A Heritage Trail commemorating the onetime center of “Washington’s black intelligentsia” will be officially unveiled in LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale this weekend.
Though the signs along the trail were installed over the summer, the trail will officially open with an unveiling 11 a.m. Saturday in the Park at LeDroit (3rd and Elm streets NW).
The ceremony will include performances from the Dunbar High School Color Guard, the Howard University Gospel Choir and poet E. Ethelbert Miller.
The trail, a series of historical signs and markers throughout the neighborhoods, focuses on the area’s historic role in promoting desegregation and African-American civil rights in Washington.
Eric Fidler, president of the LeDroit Park Civic Association, explained that the neighborhood was once a focal point for notable African-American politicians, activists, artists and scientists. Famous former residents include D.C.’s first elected mayor and convention center namesake Walter Washington, influential suffrage and civil rights advocate Mary Church Terrell and Edward Brooke, the first African-American Senator.
The trail is a project that is more than six years in the making and is made of signs identical to those in other neighborhood heritage trails across the city. Researchers and historians from Cultural Tourism DC, a nonprofit that creates the heritage trails around the District, spent years digging up the history of the neighborhood and interviewing longtime residents.
Fidler said that the trail is an opportunity to collect the stories and memories of those residents and preserve them for the future.
“A lot of neighborhood history exists in people’s heads and in stories and family photographs,” Fidler said. “The problem is if you don’t have a program to put it all together, a lot of it could be lost forever.”
After performances and speeches by community member, attendees can participate in three guided “mini-tours” that will cover portions of the trail. The unveiling event is free and open to the public.
Photo via LeDroit Park Civic Association
Adams Morgan residents and visitors are probably used to music emanating from the bars along 18th Street, but on October 3, they’ll be able to hear music coming from almost every street in the neighborhood.
That evening, musicians will play sets on stoops and porches throughout the neighborhood as part of the third annual Porch Fest.
Porch Fest is a free festival in which residents and businesses open their porches or patios to musicians to play for gathered crowds and passers-by. The festival is organized by the Adams Morgan Partnership BID and Cultural Tourism DC, a nonprofit organization that attempts to bring art and cultural events to public places throughout the city.
Participating porches will host three different musicians or bands at 3, 4:30 and 6 p.m.
Kristen Barden, executive director of the Adams Morgan Partnership BID says that they’ve already booked all of the porches for this year’s festival but are still accepting applications for musicians, who can contact organizers through their Facebook page.
“We’re about halfway there,” she said. “We need about another 15 musicians in order to have enough for all the porches.”
Barden said that the musicians already signed on play a wide range of styles and instruments. While most sets are acoustic, Barden says if the porch owner is willing to provide electricity, bands can play plugged-in sets.
“So far we have a ukelele band, an original singer-songwriter of folk music, a jazz singer, an alternative country rock band, some acoustic folk rock, a jazz pianist, a spoken-word-infused hip-hop artist and a contemporary pop vocalist who plays piano covers,” Barden said.
The Adams Morgan Partnership BID distributes free maps showing porch locations during the event from their headquarters at 1640 Columbia Rd. NW. Barden said that last year they distributed over 1,000 maps.
“Families open up their porches and we have musicians play all afternoon,” Barden said. “It’s a great way to get out and walk around the whole neighborhood.”
Photo via Facebook/Adams Morgan Porch Fest
Logan Circle Heritage Trail. (Courtesy)
If you want to support the Logan Circle Heritage Trail here is your opportunity. On Wednesday, June 26, Whole Foods Market on P Street will donate 5% of the store’s net sales.
At the same time, Logan Circle Community Association (LCCA) volunteers and Heritage Trail partners from Cultural Tourism DC will be at Whole Foods to tell customers about the new trail.
Two-and-a-half years in the making, the 15 signs that will mark the walking trail have been finalized and should be in the ground by the beginning of July at the latest. The trail will officially open on Saturday, July 13. There will be a public opening ceremony in the early afternoon in Logan Circle. After some time to explore the trail itself, a celebratory event will take place at the Studio Theater (1501 14th Street NW) from 5 to 7 pm. Local politicians, dignitaries and celebrities are expected to attend.
Stops on the Trail
The trail will have 15 stops in all, starting at the Jewish Community Center and ending at the Studio Theater. Other stops will include:
- St. Luke’s Church (1514 15th Street)
- “Automobile Row” (Church and 14th Streets)
- Whitman-Walker Clinic (1701 14th Street)
- Louise Hand Laundry (1404 12th Street)
- Korean Legation (15 Logan Circle)
- Mary McLeod Bethune House (1318 Vermont Avenue)
- Luther Place Memorial Church (1226 Vermont Avenue)
- National City Christian Church (5 Thomas Circle)
The Details
- What: Support Logan Circle Heritage Trail. Whole Foods Market will donate 5% of its net sales.
- When: Wednesday June 26, from 8 am to 10:30 pm
- Where: Whole Foods Market, 1440 P Street NW
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“Before Harlem, There Was U Street” is one of this weekend’s guided walking tours. (Luis Gomez Photos)
Cultural Tourism DC’s WalkingTown and BikingTown summer events begin this weekend, May 22-23, and there are a number of events in the Dupont-Logan-U Street area.
Cultural Tourism DC promises that this weekend’s offerings will feature “over 100 free walking tours and 11 bike tours across all 8 wards in the city. Tours will be led by professional guides, community leaders and neighborhood residents who are volunteering their time and expertise to offer insights that make each tour uniquely interesting, informative and fun.”
Borderstan Area Tours
Be sure to go to Cultural Tourism DC’s website for complete information and details. Here is listing events in the neighborhood–and a few close by in Shaw and Adams Morgan.
This weekend in the Logan Circle neighborhood…
