Eighth Street SE Walking Tour
Oct. 13th, 2012 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vamysteryfanOne thing I've learned from these walking tours is to pay attention to small architectural details. They can date a building or tell their own stories. I spend a lot more time looking up these days.
Eighth Street SE is the oldest commercial corridor in the District. It was designed by L'Enfant in 1791 to connect the newly established port of Washington to the Capitol (under construction in 1792). We started at Eastern Market Metro.
This house was called The Maples and was built in 1795 by a British land speculator who hoped to cash in on Americans' desire to live near Congress. It's actually older than the White House. But he guessed wrong - people wanted to live near the President. He lost a lot of money. It's had various owners and now the house is becoming part of a residential complex.
Before 1870, building ornamentation could be made of wood. Afterwards they had to be made of non-combustible materials. (Think Chicago Fire)
This house is made of a combination of oyster shells and stucco, approximately 1830s. Oyster shells were cheap and easily accessible from the nearby Potomac. The owner came out to talk to us. She didn't know the story. It's up for sale, too.
This is a shotgun camelback house built by an Italian immigrant, post Civil War. All the interior doors line up with the front door.
This was a hospital for sailors built just after the Civil War. They recently finished the renovations. Note the widows walk on the roof (because it was a sailors' hospital). The mansard roof was very popular in the 1880s.
We toured Marine Barracks Washington, established in 1801. Center House was originally in the center of the row. It was moved to the end and now includes the BOQ. The first Officers Club is inside where every President has had a beer with the boys. There's a tankard engraved with all the presidents since Eisenhower.
The Commandant's House is the oldest surviving continually occupied house in DC. They say the British left it unburned in the War of 1812 out of respect for the Marines. The front of the House is easily viewed but the back can only be seen from the parade ground. This is where you could see the Evening Parade every Friday in the summer.
The house on the left with the green slanted roof is where some of the Lincoln assassination cabal lived. The Navy Yard building is at the foot of 8th Street. The mural is under the freeway.
Eighth Street has gotten trendier. Lots of restaurants and bars. I liked this building because it was an oyster restaurant back in its day and was recently revived. You can still see traces of an old advertising mural painted on the side.
So visit me in summertime and we'll spend a Friday evening hitting Barracks Row hotspots and watching the Evening Parade.
Eighth Street SE is the oldest commercial corridor in the District. It was designed by L'Enfant in 1791 to connect the newly established port of Washington to the Capitol (under construction in 1792). We started at Eastern Market Metro.
This house was called The Maples and was built in 1795 by a British land speculator who hoped to cash in on Americans' desire to live near Congress. It's actually older than the White House. But he guessed wrong - people wanted to live near the President. He lost a lot of money. It's had various owners and now the house is becoming part of a residential complex.
Before 1870, building ornamentation could be made of wood. Afterwards they had to be made of non-combustible materials. (Think Chicago Fire)
This house is made of a combination of oyster shells and stucco, approximately 1830s. Oyster shells were cheap and easily accessible from the nearby Potomac. The owner came out to talk to us. She didn't know the story. It's up for sale, too.
This is a shotgun camelback house built by an Italian immigrant, post Civil War. All the interior doors line up with the front door.
This was a hospital for sailors built just after the Civil War. They recently finished the renovations. Note the widows walk on the roof (because it was a sailors' hospital). The mansard roof was very popular in the 1880s.
We toured Marine Barracks Washington, established in 1801. Center House was originally in the center of the row. It was moved to the end and now includes the BOQ. The first Officers Club is inside where every President has had a beer with the boys. There's a tankard engraved with all the presidents since Eisenhower.
The Commandant's House is the oldest surviving continually occupied house in DC. They say the British left it unburned in the War of 1812 out of respect for the Marines. The front of the House is easily viewed but the back can only be seen from the parade ground. This is where you could see the Evening Parade every Friday in the summer.
The house on the left with the green slanted roof is where some of the Lincoln assassination cabal lived. The Navy Yard building is at the foot of 8th Street. The mural is under the freeway.
Eighth Street has gotten trendier. Lots of restaurants and bars. I liked this building because it was an oyster restaurant back in its day and was recently revived. You can still see traces of an old advertising mural painted on the side.
So visit me in summertime and we'll spend a Friday evening hitting Barracks Row hotspots and watching the Evening Parade.
