History

The Origin of the Ben and Sylvia Gardner Foundation and Gerard M. Silverman Foundation

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by Hugh Clarke

Ed. Note: Unfortunately Intangible Arts removed the video from his host so the PoPtrekker is no longer available.

I’d like to quickly explain why I called the Washington City Paper’s Jule Banville an idiot. You may recall a few weeks ago the City Paper launched it’s “best of” issue. I know I shouldn’t respond to this but, damn it, I can be weak at times. At any rate, Ms. Banville penned a section called the Best Ridiculous Prince of Petworth Feature [Ha! The City Paper has now deleted Jule’s post but I still have a hard copy. I sure hope they printed a reason for the retraction.] Predictably, she selected the door of the day feature, and oddly a post on the residences at Georgia Ave. For her second “ridiculous” feature, she selected PoPtrekker. While not very witty it was actually quite a compliment to be given my own section. Here’s where I have a problem with what Ms. Banville wrote:

“…he then announces that PoPtrekker is brought to us “by a generous grant from the Ben and Sylvia Gardner Foundation.”…And we have to ask: Journalists are losing their jobs faster than they can say “twitterer” and a foundation is giving money to a blogger for this?”

Well, Jule, while it is clear that you are far cooler than I am, I thought the City Paper was an actual newspaper. Even if this was an obvious attempt at a snarky piece, I imagine you could have done a quick google search on the Ben and Sylvia Gardner Foundation and you would have found – nothing. That’s because the Ben and Sylvia Gardner Foundation is not a foundation. It is a tribute to my grandparents. So keep up the good work Jule and thanks for all the attention. You’ll have to let me buy you a beer sometime so I can properly show my gratitude. And I have to ask: Do you consider yourself a journalist?

Update: The ‘Ridiculously Awesome Album Cover of the Week’ is now dedicated to the memory of my father Gerard M. Silverman – a lover of music and one with a good sense of humor. RIP.

St. Elizabeths Walking Tour – Very Cool

By Prince Of Petworth

On Saturday I went to Anacostia (about 10 minute walk from the Anacostia metro) to take a tour of St. Elizabeth’s campus sponsored by the DC Preservation League. As many know, St. Elizabeth’s is slated to become the new DHS headquarters so it’s not clear how long these tours will be available. I believe the next one is scheduled for May but you can check the DC Preservation League’s calendar here.

The campus itself is huge. There are lots of cool buildings similar to the one above all with red boarded windows. We had two very knowledgeable guides but I most enjoyed wandering the grounds. You can read about the history of St. Elizabeth’s here. For those that follow this issue, are there any supporters of turning this property into DHS headquarters or do you think it should be used for something else?

Lots of photos after the jump. (more…)

Follow up to Former House of the Day by Nichole

By Prince Of Petworth

I finally went and visited the lovely residents of the house featured here.

It’s a really great space, and that store front window provides a sort of stage-like space inside the apartment. Perhaps for karaoke parties?

They took me out to their patio to show me their outhouse and great grilling space. You may recall that they said that the building had previously been a German bakery – you can still see the charred wood from where they used fire to bake the bread in the back building (which now serves as the owner’s garage).

Many thanks to Sharyn and Nick for letting me snoop around and share pictures of their very cool apartment with everyone!

Neat Neighborhood Find (To Me) – “Ingelside”, Now Stoddard Baptist Nursing Home

By Prince Of Petworth

The home located at 1818 19th Newton Street, NW is completely wild because as you are walking along the street there are normal rowhomes and then all of a sudden there is this huge “mansion”. Thankfully, there was a heritage trail marker to explain it to me:

And here’s what it looked like back in the day:

I can’t believe I’ve walked through Mt. P so many times without walking past it before. It’s really amazing. Any other fans out there?

DC Neighborhood Names From Back in the Day (From A Reader)

By Prince Of Petworth

After last week’s discussion and nearly unanimous opposition to the name Tivoli North for parts of 14th Street north of Monroe in Columbia Heights, a reader did some interesting research and found the cool map above.

The reader writes:

“I don’t advocate one way or another for what names people apply to the neighborhoods (though NoMa, Atlas District, and Hill East make me slightly queasy) but I thought it was interesting to see the historical names and dates of the subdivisions. The map is based on data in a study in the journal of the Historical Society of Washington in 2002.

Obviously there are some gaps, such as the neighborhood Red Derby is in. I assume that the areas not highlighted were subdivided after 1902, the end of the study’s time period.

There is no mention of several names we use today — Park View, 16th St. Heights, Crestwood, etc. Someone had questioned if Lanier Heights was real, and it is/was (see #97).

Petworth was one of the first subdivisions laid out in accordance with the street grid of the original city, in anticipation of regulations that would soon require such patterns. At that time it did not extend towards the corner of NH and Missouri Aves.

Brookland was laid out in several stages and surrounded other subdivisions such as Metropolis View (110) and Cuckold’s Delight (11).

The names Mt. Pleasant and Pleasant Plains were already in use before these subdivisions were laid out. They referred to quite a large area, from Rock Creek Park and Adams Mill in the west, Florida Ave. in the south, Spring Rd. and Rock Creek Church Road in the north, and Park Place and North Capitol Street in the east. I don’t know if there was a clearly defined border between them, but Mt. Pleasant seems to be to the west and south and Pleasant Plains to the north and east. So to say that Pleasant Plains is a part of Columbia Heights is actually reversed; Columbia Heights was created out of part of Pleasant Plains.”

Key to the map:

11. Cuckold’s Delight, 1/21/1890 (Jackson, Irving, Hamlin, Brentwood, 15th, 16th NE)

14. Beale’s Subdivision, 10/30/1901

17. Bellevue, 5/16/1888; part of Pleasant Plains

18. Bloomingdale, 6/17/1889

20. Brightwood Park, 8/27/1890 Continues after the jump. (more…)

Random Old Streetcar Photo

By Prince Of Petworth

I thought this was a bit odd and also very cool. It is randomly on the side of rowhome by the park at 11th and Monroe. Apparently it is of a trolley from 1890. A bit random, yeah? Anyone know if there was a trolley line on 11th Street back in the day?

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