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Capitol Hill
Voices and Memories
Here are some of the interviews we've collected so far from longtime Capitol
Hill residents. You can click through for the full transcript, or contact us
for information about additional interviews and interview plans. Please note
that the transcript files are searchable by key word. |
Tony Ambrosi |
Tony Ambrosi  grew
up in Schott’s Place, an Italian enclave in the interior of the block where
the Dirksen and Hart Senate Office buildings are now located. Born in 1911, his
memory of that time and place is the “Shangri-La of Washington, D.C.”,
where the children could play soccer, baseball, and football on the courtyard’s
Belgian block surface. The July, 2004, interview with his grandson Mike Viqueira
includes his vivid memories of playing inside the Capitol dome, an encounter
with the Army on the day the Bonus Marchers were routed, and his working life
as a cement finisher during the period when the Federal Triangle was being built
in Northwest Washington. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Helen Atkins |
Helen Atkins, who celebrated her 100th  birthday on Valentines Day, 2008, arrived in Washington with her widowed father during World War I. She moved to Capitol Hill after her 1935 marriage and remained here until recent years. Her 2005 interview with Patricia Taffe Driscoll includes her fond memories of people in her life, stories about her experiences as a student and teacher in Washington, and a description of her participation in the amateur acting troupe the Krigwa Players.. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Ernest Antignani |
| Ernest Antignani came to Washington in the mid-1950s to attend
Georgetown University’s Foreign Service school. He never went into the
foreign service, but instead has spent his life, first in Georgetown and then
on Capitol Hill, in the real estate business. When interviewed by his neighbor
Jennifer Newton in 2004, he regaled her with stories of the late 1960s and 1970s
on Capitol Hill, a time when realtors such as Beau Bogan, Millicent Chatel, Barbara
Held, and Rhea Radin held sway and houses sold for under $15,000. A long-time
observer of the neighborhood, Ernest offers his opinions on many aspects of Hill
life then and now. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Frances Barnes |
| Frances Barnes' family stretches back generations in Washington,
D.C.; so far that she isn't exactly sure when they first arrived. In an interview
with next-door neighbor Marilyn Saks-McMillion, she reminisces about her own Depression-era
childhood in Southwest DC and the free clothing program that her family took advantage
of. She recounts her life as a young wife and working mother, working hard to raise
her family from blue collar jobs to the middle class. She and her husband and eight
children moved to F Street NE in the early 1950s, first as renters and later as
owners of her current home, fixing it up over the years to make it more livable
and comfortable. She remembers sitting on the front steps with her sister as young
women, and greeting the many neighbors who passed by. She still greets passers-by
during the warmer months, earning her the unofficial title of Mayor of F Street
NE. . View Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Georgiana Barnes |
Georgiana Barnes  married
and moved to Capitol Hill, or Southeast Washington as it was called then, on Chris
tmas Day, 1933. In an interview with Sharon House, she explains why her family
moved from St. Mary's County, Maryland, in 1929. She tells of attending St. Peter's
and St. Cyprian's Catholic churches and of her gratitude to the Oblate Sisters
of Providence who taught her 12 children at St. Cyprian's school. Mrs. Barnes describes
the neighborhoods around the three Capitol Hill homes where her family lived and
tells of her career, where she ended up supervising 300 people who cleaned five
House of Representatives office buildings. . View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Linda Barnes |
 Linda
Barnes moved to Washington as a young bride in 1963, and has lived on East Capitol
Street for thirty-five years. She worked for many of those years as a real estate
broker and has been an active neighborhood volunteer. In an interview with Stephanie
Deutsch, she discusses the community and the many changes she's witnessed here. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Lola Beaver |
| Lola Beaver entered the costume-making profession indirectly.
As she tells Renee Braden in her 2003 interview, she survived the Depression
as a young adult in New York City, then came to Washington with her Marine husband
and started a dance school. Assignments producing performances for the Army and
the USO took her to distant locations, including the Caribbean and the Arctic.
Eventually, she “eased into” creating costumes and established the
Costume Shop on Eighth Street NE not long after the 1968 riots. That business
provided her “claim to fame” – creation of blue bow ties for
then-President Lyndon Johnson. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Dudley Brown |
| A widely respected expert in historic restoration, Dudley Brown
had long family connections to Capitol Hill. His grandmother ran a boarding house
here catering to men and women who worked for the FBI, and his aunts lived here
when they were starting careers in the federal government. His uncles were both
the first and the last clients of Lee Funeral Home on Stanton Park. Brown tells
Megan Rosenfeld about his move to Washington in the late 1950s to find work in
interior decorating and about the house on 4th Street S.E. that he lived in for
nearly 45 years and painstakingly restored. He also remembers the neighborhood
segregated by zoning laws, as well as a hastily organized (and fortunately successful)
protest against a secret plan to turn most of the neighborhood into a twin of the
Mall. View Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Chris Calomiris |
One of the most familiar
faces on Capitol Hill is Chris Calomiris, a grocer at Eastern Market since 1963.
What's less well known is that Chris is a Capitol Hill native, born on First
Street NE on the site of what is now the Dirksen Senate Office Building. In two
interviews with Bonny Wolf during 2001, Chris remembers his childhood as the
son of Greek immigrants, his days working with his father at the market at 5th
and K Streets NW, and the transition by many of the merchants to Eastern Market
when that one closed. . View Online > [ Part
I > | Part II > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Bryan Cassidy |
| Bryan Cassidy arrived in Washington from Ireland in the mid-1960s,
newly wed and seeking employment as an architect. Bryan recounts to interviewer
Ida Prosky stories, many of which they shared together, about family life and
raising children at a time when the Hill was in transition. Bryan was instrumental
in forming Soccer on the Hill and the family was active in a variety of theater
groups. The stories are about Bryan’s neighborhood at Ninth and D Streets
SE, the 1968 riots, St. Peter’s School, St. Joseph’s Church and the
Capitol Hill Restoration Society. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Mary Colston |
| Mary Colston lived in the same two-story rowhouse on the 500
block of Second Street N.E. from 1947 until 2002. She raised her family there and
her mother lived upstairs. Descriptions of her home and family, the immediate neighborhood,
shopping, worship, schools, trolley cars, movie houses, the African-American community,
and voting for the first time in the District are all mentioned in this interview
with Marilyn Saks-McMillion. She also mentions how her former neighbor Jimmy Dean
would sit out on his front steps in the late 1940s and play his guitar and sing,
before going on to fame as a country and western singer and sausage-making entrepreneur. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Claire and Larry Davis |
Claire and Larry Davis, Capitol
Hill residents since 1969, bought their house for its garden and made extensive
use of it through the years. In their interview with Elizabeth Stein, Claire tells
of Larry's prize-winning mums, a wisteria that covered the back of the house, a
lily with 30 blossoms, and a fig tree that recently produced 300 fresh figs. She
relates how Larry was originally refused entry into the then all-women Capitol
Hill Garden Club, though both of them eventually served terms as president. The
interview also covers their relationships with the neighbors and their daughter's
experiences in the local public schools. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| George Didden, Jr., |
George Didden, Jr., had been a member of the Board of National
Capital Bank for 50 years when Ruth Ann Overbeck interviewed him in 1990. He
had also been bank president for 47 of those years, going from one of the youngest
bank presidents in the country to one of the oldest. With permission of George
Didden III and Robert Hughes, the transcript is reproduced from a printed version.
In it, Mr. Didden summarizes his career at the bank, his pride that no investor
ever lost money in his bank, and his opinions on the causes of the problems banks
were facing at the time of the interview.View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] .
Also see Didden and Carry Families - Lecture View
Online > |
Ray Donohoe |
| Ray Donohoe was born at old Providence Hospital on January 22,
1921, the day of Washington's largest snowfall ever, the snow that brought down
the roof of the Knickerbocker Theater. The family lived at 159 Kentucky Avenue
until 1937 and attended Holy Comforter Church and School. In his interview with
Barbara Eck, Ray recounts his childhood in the Lincoln Park area, where the well-known
exploits of the six Donohoe boys often brought visits from the police whenever
mischief had occurred in the neighborhood. Ray's grandfather, John F. Donohoe,
founded the real estate business that still bears his name, as well as an early
automobile dealership on Capitol Hill. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Randy Edwards |
Randy Edwards was born and
raised on Capitol Hill, but his ties to the neighborhood through subsequent years
revolve around his long-time membership in the (Masonic) Naval Lodge on Pennsylvania
Avenue SE. Three time Past Master of the Lodge, Randy is now also the building
manager; people who attend the Overbeck Lectures will recognize him as the man
who ferries them to the fourth floor in the elevator. Randy’s April, 2003,
interview with Janice Kruger covers his whole lifetime -- the neighborhood in the
1930s and ‘40s, his Navy years and working life, and of course, the Masonic
Lodge and its activities. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Jim Finley |
For forty-one  years,
as a labor of love, Jim Finley ran a no-frills boxing gym on the second floor of
his auto repair shop on 10th Street Northeast. Bob Foster, Sugar Ray Leonard and
other greats came there to spar, but Finley's mostly served a neighborhood clientele,
ranging from street kids dreaming of glory in the ring to lawyers looking for stress
relief. In an interview with John Franzén, Finley reminisces about his days
at the gym, his childhood on a sharecropper's farm in South Carolina, and the Washington
he found when he arrived here as a teenager in the 1940s. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Dorothy Garris |
The story of  Dorothy
Garris’s life on Capitol Hill involves not just her family and her teaching
career, but the history of the New United Baptist Church, founded by her late
husband, the Reverend Grant Garris, and named by her. She grew up in Southwest
Washington, graduated from Dunbar High School and Miner Teachers College, and
taught in DC elementary schools for 26 years. Her proudest memories are of the
four children she and her husband raised and the church they founded in 1963,
with worship services held in their homes until a church building was completed
in late 1973. Her interview with Elizabeth Stein includes the story of her having
two babies during one two-year maternity leave from the school system and her
winning the metropolitan area Senior Spelling Championship in 1991. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Pauline Getek |
| Pauline Getek grew up on a farm near Fredericksburg, VA, and attended a one room school. She worked in the Alexandria Torpedo Factory during World War II, when the product being made was torpedos, not art. Her 2004 interview with Marie Mingo covers all those times of her life, but mostly focuses on her 49 years on Capitol Hill, a location picked so her husband would be close to his work for Capitol Transit, first as a trolley driver and later as a bus driver. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Betty and Peter Glickert |
When  Betty
and Peter Glickert married in 1959, they bought the end house of Philadelphia Row,
at 11th and Independence Avenue SE. The house -- now a familiar beauty -- had been
condemned. In their interview with Ev Barnes, the Glickerts describe life as it
was typically lived by the first wave of late 20th century people who came to Capitol
Hill to renovate an old house and make it a home. Notable among their many experiences
was Peter’s successful effort to stop the East Leg of the Inner Loop freeway
from being built and destroying Philadephia Row, an effort that won him the Evening
Star’s trophy for the “Citizen of the Year” at the time.
. View Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Walter Graham |
 Walter
Graham grew up in the 1200 block of G Street SE from the 1920s to 1940s. In this
interview with Ida Prosky, he remembers details of life on Capitol Hill before
and during World War II. He, like his father before him, attended Tyler School,
and then he attended Hine Junior High and Eastern High School. He reminisces about
his long-standing membership in Masonic Naval Lodge #4, his ancestral connections
to the Carroll family, and the many members of his family who are buried in Congressional
Cemetery. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Sidney Hais |
Sidney Hais  was
born at home in 1914 above his father’s market at Seventh and C NE and remained
active on the Hill until the 1980s when he ended his real estate investment activities
in the neighborhood. In this interview with Sharon House, Sidney relates stories
about helping his father at the market and information about the four public schools
and Hebrew school he attended. He shares memories of many classmates, teachers,
and after-school activities, as well as a photo of his 1928 class from Stuart Junior
High—that school’s first graduating class. The interview covers which
drugstores were popular teen hang-outs and which Hill nightclubs were popular.
Hais also tells of circuses at Union Park and Camp Meigs and evangelist meetings
at Seventh and Maryland NE. Sidney played baseball at the Plaza playground when
he went to Peabody and he is still involved in baseball. One of his most detailed
memories is being present, as a ten year old boy, when the Washington Senators
won the 1924 World Series in the twelfth inning of the seventh game. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| (Joseph) Stephen Hall |
| From his first visit to Washington as a child in 1944, (Joseph)
Stephen Hall found the city a “ great wonderment.” In two interviews
with Nancy Martin in 2003, Dr. Hall recounts his years in the area since coming
to graduate school at the University of Maryland in 1958. A retired history professor,
Dr. Hall provides his account of DC and Capitol Hill history, laced with many
personal observations in his inimitable style. The transcript includes several
photographs taken at his home from 1914 – 1920, provided to him by descendants
of the house’s original owners. . View Online [Part
1] > [ Part
2]> | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Carol Mills Harris |
Carol Mills Harris  recalls
Capitol Hill as her childhood home from 1933-1944, when all the Mall and the cultural
events there were her classroom and playground. Carol's mother took her five children
every weekend to museums, concerts, and plays, guiding them to relish living in
Washington. Carol recalls that Mr. Sherrill of Sherrill's Bakery and the nuns at
Providence Hospital displayed great kindness toward the Mills children. In an interview
with Marie Mingo, Carol describes her roles during World War II: Junior Air Raid
Warden and typist of War Department letters to families of war casualties. Coming
full circle, Carol now shares her love of Smithsonian museums with children who
come for the tours she gives as a docent at the National Museum of African Art. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Eva Haynes |
Eva and Walter Haynes live
in the house on South Carolina Avenue purchased by her parents in 1949. Mrs. Haynes
and her family moved in to help her parents after her father was injured while
doing construction work at the National Gallery of Art. Her children attended Giddings
Elementary and Hine Junior High School. In an interview with Margaret Missiaen,
Mrs. Haynes tells how her parents, Elijah and Lucy Parker, were among the founders
of the New Hope Free Will Baptist Church now located at 754 11th Street S.E. She
also recalls her school days in D.C. and her 30 years at the U.S. Census Bureau. View
Online > | View PDF [pdf] |
| Barbara Held Reich |
| Barbara Held Reich was a realtor on Capitol Hill starting in
the late 1950s. In an interview with Megan Rosenfeld, she talks about discovering
and selling unoccupied alley houses, and the early spirit of community in restoring
old houses in a then somewhat disreputable neighborhood. She lived in three houses
of her own here and was instrumental in starting three organizations to improve
Pennsylvania Avenue, Market Row and Barracks Row. View
Online > | View PDF [pdf] |
Bob Herrema |
| Only a few people get to be involved with inventing a new genre,
but Bob Herrema’s mid-1980s “adaptive reuse” of
the former Logan School into condominiums heralded the start of a new approach
to renovating older buildings on Capitol Hill. His 2003 interview with Nicky Cymrot,
shortly before his death, covers stories of his family’s life on Capitol
Hill after moving here in 1977. He also discussses his early, more traditional,
renovation projects in the neighborhood and the many challenges of adaptively reusing
Logan and Carbery schools and the former Faith Baptist Church as condos.. View
Online > | View PDF [pdf] |
| Marie Hertzberg |
| Marie Hertzberg and her husband bought their first home on Carroll
Street S.E. in the 1950s, but it wasn't long before Congress took over the street
in order to build the Madison building of the Library of Congress. In an interview
with Elizabeth Stein, Mrs. Hertzberg describes the residents of Carroll Street
and the process that ended up displacing them from their homes. She also discusses
her move to East Capitol Street, which then had streetcars and was lined with rooming
houses, and her impressions of how that street and the Hill have changed over the
years. View Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Sidney Hoffman |
Sidney Hoffman spent his earliest years living over his father’s
shoe store on H Street NE, and lived in several other locations in Northeast
and Southeast during the 1920s.  After graduating from Eastern High School in
1937, he spent his working years first in local theaters and later as a gemologist.
In this October, 2004, interview with Ev Barnes, he tells how his job as a theater
manager allowed him to meet many stars of the time, including John Wayne, and
how escorting the stars also provided a chance to shake hands with President
Franklin Roosevelt in the Oval Office. More recently, he’s been active
in the Eastern High School “50 Plus Club,” a group of alumni who
graduated over 50 years ago. Sidney corresponded with a “pen pal” in
Scotland from 1926 until 1955 before their meeting became part of a BBC wish
fulfillment show. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Margaret Hutchison |
Margaret Hutchison  spent
most of her early life in Geogretown, but she lived in the Stanton Park neighborhood
as a young woman in the mid twenties and again as a mother in the late thirties
and early forties. Linda O’Brien leads ninety-seven year old Margaret through
recollections of life on Stanton Park during the two different time periods,
touching on the commercial establishments, the schools and the Merrick Boys and
Girls Club.. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Inez Jones |
| Inez and John Jones moved from Oregon to Capitol Hill in 1959,
after John joined the staff of Senator Neuberger whose successful campaign he had
run. In an interview with Nancy Martin, Mrs. Jones and her son Leland describe
how the Joneses bought 802 Massachusetts Avenue NE. Soon after, Mrs. Jones founded
Congressional Realty and ran it from the home until the mid-1970s. She reminisces
about the "fever" that overtook Capitol Hill realty-a time when the borders of
the renovated areas of Capitol Hill were rapidly expanding and "it was so easy
to sell things". She also remembers other aspects of life on the Hill in the 1960s,
including seeing the debut of Roberta Flack at Mr. Henry's and Mark Russell's performances
at the Carroll Arms. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Kitty Kaupp |
Kitty Kaupp  was
interviewed by Ruth Ann Overbeck in 1998, in preparation for her Community Achievement
Award that year. The interview covers Kitty’s life on Capitol Hill since
her 1975 arrival, the influence that living in Mexico had on her life and art,
and her career in real estate sales and development. The wide-ranging discussion
also covers the design ideas and aesthetics of her partnership infill development
projects and the importance of commercial establishments in the neighborhood. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Tom Kelly |
Tom Kelly  grew
up in the Stanton Park area of Capitol Hill in the twenties and thirties, raised
four children there -- and still lives there. This early Capitol Hill neighborhood
comes alive as Kelly describes the area and many of his adolescent adventures in
his humorous Irish style to interviewer Andrea Moore Kerr. There are tales concerning
the doings of Amos and other young buddies, memories of his own extended family,
extensive descriptions of many of his neighbors, the various local businesses around
the Park, and how a young man could earn some money. The time line closes
with a reminiscence of Harry Truman, before Tom’s own children were born.. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Leonard Kirsten |
Len Kirsten owned and operated the Emporium ,
a gift shop in the 300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE from 1965 to 1975. He
carried an eclectic array of traditional items plus up-to-the-minute hip things,
aimed at the new folks who were moving to the Hill at the time. Until his shop
opened, neighborhood residents and workers had to go to Georgetown to buy items
such as trendy posters and jewelry and catchy political items. His was the first
shop in town to carry the Spiro Agnew watch, modeled on the Mickey Mouse watch.
Later he operated a deli in the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue that served,
among other things, cheese steaks designed to replicate the best in South Philly.
In this interview with Sharon House, Len Kirsten tells about his businesses,
including the people who worked in his establishments (Marines and long haired
folk singers), about other businesses on Capitol Hill, and about how they supported
each other and neighborhood institutions such as the Folger Theater. . View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Rose Lovelace |
 Like
her sister Josephine Shore,
Rose Lovelace grew up on H Street SE, near Congressional Cemetery, “just
after the war” --World War I, that is. In her 2003 interview with Linda
O’Brien, she remembers taking care of baby Josephine and a young brother,
hansom cabs and the cars that replaced them, and the fine clothing provided to
her by a favorite aunt. The interview also covers her school days and working
days and other aspects of life in the early 20th century.View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf]
|
| John Mann |
| Jack Mann’s great-great-grandfather opened a brewery
and beer garden on Capitol Hill in the late 1850s. It was located 14th and D
Street SE on the site of the current Safeway. George Beckert died in 1859 but
the business was carried on by his wife Theresa, a son and a son in law. The
business eventually was purchased by Albert Carry, who turned it into an ice
cream business with the advent of prohibition. The Beckert family history, complete
with photos, was prepared by Jack Mann’s uncle, Charles Mohler. Jack grew
up at 1427 East Capitol during and after World War II and relates some of his
own memories as well as those from the family album in this September, 2003,
interview with Norman Metzger. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Janice MacKinnon |
Janice MacKinnon left
her Hollywood, CA, hometown for DC in the 1960s to work for a California congressman,
and in 1969 moved Capitol Hill with her husband David. Once her children arrived,
she began an involvement with the neighborhood public schools that has yet to end.
Starting as a parent volunteer in the mid-1970s, Jan later became the librarian
at Stuart-Hobson Middle School and is now librarian at the Peabody campus of the
Cluster School. In her interview with Stephanie Deutsch, Jan remembers the beginnings
of many of today's child-centered neighborhood institutions, including the Capitol
Hill Classic race, the Peabody playground, and Softball on the Hill.. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Joe Mangialardo |
Mangialardo and Sons delicatessen
in the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE has been a Hill favorite for many years.
The current senior owner, Joe Mangialardo, did not grow up on Capitol Hill but
he has spent over four decades working on the Hill. Megan Rosenfeld and Joe discuss
the hard work and the effort that it takes to produce a quality product. They also
touch upon stories about the customers and some of Joe’s neighborhood friends
from his days as a young man. In the end the talk drifts to a review of one of
Joe’s favorite pastimes: fast cars. . View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Geraldine Matthews |
| Geraldine Matthews was born on Capitol Hill in 1923 and has
spent her entire life here. She tells interviewer Marie Mingo of her earliest
memories, living with her mother and grandparents on Terrace Place NE, behind
the Lutheran Church of the Reformation. From that location, she saw both the
Folger Shakespeare Library and the Supreme Court built, and even remembers skating
on the empty lot before the Folger was built. Her memories of the various Catholic
churches and neighborhood schools include the changes that have occurred since
the days of segregation in which she grew up. View
Online > | View PDF [pdf] |
| Mary Procter and Bill Matuszeski |
For many
years, Mary Procter and her husband Bill Matuszeski have generously contributed
their time and talents to neighborhood organizations such as Friendship House and
the Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, and in 1997the Capitol Hill Community Foundation
honored them for their efforts with its Community Achievement Award. To prepare
a written profile of the couple for the awards dinner program, our organization’s
namesake Ruth Ann Overbeck conducted this tape recorded interview. View
Online> | View
PDF [pdf] |
Madonna McCullers |
| Madonna McCullers moved to the Hill in 1950, where she balanced keeping house for her family with opening and operating her own beauty shop on Massachusetts Avenue. In this May, 2005 interview conducted by Ev Barnes, Ms. McCullers discusses her experiences on the Hill. She shares not only the dispiriting effects of segregration in Washington but her joy in renovating her house, participating in the local religious community, and helping other women pursue cosmetology careers.View
Online> | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Ronald K. McGregor |
Ronald McGregor  and
his family moved to our neighborhood in 1968 after his retirement from the Navy,
settling in the 700 block of Massachusetts Avenue N.E. and becoming active in the
Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church, the Restoration Society and the Garden Club.
In an interview with Nell Maiden, Ron describes the changes he’s seen here
over the years, including the purchase of Capitol Hill Hospital by MedLink and
MedLink’s subsequent problems. In that property’s transition to residential
development, Ron was very involved in community efforts to preserve historic elements,
protect the setting of St. James Episcopal Church and minimize traffic and parking
problems. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Keith Melder |
| Keith Melder’s stay on Capitol Hill was short but full
of involvement—throughout the 1960s, he was active in the Capitol Hill Community
Council, a racially integrated civic organization attempting to supplant the predecessor
segregated organizations that previously dominated civic life in D.C. In his interview
with Kathleen Franz, Melder relates that his 8th Street SE house was demolished
when the city built the new Hine Junior High School; the neighborhood successfully
fought a subsequent attempt to tear down the remaining buildings on that block
to enlarge Hine and its playground. He recalls the battles to save Eastern Market
from demolition and to prevent the freeway from extending up 11th Street. He reminisces
fondly about Weisfeld’s market and the huge annual Labor Day parties sponsored
by the Community Council as a way to promote neighborhood cohesiveness. His collection
of copies of the Capitol Hill News, published by the Community Council, prompt
many additional memories of the Hill in the 1960s. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Cornelia “Connie” Mitchell |
Cornelia “Connie” Mitchell, a lifelong Washington resident, remembers seeing presidential inaugural parades as far back as Woodrow Wilson’s. In this 2004 interview with Nancy Hartnagel, she describes many aspects of life as an African American growing up in a segregated city. The interview also covers her work and involvement with many organizations during the civil rights movement, including the 1963 March on Washington, her experiences with several Catholic churches in Washington, and memories of entertainers who performed in local black theaters. She concludes with her own personal opinions about local politics and her life.View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Helene Monberg |
Helene Monberg  was
a journalist in Washington for over 60 years. For nearly 30 years, she ran a
news bureau and then a newsletter out of her home at 123 6th Street SE. Her house
was also the headquarters of a scholarship program called the Achievement Scholarship
Program, which she started in reaction to the riots of 1968. In this interview
with Megan Rosenfeld, Ms. Monberg describes her career, and how she decided that
being her own boss was the only way to make enough money to fund her philanthropic
interests. Living in a nursing home in Rockville at the time of the interview,
Ms. Monberg subsequently passed away, leaving over $1 million to fund tutoring
and other educational needs in her home state of Colorado. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Moy Family |
| Ellen Moy immigrated from China to Washington, D.C., in 1941
and married a man who had been born on Second Street SE. Together, they ran the
Frank Moy Laundry at 315 Pennsylvania Avenue SE and raised their family of four
children on the floors above. In this 2002 interview with Renee Braden, Mrs.
Moy and her daughters Ruby, Judy, and June, recall a time when it was the norm
for families to live above their businesses. Their reminiscences include the
activities of the 20 children from their small community of merchants—baseball
games, riding scooters, roller skating on brick, and peering out their windows
to watch dressed up adults enter the Naval Lodge for major events. The daughters
also recollect that each had a specific chore to perform at the laundry. . View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Mary Murray |
When Beth Eck interviewed Mary
Donohoe Murray in 2003, she learned about a close extended family. Mary, like
her first cousin Ray Donohoe (see
transcript), is a grandchild of grocer, realtor, and car dealer John F. Donohoe,
so the lives and interactions of many Donohoe relatives are covered in the interview.
Mary, who had six brothers, was the only daughter in the family of Clarence F.
and Clara Donohoe. She describes family life in the 1920s, split between school
years at 629 East Capitol Street and summers at Banks O’Dee, the 49 acre
family compound in Rock Point, Maryland. The family owned a pony (not the only
one on the block!), which was kept in the backyard stable in Washington and was
sent by boat to Rock Point for the summer months. Mary attended St. Cecilia’s
Academy for eight years, half a block from her home, and then Georgetown Visitation
Preparatory School. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Annie Bell Nelson |
Annie Bell Nelson  and
her husband Joseph purchased their house in the 600 block of South Carolina Avenue
S.E. in 1948. In an interview with Margaret Missiaen, she tells about her journey
to Capitol Hill from Sumter County, South Carolina, and about her family, which
grew to include ten children. The children started their schooling at segregated
Giddings Elementary, and were among the first African-Americans to attend Hine
Junior High. Mrs. Nelson recalls going to movie theaters on Pennsylvania Avenue
and 8th Street and shopping at the A&P and Eastern Market. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Jerre Ness |
When Jerre Ness  spent
his childhood and school years on Capitol Hill, he attended local schools and
delivered newspapers to homes since replaced by the Dirksen and Hart Senate Office
Buildings. His June, 2005, interview with Ev Barnes includes memories of the
day President Franklin Roosevelt waved to him as he rode past the Supreme Court
on his way to the Navy Yard. His working life was also spent on the Hill, contributing
to the infrastructure on the Capitol grounds as a steam fitter working on major
building projects. These included extension of the Capitol’s East front,
construction of the Rayburn Building and its adjacent garages, installation of
new systems at the Capitol Power Plant, and construction of the Library of Congress
Madison Building and the Hart Senate Office Building. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Maureen
Nolan |
| Soon after Maureen Nolan came to the United States from County
Clare, Ireland, in the early 1960s, she moved to Washington and settled on Capitol
Hill, where she remains to this day. Her May, 2004, interview with Beth Eck focuses
on the 1960s -- the excitement of the early Kennedy administration, the days
after his death, and the turbulence of the late 1960s. View
Online | View
PDF [pdf] |
John Overbeck |
| John Overbeck, who may be related to project namesake Ruth Ann Overbeck, arrived in Washington in 1957 for a job at the Library of Congress. After renting two apartments in the blocks now occupied by the library’s Madison Building, he became a homeowner on Ninth Street SE; since 1968, he has resided in the 600 block of A Street SE. In his 2003 interview with Brendan Danaher, he reminsces about early neighbors, activities at St. Mark’s Church, watching transitions in the neighborhood, and his home’s two appearances on the annual House and Garden tour, 30 years apart. View
Online | View
PDF [pdf] |
Catherine
(Cemmy) Peterson |
 Catherine
(Cemmy) Peterson,Director of the Capitol Hill Day School since 1985, was awarded
the Capitol Hill Community Achievement Award in 1996, and Ruth Ann Overbeck interviewed
her in preparation for the award dinner. In this interview, Cemmy discusses the
many influences that formed her educational philosophy, and how closely this approach
coincides with the long-standing interests and commitments of the Day School. View
Online | View
PDF [pdf] |
Evelyn Price |
Evelyn Price moved
from southern Virginia to Washington, DC, in 1942, and met her husband here.
Joseph and Evelyn Price have lived on Capitol Hill since their marriage in 1947,
first on 12th Street, and, since 1956, on 11th Street SE. In her interview with
Carol Thornhill, Mrs. Price describes working in a beauty shop and as an elevator
operator at the DC Court. She discusses neighborhood life, including changes
over time, shopping, and holiday celebrations. She also recalls being struck
by a trolley and interacting with rioters following the assassination of Martin
Luther King. View
Online | View
PDF [pdf] |
Peter Powers |
 Peter Powers,a Capitol Hill resident from the late 1960s until his death in 2006, played a prominent role in the early days of the neighborhood renovation era, including a stint as president of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society. His January, 2004, interview with Nancy Martin covers those years, during which he served as General Counsel to the Smithsonian Institution. View
Online | View
PDF [pdf]
|
Curtis “Doc” Robinson |
Curtis “Doc” Robinson  served
as a Tuskegee Airman in World War II, but his interview with Dee Atwell focuses
on his life after the war in Washington, DC. After receiving a degree in pharmacy
from Howard University, he owned several pharmacies around the city, ending up
after 50 years still in business at the corner of 10th and East Capitol Streets.
The interview covers his upbringing in Orangeburg, SC, his family life in DC, and
the operations of drug stores around the city during the waning days of segregation. View
Online > | View PDF [pdf] |
| Beatrice Shelton |
| In this interview with Pat Taffe Driscoll, Bea Shelton speaks
of her long involvement with the Lutheran Church of the Reformation on East Capitol
Street and the various projects sponsored or supported by the Church, including
the Capitol Hill Community Achievement Awards, a holistic health clinic, a Montessori
school, the Capitol Hill Co-op Play School, and various group activities such
as Alcoholics Anonymous. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Josephine
Shore |
Josephine Shore  was
born at home, 1612 H Street SE. in 1919 and spent her next 21 years there. In her
interview with Linda O’Brien, she recalls life in that mostly blue collar
neighborhood, from which she walked to Holy Comforter School and later St. Cecilia’s.
Her happy memories include playing barefoot in the street after summer rains, buying
candy and/or sour pickles at the corner store across from the school, and the neighborhood
Italian stonecutter who carved headstones for nearby Congressional Cemetery. Because
the houses in that area were built after World War I, they had garages in the back,
and her family owned a Model T that her much older brother drove. Later, they inherited
a 1936 Buick from an uncle, and Josephine drove her father to his job at Gravely
Point when National Airport was under construction and also drove the family to
vacations in Chesapeake Beach and North Beach, Maryland. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Milton Sladen |
| In 1974, as Capitol Hill residents prepared to apply for Historic
District status, Suzanne Ganschinietz of the D.C. Historic Preservation Office
and and Hazel Kreinheder of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society interviewed W.
Milton Sladen to determine the general perception of what residents considered
the boundaries of Capitol Hill. Born in 1900 near 2nd and C Street S.E., at the
time of the interview Milton lived at 120 11th Street S.E., in a house occupied
by his family for 67 years. The interview, now part of the public record, provides
fascinating details of the residents, houses, and businesses in the Lincoln Park
area and elsewhere through the first two-thirds of the 20th century. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Frances Slaughter |
Frances Slaughter has seldom strayed from home,  except once during a year-long job as a nanny in Nigeria. Otherwise, her life has centered on Capitol Hill, brought up by a large and close family, in the quintessential “village” neighborhood. She became the beloved “Miss Frances” to two generations of neighborhood pre-schoolers. For her contributions to the community, she was awarded the Community Achievement Award in 2005, and this interview with Stephanie Deutsch was recorded in anticipation of that year’s award ceremony. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Lawrence Smith |
While Mr. Smith worked
as an engineer for the Pennsylvania Railroad, Mrs. Smith ran a rooming house
at the corner of Fifth and A Streets NE, so her three sons grew up thinking that
was normal – not what everyone did, but not unusual either. In his May,
2005, interview with Jim McMahon, youngest son Larry Smith recreates that world,
during and after World War II, when boys played baseball in the alleys and football
on teams at the Merrick Boys Club. Memories of his school years, at St. Joseph’s
parish grade school and in the very first class at Archbishop Carroll High School,
are supported by a series of family photographs incorporated into the interview. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Elias and Mariana Souri |
Brother  and
sister Elias and Mariana Souri grew up with their parents and paternal grandparents
on Lincoln Park, in the house where they still reside. When their neighbor Hilary
Russell interviewed them in 2002, their memories focused on their close-knit
Arabic family, most of whom lived nearby during their youth in the 1940s and
1950s; their maternal grandfather had been an Orthodox Christian priest during
his lifetime. Their memories of neighborhood changes prompted by school integration
while they were students at Hine Junior High School led to a second interview
to discuss those events in more detail. [
Part I ---- [ Part
2 ] --- [Part 3] | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Mary Lou Dempf Stott |
Mary Lou Dempf Stott lives
in Hawaii, but she grew up at 13 Fourth Street NE, a home that had belonged to
her family since 1896. When Jack and Ann Womeldorf, who now live in that house,
travelled to Hawaii in 2002, they met with Ms. Stott and talked with her about
her experiences growing up in their home. Jack's notes from that interview cover
Ms. Stott's family history, including a grandfather who hosted John Philip Sousa
and a father who taught FDR to drive, descriptions of the house when she lived
there, and facts about the multi-cultural neighborhood around Fourth and East
Capitol Streets. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Frank Taylor |
Frank Taylor  was
born at home in the 300 block of First Street N.E. in 1903 and moved with his
family in 1909 to 909 Massachusetts Avenue N.E. He spent much of his childhood
helping out in his father’s drugstore on the corner of Second and Maryland,
across the street from where the Supreme Court stands today, and grew up to serve
as one of the top administrators of the Smithsonian. In this extraordinary series
of interviews conducted by Nancy Metzger in 1999, Taylor describes in wonderful
detail the life of Capitol Hill during his childhood. Also, in a follow-up interview
with John Franzén in 2003, when Taylor was 100 years old, he elaborates
on some of the stories contained in the Metzger interviews and talks at length
about his uncle Ernest Kübel, a noted scientific instrument maker who lived
across the street at 908 Massachusetts. [ Part
I > | Part
II > | Part
III > | Part
IV> | Part
V > | | View
PDF I - IV [pdf] | View
PDF V [pdf] |
| Norman Tucker |
In an interview with  Margaret
Missiaen, Norman Tucker recalls his boyhood visits to his grandparents' home on
Capitol Hill. From 1903 until 1935, Norman's grandfather Thomas Tucker owned and
operated, with his brother William, Tucker Brothers Fine Groceries, a corner market
at 701 D Street S.E., and Thomas's family lived behind the store. The property,
now residential in its entirety, remained in the family, and Norman and his wife
Anne have lived there since 1977. Included in the transcript are some excellent
photos of the old market. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Alice Van Brakle |
Alice Van Brakle moved to  Capitol
Hill in 1944 and to her home on Fifth Street SE in 1948. In an interview with Marie
Mingo, Alice tells about raising three sons on the Hill, just as segregation was
officially ending. Alice worked for the Department of the Army and was active in
community organizations. She describes the involvement of her late husband, who
supervised the Southeast Branch of the Post Office, with the Capitol Hill Community
Council, the Kiwanis Club, and the Prometheans, a civic group that grew out of
the World War II Armed Services Training Program at Howard University. Alice recalls
the neighborliness of Hill merchants and her relationship with her near neighbors
past and present. [ Part
I > | Part II > | Part
III > ] | View
PDF [pdf] |
Margaret
Wadsworth |
Margaret Wadsworth’s reminiscences,
the featured presentation of the November, 2006, Overbeck Lecture, grew from
her 2005 interview with Elizabeth Eck; that interview is posted here. Born Margaret
Fleming in 1920, she was raised in her family’s home in the 500 block of
Eighth Street SE and other addresses on Capitol Hill. She fondly remembers her
relatives, as well as the neighborhood residents and merchants who formed the
village of her childhood. She recalls Eastern High School and her early attempts
at a singing career, including auditioning for band leader Bob Crosby and singing
briefly on Arthur Godfrey’s radio show. She worked at both the Smithsonian
Museum of Natural History and the Naval Historical Center at the Washington Navy
Yard. She and her late husband raised their family on Capitol Hill, moving to
Arlington after the 1968 riots. View
Online > | View
PDF |
| Retired Rear Admiral Charles Loring
Waite |
Retired Rear Admiral  Charles
Loring Waite, interviewed by Joe and Connie Citro, spent his early years on Capitol
Hill and in Southwest Washington before the Depression. Admiral Waite speaks
of both sets of grandparents and their roles in the community, of childhood memories
of sleeping porches, the ice man, sitting on the stoop, lawn parties and parcheesi
games. There were trips to the amusement parks in Glen Echo, Beverly Beach, Colonial
Beach and, perhaps, Marshall Hall. There are also memories of a number of many
Capitol Hill landmarks including movie theaters and churches. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| John Weintraub and Ed Copenhaver |
John Weintraub and
Ed Copenhaver met in college, but they didn’t join forces to buy Frager’s
Hardware until years later, after military service and additional school and
work. Since 1975, when they bought the long-established family firm on Pennsylvania
Avenue SE, the men learned the business from former owner George Frager and then
expanded it with new departments and merchandise. Stephanie Deutsch interviewed
John and Ed in advance of their receiving a 2002 Community Achievement Award.
The interview offers a close-up view of the challenges and successes involved
in running one of Capitol Hill’s best-known businesses.. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
Henry Wrona |
| Henry Wrona moved from his native Rhode Island to work in
Washington after World War II. By 1959, he worked for the Senate and lived nearby
at the John Adams House on Maryland Avenue NE. Having watched the construction
of the new apartment building at 305 C Street NE, he signed up to live there
and became one of the building’s first tenants. He remained during its
conversion to condos and by the time Carole Kolker interviewed him in 2003, he
had lived in the same building for 44 years. Mr. Wrona’s life largely revolved
around his duties for a series of Senators, and he describes the neighborhood
near his building from the perspective of someone who has seen many changes take
place over the decades. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Esther Yost |
Esther Yost  was
born on Capitol Hill and lived here until she married in the 1960s. In an interview
with Marie Mingo, she offers her vivid memories of local businesses and neighborhood
life, including restrictions on daily activities during World War II and the relighting
of the Capitol building after VE Day. She also recalls her teen years, working
as a lifeguard at Glen Echo park and graduating from Eastern High School in the
first integrated class. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
| Clancy Zens |
| Ordinary people sometimes live such extraordinary lives.
In his interview with Jim McMahon, Clancy Zens, a writer and editor by trade,
relates how he crashed his Navy fighter plane into an Indiana farm at the end
of World War II. He then came to Washington to work for a Catholic new service
and eventually became the founding editor of the Washington Archdiocese’s Catholic
Standard newspaper. Diocesan internal political struggles led to his involuntary
move to Capitol Hill in 1960. His additional job with the U.S. Department of
Commerce provided him a glimpse of cold war history up close and personal—the
aftermath of the famous Nixon-Khrushchev kitchen debate. Later, he became editor
of the Department of Commerce newsletter, globe trotting to report on US participation
in Trade Fairs behind the Iron Curtain. View
Online > | View
PDF [pdf] |
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