Missy Frederick welcomes a half dozen new theater company startups in the area.
Category: Local News and Views
Some links: 54
Benjamin R. Freed covers Capital Talent Agency, Roger Yoerges and Jeremy Skidmore’s nascent representation outfit for local professional actors. And, completely unrelated, Sabri Ben-Achour visits the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve, darling of local foodists and land use planners alike.
Fairfax Area II
My term project, an analysis of the Comprehensive Plan for Fairfax County’s Area II, has been submitted for my class.
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Via Greater Greater Washington, Emily Friedman visits three oft-overlooked D.C. memorials with tour leader Carolyn Crouch, on a walk from the White House grounds to the Constitution Gardens. I think Leta would like Signers’ Island.
Is that supposed to be an eagle?
A few weeks ago, I noticed that the old sign along the outer loop of the Beltway in Montgomery County, the one that read “Fairfax, VA 15” with reflective dots filling in the letters, had been taken down before I’d taken the time to get a photograph of it. So I’m resolved to be more aggressive about documenting obsolescent street furniture. And as a first example, consider this sign just outside a Metro Center subway exit directing drivers and walkers to the old convention center. The building was destroyed five years ago. If the ugly 1980s-era logo still manages to communicate “convention center” to anyone, at least it serves to point them toward the new convention center as well, since it is somewhat to the north of where the old building was.
AF of L
For the past year-plus that I’ve been commuting to downtown, I had often admired this trim little building standing by itself on a trapezoidal pentagonal lot on the northwest corner of 9th Street and Massachusetts Avenue, N.W. A plaque at the corner identifies it with the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada.
Alas, last week I noticed construction fencing walling off the building. The lights were still on inside the building, but I feared that it would soon go under the ball. The Circulator stop out front has been decommissioned.
That seems less likely, since the building is listed (item 74002154) in the National Register of Historic Places as the American Federation of Labor building. The Sullivanesque edifice was built in 1915 by Milburn, Heister & Company, and served as headquarters for the AF of L for 40 years until its merger with the CIO, at which point the plumbers moved in.
The United Association is now headquartered in Annapolis. I didn’t track down the current owner or tenants.
Woodies, not ducks
John D. submits a lovely post on the coming and going of the Woodward & Lothrop department store and its flagship building(s) on the block bounded by F and G and 10th and 11th Streets, N.W.
The large, new [Carlisle] building [at 11th and F] allowed for expanded lines of goods. In December 1888, Woodward observed to The Washington Post that “our new bric-a-brac department has led everything, and this trade has been truly phenomenal,” although the article frustratingly does not divulge what particular bric-a-brac was so irresistible.
In the early decades of the 20th century, two buildings replaced the Carlisle structure, filling in most of the block.
The escalator in Woodies, as I recall from the 1980s, was cramped and did nothing to stage the floor on which you were arriving. The handrail suggested a segmented worm. But, as an image in the post documents, it was at one time a technical marvel, an Electric Stairway connecting the levels of this emporium.
Gloves optional
I know some stage managers and technical directors who would love to post a sign like this one.
I ♥ NPR
The city has been repaving the curb cuts in my part of downtown. One or more street artists have capitalized on the opportunity to embellish the freshly-trowelled concrete, and many of their efforts are darn clever. In the case of the present example, found just down the block from 635 Massachusetts Avenue, N.W., its epigraphy is a little crude, but its sentiments are apposite and appreciated.
Changes?
One-off or new design? This street name sign is a slight improvement over the recent ones I’ve seen installed in the District. The typography is more graceful, the offset positioning of the P gives more balance. I could be wrong, but I think the superscript for the ordinal is new.
A sign of the times
Several years ago I noticed these old fallout shelter markers on the apartment block at 1901-1907 15th Street, N.W. There are at least four affixed to the exterior. These Cold War mementos are badly faded now; it’s hard to know whether a capacity was ever marked on the signs.
I always meant to do some research and write up the story of these yellow and black sentinels. But it turns out that Bill Geerhart did a much better job than I ever could have done. See also this photo gallery of signs still visible in Milwaukee and elsewhere.
Deanwood
I joined a 90-minute walk along portions of the Greater Deanwood Heritage Trail, led by Kia Chatmon and organized by Cultural Tourism DC. The Deanwood neighborhood lies in that part of Northeast east of the Anacostia River (and now the expressway and railway lines); purists will insist on the tighter boundaries of Sheriff Road and Nannie Helen Burroughs and Division Avenues. Whatever your limits, the close-knit African-American community carries a strong history of self-reliance. Up through mid-century, residents of this suburb-in-the-city had enough land to grow their own vegetables and keep small livestock.
Irving Parker, second-generation businessman and proprietor of Suburban Market, told our tour group some salty stories of clandestine horse races along Eastern Avenue that he participated in—the streets were not all paved yet, and people still kept horses even though Benning Racetrack had closed in the 1930s. Eugene Brown of the Big Chair Chess Club also spoke to the group about his organization’s emphasis on self-discipline and upholding tradition.
The heritage trail crosses the troubled waters of Watts Branch, culvertized and subject to dumping, but at least it runs clear under Minnesota Avenue. Indeed, once you step away from Minnesota Avenue and its light-industrial flavor, Deanwood still shows its leafy, suburban soul. Robins and a mockingbird made their presence known during the walk. Planetrees planted along Sheriff Road rise to impressive heights.
Decimate clutter
Steve Offutt dares to challenge the security bollards that have popped up in the last decade all over the city like so many fruiting bodies of concrete fungus. They won’t work, and they’re anti-people.
By now, the totality of those barriers must cover scores of acres of valuable sidewalk real estate. They create an unwelcome atmosphere to pedestrians, forcing them to weave and sometimes wait for others to make room just to walk to and from their destinations. Most of them are unsightly at best and downright ugly at worst. They have degraded the open space and welcoming feel of virtually every outdoor space in the core of DC.
Upcoming: 21
Another office building in Crystal City gets an arts-event invasion (à la Artomatic). This time it’s a March-long happening called G40: The Summit. Who knows? Could be great, could be…
A discovery
I’ve been walking down this block most workdays for the past year, and it was only this morning that I noticed there are wind chimes hanging from many of the trees in Mount Vernon Square, on the grounds of the Carnegie building, now home to the Historical Society of Washington D.C. This set of chimes is barely audible above the ruckus of 8:45 A.M. traffic. But even so, it’s nice knowing that it’s there.