Worthy Ambition
—LeDroit Park/Bloomingdale Heritage Trail —
Front:
You are entering Bloomingdale. Its name recalls the estate of Navy Commander George Beale, who served in the War of 1812, and his wife Emily, the daughter of Commodore Thomas Truxton. The estate occupied the land now bounded by Florida Avenue, T Street, Lincoln Road, NE, and First Street. By 1891 the real estate subdivision of Bloomingdale extended to Bryant Street. The arrival of an electric streetcar line on North Capitol in 1894 encouraged the building of urban rowhouses for commuters.
Across Bryant Street to your left is the Bryant Street Pumping Station, which opened in 1904 to distribute filtered water from McMillan Reservoir. The modern pumping station propelled clean drinking water to elevations higher than its source and decreased dependence on local springs. This meant fewer cases of water-borne diseases such as typhoid fever. Pressurized water also made five hydrants reliable for firefighters.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had built the reservoir and filtering system up the hill a few years earlier. Then as now, Potomac River water flowed to McMillan through the tunnel from the Georgetown and Dalecarlia Reservoirs. Originally waters was filtered slowly through sand and stone in football-field-sized underground beds. Rapid filters replaced the slow ones in 1985.
Actor
Chita Rivera (Dolores Conchita Figueroa del Rivero) grew up two blocks away at 2134 Flagler Place, where she helped her brother host weekend movies in their basement.
"He charged a nickel for the movie and a penny for the popcorn," remembered neighbor Thomas Heggans. Rivera attended Dunbar and trained at DC's prestigious Jones-Haywood Dance School. She became a Broadway star when she created the role of "Anita" in the 1957 musical
West Side Story.
Back:
LeDroit Park and its younger sibling Bloomindale share a rich history here. Boundary Street (today's Florida Avenue) was the City of Washington's northern border until 1871. Beyond lay farms, a few sprawling country estates, and undeveloped land where suburban communities would rise. Nearby Civil War hospitals and temporary housing for the formerly enslaved brought African Americans to this area in the 1860s. Howard University opened just north of here in 1867. Boundary Street (today's Florida Avenue) was the City of Washington's northern edge until 1871.
Around this time, a Howard University professor and trustee and his brother-in-law, a real estate speculator, began purchasing land from Howard University to create LeDroit Park, a suburban retreat close to streetcar lines and downtown. It took its name from the first name of both Barber's son and father-in-law. Bloomingdale
was developed shortly thereafter.
For its first two decades, wealthy whites set up housekeeping in LeDroit Park. By 1893, African Americans began moving in. Soon LeDroit Park became the city's premier black neighborhood. Bloomingdale remained a middle- and upper-class white neighborhood until the 1920s, when affluent African Americans began buying houses in the area south of Rhode Island Avenue.
Among the intellectual elites drawn here was poet Paul Laurence Dunbar. The trail's title,
Worthy Ambition, comes from his poem, "Emancipation":
Toward noble deeds every effort be straining./Worthy ambition is food for the soul!
Although this area declined in the mid-20th century as affluent homeowners sought newer housing elsewhere, revitalization began in the 1970s. The stories you find on
Worthy Ambition: LeDroit Park/Bloomingdale Heritage Trail reflect the neighborhood's — and Washington's — complicated racial history and the aspirations on its citizens.
Worthy Ambition: LeDroit Park/Bloomingdale Heritage Trail is an Official Washington, DC Walking Trail. The self-guided, 2.5-mile tour of 16 signs offers about 90 minutes of gentle exercise. For more DC neighborhoods, please visit
www.CulturalTourismDC.org.
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