ANNUAL MEETING UPDATE
Our annual meeting of the membership will be in June this year instead of May. Stay tuned for more information about date and location in this space, by email, and in the forthcoming issue of Voices.
REVIEW OF PROJECTS IN THE HISTORIC DISTRICT
If you are planning work on your property in the Cleveland Park Historic District this year, please START by contacting Michael Robb in the DC Historic Preservation Office (HPO) for design guidance and to find out what level of review your project needs. He can be reached at 202-442-7703 or michael.robb@dc.gov.
AFTER you have consulted with HPO, contact us (Carin Ruff) and ANC3C (Nancy MacWood) to schedule neighborhood review of your project, if needed.
CLICK HERE for a complete explanation of the preservation design review process and all the contact information you need.
Pictures from Gingerbread 2017
Thanks to everyone who came to this year’s gingerbread party, and especially to former board member Robert Jenkens, who baked all the houses, provided all the fixings, and generally single-handedly makes this great annual tradition possible! (For more pics, click the “Read more” link at the bottom of the post, and for even more, see our Facebook page and Instagram.) [Read More…]
Call Box Restoration Is Under Way!
Update: For “Under Way,” read “Almost Complete”!
Thanks to the generosity of our members, the fifteen historic police call boxes around the Cleveland Park Historic District are getting a facelift designed to last for the long haul. The old, fading, chipped paint on the box bodies is being scraped and sanded away and new primer and a double coat of fresh paint, including gold accents, is being applied. You’ll see this work in progress around the neighborhood in October and November. (See a map of all the call boxes at this link.)
Right: The “Red Top” call box with body painted and artwork awaiting cleaning and repair. The art depicts Grover Cleveland’s summer home, “Red Top,” a.k.a. “Oak View.” Below: Workers complete the gold accents on the box at Connecticut and Macomb.
The next stage will be to restore or, in some cases, replace the metal back plates, which have deteriorated significantly.
CPHS Board News and New Preservation Task Force
Annual Meeting Talk
At our annual meeting on May 22nd, we had a great talk by Tom Moriarity on preservation and retail development in our Connecticut Avenue corridor. His recommendation that Cleveland Park form a Business Improvement District or Main Street Program to bring funding and professional support to neighborhood placemaking and businesses is being actively pursued by business owners and community organization leaders. CPHS is eager to support these efforts. [Read More…]
Pics from March 9th Visit to the Historical Society of Washington
Thanks to Anne McDonough, HSW’s Director of Library Collections (and photographer) for these pics! We had a great time looking at CPHS’s archives, Kathy Wood’s photo collection, Baist real estate atlases, city directories, property records of Uriah Forrest, and more. [Read More…]
Rural Remnants of Washington County: Download the Report
We had a fascinating talk on February 9th by Kim Williams of the DC Historic Preservation Office on her research on houses and outbuildings that remain from before the "suburban" development of Washington's outer neighborhoods. If you missed the talk, or if you'd like to … [Read More...]
What is the Period of Significance and what does it mean for Cleveland Park?
In the Cleveland Park Historic District, buildings built between 1880 and 1941 have the full protection of the District of Columbia’s historic preservation ordinance, the Historic Landmark and Historic District Protection Act (1978). Those built in 1942 or after do not. Thus … [Read More...]
Where Was Grover Cleveland’s House?
Here at CPHS, we've received quite a flurry of queries from neighbors recently about where Grover Cleveland's house was. We're not sure what prompted the sudden interest,* but it seemed like a good topic for a blog post. … [Read More...]
“Connecticut Avenue Highlands”
When Cleveland Park was first developed around the turn of the 20th century, it was known as "Connecticut Avenue Highlands". You can just make out a billboard advertising the new development in this photo. The billboard is near the current site of the Uptown Theater and the … [Read More...]
