Forest Hills Connection || News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood
Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield
by Ann Kessler The history of DC real estate is marred by restrictive covenants that prohibited the sale of property to Jews, Black people, and other frequent targets of discrimination. Forest Hills was, by comparison, more welcoming. At one point the neighborhood even earned the nickname “Hanukkah Heights,” so it’s long been assumed that Forest […]
More than a few of us took up walking the neighborhood last year to get some exercise and pass the time under shutdown orders. Mark Fitzpatrick did more than that. He turned up a number of hidden historical treasures on his walks around Tenleytown, AU Park, Forest Hills, Van Ness and North Cleveland Park. He […]
by Ann Kessler A 1907 Baist real estate atlas shows very little development in what would become Forest Hills. Sure, there were land owners with acres of land, and some roads and streets had been cut through or were marked to be built, but few actual buildings or houses were shown. One prominent building that […]
by Ann Kessler In one newspaper article marking his passing in 1941 at the age of 73, Melvin C. Hazen was called “The Boss,” “First Citizen of Washington,” and “one of the city’s most beloved characters.” President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s particular name for Hazen was “Grand Old Man of the District.” FDR also said that […]
by Ann Kessler President Harry S. Truman loved to walk. He did so almost every morning of his adult life. “I go every morning at 6:30 to 7:00 for a half hour’s real walk usually doing two miles,” Truman once wrote to his mother. And for a few years, his starting point was 4701 Connecticut […]
The DC Public Library’s Washingtoniana collection needed a temporary home during the renovation of Martin Luther King Library. And for a little more than a year, Van Ness provided one. Washingtoniana moved out of its UDC Law School digs at 4340 Connecticut Avenue when DCPL’s lease expired early this year. And in a recent newsletter, […]
by Ann Kessler On the Flagship Car Wash at 4432 Connecticut Avenue there’s a sign that says “Since 1941.” It’s off by a decade. The car wash was built in 1931. What else was on this block south of Albemarle Street in the 1930s? 4434 Connecticut The current home of Bread Furst, a one-story brick […]
by Ann Kessler Looking at Connecticut Avenue between Van Ness and Albemarle Streets today, it might be hard to imagine that it was once a destination for drivers seeking gas for their cars. There isn’t even one gas station left. But where there are office buildings and stores and restaurants today, there used to be […]
“We Shall Not Bore the Reader.” That’s the first rule of The Blue and Gold, and a pretty good rule for any publication to keep in mind. But this newspaper is staffed by fourth and fifth graders at Murch Elementary School. The 17 student reporters work under the guidance of Aaron Epstein, an award-winning journalist. […]
by Steve Dryden Way back in the last century, there was a restroom at Peirce Mill – actually next to the Peirce Barn, but it did serve the purpose of making it easier to “use the facilities” without crossing Tilden Street and walking to the picnic pavilion. When the mill was restored, and the landscape […]
