Forest Hills Connection || News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood
Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield
In 2019, we published a series of recollections by Fred Rhodes (1913-2001), a federal worker whose long and varied resumé included the Manhattan Project and the Nixon administration. But a century ago, he was just a kid in Forest Hills, and the Soapstone Valley was his playground. His memoir Four Seasons in the Soapstone Valley, shared […]
The Murch and Wilson students who work on their school newspapers have left us with some great summer reading material. You can read the final 2020-2021 print edition of The (Wilson) Beacon here. And read The (Murch) Blue and Gold here. They’ve had quite a year. And before they started their hard-earned summer break, they […]
For four of the past five years, UDC has shared one corner of its campus with a bunch of grade school kids. The university is getting that space back now. Workers are removing the trailers that served as swing space during the Murch Elementary and Eaton Elementary modernization projects. The trailers were installed on the […]
by John Burwell There’s a wild patch by the Broad Branch Stream along Nevada Avenue between Nebraska Avenue and 36th Street. And a few Boy Scouts have done a lot to tame it. On May 15th and 16th, Life Scout and Wilson senior Henry Byrne-Kalsvik successfully directed volunteer scouts of Troop 52 to remove targeted […]
For the past several months, Levine Music (2801 Upton Street) has made its mostly virtual lessons and classes work in extraordinary ways. Take, for example, the Levine Music Theatre production of Les Misérables: Starting in January, students met for online rehearsals and masterclasses. Then the actors and orchestra recorded the memorable score similar to a […]
This post is sponsored by CityDance. Beginning this month, CityDance School & Conservatory is holding its first in-person summer programs since 2019 at sites including Strathmore in Bethesda, Maryland and Whittle School & Studios in Van Ness, DC. “CityDance has been a partner of Whittle since they opened, providing dance classes to their students,” said […]
by Mark Moran Issues faced by the neighborhood’s public and private schools – as well as UDC and Howard University’s law school – are the focus of a newly formed ANC 3F committee of residents and commissioners. And they are seeking the support, input and guidance of parents, educators and other neighbors. “The schools and […]
For those who haven’t heard yet: DC Public Schools has announced its proposal to name Woodrow Wilson High School after playwright August Wilson, who wrote award-winning plays about the Black experience in America. DCPS cited community input in its decision, saying that August Wilson was the preferred name in a public survey with 6,000 respondents, […]
Lucía Driessen, a 19-year-old who grew up in Forest Hills, voted for the first time in the 2020 election. And then she traveled to Georgia with her father Karl to canvass for the Democrats running in the Senate runoff. They took two road trips down to Athens, Georgia in December ahead of the January special […]
What was it like in DC-area virtual classrooms the day after the U.S. Capitol riot? The newspaper covering the happenings at Wilson High offers a window on the experiences of students, staff and faculty at the District’s largest school. Recent articles by The Beacon staff cover the return to in-person instruction, the waiving of community […]
