The National Park Service has added the former headquarters of a lesbian feminist group near Barracks Row to its National Register of Historic Places. NPS made the decision on Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.
The house, located at 219 11th St. SE, held a separatist collective of lesbian feminists called the “Furies” between 1971 and 1973, according to NPS. The Furies printed a monthly magazine and other publications that helped shape lesbian feminist ideology nationally and globally.
The home was also made the first lesbian-related historic landmark in D.C. in January.
Mark Meinke, a local LGBT history advocate, told Hill Now in January that he was confident the former Furies headquarters would make it onto the National Register.
“The National Park Service in 2014 launched an LGBTQ heritage initiative and they’re hoping to recognize a lot of queer sites,” he said. “The Barracks Row area was an early gay and lesbian neighborhood, so there are a lot of sites around there that would be interesting to nominate,” Meinke added.
Photo via Historic Preservation Review Board/ Mark Meinke
A house near Barracks Row was unanimously voted into the D.C. Inventory of Historic Sites by the District’s Historic Preservation Review Board yesterday for its role as the headquarters of a lesbian feminist group in the early 1970s.
The house at 219 11th St. SE, which was home to the Furies Collective from 1971-73 is the first lesbian-related historic landmark in D.C.
The Furies Collective were a group of radical lesbian feminists who printed a monthly magazine and other publications that helped shape lesbian feminist ideology nationally and globally. The house near Barracks Row served as the home and headquarters for the collective.
The HPRB also recommended the house for national historic recognition in the National Register of Historic Places. Mark Meinke, a local LGBT history advocate who prepared the application said he is confident that the house will make it onto the national register.
“The National Park Service in 2014 launched an LGBTQ heritage initiative and they’re hoping to recognize a lot of queer sites,” he said. “This is one of the sites they’re waiting for because they don’t have any lesbian sites on the national register, so this will add a bit of diversity.”
Meinke, who co-founded the Rainbow Heritage Network last year to advocate for and secure historic recognition for LGBT sites around the country, spent nearly 10 months preparing the 63-page application. In it, Meinke noted that though the collective was short-lived, its contributions to lesbian and feminist thought were lasting.
“In the space of 18 months, the efforts of the collective’s twelve women had invigorated the debate over what lesbians needed to do and what they needed to oppose,” he wrote in the application. “Their arguments for independent self-reliant women had become a norm for many lesbian feminists and even within the wider women’s movement.”
The application also shed light on the Barracks Row area’s role as one of the first gay and lesbian neighborhoods in the District. In the application, Meinke explains how Barracks Row in the late 60s and early 70s was home to some of the city’s only gathering places for gays and lesbians.
Meinke said he isn’t currently working on other historical applications in the area but there are several sites in the area that played a significant role in the the District’s LGBT history.
“The Barracks Row area was an early gay and lesbian neighborhood, so there are a lot of sites around there that would be interesting to nominate,” he said.
Meinke was joined at the preservation board meeting by former Furies member Joan Biren and the home’s current owner Robert Pohl.
Photo via Historic Preservation Review Board/ Mark Meinke
The District Office of Planning’s Historic Preservation Review Board is set to designate the two oldest buildings of Southwest’s Maine Avenue Fish Market, Washington City Paper reported.
The fish market’s lunch room building from 1916 and oyster shucking shed from the mid-1940s are expected to receive landmark status at the HPRB’s meeting today.
The District constructed the two buildings, located next to the concrete barges that hold the fish market, in an effort to more closely regulate cleanliness and working conditions for fishmongers by requiring all fish commerce to occur there.
The buildings are symbols of the government’s effort in the early 20th century to better regulate food and sanitation, according to the application for historic preservation.
A letter from the District’s Historic Preservation Office recommending that the Board grant landmark status to the buildings says that the application for historic landmark status is part of a joint effort between the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the developers of The Wharf to restore the dilapidated buildings.
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The two oldest buildings of Southwest’s Maine Avenue Fish Market might soon become historic landmarks.
The District Office of Planning and Economic Development submitted an application earlier this year to have the fish market’s lunch room building from 1916 and oyster shucking shed from the mid-1940s designated as historic landmarks.
If the structures receive the designation, the D.C. Historic Preservation Office may help maintain and improve the buildings, which have both fallen into disrepair. A public hearing on the buildings’ application is scheduled for next month.
The District constructed the two buildings, located next to the concrete barges that hold the fish market, in an effort to more closely regulate cleanliness and working conditions for fishmongers by requiring all fish commerce to occur there.
The buildings are symbols of the government’s effort in the early 20th century to better regulate food and sanitation, the application says.
“Clothed in the garb of governmental control, the [market] and all its components represented a new age in the government’s concern for its citizenry,” the application says.
The two connected buildings are the only parts of the market that survived an urban renewal project in the 1960s, but haven’t been used since 2010.
The oyster shucking shed was built as a place for fishmongers to clean and prepare their catches and the lunch room was added in the mid-1940s. The lunch room housed the Cadillac restaurant from the time it was built until 1970.
The colonial revival architecture of the buildings also warrants historic status, as they are remnants of development in Southwest in the early 20th century amid newer development in the area, the application adds.
Representatives from the Historic Preservation Review Board, which decides which locations get landmark status, could not be reached to comment.
A representative of the Mayor’s Office of Planning and Economic Development, which submitted the application, directed a request to comment to The Wharf. A representative of The Wharf, which is redeveloping the Southwest waterfront, wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Photo via Historical Society of Washington, D.C
Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) is looking to add a historic house on Capitol Hill to the national park system.
Mikulski last week introduced legislation that would help preserve and promote the Sewall-Belmont House & Museum at 144 Constitution Ave. NE by designating it a National Park Service property. The bill has 13 female Democratic senators as co-sponsors.
In June, the museum focused on women’s suffrage received an endorsement from the National Park Service, clearing the way for Congress or President Barack Obama to add the house to the national park system.
The house has served as the headquarters of the National Woman’s Party since 1929 and has a large collection of suffrage and equal rights movement documents. Recently, the costs of maintaining the aging building have forced the museum to cut back on public tours and educational programs, Mikulski said in a statement.
When introducing the bill, Mikulski said that designating the house as a National Park Service property “would not only give it the resources it needs to continue to educate the public, but would send a powerful message that women’s history is an important part of our nation’s history.”
“Senator Mikulski’s legislation is a major step toward ensuring our national parks continue to evolve and tell more diverse stories, including those about women’s history,” said Kristen Brengel, senior director of legislation and policy for the National Parks Conservation Association, which helps support U.S. national parks.
The bill is not yet scheduled for a vote in the Senate.
Photo via Twitter/SBHMuseum
A house used as the main base for a 1970s feminist movement on Capitol Hill has been nominated for historic landmark status.
Local author Robert Pohl, property owners and the D.C. Preservation League nominated the house near Eastern Market to the D.C. Historic Preservation Review Board earlier this month. Nomination papers say an eclectic, 10-room residence at 219 11th St. SE housed 12 members of the Furies Collective, a 1970s lesbian separatist group.
The group of lesbians taught automotive repair, self defense and home restoration classes in an effort to empower women. The Furies Collective also published a national tabloid newspaper called, “The Furies,” and a magazine called, “Motive,” from the home’s basement in 1971.
The operation barely lasted more than a year after the group disbanded in 1972.
“Over the course of the collective’s and the newspaper’s lives, the twelve women explored and sought to resolve a multitude of issues and examined their personal experiences in the lines of their newspaper,” the nomination reads.
At 1114 F St. NE, the Lexington Apartments building this month also was nominated for historic landmark status. Nomination documents argue that the four-story complex showcases a Classical Revival style that influenced the development of an “ethnically, socially, and economically diverse neighborhood in the Northeast quadrant.”
The Historic Preservation Review Board has yet to schedule hearings for either property.
Photos via Google Maps
A historic home on Capitol Hill is one step closer to becoming part of the national park system.
The Sewall-Belmont House & Museum at 144 Constitution Ave. NE yesterday received word from the National Park Service that the site’s inclusion in the system is “suitable and feasible.” The National Park Service has more than 400 properties, including parks, monuments and historic homes.
The museum focused on women’s suffrage has an affiliation with the National Park Service. But it lacks the resources the agency provides to The Old Stone House in Georgetown, Arlington House at Arlington National Cemetery and other historic homes under its control.
The endorsement the National Park Service gave yesterday is “confirmation that this incredible story of women’s suffrage deserves a place in the national park system,” said Kristen Brengel, senior director of legislation and policy for the National Parks Conservation Association, which helps support U.S. national parks.
Neighboring the Senate Hart Office Building, the Sewall-Belmont House has served as the headquarters of the National Woman’s Party since 1929. The organization played a key role in securing the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
With the museum’s new support from the National Park Service, President Barack Obama or Congress can move to bring the house into the national park system. But it’s unclear when, or if, the museum will become a National Park Service property.
“I don’t think there is a strict timeline here,” Brengel said.
Photo via Wikimedia/AgnosticPreachersKid
The northern boundary of the Capitol Hill Historic District could be extended to include more homes east of Union Station and south of H Street NE.
ANC 6C has filed an application to expand the historic district to include the two entire blocks from 2nd to 4th streets NE and F to G streets NE, plus parts of the two blocks just north of there.
D.C. Historic Preservation Office records show that ANC 6C filed for the expansion — officially known as the Swampoodle Addition to the Capitol Hill Historic District — because buildings within the proposed boundaries share characteristics of landmarked buildings further south.
“The late 19th- and early 20th-century rowhouse architecture found within these four squares is consistent with that found within the current Capitol Hill Historic District and many buildings shared the same owners, builders and architects,” the 54-page application says.
The document was prepared by Maria Dayton and Laura Trieschmann of the architectural history firm EHT Traceries, Inc., the same company that presented a proposal earlier this year to create a much larger historic district to the north and east of the current zone.
Many locals panned that proposal, saying they don’t want additional restrictions on their homes, and that EHT and the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, which commissioned the study, made an insufficient case for the designation.
The proposed Swampoodle addition to the historic district includes 170 buildings deemed “contributing” because of their architectural features. Another 18 non-contributing buildings fall within the boundaries. These blocks are mostly occupied by rowhouses in the Queen Anne, Colonial Revival, Classical Revival and Romanesque Revival styles, the application says.
The application included information on the delightfully odd name Swampoodle.
“Roughly bounded by 1st Street, NW on the west, 2nd Street, NE on the east and K and G streets on the north and south, Swampoodle owed its name to a reporter, who in 1859 while covering the dedication of the St. Aloysius Catholic Church at North Capitol and I streets, NE, referred to the area as “being dotted with ‘swamps’ and ‘puddles.’
“Adapting these two words, the name Swampoodle was irrevocably attached to this area well into the 20th century. Home to working-class laborers and immigrants, primarily Irish, Swampoodle obtained a reputation as being gang-ridden and downtrodden.”
A public hearing regarding the expansion will be scheduled by the Historic Preservation Review Board, the HPO said in a statement issued today (Friday).
Image via D.C. Historic Preservation Office
A local preservation group has submitted an application to make the small brick house just east of Van Ness Elementary School a historic landmark.
The Lincoln Playground Field House, on the Joy Evans Recreation Center site (555 L St. SE), was constructed in 1934 as part of a New Deal project. Of six similar field houses built in the racially segregated District, it was the only one made in a black neighborhood.
“What I really like about this field house is that it was the only one of the six made completely out of brick, the only one outside of Northwest and the only one built for a black playground,” said Kent Boese, president of Historic Washington Architecture, the group that submitted the application.
Boese said that he hopes a historic designation will enable the community to raise funds to renovate the field house for public use, and for Van Ness Elementary, which is set to reopen in the fall.
“The field house is in rough shape, but it’s nothing that can’t be brought back,” he said.
Boese, who is the chairman of ANC 1A, said he secured $400,000 from the D.C. Council to renovate a similar field house in the Park View neighborhood after it was designated a historic landmark.
Photo via Historic Preservation Review Board
The Capitol Hill Restoration Society has spent this month telling locals about a study they commissioned on expanding historic preservation zones in Ward 6.
Research by the architectural history firm EHT Traceries, Inc. supports the northern expansion of the Capitol Hill Historic District, plus the creation of the Capitol Hill East Historic District.
Many locals said at a community meeting Monday night that additional historic designations would cost them time and money. Supporters of the designation said it would give locals an additional tool to fight ugly pop-ups and inappropriate development.
What do you think? Take the poll and tell more in the comments. If you live in the Capitol Hill Historic District, how do you think it has helped and hurt the neighborhood?
A growing number of Capitol Hill residents are voicing skepticism about historians’ designs for the creation of the Capitol Hill East Historic District and the expansion of the Capitol Hill Historic District.
About 60 locals listened to a 45-minute presentation last night (Monday) by Emily Hotaling Eig, president of the architectural history firm EHT Traceries, Inc. The firm said its research supported additional historic designations to protect neighborhood character.
“We believe there are some wonderful buildings and housing stock that should be recognized for its value to the community,” Eig said, describing notable corner stores and wood-frame buildings that fall within the studied area to the north and east of the current historic district.
But locals said they don’t want additional restrictions on their homes, and that EHT and the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, which commissioned the study, had made an insufficient case for the designations.
Susan Fariss, a 17th Street SE resident for the past 14 years, said the creation of a historic district that included her home would have a real impact on her neighbors. She described having recently spent $1,000 to have a wooden picket fence built around her yard. A historic designation would have required that fence to be wrought iron, she said, which she estimated would cost two or three times more money.
“If there’s a historic district, then I’m not building a fence, and I’m going to let my dog s**t in your yard,” she said to laughter.
The designation would cost locals time and money, said resident Peter Gould, a homeowner in Hill East for the past 3 years.
“In the event that you are permitted to improve your house, you’re talking about the need to have full architectural drawings,” he said. “That’s several thousand dollars.”
ANC 6B commissioner Francis Campbell said that while he wanted to stop homeowners from building “garish” third-story additions, locals need to be able to expand their homes as they see fit.
“How is this going to benefit us?” he asked.
Whether long-time residents will be able to make home modifications they need, like installing a wheelchair ramp, was a key concern of ANC 6B commissioner-elect Denise Krepp.
“There are a lot of older residents who have lived here 40, 50 years,” she said. “How will they be able to alter their houses so they’ll be able to remain?”
ANC 6B commissioner Brian Flahaven said he wanted to improve the public process around the construction of pop-ups, but wasn’t sure a historic designation is necessary. He said he hasn’t heard much support for the plan.
“I would have to see pretty strong neighborhood support,” he said.
Pat Taylor, who has lived in the area since 1988, supported the designation plan and said residents should seek to protect the neighborhood.
“I’m appalled by ugly pop-ups and inappropriate condo buildings,” she said.
CHRS said it will not sponsor the historic designations without local support.
The plan cannot advance without community backing and an official champion, Kim Williams, a representative of the District’s Historic Preservation Office, assured locals.
“There has to be a germ of interest, and there has to be a sponsor,” she said.
Whether to designate the additional areas as historic would be an informal process, rather than a ballot initiative.
The Capitol Hill Restoration Society is gearing up for a big November as the group explores the expansion of the Capitol Hill Historic District.
If the boundaries of the district were changed, residents and developers would need approval from the D.C. Historic Preservation Office for new construction and many alterations to buildings. Property values have risen every time a neighborhood has earned the historic designation, according to the preservation office.
The current district is roughly bound by F Street NE to the north, 13th Street NE and SE to the east, the Southeast Freeway to the south and 2nd Street NE and SE to the west. The expansion would add additional blocks to the north as far as H Street NE and to the east as far as 19th Street SE.
CHRS will hold public meetings next month for residents in the proposed expansion areas.
ANC 6A area: Nov. 5 at 6:45 p.m. at Maury Elementary School, 13th Street and Constitution Avenue NE
ANC 6B area: Nov. 17 at 6:45 p.m. at the Hill Center, 921 Pennsylvania Ave. SE
ANC 6C area: Nov. 18 at 7 p.m., Northeast Library, 330 7th St. NE
Rosedale community: Possible meeting to be scheduled
CHRS has also released a question-and-answer sheet from the Historic Preservation Office that aims to address neighborhood concerns about landmarked districts.
Advocates for expanding the district say the new area includes historically significant buildings from before and after the Civil War. The architectural history firm EHC Traceries will complete a study of the area, Hill Rag reported. That study is set to be released next month.
The mayor appoints members to the Historic Preservation Review Board, which oversees the historic districts. The election next week may affect the potential expansion of the historic zone. The DC Preservation League released a candidates’ questionnaire on preservation.
