Forest Hills Connection | News and Life in Our DC Neighborhood

Covering Forest Hills, Van Ness, North Cleveland Park and Wakefield

Neighborhood in the News: Whittle School’s DC campus is shutting down; Van Ness food pantry needs new home

Whittle School closing in DC: Faculty and families at Whittle School and Studios were notified on Friday, July 8th that the just-ended school year was its last. The Washington Post and Washington Business Journal saw the email ed-tech entrepreneur and school founder Chris Whittle sent to the families and staff.

“We concluded [Thursday] night that we simply do not have the resources to continue operations at our Washington campus this coming school year,” Whittle reportedly wrote. “It is devastating to me to report to you this news.”

Whittle School’s financial woes, exacerbated by the pandemic, have been extensively reported by the Washington Business Journal. WBJ also reported that parents in a Friday night group chat expressed doubts the school would return their deposits for the 2022-23 school year, or repay the money they loaned to keep Whittle School operating through the end of the 2021-2022 school year.

Whittle School’s landlord, 601W Cos., recently sued to evict the school from the campus at 4000 Connecticut Avenue. Bisnow reports 601W also sued CBRE Group, which brokered the lease. The suit claims CBRE provided financial statements that gave a “false and misleading” picture of Whittle School’s financial health.

Whittle School opened its Van Ness DC and Shenzhen, China locations in fall 2019. The Shenzen school will remain open. A second location in China is to open this fall.

The Feed the Family Pantry has been operating out of UDC-donated space at 4225 Connecticut Avenue, since May 2021.

A Van Ness food and cleaning supplies pantry needs a new home in Ward 3: Feed the Family Pantry got Washington Post columnist Petula Dvorak’s attention with its news that it would need to leave its base of operations, the former Walgreens at 4225 Connecticut Avenue, by the end of July. However, a July 10th update to a Change.org petition urging a reprieve said UDC had agreed to extend its stay through the end of August, and help it find a new location. Feed the Family Pantry was founded by volunteers in May 2021 to support struggling Ward 3 families.

Feed the Family organizers continue to seek donations of cleaning supplies, shelf-stable foods and sturdy shopping bags, which can be dropped off on Saturdays and Sundays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The pantry distributes donated items on Sundays from 1 to 3 p.m.

Buy a historic farmhouse in the city: A home associated with this area’s tipsy history has been listed for sale. Urban Turf reports the 150-year-old home on what was then winemaker John Adlum’s Springland Farm was built by his daughter. And now, it could be yours for a little under $6 million. Adlum, a Revolutionary War figure, is considered the father of American viticulture for his experiments with growing native grapes and using them for winemaking. His lands included today’s UDC and North Cleveland Park, and the home is at 3550 Tilden Street NW.

Grace Kelly gets the spotlight at Hillwood:

The special exhibit is on view through January 8th, 2023.

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Comments

  2. I would love to see DC and Feds collaborate to put housing at all affordability levels, a school, community center, etc. at the Intelsat site. I understand the building has historical significance.

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