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Neighborhood Walking Tour: Hillcrest

DATE & TIME
Sat, Jun 6, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm
LOCATION
32nd St SE & Camden St SE, Washington, DC

Take a DC History Center walking tour in Hillcrest with Jim Byers, neighborhood expert, historian, and 30-year resident of Ward 7.

Far southeast can feel isolated from the rest of Washington, DC. You might never drive southeast on Pennsylvania Avenue, across the river, up the hill, and towards the Maryland border where Hillcrest neighborhood lies. For residents, the off-the-beaten path nature of the neighborhood is both part of its appeal and a source of its challenges.

Learn about the history of the neighborhood, who lives there, and the access and transportation inequities which make Hillcrest feel “remote” to those west of the river. You’ll learn about:

  • Summit Park—a sub-division once considered its own distinct neighborhood
  • ‘Nonesuch’ Plantation and the 1860 manor house a prominent DC slave-owner built for his daughter
  • the work of top architects from George T. Santmyers and R.C. Archer, to J.J. Baldwin and Lewis W. Giles, Sr.
  • the transition of Hillcrest and other Ward 7 neighborhoods from white, middle class to a Black middle-class enclave
  • The Overlook Inn
  • racial covenants restricting Black home ownership
  • Hillcrest’s Midcentury Modern homes, including several by a pioneering Black architect

 

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More details
Neighborhood History Project Gallery
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This program is planned in partnership with DC Public Library and the DC Public Library Foundation.