Preser­va­tion League Releases Endan­gered His­toric Prop­er­ties List

By Tier­ney Plumb Staff Reporter

The D.C. Preser­va­tion League announced its list of the 10 most endan­gered his­toric prop­er­ties and places in D.C. on Tuesday.

The annual list, com­piled by the non­profit since 1996, names at-risk infra­struc­ture in the city’s his­tor­i­cal trans­porta­tion, edu­ca­tion and hous­ing systems.

The D.C. Pub­lic School Build­ings col­lec­tively made the list, reflect­ing last year’s announce­ment by the Mayor and the new Chan­cel­lor of Pub­lic Schools, Michelle Rhee, that sev­eral would close. Of the 165 pub­lic school build­ings, 86 are eli­gi­ble for list­ing on the DC Inven­tory of His­toric Sites, but only 21 have so far been acknowledged.

The site of the DCPL announce­ment was at Stevens Ele­men­tary School at 1050 21st St. NW, one of the schools clos­ing its doors this June.

Brenda John­son, a first grade teacher at the school for 30 years, recalls the days when Pres­i­dent Jimmy Carter’s daugh­ter was a stu­dent and a limo was a pop­u­lar mode of trans­porta­tion to the school.

Among the dete­ri­o­rat­ing trans­porta­tion sys­tems on the list include: The George­town Street­car Tracks at O and P Streets NW, the last vis­i­ble con­duit track in the world; and one of the two remain­ing bridges along the for­mer trol­ley line link­ing George­town to Glen Echo, Md., called the Foundry Branch Trol­ley Trestle.

For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, entire row house neigh­bor­hoods were included in the list. Bar­ney Cir­cle Neigh­bor­hood in South­east, a triangular-shaped neigh­bor­hood of single-family brick row houses built dur­ing WWI, face “devel­op­ment pres­sures to build larger res­i­den­tial struc­tures and to enlarge exist­ing ones, such as by the addi­tion of a third story,” claims the league.

Falling vic­tim to demo­li­tion and inap­pro­pri­ate infill are the Judi­ciary Square Clus­ters at the 300 block of E St. NW, a string of apart­ment build­ings that have nar­rowly escaped the fed­eral government’s expan­sion into the neighborhood.

A repeat on the list this year is St. Eliz­a­beths Hos­pi­tal — in 2007 for its vista of the Ana­cos­tia and Potomac Rivers — and this year for its 176-acre west cam­pus at 2700 Mar­tin Luther King Jr. Ave. SE, threat­ened by “the pres­sure to develop the vacant prop­erty for use as the pro­posed con­sol­i­dated head­quar­ters for the Depart­ment of Home­land Security.”

DCPL’s edu­ca­tion and land­marks com­mit­tees eval­u­ate the nom­i­na­tions from indi­vid­u­als and orga­ni­za­tions through­out the city and advise the board of trustees in mak­ing their final selections.

Also on the 2008 list are:

–Joseph Tay­lor Arms Man­sion, 1800 New Hamp­shire Ave. NW

–Wal­ter Reed Army Med­ical Cen­ter, 6900 Geor­gia Ave. NW

–Third Church of Christ, Sci­en­tist, 900 16th St. NW

–Barry Farm Frame Houses, 2700–2800 block of Wade Road, SE