BARRACKS ROW HERITAGE TRAIL Tour of Duty
For more than 150 years,the Navy Yard’s distinctive factory whistle defined Capitol Hill’s workday.John Philip Sousa honed his musical gifts here with the U.S.Marine Band.Congressional workers walked to work.Follow this trail to discover the stories that make this neighborhood a distinctive home town.
Welcome.
Visitors to Washington, DC traditionally focus on the National Mall,where grand monuments symbolize the nation’s highest ideals.This self-guided walking tour is one of a series that invites you to deepen your experience of the nation’s capital by discov- ering the places where people served their country and lived those ideals every day. When celebrated composer John Philip Sousa walked these streets,people called the neighborhood Capitol Hill-Navy Yard. U.S. Marines and the U.S.Navy gave the com- munity its unique flavor. Here Washington’s oldest and largest industrial plant – the Navy Yard – attracted laborers, engineers, sailors,and civilians alike for more than a century.These residents developed busi- nesses,churches,synagogues,and institu- tions that continue to support today’s community.We invite you to experience today’s thriving Barracks Row in the com- pany of its lively past.
The Tour of Duty Barracks Row Heritage Trail is composed of illustrated his- torical markers.They are arranged so that you can begin your journey at any point along the route.The entire walk should take about minutes. Each marker is topped by an .Sign is found at Seventh Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, by the Eastern Market station on Metro’s Blue and Orange line.
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Design by Karol Keane Design and Communications, Inc., and Bowring Cartographic, based on the original design by side view/Hannah Smotrich
As you walk this trail, please keep safety in mind, just as you would while visiting any unfamiliar place.
Tour of Duty Barracks Row Heritage Trail
Jane Freundel Levey, Historian and Writer Kim Prothro Williams, Historian Anne W. Rollins, Researcher Richard T. Busch and J. Brendan Meyer, Project Directors
A original project of Cultural Tourism DC, Inc., in collaboration with Barracks Row Main Street and Capitol Hill Restoration Society. Inititial f unding provided by Washington, DC Department of Housing and Community Development, District Department of Transportation, Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and U.S. Department of Transportation.
Introduction
, the intersec- tion of Pennsylvania Avenue and Eighth Street, SE,has been an important crossroads for resi- dents of Capitol Hill.Washington’s first city planner,Pierre C.L’Enfant,envisioned an important commercial and financial district nearby.A few blocks south,at the foot of Eighth Street, lay a natural harbor on the Anacostia River.Here L’Enfant suggested building a mer- cantile exchange,where banking houses would serve the brokers who would receive goods and materials from around the country and the world. But before the waterfront commercial center could be built, President John Adams changed the plan.He decided that the spot was better suited for defense work,and in 1799 chose L’Enfant’s exchange site to be developed as the U.S. Navy Yard. Two years later President Thomas Jefferson sent notice to the U.S.
Marines to build their barracks just north of the Navy Yard on Eighth Street. Washington’s would-be Wall Street was on its way to becoming today’s Barracks Row.
Top: Commander John A.Dahlgren, the “father of American naval ordnance.” Left: U.S.Marine Silent Drill Team per- form a behind- the-back rifle throwback, 1978.
Composer, musician, and bandleader John Philip Sousa, around 1890.
Eighth Street would indeed become a place of business,but not as L’Enfant envisioned.Instead small businesses sprang up to serve the Navy Yard’s workers,most of whom lived nearby. For more than 150 years, the Navy Yard gave this part of Capitol Hill its distinctive industrial fla- vor. The Navy Yard began as a modest ship design and building facility.In 1845 the Navy Yard began testing and manufacturing weapons and ammunition, developing into Washington’s largest industrial plant.Here enslaved and free blacks worked alongside whites in the foundries and workshops to produce guns,anchors,and ammunition. Michael Shiner, an African American,left behind a fascinating diary of his 52 years as a laborer here — both as an enslaved and a free man. John Dahlgren created the Navy’s first sustained weapons research and development program at the Navy Yard.A close friend of President Abraham Lincoln,Dahlgren personally designed important and effective guns in time for the Civil War. In the first half of the 19th century,Martha Prout McKnight was the largest landowner in this area.She had inherited her properties from her father William Prout, whose early land spec- ulations and enterprises supported the develop- ment of a community around the Navy Yard. According to historian Ruth Ann Overbeck, as the area’s population grew,McKnight apparently ignored Washington’s “southern” attitudes and sold or rented property to everyone: free blacks; Irish,Italian,and German immigrants; and American-born whites.The population diversity continues to the present.
Washingtonians welcome aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh to the Navy Yard,1927.
During the Civil War (1861-1865),Washington, DC grew dramatically.As the first Union strong- hold north of the Confederacy,Washington was the first and best destination for wounded Union soldiers and seamen.Makeshift hospitals sprang up all over the city.Churches and other public buildings were pressed into service,and tent hos- pitals operated in open fields as the government struggled to meet the demand.Plans were made to build a Naval Hospital on undeveloped land on Pennsylvania Avenue at Ninth Street, SE, but the hospital wasn’t completed until the war was over.Capitol Hill,with its modest stock of hous- ing,was hard pressed to shelter the new workers attracted to the Navy Yard during the Civil War. As they did elsewhere across the city,builders here added tiny brick houses to the deep alleys that ran through the city blocks.People of little means occupied this affordable housing,but the conditions were crowded and less than sanitary. One set of alleys along Navy Place,in the block bounded by Sixth,Seventh,G and I streets, became particularly troublesome.But it wasn’t until 1941 that public housing officials finally replaced Navy Place with modern public hous- ing known as the Ellen Wilson Dwellings. The Civil War and the post-war expansion brought more businesses to Eighth Street and persuaded the city to build a new Eastern Market (at its current site) in 1872.By 1900 the military and musicians drawn to the Navy Yard and Marine Barracks,home of the U.S.Marine Band,were outnumbered by men in the build-
Top:Juanita Gray operates a metal lathe at the Navy Yard,1943.Right: Martha Fowler sells eggs at Eastern Market,1978.
ing trades,machinists and other blue-collar workers employed by the Naval Gun Factory, not to mention the government clerks commut- ing to the Capitol and downtown Washington. Barracks Row as an employment center peaked during World War II (1941-1945).After the war, the demand for the Navy Yard’s weaponry fell off.In 1962 the gun factory closed permanently, and the Navy Yard was converted to office and museum uses.People moved away to find other jobs and also to live in Washington’s new sub- urbs. The dilapidated Ellen Wilson Dwellings were closed in 1988,and the abandoned build- ings attracted problems. As of this writing,Barracks Row is entering a new phase.The historic buildings of the Eighth Street commercial area are welcoming new busi- nesses,and the streetscape is being renovated, due to the efforts of local merchants with sup- port from the DC Department of Transpor- tation.With community leadership,the abandoned Ellen Wilson Dwellings were replaced in 2000 by the Townhomes on Capitol Hill,a mixed-income development designed to comple- ment nearby Victorian era row houses.All of these changes make a conscious effort to honor the area’s long history and to give visitors and residents alike the experience of that history.
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The Washington Navy Yard,seen here in 1862,was the neighbor- hood’s main employer from the early
1800s until 1962. Naval Historical Center
Edge of the Row ,
some of Capitol Hill’s newest developments are America’s oldest Navy and Marine installations.This trail takes you through a modest Capitol Hill community shaped by the presence of the U.S.military.Eighth Street is its commercial center. The Washington Navy Yard anchors the southern end,where Eighth Street meets the Anacostia River.At the northern end, just one block from this marker,is the Old Naval Hospital.Halfway in between is the Marine Barracks Washington, D.C., home of the United States Marine Band and inspiration for a local boy who made good: John Philip Sousa. This spot became an early crossroads because Eighth Street, running north from the Navy Yard, intersected with a road that led from an Anacostia River ferry landing to the site for the Capitol and beyond to Georgetown.That road is today’s Pennsylvania Avenue. At the southeast corner of Seventh and D streets is a private residence that once housed a typical Washington neighborhood corner grocery store. Tucker’s operated from until ,with gro- ceries and hardware sold on the ground floor and the family living above.Across Pennsylvania Avenue to the north is Hine Junior High School, which occupies the former site of the Wallach School.Completed in , the Wallach School was the first designed by German-born architect Adolf Cluss.Cluss would contribute eight elegant schools to the city,including the Franklin and Sumner schools,as well as nearby Eastern Market, where this trail ends. As you walk this trail,you will see a variety of th- and early th-century building styles.They are reminders of the neighborhood’s economically diverse population — laborers,merchants, marines and sailors,and the politically powerful.
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Elizabeth Haines and a copy of her store’s letterhead. The Historical Society of Washington,D.C.; The Junior League of Washington
At the Crossroads ,
that wraps around this cor- ner was constructed as a department store in by Elizabeth A. Haines. She proudly advertised it as “the largest store in the world” that was “built, owned and controlled by a woman.”Back then extended families living together typically num- bered six to fourteen people,and Haines knew that hundreds of potential customers lived nearby, passing this intersection daily. When the widow Haines arrived in ,she and her children lived above a small store nearby on th Street.After ten successful years,she commis- sioned noted local architect Julius G.Germuiller to design this grand department store.Haines’s store — “ stores in one”— was the largest enterprise here amid modest family businesses like George J. Beckert’s cigar store at Eighth Street. Before Washington’s founding in , Pennsyl- vania Avenue was just a bumpy dirt road connect- ing the Maryland countryside beyond the Anacostia River to the port of Georgetown, Maryland,on the Potomac.Its stagecoach,cart, and carriage traffic grew with the new capital. Noting this traffic,in Lewis DeBlois built one of the area’s first taverns,located on Pennsylvania Avenue and Ninth Street,where a gas station now sits.When William Tunnicliff took over the tavern, it became known as Tunnicliff’s Tavern.It offered food,lodging,and spirits to travelers and residents here before Tunnicliff moved the business closer to the Capitol and its politicians.The tavern has long since closed,but a business near Eastern Market continues to bear the historic name.
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John Esputa,Jr.,center,poses with his music students,including 11-year-old John Philip Sousa,back row,left. Courtesy,Paul E.Bierley
Commerce and Community ,
⁄ of John Esputa,Jr.,once occupied the site of Eighth Street (Shakespeare Theatre’s rehearsal hall.) Among Esputa’s students in was eight-year-old John Philip Sousa, whose irresistible marches made him one of America’s first musical superstars. The street’s small gable-roofed buildings probably pre-date Sousa’s era,while the larger buildings were erected during a post-Civil War building boom. In Adam DeMoll contributed the two- story brick building on the northeast corner of Eighth and E.Here he,and later his son Theodore, operated a drug store.The family lived upstairs. At Eighth Street is one of a string of pubs built by Albert Carry and designed by Clement Didden. Carry came to Washington from Germany in , helped found the National Capital Bank of Washington ( ),and built the National Capital Brewing Company ( ).When Prohibition became law in ,the brewery became an ice cream factory.Eventually Carry sold it to concen- trate on real estate and banking.Carry’s daughter Marie married Didden’s son George,uniting the two entrepreneurial families. The Harmony Lodge of the International Order of Odd Fellows,dedicated to fraternity and good works,built the street’s grandest structure here at Eighth in .The lodge held its meetings upstairs until around ,when it merged with a lodge downtown.The elegant Second Empire style building passed through many hands until , when the Shakespeare Theatre purchased the dilapidated building and restored it for office space.
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This view of the Naval Hospital was made just a few years after it opened in 1866.
National Archives
Healing the Wounded , ,
, the Navy drew up plans for a hospital,but the sturdy building now known as the Old Naval Hospital did not open until , a year after the war ended.It opened with beds for injured and ailing seamen as well as the car- riage house/stable and gazebo that remain today. The hospital’s front door originally was on E Street facing the nearby Navy Yard and Marine Barracks; later it opened from Pennsylvania Avenue. The hospital’s first patient was -year-old African American seaman Benjamin Drummond. Drummond was admitted in June with a gunshot wound to the leg received in a Civil War battle three years before.After escaping from a Confederate prison in Texas,Drummond returned to duty,but the old wound hadn’t healed,so he was hospitalized here.In Drummond was discharged with a government pension. By the hospital was deemed “antiquated,” and it closed briefly,then reopened as the Hospital Corps Training School,where sailors learned nurs- ing,hygiene,and anatomy.From until it was the Temporary Home for Old Soldiers and Sailors. Since the building has been leased to District of Columbia government agencies.In concerned neighbors formed the Friends of the Old Naval Hospital to promote,restore,and preserve the building and grounds. As you walk along Ninth Street to the next Barracks Row Heritage Trail sign,be sure to note the variety of architectural styles.These homes were occupied by residents of all tastes and eco- nomic levels who lived side by side in this neigh- borhood.
With thanks for research by Dan Daly and Friends of the Old Naval Hospital.
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The Marine Barracks Parade Grounds and architect George Hadfield’s origi- nal arcaded quarters,around 1905-06. Christ Church Archives
Oldest Post of the Corps ,
.., is the oldest continuously manned post in the U.S. Marine Corps.The original installation was designed by architect George Hadfield in .He created a central parade ground and housing for enlisted men and officers and the Comman- dant’s Quarters,(in mid-block on G Street),an elegant -room house.Later enhanced by a mansard roof,the house is the only remaining original structure. When the U.S.government moved from Philadelphia to Washington City in , the Marine Corps came also,in order to protect fed- eral buildings.At first the Marines camped in Georgetown and on E Street,NW.Then in March President Thomas Jefferson,on horseback and accompanied by Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel William Ward Burrows, surveyed the city for a place for a permanent Marine Barracks. They chose this site because it was near the Navy Yard and was within easy marching distance of the Capitol and the President’s House in case of trouble. During the War of ,the Marine Barracks was one of the few public structures not destroyed by the British invaders.One local legend says that British General Ross,after witnessing the valiant Marines at the Battle of Bladensburg,ordered the complex spared “as a gesture of soldierly respect.” The Marines defended Washington in the War of and have fought on land and sea in every U.S. conflict since.
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Construction workers built the Marine Barracks’stately brick officers’ quarters in 1908,as photographed
from Eighth and I sts. Marine Corps Historical Center
A Neighborhood for Everyone ,
were built dur- ing a wave of private development that began after the United States won the Spanish-American War in ,becoming a world power for the first time. As America flexed its muscles, the world — and Eighth Street — felt the impact.In response the Marines began rebuilding the Barracks in , and the Navy Yard expanded in . The growing work force needed more housing and services too.New buildings soon filled in vacant lots or replaced old structures along Eighth Street. In the Washington and Mechanics Savings Bank went up on this corner as the row’s first bank,reflecting the area’s bright economic prospects. Eastern European and Asian immigrants, as well as American-born blacks and whites,joined the area’s already diverse pre-Civil War population. Diagonally across the street from this sign stands Eighth Street,built in by Irishman James O’Donnell as a combination store and apartment building.O’Donnell ran a drugstore on the first floor and rented the second- and third-floor “flats.”Ten years later,Louis Rosenberg built - Eighth Street,across Eighth from this sign,as four independent stores (one of which was his shoe store) topped with apartments.Rosenberg was one of many Eastern European Jews to choose the neighborhood.By the Southeast Hebrew Congregation (organized in ) was large enough to purchase a permanent meeting place at Ninth Street.In the purposely bi-racial Peoples Church,a Christian ministry of reconcilia- tion, took over the old Academy Theater.
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The U.S.Marine Band performs dur- ing a traditional Friday evening parade, 1969. Marine Corps Historical Center
Strike Up the Band ,
of band music,one of the ensembles of the world-famous United States Marine Band may be practicing inside the Marine Barracks. John Philip Sousa,the neighborhood’s most famous son,spent years here.In Sousa’s Marine Bandsman father persuaded the -year- old to apprentice to the Marine Band instead of running away to join a circus band.Twelve years later Sousa was named leader of the Marine Band and was on his way to becoming the “March King,”composer of dozens of stirring marches that remain popular worldwide.During his director- ship ( - ),Sousa wrote Washington Post March and Semper Fidelis ,among many others, and the band began the extraordinarily popular concert tours that continue to this day.The band’s renown spread even farther after it made one of the earliest phonograph recordings ( ) and helped pioneer live broadcast radio in the early s. In the NBC radio network began a record-setting years of broadcasting the Marine Band in “The Dream Hour.” The Marine Band was established by an Act of Congress in and has played for every presi- dent beginning with John Adams. Thomas Jefferson dubbed it “The President’s Own.” During Jefferson’s tenure,the band recruited musicians from Italy,some of whom eventually settled in the neighborhood.Italian immigrants contributed music schools,bakeries,and other businesses. The Marine Band,still stationed at the Barracks, remains the official White House musical ensem- ble and gives some performances around the world each year.
With thanks for research by Master Gunnery Sergeant D.Michael Ressler,U.S.Marine Band.
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Eighth Street businesses flank the Navy Yard entrance, 1966. Kiplinger Washington Collection
William Prout: Community Builder ,
— including portions of the Navy Yard — once belonged to William Prout, who lived in a large house on land now covered by the “castle” (the former Navy Yard Car Barn). In and he sold and traded land to the U.S.government for both the yard and the Marine Barracks. Arriving in America from England in , Prout heard rumors that President George Washington would be choosing this area for the new federal city. In Prout contracted for some 500 acres here from his future father-in-law,Jonathan Slater. Weeks later,Washington announced his selection, and Prout became one of 19 landowners con- tributing land to the new capital.Like the others, Prout donated some land and kept some to sell, hoping to make a fortune in real estate. Because the new city developed first to the west of the Capitol,and not in this direction,Prout never did make his fortune in land sales.But unlike many early investors,he did well,setting up a fish- ery,selling dry goods and bricks,and renting lots. Prout seeded a community,working with partners to build the first Eastern Market (1805) near here at Sixth and L streets,donating land for Christ Church,and serving on the City Council.His heirs would eventually profit from local land sales. Some of the buildings here are from Prout’s time. The unusually tall four-story building at 1003 Eighth Street was built before 1824,as was the two-story,dormered restaurant across the street at 1102.In 1833 the buildings with small attic-level windows were built as dwelling/shops serving the Navy Yard.
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Rear Admiral David Taylor,a pioneer of ship design,created the Experimental Model Basin in 1898 to test models of innovative ship hulls. Naval Historical Center
, the Navy Yard is the U.S. Navy’s oldest shore facility in continuous use.Over time workers here built and repaired ships and their fittings,designed and developed ordnance (weapons and ammunition),and provided admin- istrative support to the fleet. Although city designer L’Enfant planned a com- mercial center for the site,it invited ship building because it was near both deep water and abundant timber.The yard’s original gate,now topped by an addition,was designed in by Benjamin H.Latrobe,second architect of the U.S.Capitol. The Navy Yard was nearly destroyed during the War of .As British troops advanced on the city, the yard’s commandant,Captain Thomas Tingey, ordered workers to set fire to buildings and ships to keep them from the enemy.They spared only the Commandant’s House,officers’quarters,and the main gate. The vessels built here from until ranged from small -foot gunboats to the -foot steam frigate Minnesota.Workers then also repaired hun- dreds of ships and manufactured equipment, including anchors and chain cables.Engineers experimented with steam-powered warships. The Navy Yard was the city’s first reliable large employer.Unlike most southern enterprises,it offered well-paying skilled and unskilled jobs to both free blacks and hired-out slaves in addition to white workers. Here African American diarist Michael Shiner worked for years,first enslaved and then free.Until aviation took precedence,ships bearing important visitors docked at the Navy Yard, making it Washington’s ceremonial gateway. Washington Navy Yard: Serving the Fleet ,
With thanks for research by Edward J.Marolda,Senior Historian, Naval Historical Center.
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Workers put the finishing touches on the exterior — and the interior — of a 13-inch gun at the Naval Gun Factory,circa 1910. Naval Historical Center
Washington Navy Yard: Maker of Weapons ,
, the Navy Yard’s ship building dwindled. The Anacostia River was too shallow and remote from the open sea for building large vessels.By the s weapons production dominated activities. In the Naval Gun Factory was established. During World War II it was the world’s largest, producing everything from precision gun sights to enormous -inch battleship guns.By , howev- er,missiles and aircraft made elsewhere decreased demand for guns,so the factories closed.The yard became an administrative and supply center,with public museums and parks.Operations slowed until 2001,when the Navy adapted dozens of man- ufacturing spaces for offices,and the number of employees doubled.The yard’s white brick wall marks its original northern boundary.The yard grew from its original acres to acres at its peak in and then dropped back to acres in , after acres became the Southeast Federal Center. The “castle” across from the Navy Yard is the old Navy Yard Car Barn, built in by the Wash- ington and Georgetown Railroad Company for a brief experiment with cable cars.Cable cars trav- eled between the Navy Yard and Georgetown, pulled by a moving cable buried in a slot between the rails.Capitol Hill resident George J.Butler recalled how pranksters would “use a hooked wire to engage the cable,and then swoop down the street on roller skates until some killjoy policeman hove into sight.”In cable cars were discontin- ued,and the car barn was devoted to electric streetcars.
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Young residents of the Ellen Wilson Dwellings shortly after it opened in 1941. National Capital Housing Authority
Change and Renewal ,
- was constructed along the route of Virginia Avenue, SE,in the s,houses were destroyed and hun- dreds of residents were relocated.Once,fashion- able dwellings (including the home of Thomas Smallwood, mayor, - and ) had lined Virginia Avenue.After World War II ended in , people began moving away because the Navy Yard cut back employment,and new suburban develop- ments beckoned.Many houses were abandoned. Townhomes on Capitol Hill,the new buildings that look old on the northwestern side of Seventh and I streets,are the third development to occupy the site. By the s,a hidden H-shaped alley called Navy Place occupied the site,lined with tiny dwellings that housed Washington’s very poor. The poor had few choices for housing, and African Americans also faced discrimination.Consequently many were forced into unhealthy and crowded alleys. In Congress outlawed alley dwellings,and Navy Place was razed and its occupants had to leave.It was replaced in with public housing for whites called the Ellen Wilson Dwellings, named for the wife of President Woodrow Wilson who had pro- moted slum clearance.Navy Place’s black residents were not initially allowed into the new housing. Ellen Wilson Dwellings also deteriorated, eventually closing.After years passed with no building activity there,neighbors and others stepped in with a pub- lic-private partnership to build the current mixed- income innovative cooperative. The older houses here that survived population shifts and freeway construction are typical post- Civil War middle-income housing. The I Street house was constructed in as a drug store.Beneath the modern siding of I is a typi- cal brick bay-fronted Victorian.
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Christ Church and the entrance to F Street Terrace,photographed in the 1930s. Christ Church Archives
Christ Church and Its Parishioners ,
was the first Episcopal church established in Washington City ( ).It was attended by Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams.At first Christ Church met in a nearby tobacco warehouse.In parishioner and land owner William Prout donated land to the congregation.One year later a simple,two-story rectangular building went up, designed by Navy Yard contractor Robert Alexander.That structure still exists behind the church’s Gothic Revival façade,which was applied in along with a bell tower.The bell tower served as a Union lookout during the Civil War. Over the years,Christ Church’s balconies have seated slaves,choir members,and Marines who were marched over on Sunday mornings from the nearby Barracks.Marine Band Director John Philip Sousa was a member and neighbor.He was born in at G Street,three doors away,and grew up around the corner at Seventh Street. As a boy Sousa walked to Eighth Street for music lessons.He apprenticed to the Marine Band at age ,playing various instruments through two enlist- ments until age .After a short time spent com- posing and conducting,he returned in to lead the Marine Band until .That year he resigned to form the Sousa Band,which toured the world and sealed his reputation.Today’s audiences con- tinue to thrill to Sousa’s compositions,including The Stars and Stripes Forever ,the official march of the United States.
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Oxen stabled here once pulled milk cans from Union Station to Simpson’s bottling plant. Collection of Jim Simpson
In the Alley ,
in one of Washington’s remaining inhabited alleys,behind the buildings that front G,E (there is no F Street),Sixth,and Seventh streets.In the alley had tiny dwellings sheltering well over people.Today six remain,to the right of this sign across the alley on Archibald Walk and the adjacent alley. In Samuel A. H. Marks, Sr. ( - ) built his home at G Street with stables and work- shops on the alley behind the house.He practiced law and sold metal work crafted here from his hardware store at E Street,which backs onto the alley.His major client was the Marine Corps.A popular figure,Marks was known as the man who trained his dog to run between his two front coach horses as he drove Capitol Hill’s streets. By the prolific builder Charles Gessford and others had added the tiny brick houses on Marks Court (now the parking lot) and here along F Street Terrace. William A. Simpson ( - ) bought Marks’s properties around and expanded the stables for his Walker Hill Dairy, which delivered Frederick County,Maryland,milk to area doorsteps until . Eventually eight alley houses were razed for the warehouse across from this sign.The warehouse has served as Shakespeare Theatre’s set and prop shop and a woodworking studio.In ,after city authorities complained about squalid conditions, most of the dwellings were razed for the parking lot.The six survivors are now prized residences along Archibald Walk, named for long-time Capitol Hill resident Archibald Donohoe.
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The Owens family in front of 513 and 515 E St.,about 1922. Collection of Dorothy Owens Hawkins
Life on the Park ,
bears the name of Francis Marion, the celebrated South Carolina state senator ( - ) who earned the moniker “Swamp Fox” for his brilliant stealth tactics against the British dur- ing the Revolutionary War. Dorothy Hawkins grew up beside the park in E Street, next door to her grandfather William Owens,a policeman who lived in and was sta- tioned at the Fifth Precinct across the park (now Substation -D- ).William also served at the White House.As a child in the s,Dorothy would take a table and chairs to the park for tea parties under the trees. On the corner at Sixth Street is the former James Carbery House.Carbery served as a Navy Yard architect and engineer,and as an elected city Common Councilman ( - ).He purchased the Federal style house in and lived there until his death.After Carbery’s heirs sold the house in ,the tower was added and the roof- line was altered.Before Carbery purchased the house, it was owned by Robert Alexander, architect of Christ Church,who lived there and later rented it to his friend and colleague,architect Benjamin H. Latrobe. The church and parsonage across the park were designed in for Mt.Jezreel Baptist Church by Calvin T.S. Brent, the first African American archi- tect to practice in Washington. Built by freed slaves,the church is one of seven he designed,of which only three remain.It now houses Pleasant Lane Baptist Missionary Church.
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Friendship House girlfriends in front of the Maples,early 1940s. Special Collections,Gelman Library, George Washington University
has operated an array of social service programs from this grand Federal style house, also known as “the Maples.” Friendship House is among the city’s oldest such agencies,founded in by Adelaide Rochefort and Ida Green in rented rooms at Tenth and M streets,SE.Its front door is now found on the opposite side of the building at D Street. The Maples was built in for Captain William Mayne Duncanson,a wealthy trader who invested heavily in Washington real estate and entertained lavishly.When he built this house,stables,and slave quarters,the area was undeveloped.After a visit, George Washington wrote of the Maples as a “fine house in the woods.” By ,however,Duncanson’s high life had ended with the failure of his businesses,and he was forced to move.The property stood vacant until ,when the U.S.Army made it a hospital during the Battle of Bladensburg (War of ). In Francis Scott Key,author of The Star Spangled Banner ,purchased and restored the property. Later owners included Major Augustus A. Nicholson,quartermaster general of the Marines, who made it an unofficial Marine headquarters and a center of Washington social life from until . In Emily Edson Briggs,a pioneer- ing woman journalist,purchased the Maples. Briggs wrote a gossipy Washington column signed “Olivia”and was the first woman to receive White House press credentials.In Briggs’s heirs sold the Maples to an anonymous buyer who donated it to Friendship House. A Fine House In the Woods ,
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In a 1978 view,Chris Calomiris,left, oversees the family stand founded by his father.
The Washington Post
Meet You at the Market ,
the farm-fresh prod- ucts of Eastern Market have drawn shoppers from the neighborhood and around the city.It is Washington’s only th-century market to remain in continuous operation. Eastern Market is the second market bearing the name.The first operated from to on the block bounded by Fifth,Sixth,K and L streets,SE. It was located near the Anacostia River at a time when markets relied on water transportation to move goods. During the post-Civil War building boom,however,citizens were calling for a more modern,centrally located facility.This market was designed by Adolf Cluss as a state-of-the-art facili- ty in . Inside,merchants’stalls brimmed with meats, poultry,fish,produce,flowers,dairy products, baked goods — even freshly ground horseradish. Outside,farmers from Capitol Hill,Anacostia,and nearby Maryland sold produce from wagons and stalls.Young boys got their first jobs hauling gro- ceries home for customers or picking mold off cheeses.Some merchants also served as whole- salers to the Navy Yard, government agencies, and restaurants and hotels. In the early s,small neighborhood markets and grocery stores offering home delivery began competing with Eastern Market.In the s supermarkets arrived.Business suffered,and only citizen protests prevented the market’s closing in 1929.Nonetheless area farmers continued to come. The market went through more tough times until the 1960s,when it was rediscovered by a new gen- eration charmed by the vendors’century-old tradi- tions and fruit free of plastic wrappings.
Acknowledgments
This trail is the product of a unique group of historians and history makers,all of whom were generous with their time,knowledge,and talents.It is dedicated to the memory of histo- rian Ruth Ann Overbeck ( - ),whose original research informs every sign.Kim Prothro Williams served as the historian for the Barracks Row Heritage Trail Community Advisory Committee.Special thanks to Capitol Hill’s Jill Dowling and Bill McLeod as well as Peggy Appleman, Paul Bierley, Chris Calomiris, Dan Daly,George Didden,Larry Earle,Frank Faragasso,Martha Fowler,Linda Parke Gallagher,Carroll R.Gibbs,Elizabeth Hannold, Donna Hanousek, Faye Haskins, Don A. Hawkins,Dorothy Hawkins,Laura Hughes, John Imparato,Lucinda P.Janke,Lena M. Kaljot,Richard Kotulak,Jack Mann,Edward Marolda,Jenny Masur,Stephen Morris,Alice Norris, the late Philip W. Ogilvie, Richard Quin,Gail Redmann,D.Michael Ressler, Nelson Rimensnyder,Nan Robertson,Pat Schauer,Nancy Schwartz,Gary Scott,Ryan Shepard,John Shore,Jim Simpson,Bob Sonderman, Keith Washington, and especially Nancy Metzger.
President John F.Kennedy addresses sailors at the Navy Yard.
Sources
The creation of a Neighborhood Heritage Trail begins with the community, extends through story-sharing and oral history gathering, and ends in formal scholarly research. For more information on this neighborhood, please consult the library of the The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and Washingtoniana Division, DC Public Library. In addition, please see the following selected works: Sandra Fitzpatrick and Maria R. Goodwin, The Guide to Black Washington, rev. ed. (New York: Hippocrene Books, ). Constance McLaughlin Green, Washington: A History of the Capital, - , (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962 ). Howard Gillette, Jr., Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington, D.C. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ). Nancy Pryor Metzger, Brick Walks and Iron Fences: Capitol Hill’s History, Architecture, Walking Tours (Washington: The Brickyard press, ). Ruth Ann Overbeck, “Capitol Hill,” in Kathryn S. Smith, ed., Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation’s Capital (Northridge, CA: Windsor Publications, ). Ruth Ann Overbeck and Lucinda P. Janke, “William Prout: Capitol Hill’s Community Builder,” in Kenneth R. Bowling and Jane Freundel Levey, eds., Coming into the City: Essays on Early Washington, D.C. ( Washington History Magazine - , spring/summer ).
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On this self-guided walking tour of Barracks Row, historic markers lead you to: • John Philip Sousa’s birthplace and training ground • The oldest continuously manned Marine installation in the nation • Home of the first woman White House correspondent • Washington city’s oldest Episcopal church, where Thomas Jefferson and John Quincy Adams worshipped • Some of Washington’s oldest houses • Washington’s earliest and largest industrial plant
Tour of Duty
1 BARRACKS ROW HERITAGE TRAIL
U.S.Marines and neighborhood children pose outside the old Marine Barracks,circa 1890.
Tucker’s Grocery (1919) operated from the house you can see to your right at the corner of Seventh and D from 1903 until 1935.
Edge of the Row ’ are just blocks from where you are standing. This is the northern edge of a Capitol Hill community shaped by the presence of the U.S.military.Eighth Street is its commercial center.The Washington Navy Yard anchors the far end, where Eighth Street meets the Anacostia River.At this end, just one block from here, is the Old Naval Hospital.And halfway in between is the Marine Barracks,home of the United States Marine Band and inspiration for a local boy who made good: John Philip Sousa. Eighth Street was planned as a commercial avenue leading to a natural harbor on the Anacostia River, where city designer Pierre L’Enfant desig- nated a future trade center.But in President John Adams decided instead to give the site to the Navy for its Washington shipyard. Either way,Eighth Street was destined to be a street of business.In President Thomas Jefferson added another military installation: the Marine Barracks at Eighth and I streets. Soon, as the Navy Yard became a major employer,small businesses emerged along Eighth. This spot became an early crossroads.Here Eighth Street intersected with a road that led from the ferry landing on the Anacostia to the site for the Capitol and beyond to Georgetown.That road is today’s Pennsylvania Avenue. This community grew with the young nation.As you walk this trail, you’ll see a variety of th- and early th-century building styles.They are reminders of the neighborhood’s economically diverse population – laborers,merchants,marines and sailors,and the politically powerful.
President John F. Kennedy speaks to sailors aboard the U.S.Coast Guard sail training ship Eagle at the Navy Yard.
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The brand-new Wallach School (1863),designed by noted architect Adolf Cluss,was locat- ed where you can see today’s Hine Junior High School across Pennsylvania Avenue.
L’Enfant’s original plan for Washington placed a mercantile exchange (trading center) where the Navy Yard is today.
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