Preservation League accuses city of neglect

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The D.C. public school system’s entire inventory of buildings made the D.C. Preservation League’s annual list of endangered places in the city this year.

“Years of deferred maintenance as a result of budget cuts and mismanagement have left many school buildings in an advanced state of disrepair,” said the group.

Members also were deeply concerned about the future of the school buildings, despite a promise last year by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, a Democrat, to close 23 of the 165 buildings, including those of Elizabethan and Modernist designs, and repair the rest.

“For those whose fate is closure, their future rests entirely upon what new use, if any, can be determined,” the group said

The Preservation League has compiled annual lists for the past 12 years to bring attention to “historically, culturally and architecturally significant” places in danger of being destroyed or losing their historic quality through neglect. The selections were made by city residents.

The group repeatedly faulted the city for many of the problems.

“The city for years has been a terrible steward of its own buildings,” Rebecca Miller, the group’s executive director, said yesterday . “And it has allowed property owners to get away with neglect.”

Ten sites were on the list this year, including the chancery building of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Northwest. The baroque-style building was designed in 1908 by the architectural firm Hornblower & Marshall and was the home of banking titan Joseph Taylor Arms. The building is now vacant and beset by the “demolition of neglect,” the group said.

Miss Miller said the city already has laws covering vacant properties, but does not enforce them.

The city has 290 vacant properties, according to an Office of Property Management report in late 2007.

“The District really has an incredible wealth of historically significant assets — more than two dozen historic districts contain more than 23,000 buildings,” said Sean Madigan, the communications director for the deputy mayor for planning and economic development. “We are glad to see [the group] call attention to the preservation and reuse of these irreplaceable properties. The District’s historic assets are spread throughout the city — from downtown to Georgetown to historic Anacostia where we recently awarded the first of $900,000 worth of homeowner grants to help residents there preserve their historic homes.”

The group also faulted the city for the situation surrounding the Georgetown streetcar tracks, one of the last of their type in the world.

Group members said the city’s failure to properly repair cobble-stoned P Street Northwest creates the perception the tracks are a safety concern, which could make them a target for removal.

The last remaining dwellings of the Barry Farm neighborhood, developed east of the Anacostia in the mid-19th century, also are on the list. The farm was originally part of an initiative to provide housing to former slaves after the Civil War.

The three frame houses cited by the group, which are slightly larger than the originals at the farm, were built in the early 20th century when the black community become more stable and affluent, the group said.

St. Elizabeths Hospital west campus returns to the list from 2006. The property, owned by the federal government, is a national historic landmark, and the panoramic view from the elevated, 176-acre campus is among the best in the area.

The Preservation League cited a recent National Park Service report that does not support a General Services Administration plan to convert the vacant, 61-building property into a Department of Homeland Security headquarters.

ENDANGERED LIST

The D.C. Preservation League has released its annual endangered-properties list, which is critical of the city’s stewardship.

•Public school buildings citywide.

•Joseph Taylor Arms Mansion, (Chancery of the Republic of Congo), 1800 New Hampshire Ave. NW

•Georgetown streetcar tracks, O and P streets Northwest

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

•Barry Farm frame houses, 2700-2800 block of Wade Road Southeast

•Judiciary Square clusters, 300 block of E Street Northwest

•St. Elizabeths Hospital West Campus, 2700 block of Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. Southeast

•Walter Reed Army Hospital, 6900 Georgia Ave. NW

•Foundry Branch Trolley Trestle, Archbold Park in Northwest

•Barney Circle neighborhood, bounded by Potomac Avenue Southeast, 17th Street Southeast, Kentucky Avenue Southeast and Pennsylvania Avenue Southeast

Source: D.C. Preservation League