Community Anchors
stands the tower of the O Street Market.When the market opened in ,and refrigerators had not yet been invented, people shopped here daily for everything from live chickens to fresh tomatoes.At first the vendors were German immigrants.By the s,most were African American. Damaged in the riots of , the market was restored in but lost its roof in a snowstorm. On the east side of Seventh,landscaper John Saul began planting fruit trees in .His son,B. Francis Saul,later opened a real estate business that became the B.F.Saul Company and Chevy Chase Bank. During the Civil War, the Union Army camped here at Wisewell Barracks and Hospital. Rowhouses facing Sixth Street eventually replaced Wisewell Barracks,sharing the square with the Henry,Polk,and Central High schools for white students.Former FBI director J.Edgar Hoover, class of ,is Central’s best-known graduate. Central High School moved in to a grand new facility astride the th Street hill (now Cardozo High School). In the s,the entire block was leveled for a play- ground.Completed in ,the playground was dedicated to the memory of President John F. Kennedy.Kids eager for play space clambered on its steam locomotive,a tugboat,and two surplus Air Force jets.But after the riots of burned neighboring buildings,much of the playground’s equipment was removed,and the facility became crime-ridden.Friends of Kennedy Playground led clean-up efforts in the s,and a new recreation center opened here in .
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