Capitol Hill was our destination yesterday. Started out at Little Pearl, a cafe located at Pennsylvania and Ninth, steps from Eastern Market. Something unique, it’s located in an old carriage house and steps from the Old Naval Hospital. It’s a special pairing, with a lovely set of flowered grounds. The building, constructed just after the Civil War, fell into disrepair in the 1990s. A group of citizens rescued it and it is now The Hill Center.
The rest of the walk was south of Pennsylvania, mostly along 8th Avenue/Barracks Row and down to the Navy Yard. “Washington at Home” has a nifty primer on Capitol Hill, one of the city’s oldest. In the first years of the new city of Washington, there were two small clusters of development in these parts. One was just east of the Capitol and the other was near the Navy Yard and the Marine Barracks. An 1857 map shows these two areas as still the most dense, with some homes and buildings in between the two.
William Prout, an Englishman who arrived in America in 1790, helped start the Marine Barracks part of Capitol Hill. An historical marker at L and 8th tells us about him. He was one of 19 landowners who sold tracts to the Federal government. Prout helped build the community which began with a fishery and Eastern (Branch) Market at Sixth and L. The current one, halfway between the Capitol and the Navy Yard, was built in 1872.
The commercial strip along 8th Street gets all the attention here, but a pillar within the fabric of the community is Christ Church (Washington Parish). Built in 1807 near 6th and G, it lines up on that lesser thought of line of early development between the Navy Yard and the Capitol. The original structure remains behind the Gothic Revival facade.
A historical marker tells us Prout donated the land. Presidents Jefferson and John Quincy Adams attended services here. Other members included enslaved humans, the Marines and John Philip Sousa.
Sousa was born at 636 G Street, just steps from the church.
Running beside the church is an alley. A marker says it is one of Washington’s remaining inhabited alleys.
Back over at 8th Street we checked out the Marine Barracks. It is the oldest continually manned post in the US Marine Corps. A 23-room house with mansard roof (added 1901) is the only remaining original structure.
I talked briefly with two marines standing guard and thanked then for their service. One did his Basic Training at Parris Island, the other at Camp Pendleton.
Our final stop was a visit to the Navy Yard and Naval Museum. That was something really special, so we will write about it separately.
All in all a good walk. We learned Capitol Hill is more than just what’s near the dome.
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