Village in the City
—Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail —
Front of marker:
This secluded building on the edge of Rock Creek Park was built in 1911 as the House of Mercy. It provided, as its founders wrote "a refuge and reformatory for outcast and fallen women," especially unwed mothers and girls entangled in prostitution. This home, a mission of St. John's Episcopal Church, trained the young women in domestic skills to prepare them to earn an honest living. Once their babies were born, mothers could keep them or offer them for adoption. Neighbors remembered seeing groups of expectant mothers taking walks in the neighborhood. "At 4pm every afternoon, the girls would sing at vespers," recalled Honora Thompson, who grew up nearby. "Their voices were lovely."
By 1972 the maternity home had closed, and the facility became the bilingual Rosemount Center/El Centro Rosemount, offering early childhood education and family support. The new name honors the old "Rosemount" estate. Its manor house, once located in the trees beyond Rosemount Center, was demolished around 1890 as Rock Creek Park was created.
Leading into Rock Creek Park, along Klingle Road, is
Canto a la Esperanza ("A Song for Hope"), a mural designed by Jorge Somarriba and painted by members of the Latin American Youth Center in 1988. The mural, featuring, regions of the world and
hopes for world peace, covered a wall of graffiti. Until recently, the remnants of an old ford were visible in the creek just south of Klingle Road. Drivers remember the pleasures of splashing through the water on this paved roadway. It was removed to help fish navigate the creek more freely.
Image captions:
House of Mercy Board members,
above, visit their young wards, 1942. A typical four-person bedroom,
right.
A House of Mercy nurse teaches a new mother essential skills, 1970.
Honora Thompson, seen here in 1930 with her father, grew up nearby at 2014 Klingle Rd.
A joyous moment at Rosemount Center, 1973.
This 1866 map shows the location of the Rev. J. French's Rosemount estate.
Latin American Youth Center muralists at work, 1988.
Crossing the creek at the Klingle Rd. ford, around 1915.
Back of marker:
Tucked into a bend in Rock Creek Park on the breezy heights above central Washington, Mount Pleasant was one of the city's earliest suburban developments. It began as a village of government clerks mainly from New England, and stretched from 17th Street east to Seventh Street. Later it attracted prominent citizens to its site along fashionable 16th Street, and eventually yielded the area east of 16th Street to Columbia Heights. But that's only on the map. Mount Pleasant's boundaries depend on who you are and where you came from.
The arrival of the streetcar transformed the village into an urban enclave. Working people and newcomers to Washington began to call Mount Pleasant home in the mid-1900s. Its varied citizenry earned it the nickname "little U.N." By the 1970s Mount Pleasant and Adams Morgan were recognized as the heart of the Latino immigrant community.
Mount Pleasant activists have often been on the cutting edge of important civic issues, and artists and musicians have been part of its daily life. While the neighborhood has changed with the city, some things remain constant. Children consider the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park their personal playgrounds, and residents shop and greet each other on Mt. Pleasant Street. Colonial Revival mansions, early apartment buildings, and rowhouses remain remarkably intact. A stroll along the 17 signs of
Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail will introduce you to it all. Welcome!
Special thanks to the Mount Pleasang Heritage Trail Working Group: Neil Richardson,
chair; Mara Cherkasky,
Working Group historian; Jim Barnett, David Bosserman, Jeff Brechbul, Malvina Brown, Olivia Cadaval, Robert Frazier, Elinor Hart, Mary Hathaway, Dora Johnson, Edwin Hill Langrall, Jeff Logan, Carmen Marrero, Dennis Marvich, Ric Mendoza-Gleason, Louis Meyer, Galey Modan, Mary Mill Rojas, Michael Rosa, David Sitomer, and Terry Thielen. And also to Tanya Edwards Beauchamp, Mary Belcher, Joana Brown, Ginger Carter, Rodney Case, Ronald Chacon, Carmen Chapin, Shirley Cherkasky, Carole Clarke, Alan Darby, Sharon Deane, Malini Dominey, Larry Fredette, Will Grant, Joan Graumamn, Mary Gregory, Martha Grigg, Tony Grillo, Richard Hardy, Faye HAskins, Fred Haya III, Gregory Heller, Michael Heller, Luis Hernandez, Eddie Hicks, Jane Holt, Toni Johnson, Eliza A.B. Jones, Wayne Kahn, Ellen Kardy, Bill Katopothis, Brian Kraft, Ken Laden, Myrtle Lawson, Mary Leckle, Marshall Logan, Louise Legsdon, Linda Low, Rob Low, Jeanie Majeed, Gladys Mitchell, Gloria Mitchell, Mount Pleasant Business Association, Mount Pleasant Main Street Inc., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, Michael Najarian, Mark Opsasnick, Ruby Priecanos, Ann Piesen, Rosanne Burch Piesen, Wes Ponder, Rick Reinhard, Vilma Rosario, Donald Schwarzz, Wosley Semple, Chris Shaheen, Ryan Shepard, Harold Silver, Kathryn S. Smith, Louise Townsend Smith, David Songer, Grace Tamborrelle, Fay Thompson, Honora Thompson, Leu Vondas, Tasso Vondas, Randy Waller, Dagmar Hasalova White, and Arthur Wong.
Village in the City: Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail is produced by Brendan Meyer, Jane Freundel Levey, Brett Weary, Mara Cherkasky, and Anne W. Rollins of Cultural Tourism DC in collaboration with the District Department of Transportation, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation, and the Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail Working Group. The trail was supported by Historic Mount Pleasant.
2006, All rights reserved. Designed by Side View/Hanna Smotrich, Map by Larry Bowring.
Image caption:
House of Mercy residents in the courtyard, around 1920.
Collection of House of Mercy
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