The Northwest Current
Wednesday, December 13, 2017
Vol. L, No. 49
Serving Communities in Northwest Washington Since 1967
Palisades landmark bid stirs debate
LET IT SNOW
■ Preservation: ANC votes unanimously to
oppose designation of 1940 modernist house
By KIRK KRAMER Current Staff Writer
The DC Preservation League thinks the house at 3125 Chain Bridge Road NW is a landmark of modernist architecture and belongs on the National Register of Historic Places. Alma Gates doesn’t buy it. “This house is not [architecturally] influential or important,” said Gates, a member of the local advisory neighborhood commission, ANC 3D. “It is not associated with people who are significant to our past.” Gates and her colleagues heard from the DC Preservation League at ANC 3D’s meeting last Wednesday, but they voted unanimously to oppose the landmark application. The case will go before the Historic Preservation Review Board on Dec. 21. (ANC 3D includes Foxhall, the Palisades, Spring Valley and
Photo by D.P. Sefton
A raze application for this Chain Bridge Road home is on hold pending a decision on the landmarking.
Wesley Heights.) The residence on Chain Bridge Road, referred to as the Raymond and Olive Clapper House in the landmark application, was built in 1940. The architect was See Preservation/Page 3
Franklin museum wins planners’ praise By KIRK KRAMER Current Staff Writer
Hannah Lynn Wagner/The Current
Amy Abell, Townes Abell and Nolan Abell walk by the C&O Canal on Saturday observing one of Georgetown’s GLOW art installations. Hosted by the local business improvement district, the light displays will continue into early January.
The old Franklin School on 13th Street NW is a bit closer to fulfilling a new educational mission as an experiential museum of linguistics, having won positive comments from the National Capital Planning Commission. While the federal design-review panel hasn’t yet signed off on the plans, members praised the idea of opening the “Planet Word” museum in the vacant 1869 building.
“The programming at the museum will lift up the school,” commissioner Eric Shaw, the head of the D.C. Office of Planning, said at the panel’s hearing on the proposal last Thursday. “That building is so beautiful. I’m awestruck by it.” “This is just about as compatible with the original use as you can get,” added fellow commissioner Peter May. The interior of the building, last used as a homeless shelter in the 2000s, has suffered from a decade of disuse. Evan Cash, the D.C.
Council’s representative on the commission, spoke of the “fits and starts” it has taken to find a use for the building, and expressed relief that the deterioration will not grow worse. “The city has been guilty of demolition by neglect,” Cash said. The building is owned by the District government, and the city submitted the project application on behalf of the Franklin School development team. The District has given a long-term lease to the developer but will retain ownerSee Franklin/Page 4
As design work progresses, Stead Park project team weighs program options By GRACE BIRD Current Staff Writer
As the District prepares to renovate and expand the Stead Recreation Center starting next fall, officials recently released the latest designs for the project, focusing on new programs the Dupont Circle site could accommodate. Located at 1625 P St. NW, the center has faced criticisms about its size and condition, prompting the D.C. Council to allocate $10 million for a comprehensive overhaul. This fall, the project team for the Stead center conducted a survey about possible uses for the facility, collecting 147 responses as of Nov. 28. Respondents called for an arts and crafts program; afternoon access for
kids ages 6 to 12; a garden-oriented fall festival; classes on guitar, yoga, youth dance, digital photography, and drawing and painting; after-school tutoring; and a children’s story hour. Officials plan to start up four working groups tasked with different aspects of the project: adult programming, artwork and photography, rat mitigation strategies and the overall site. Some neighbors questioned the project’s focus on children, given that the Dupont area has many young single adults. But many organizers, including Friends of Stead Park president Kari Cunningham, said that’s part of the center’s original mission — as outlined by Robert Stead, who founded a trust that created the park in 1953.
Rendering courtesy of D.C. government
A proposed design for Stead features a steel roof over the basketball court and a three-story addition with a green roof.
“Our core vision is to serve the children of the District of Columbia,” said Cunningham, also an advisory neighborhood commissioner. “That’s our mandate by the trust.”
Planners have also proposed to start an early childhood program through the Department of Parks and Recreation’s Cooperative Play Program, consisting of play-time sessions in the mornings for babies and young children. While there is some debate about programming, there’s broad support for the idea of updating the outdated recreation center, a prized public amenity in crowded Dupont. “Right now, it is really not a very usable space,” Cunningham said, describing the center — originally built as a small carriage house in 1888 — as small, outdated, and inaccessible to those with disabilities. Overall plans to redo the recreation center include restoring the existing carriage See Stead/Page 16
SHERWOOD
SPORTS
HOLIDAYS
INDEX
School setback
Classic performance
Shopping local
Calendar/17 District Digest/4 In Your Neighborhood/8 Opinion/6 Police Report/5
As D.C. officials vow to follow up on Ballou graduation data, reactions differ / Page 6
Tournament hosts Gonzaga keep title at home with dominant wins over three opponents / Page 9
District’s holiday markets — old and new — offer a chance to buy from local makers / Page 12
Real Estate/15 School Dispatches/10 Service Directory/21 Sports/9 Week Ahead/3
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