of Levin family

Enterprising Families 1200 BLOCK H STREET NE

THE SMALL SCALE LOW RENTS of H Street’s oldest buildings have lured waves of immigrant entrepreneurs since the buildings were new in the 1880s. By 1930, alongside Greek, Italian, Irish, and other immigrant-owned shops, at least 75 Jewish- owned businesses operated on H Street. Abe and Anna Shulman ran a dry goods store and lived at 1227 H, with a kitchen in back and living quarters upstairs. Two of th eir ve children remained on H Street as adults: Israel, a dentist, and Fred, who sold baby furniture and toys. Known as the “Queen of H Street,” Anna founded the Hebrew Sheltering Society to house recent immigrants, and led the Sisterhood, a women’s aid society, for Ezras Israel Synagogue at Eighth and I Stre ets. e Shulmans and most of their Jewish neighbors had emigrated from Russia around 1900. In the 1950s former boxer Eddie Leonard brought his sandwich shop to H Street. In the 1960s Chuck Brown, the future “Godfather of Go-Go,” purchased hi s fir st guitar at Chuck and Marge Levin’s music store at 1227 H S treet. In 1968, a er looters destroyed their store, the Levins relocated their busi- ness to Wheaton, Maryland. At 1238 H is the former o ffice o f Granville Moore, M.D., a native Washingtonian, World War II vet- eran (B uffa lo Soldier), Howard University faculty member, and civil rights activist who practiced here for more than 50 years. Dr. Moore (1916-2003) is also remembered for making house calls and for treating patients free of charge two days a week.

Reverend (later Bishop) Forrest C. Stith, 1958. Collection of Carolyn O. Brown

The Changing Faces of H Street 11TH AND H STREETS NE

THE HANDSOME CHURCH ON THIS CORNER is the second to occupy this spo t. The fir st was a small brick chapel built by John A. Douglas in 1878 for the new Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church. Soon a ft er, it was renamed to honor its builder and his wife Sidney, who donated the land . Th e current building replaced it in 1898 as the bloc k fi lled with brick houses and stores. Douglas Memorial Church served a white congregation, but beginning in the 1940s, its members moved away. In 1958 the governing Baltimore Conference assigned a young African American pastor, Forrest C. Stith, to rebuild the congregation. By knocking on doors and reaching out to youth, Stith increased the church’s membership from nearly zero to 200 in three years. On 11th Street between I and K, Holy Name Catholic Church experienced the same racial makeover. As these church histories show, well before “whit e flig ht” transformed American cities in the 1950s, the face of H Street was changing. Descendants of European immigrant families moved into better-paying professions and newer neighborhoods. African Americans had become a majority in Greater H Street by 1950. In response the DC School Board switched the white neighborhood schools to the “colored” divisio n. Th e Supreme Court’s 1954 desegregation of the nation’s schools accelerated whit e flig ht to exclusive suburbs. For decades, in a very divided city, Greater H Street was almost entirely African American. As the 21st century opened, though, it followed the city’s trend towards a more racially and economically diverse population.

At the Crossroads EIGHTH AND H STREETS NE

ONE YEAR BEFORE CONGRESS and the president fin ally arrived in their new capital city in 1800, Washington’s Navy Yard opened at the foot of Eighth Street. It soon became the city’s biggest employer. In 1908 streetcars began connecting H Street to the Navy Yard via Eighth Street, allowing workers to commute. As the transfer point between the Eighth Street line and the H Street line to downtown, this busy spot attracted the Home Savings Bank’s Northeast Branch and the Northeast Savings Bank, founded by H Street merchants, across Eighth Street from each other. Before Prohibition closed DC’s many saloons in 1917, number 727 H Street housed the German- owned Beuchert Tavern. Louis Kavakos bought the place in 1929 and ran it as a lunch counter/ confectionery. A er Prohibition ended four years later, Kavakos and his sons William, George, and John replaced the luncheonette with Club Kavakos, a bar and grill with live music, dancing, vaudeville, and strippers. Like many DC night spots, the club thrived during World War II. A er the war patrons enjoyed evenings hosted by WMAL radio DJ Willis Conover. Jazz greats Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, and Dizzy Gillespie all recorded live albums here. In 1914 Ezras Israel Orthodox congregation moved from its space above an H Street grocery into the former Centennial Baptist Church at Eighth and I Streets, one block nort h. Fi y years later it closed as most of H Street’s Jewish population moved north, and eventually re-opened in Rockville, Maryland.

A futile attempt to save Morton’s Department Store, April 5, 1968. The Washington Post

The Fires of 1968 SEVENTH AND H STREETS NE

ON FRIDAY, APRIL 1 5, 1968, the 600 b lock of H Street went u p in am es. e Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., had been assassinated a day earlier, and grief-stricken, angry men and women had taken to the streets across the city, looting and burning. According t o a fir eman, the alley behind Morton’s Department Store became “a freeway for looters” carrying “television sets, clothes, everything.” Yet other people brough t firefig hters chairs and co ff ee. When Morton’ s fir st opened downtown in 1933, it was among the few white-owned department stores that did not discriminate in hiring or sales. In fact owner Mortimer Lebowitz was a former Urban League president who had marched with Dr. King. Nevertheless, looters ransacked and torched his store here. “ e riots did not happen in a vacuum,” recalled Sam Smith of the Capitol East Gazette . In 1968, “24 percent of the [area’s] labor force was unemployed or underemployed.” A er the smoke cleared, 90 buildings, containing 51 residences and 103 businesses, were gone. Most stores that weren’t destroyed closed, never to reopen. While the city cleared land for sale, it didn’t pay to repair existing businesses or develop new ones. In 1984 the H Street Community Development Corporation formed to attract developmen t. e corporation and other nonpro ts built housing and commercial buildings, but H Street s u ered from relentless suburban competition. It took the rehabilitation of the Atla s eater, starting in 2002, and a new appreciation for the charms of the neighborhood’s close-in, 19th-century buildings for H Street’s revival to take hold.

Benjamin Ourisman, standing sixth from left, and his sales force in their store on the north side of H St., 1923. Collection of Ourisman Chevrolet

Get Behind the Wheel 600 BLOCK H STREET NE

OURISMAN CHEVROLET ONCE occupied almost the entire north side of this block. In 1921, a er two years as a top-performing Chevy salesman on Connecticut Avenue, and with a $2,000 lo an from his widowed mother, Benjamin Ourisman opened his own dealership here. By 1940, when he built th e ve-story building at 624 H, his was the country’s highest-selling dealership. Automobile production stopped during World War II (1941-1945), but a erwards demand was so high that Ourisman hired 67 salesm en. e business moved to Maryland in 1962. Across from Ourisman’s, at 619 H Street, Pietro Borghese ran Pete’s Barbershop for nearly 50 years. Borghese emigrated from Italy in 1920 and opened his business near the homes of many Italian workers and cra smen. e family got along well with its African American neighbors, recalled his son Carmelo. During the 1968 riots, when Pete’s was one of only two white-owned businesses on the block, the barber shop was untouched. Sanitary Grocery, the forerunner of Safeway, r st appeared on H Street in 1909. In the early 1960s, Safeway opened at 600 H, but moved in 1983 to the new Hechinger Mall on Benning Road, leaving the neighborhood without a major grocery. Five years later the independent, black- owned Mega Foods opened across the street but lasted only two years. Murry’s, which took over the Safeway building, is part of a local chain founded in 1948 by Alfred Mendelson and named for his son. Murry’s two-ounce frozen steaks o ered consumers conveniently small portions of meat for th e r st time.

Acolytes from Calvary Episcopal Church lead the procession at the retirement of Rev. James O. West after 48 years of service, 1990. The Washington Post

Sanctuaries SIXTH AND H STREETS NE

CALVARY EPPISCOPAL CHURCH , at 820 Sixth Street, has been a community anchor since 1901. For most of its early years, the congregation, led by founding rector Reverend Franklin I.A. Bennett, met at 11th and G. In 1941 it welcomed the Reverend Dr. James O. West as rector . e dynamic Rev. West drew so many new members that soon the parish needed a larger sanctuary. Eight years later Calvary moved to its current home, the former Church of the Good Shepherd. West is remembered for co-founding the family social services center Hospitality House, sheltering and feeding the homeless in his rectory, and counseling troubled Vietnam veterans. “ e city looked to him as a community leader,” Judge Kaye K. Christian recalled. Mount Olive Baptist Church at 1140 Sixth Street was founded in 1873 as a branch of Second Baptist Church of Northwest D C. e current church rests on the site of i ts r st meeting place, the home of Robert and Martha Terrell. Mount Olive has focused on serving needy members of the community with free food and clothing, holding outdoor evangelistic services, and mentoring teenaged boys. Radio station WOL operated from Fourth and H Streets during the 1980s and ’90s. Neighbors remember the station’s studio overlooking the street, where large windows revealed on-air guests and dynamic host Cathy Hughes.

Sources

Neighborhood Heritage Trail creation begins with a community, extends through story-sharing and oral history-gathering, and ends in formal scholarly research. For more information, please consult the Kiplinger Library, Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and the Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library. Also these selected works: Brett L. Abrams, Capital Sporting Grounds, A History of Stadium and Ballpark Construction in Washington, D.C. (J e erson, NC: McFarland and Co., Inc., 2008). Laura Cohen Apelbaum and Wendy Turman, eds., Jewish Washington: Scrapbook of an American Community (Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington, 2007).

This innovative “Porta Branch” library at 13th and H Sts. honored Robert L. Christian (1921-1969).

Boyd and Ball Consulting, “A Historical Study of Near Northeast Washington,” H Street Community Development Association, 2002. Justine Christianson, “ e Rise and Fall of the Uline Arena,” Washington History 16-1, spring/ summer 2004, 16-35. Ben W. Gilbert and the sta of e Washington Post, Ten Blocks from the White House; Anatomy of the Washington Riots of 1968 (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, Publisher, 1968). Robert K. Headley, Motion Picture Exhibition in Washington, D.C., (J e erson, NC: McFarland & Co. Inc., 1999). Kathryn Schneider Smith, ed., Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation’s Capital, second edition (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010).

Acknowledgments

SPECIAL THANKS to Heritage Trail Historian Sarah Shoenfeld; Working Group Co-chairs Joseph A. Englert, Marqui A. Lyons, and Anwar Saleem; and to Working Group members Mary Bakota, Rick Burns, Brett Busang, Judge Kaye K. Christian, Roslyn S. Christian, Gloria S. Corbitt, Eddie H. Curry, Jen DeMayo, William Dunn, Gwendolyn Faulkner, Elise Fisher, Patsy Fletcher, omas Gallo, Lisa Greene, Frank Hankins, Edith and Art Hessel, Evelyn Kogok Hier , omas Hier, Scott Kenison, Barbara M. Murphy, Demitri Nader, Bobby Pittman, Doug Pulak, Drew Ronneberg, Robb Santamaria, Ramona Service, Patrick Stewart, Monisha Sujan, Chris Swanson, Katie Turner, Paul Turner, Bill Ulle, Kathryn Warnes, Melvin Warther, Helen Wooden Wood, and Patricia Wrightson. anks also to Zelma Coleman, Laurie Collins, Diane Easterling, Derek Gray, Mark Greek, Faye Haskins, Sue Hersman, Agnes Hill, Lucinda P. Janke, Carole Kolker, Brian Kra , R ichard Layman, Michael Olson, Mark Opsasnick, Eddy Palanzo, Glenn Pearson, Kathryn Schneider Smith, Sam Smith, and Wendy Turman.

Events DC, the official convention and sports authority for the District of Columbia, delivers premier event services and flexible venues across the nation’s capital. Leveraging the power of a world-class destination and creating amazing attendee experiences, Events DC generates economic and community benefits through the attraction and promotion of business, athletic, entertainment and cultural activities. Events DC oversees the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, an anchor of the District’s hospitality and tourism economy that hosts more than 1.7 million visitors and generates more than $400 million annually in direct economic impact and the historic Carnegie Library at Mt. Vernon Square. Events DC manages the RFK Stadium- Armory Campus, including the Festival Grounds at RFK, the non- military functions of the DC Armory and the Skate Park at RFK Stadium. Events DC also built and serves as landlord for Nationals Park, the first LEED-certified major professional sports stadium in the United States. Events DC manages Gateway DC, R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center and Entertainment & Sports Arena, all located in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. For more information, please visit us at www.eventsdc.com and find us on social media and on our new hub for live and on-demand event programming on GATHER by Events DC at www.gatherbyeventsdc.com.

On this self-guided walking tour of Greater H Street, historical markers lead you to:

– Swampoodle, whose residents helped build the Capitol and the White House.

– The route British forces marched on their way to burn the Capitol and White House.

– Gallaudet University, recognized as the center of American Deaf Culture.

– Trinidad rowhouses, built on a former brickyard and baseball field.

– The small brick storefronts where hundreds of immigrant families got their toe-hold in Washington.

– Union Terminal Market, purveyor to the city.

– The arena where the Beatles performed their first U.S. concert and Malcolm X spoke.

– The performing arts center that is spurring the neighborhood’s most recent renewal.

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