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    A Walking Tour of Washington's Capitol Hill District
    A Walking Tour of Washington's Capitol Hill District
    A Walking Tour of Washington's Capitol Hill District
    Ebook22 pages10 minutes

    A Walking Tour of Washington's Capitol Hill District

    By Doug Gelbert

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    About this ebook

    There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way.

    Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.

    The Capitol Hill Historic District takes its name from the hill, which rises in the center of the Federal
    City and extends eastward. This hill, which in 1790 was called Jenkins Hill or Jenkins Heights, was
    the site chosen by Pierre L’Enfant for the placement of the “Congress House,” a site which L’Enfant
    characterized as a “pedestal waiting for a superstructure.” In accordance with this plan, the US Capitol
    Building was situated upon the crest of the hill facing the city. Stretching easterly behind the Capitol
    Building along wide avenues lies the residential area known as Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill, one of the
    oldest residential communities in Washington, has grown from a small boarding house community
    for members of Congress to an area of more than 150 squares embracing a number of separate
    neighborhoods.

    Capitol Hill is the largest residential historic district in the District of Columbia. Almost every street
    is composed of rowhouses of different stylistic varieties and periods forming a continuous wall broken
    only by street intersections. Side by side exist early 19th century manor houses, Federal townhouses,
    small frame dwellings, ornate Italianate bracketed houses and the late 19th century press brick
    rowhouses with their often whimsical decorative elements combining Richardsonian Romanesque,
    Queen Anne, and Eastlakian motifs.

    In the early years of the Republic few Congressmen wished to establish permanent residence in the
    city. Instead, most preferred to live in boarding houses within walking distance of the Capitol. Nothing
    remains of this community today, having been razed to house the Capitol support buildings.Those
    support buildings are indicative how the government has ballooned in recent times. For more than
    100 years the business of Washington was conducted almost exclusively inside the Capitol Building
    itself. The Supreme Court? Go to the Capitol. The Congressional library? Inside the Capitol. Your
    representative’s office? Inside the Capitol. Today there are a half-dozen major office buildings and a few
    satellites for the Congress alone. The Supreme Cout and library have their own buildings on the site of
    many of those early boarding houses.

    The street pattern in Capitol Hill has remained faithful to the original 1791 L’Enfant Plan for the
    Federal City, a plan that called for grand diagonals superimposed over a standard grid pattern. East
    Capitol Street, a monumental avenue running east from the Capitol to the banks of the Anacostia
    River, still provides a major focus for the area and serves as the division between the northeast and
    southeast sectors of the city. This walking tour will begin at the top of old Jenkins Hill...

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDoug Gelbert
    Release dateJan 11, 2010
    ISBN9781452307572
    A Walking Tour of Washington's Capitol Hill District

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      Book preview

      A Walking Tour of Washington's Capitol Hill District - Doug Gelbert

      Look Up, Washington DC! A Walking Tour of Capitol Hill

      a walking tour in the Look Up, America series from walkthetown.com

      by Doug Gelbert

      published by Cruden Bay Books at Smashwords

      Copyright 2013 by Cruden Bay Books

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Publisher.

      The hill of Capitol Hill rises in the center of the nation’s capital and flows eastward. It was this protrubrance, called Jenkins Heights in 1790, upon which Pierre L’Enfant decided to place Congress House, a site which the French planner described as a pedestal waiting for a superstructure. Stretching easterly behind the Capitol Building along wide avenues lies the residential area known as Capitol Hill, one of the oldest residential communities in Washington. Once an enclave of boarding houses for members of Congress who hated the idea of establishing permanent residency in Washington, it is now the town’s largest residential historic district.

      Nothing remains of this community today, having been razed to

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