Historic Mount Pleasant

Welcome to Historic Mount Pleasant!

 We are a volunteer-based membership organization

Membership is open to everyone, so please join! 

 

 

BOARD MEMBER OPPORTUNITIES

 On  During 2011, the Board of Historic Mount Pleasant, Inc., lost two members through resignations.  As a result, there are currently seven Board members (the By-laws provide that the Board is to consist of "at least six and no more than twelve members in good standing of the Corporation....").

Serving on the Board provides opportunities to shape the organization's activities during the year, as well as to meet and interact with neighbors from throughout the Historic District and beyond.  The Board typically meets about 10 times per year, but other time commitments can be accommodated to personal schedules.

Board member terms generally begin following the Annual Meeting, wihich will be held in February or March 2012.  Please consider joining the Board of Historic Mount Pleasant and helping to make a difference in your community.  

 http://www.dcpreservation.org/toursandevents5.html energy audits and     

 

MT. PLEASANT’S STREETCAR ROOTS SHOWCASED AT 2011 ANNUAL MEETING                                                  

Historic Mount Pleasant's  Annual Meeting of the membership was held on March 5, 2011 at Stoddard Baptist Home.  President Fay Armstrong briefly reviewed HMP’s activities over the past year and provided the written 2010 Annual Report (for the report, click here: 2010_Annual_Report).   She was joined by Gabriela Mossi of the Mt. Pleasant Business Association, who summarized the results of efforts funded by the Neighborhood Investment Fund grant awarded to the Association and HMP last year; and by Steve Dryden of the Friends of Peirce Mill, who outlined the status of the mill’s restoration and plans for reopening.  The proposed slate of officers for 2011 was elected.  Eric Madison, a volunteer with the National Trolley Museum, then presented a fascinating history of streetcar service in Mount Pleasant, from its turn-of-the-20th century origin up until end of service about 1961.  His talk was accompanied by a number of vintage photos and, best of all, a motion picture shot in the late 1950s showing the number 42 streetcar traversing its entire route.

 

MP'S 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION CONTINUES WITH PUBLICATION ON HISTORY OF COMMERCIAL CORRIDOR

In June 2010, HMP was awarded a $2,000 grant from the Humanities Council of Washington D.C. to develop a history of the Mount Pleasant Street commercial corridor.  HMP volunteers combed the National Archives and Records Administration, the Washingtoniana Collection of the D.C. Public Library, the D.C. Recorder of Deeds, the D.C. Surveyors Office, and the Historical Society of Washington D.C. for information on the land and buildings comprising Mount Pleasant Street, as well as the businesses that have operated here.

The fruits of that research are available in a summary brochure,  The_Architectural_Legacy_of_Mount_Pleasant_Street .  This document has been published and distributed to businesses currently located in the commercial corridor.  More detailed information is available here on the website.  Clicking on the links will bring up the indicated documents.

MP_Street_North_to_South   provides information, by street address, on building permits.  Included are the permit/construction date; type of building; the builder; the owner; and the architect.

     ROD_North_to_South  provides information about the “chain of title”—that is, records of the sale or transfer of each property over time. (While these records employ square and lot number to legally define each parcel, HMP has arranged them so that the progression follows Mt. Pleasant Street from north to south.)

MP_St_Businesses_1900_to_1919   provides information taken from Boyd’s City Directories about the businesses listed at each address each year.  (Information prior to 1914 is not complete because prior to that year there was no separate street listing in the Directories.)  Three additional files provide similar information for the indicated years:

MP_St_Businesses_1920_to_1929 

MP_St_Businesses_1930_to_1939 

MP_St_Businesses_1940_to_1954 

[Note:  in the latter four files, the notation "nc" (for "no change") is used to indicate that the entry is the same as that for the preceding year.]

Also as part of the anniversary celebration, a few articles highlighting HMP's own history are being added to the website.  The first, outlining the organization's origins (HMP was incorporated under the laws of the District of Columbia on April 2, 1985) may be accessed by clicking on the following link:

 Anniversary_Article_No._1.pdf

Happy reading....and stay tuned for more!

 

 

 

http://www.historicmtp.citymax.com/f/Quarterly_Report_(September_2010).pdf  

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Other Recent Events

HMP Partners with Business Association on Neighborhood Investment Grant

Last year the Mount Pleasant Business Association and HMP received a $40,000 competitive grant from the city’s Neighborhood Investment Fund (NIF) grant program.  These grants, administered by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, are intended to spur small community efforts and improve the quality of life of each neighborhood through civic action and resident involvement.  The grants are targeted at 12 specific neighborhoods, one of which is called “Columbia Heights” but includes Mount Pleasant Street.

With this grant, the Business Association has offered technical assistance for business operations and property improvements for businesses on Mt. Pleasant Street.  HMP served as the fiscal agent and advisor for storefront design and signage matters.  As noted in the award letter, “Within this highly competitive field, the review panel felt that the Mount Pleasant Business Assistance Program...would make a positive contribution to the Neighborhood Investment Fund target area and fulfill the goals of the NIF program.”   

 

   Historic Mount Pleasant (HMP) provides this website for Mount Pleasant residents and business owners, as well as others, with interesting and practical information about living in our Historic District.  We especially aim to help you navigate the permit process and understand the benefits of living in an historic district.  We encourage you to visit our calendar which lists HMP's activities and other neighborhood events that make this such a great place to live and visit.

                             View HMPs 2010_Annual_Report   

 

 

 

Frequently asked questions about living in a

DC Historic District

 

 

 

Email: info@historicmountpleasant.org
Phone: (202) 387-2734
1731 Lamont Street, N.W.; Washington, D.C. 20010

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'Images of America:  Mount Pleasant’

 

Author Mara Cherkasky, a Washington historian and writer, presents photos, maps, and other images to illustrate the fascinating chapters about our neighborhood in her recently published book ‘Images of America:  Mount Pleasant’.  The book is available for $20.00 plus tax at Pfeiffer’s Hardware Store.  You can also reach Mara directly at mcherkasky@verizon.net for a signed copy or purchase online at www.amazon.com.

 

Below is a short overview of our neighborhood’s history as presented in ‘Images of America:  Mount Pleasant’:

 

 

 

Mount Pleasant -- Samuel P. Brown must have thought this name perfect when he chose it for his country estate on a wooded hill overlooking Washington City. The name also suited the New Englanders who settled in the village Brown founded near 14th Street and Park Road just after the Civil War. About 1903 the once isolated village began its transformation to a fashionable suburb after the city extended 16th Street through Mount Pleasant’s heart, and a new streetcar line linked the area to downtown. Developers constructed elegant apartment buildings and spacious brick rowhouses on block after block, and successful businessmen built stately residences along Park Road.

 

Change arrived again with the Great Depression and then World War II, as the suburb evolved into an urban, exclusively white, working-class enclave that eventually became majority African American. In addition a Latino presence was evident as early as the 1960s. By the 1980s the neighborhood was known as the heart of D.C.’s Latino and counterculture communities. Today these communities are dispersing, however, in response to a hot real estate market in Washington.

 

 

 

 

 
* All Membership rates are a suggested amount.  We'd love to include all neighbors in our membership; so, if you can more easily budget a lower amount, please include that amount with your membership form.