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Fall 2001

Letter from the President

I had planned to share with you a report on the League’s recent and upcoming activities during our annual membership meeting, which was scheduled for September 12 at the Washington Navy Yard. Needless to say, far more significant events occurred that week, and the meeting did not take place. Until we are able to gather together, please accept this edition of the DC Preservation Advocate as a small substitute for that update.

As our cover stories indicate, the League is quite busy on two important fronts: The work we began 30 years ago to save the historic buildings of the city’s downtown commercial and monumental core continues, as our lawsuits to stop the demolition of the F St. row demonstrate. At the same time, we have increased our efforts to assist community groups seeking to obtain landmark status for valued buildings or simply to prevent deterioration of historic resources. The League’s work with the Langston Terrace Dwellings Residents’ Council, spearheaded by volunteer Jerry Maronek, is one example of this type of outreach.

I fully expect the League’s work to continue on these two tracks in the future. Rapid development (and more recently, the rapid slow down in the economy) still threatens our downtown resources. The facade of the Atlantic Building, which stands on the south side of the 900 block of F St., NW, is a sad testament of grand plans gone awry. In short, the developer was permitted to demolish the building, and now lacks the resources to complete the project. There is no way to get back the building that once stood behind this lonely facade. Our immediate challenge, therefore, is to persuade the city to require greater assurances that a developer has a funded commitment to complete in a timely manner its proposed project before demolition of an historic building is permitted.

On the neighborhood front, the League will soon begin an historic resources survey of Columbia Heights, following up on an initial survey that took place over 10 years ago. We look forward to working with the residents of this diverse neighborhood as they research and document its past. We also have exciting plans underway for a campaign to improve the plight of the city’s abandoned row houses, a new entry on our Most Endangered Places list (see DC Most Endangered List for 2001). Because many, though by no means all, of these structures are located outside of designated historic districts, this campaign will provide us the opportunity to reach out to neighborhood groups that we have not worked with before. We welcome this chance to forge new bonds.

I welcome, too, your input and assistance. If you would like to help with our work on row houses, or any of the Most Endangered Places described in this issue, please contact the League office at 202-955-5616 or info@dcpreservation.org.

Take care,

David Bell