Georgetown Current · Tudor Place Manor Turns 200

Northwest Passages
The People and Places of Northwest Washington
The Current
June 8, 2016 ■ Page 25
Tudor Place manor turns 200
Historic Georgetown home of six generations of Martha Washington descendants
celebrates its bicentennial with garden party, family-friendly July 2 birthday festivities
By LEE CANNON
Current Correspondent
T
he historic home and gardens of
Tudor Place at 1644 31st St. NW in
Georgetown were even more decked
out in flowers than usual
— impressive, considering many of the flowers
in the 5 1/2 acres of gardens and grounds were
in full bloom. The warm
evening called for extra
arrangements because it
was Tudor Place’s
Bicentennial Spring
Garden Party.
“This is the most
wonderful party of the
spring season,” guest
Chris Minter-Dowd said. “We’re enjoying
wonderful company, and it supports an
important organization that’s part of the
history of the neighborhood.”
Melissa McGee, a Tudor Place board of
trustees member, said she has been attending the spring party for many years. “It’s
important to keep the house and gardens in
good condition,” she said.
The annual garden party is one integral
part of raising funds to support preservation of the historic estate, although the fun
of the May 25 event was an equal draw.
Nancy Everett, a guest of McGee’s, said
she enjoyed “watching adults on their
playful side, with hats,
costumes and party
dresses.”
The guests indeed
came prepared with their
garden-party best for the
celebration and mild
weather. The ladies
wore summery sundresses, decorated hats
and elaborate feather
fascinators. Gentlemen
brought out their best
khaki suits, colorful ties
and dashing straw skimmer hats. Guests
entered through the main gate and filtered
past the rose gardens and a vintage 1919
Pierce-Arrow Roadster on their way to the
party tent, tables and conversation circles
— some with upholstered sofas — on the
front lawn of the estate.
Tudor Place is the historic home of the
Peter family, famous as the descendants of
Photos by James R. Brantley Photography
Above, Garden Party chair Marcia Mayo with the Marquis de Lafayette, President George
Washington and Nellie English, a Peter family servant; left, Tudor Place development
director Mary­-Michael Wachur, left, and Tudor Place trustee Pamela Jenkinson
America’s first first lady. President George
Washington and Martha Washington had
no children together, but Martha entered
the marriage with two living children from
her previous marriage to Daniel Parke
Custis, a wealthy landowner and tobacco
merchant. Her son John married and had
four children; and his daughter Martha
Parke “Patsy” Custis married Thomas
Peter, another landowner and tobacco merchant. In 1805, Martha and Thomas Peter
purchased 8.5 acres of land and existing
Finding common ground at Knock on Wood
By GEORGE ALTSHULER
Current Correspondent
A
t first glance, three of the
stalwarts of the Knock
On Wood tap dance studio wouldn’t seem to have much
in common.
There’s Yvonne Edwards, an
81-year-old retired federal worker
who has been teaching tap dance
since the late 1950s.
Then there are Sam and Max
Heimowitz, twin ninth-graders at
School Without Walls High
School.
But get the three of them dancing, and their eyes light up the
same way. The Knock on Wood
studio, located on Willow Street
NW in Takoma, demonstrates
how tap dancing can still appeal
to a wide range of people.
Last Thursday, for example,
Edwards led a class of 11 adult
beginners diligently imitating her
every step in the studio’s mirrors
as a children’s class learned similar steps in a different room and
the Heimowitz twins arrived for
rehearsal.
The twins, who in late 2013
performed 57 times at Arena
Stage with tap legend Maurice
Hines, have even extended the
reach of the studio to a younger
set; the Heimowitz brothers teach
tap weekly to a pre-K class at
CentroNía in Takoma Park, Md.
buildings and began constructing Tudor
Place.
The house was built in an unusual manner, as well as with unique architectural
features. Two disconnected buildings were
first built in 1795 by the previous owner,
which became the two wings of the house.
Martha and Thomas Peter then used
designs of architect and friend Dr. William
Thornton — known for designing the first
U.S. Capitol Building, destroyed in the
See Bicentennial/Page 28
This month in ...
■ 1971 — The Washington Senators hosted the ninth annual charity baseball game to benefit Children’s Hospital. The committee hoped to sell out RFK
Stadium for the game against the Oakland A’s. The event recently had been
attracting the second-highest attendance at Senators’ games, ranking behind
opening day. In eight years, the event had earned $240,000 for programs
benefiting children’s health and development.
■ 1976 — Members of the Spring
Valley-Wesley Heights Citizens Asso
From Our archives
ciation, faced with a number of proposed changes to traffic patterns in
Spring Valley, voted against installing more stop signs on 49th Street NW as
an attempt to limit commuter traffic. The association voted 109-36 to support
the installation of four-way stop signs at nine other intersections. Members
voted 115-79 in favor of forbidding traffic from entering Rockwood Parkway
NW at Nebraska Avenue during the weekday afternoon rush hour. Members
voted 84-80 for forbidding cars from entering Indian Lane NW from Loughboro Road during the afternoon rush hour.
Photo courtesy of Dori Gillman
The Heimowitz brothers, twins who attend ninth grade at School
Without Walls, are among the dancers at Knock on Wood.
The breadth of the studio will
be on display at its annual showcase on Sunday at Deal Middle
School. Knock On Wood’s resident company Capitol Tap will
perform, as will the Heimowitz
brothers and the studio’s various
classes.
“Tap is simply a lot of fun,”
said Edwards, explaining the
dance style’s broad appeal. “The
thing that’s fun about tap dancing
to me is that you can not only see
it — like ballet, it’s beautiful —
but you also hear tap. So you’ve
got the two elements there, and to
me that makes it more intrigu-
ing.”
In her Thursday evening classes, Edwards, who co-founded
Knock On Wood 21 years ago
and is now on the nonprofit’s
board, offers her students phrases
of encouragement and an unrelenting positive attitude.
“If you walk into this studio,
you’ll tap your way out,” said
Edwards, who goes by “Miss
Yvonne” around the studio, located at 6925 Willow St. NW.
“She’s 100 percent cheerful,”
said Sam Heimowitz, who said he
and his brother have benefited
See Tap/Page 28
■ 1981 — The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority held a public
hearing on plans to consolidate 35 bus routes. Among the proposals was
elimination of rush-hour service connecting Glover Park and the Federal Triangle area, to be replaced with additional D2 buses ending at Farragut
Square. The plan also called for the elimination of rush-hour routes connecting Chevy Chase and Wesley Heights with Potomac Park and Federal Triangle,
again to be replaced by existing all-day routes ending at Farragut Square.
Ward 3 D.C. Council member Polly Shackleton, one of 40 speakers at the
hearing, criticized Metro for increasing fares, reducing service and still expecting people to use public transportation.
■ 1986 — Wilson High School sophomore David Thompson organized a project to paint all the bleachers at the school’s football stadium, seating 4,000
people. To help reach his goal of becoming an Eagle Scout, Thompson recruited fellow students to help and also raised the money to buy all the supplies.
■ 1991 — The D.C. Council adopted a redistricting plan that transferred Burleith, upper Georgetown, Foxhall Village and lower Palisades from Ward 3 to
Ward 2. “While these boundaries keep the political jurisdiction of the Foxhall
and the Burleith citizens associations intact and restore the political integrity
of all of Georgetown, unfortunately a piece of the lower Palisades area shifts
to Ward 2,” said Ward 3 D.C. Council member Jim Nathanson. With the exception of the lower Palisades, he said, the bill kept neighborhoods intact and
used natural boundaries to the greatest extent possible.
28 Wednesday, June 8, 2016
The Current
Northwest Real Estate
TAP: Takoma dance studio offers broad range of educational opportunities for all ages
From Page 25
from her praise and pointers.
Like Edwards, the Heimowitzes have
discovered that tap can quickly draw people in, although they’ve figured this out in
decidedly modern ways.
“After we performed at a school assembly, we basically exploded on Snapchat,”
Max Heimowitz said of the response from
other students on the social networking
app.
The Heimowitz brothers also attribute
the appeal of tap dancing to the fact that it
is both auditory and visual. They explained
that the Knock On Wood studio teaches
rhythm tap, which is more focused on
musicality and less on upper body movements than the other main type of tap,
Broadway tap.
“Rhythm tap is less showy than Broadway tap,” said Sam Heimowitz. “We’re
making music with our feet and dancing at
the same time.”
In interviews, the Heimowitz twins and
Edwards all emphasized how important it
is to learn the history of tap. Colorful pieces of paper with the names of great tap
dancers, including Fred Astaire, Shirley
Temple and Sammy Davis Jr., cover one of
the back rehearsal rooms of the Knock On
Wood studio.
These days, students in the Knock On
Wood studio also learn the names of the
school’s notable alumni. This includes the
Grammy-winning R&B singer Mya; the
company’s assistant artistic director and
former Broadway performer Baakari Wilder; and Jason Holley, who is currently performing on Broadway.
At the Sunday showcase, in addition to
performing with Capitol Tap, the Heimowitzes will dance two duets, including
“Charlestwins,” which they choreographed
themselves.
Edwards’ adult class will perform to
“Poor Butterfly” by Erroll Garner.
Dori Gillman, who is the president of
Knock On Wood’s board and the Heimowitz twins’ mother, said that Edwards’ classes are always the company’s most popular.
“People would show up to her classes at
7 a.m. the day after a holiday,” she said.
“Miss Yvonne is an incredible teacher.”
Edwards, when asked about her success
as a tap instructor, said she always preferred teaching to performing, and she
likes that her classes attract a lot of students.
Knock On Wood Tap Studio’s annual
showcase will take place Sunday, June 12,
at 2 p.m. at Deal Middle School, 3815 Fort
Drive NW. For more information, including ticket prices, visit knockonwood.org.
BICENTENNIAL: Tudor Place celebrates with historical re-enactments at annual garden party
From Page 25
War of 1812 — to fill in between
the existing buildings with two
connector wings and a main, center building. The Federalist-style
mansion was completed in 1816.
The center building features
the only fully round portico in
America, with half the circle projecting from the front of the home
and the second half dipping into
what Martha Custis Peter called
her “saloon,” the main room for
music, dancing and entertainment.
At first glance, the portico
appears to have no entrance, but
the cleverly curved wooden window frame slides upward to cre-
ate a pass-through.
On May 25, waiting to greet
the garden party guests around
the grounds were costumed actors
portraying key figures in the history of the house, from Martha
and Thomas Peter to George
Washington and the Marquis de
Lafayette, a friend of Washington’s and a Revolutionary War
hero.
Also portrayed were subsequent generations of the Peter
family, such as Britannia Peter
Kennon, who safeguarded Tudor
Place through the Civil War, and
Agnes Peter, her granddaughter,
who performed humanitarian
work in France after World War I;
$"#&#!!"&
on hand as well were a maid, a
carpenter and a gardener, lesserknown figures but a crucial part
of the home’s history.
On the grounds beyond the
tent, actors portraying two of the
final residents, Armistead Peter
III and wife Caroline OgdenJones Peter, stationed themselves
at one of the evening’s many
vignettes — tables displaying
antiques from Tudor Place’s collection: typewriters and tools,
bicycles and baby carriages. The
actors and vignettes added to the
sense of history coming alive, as
guests sampled delicacies and
sipped punch made from Martha
Washington’s own recipe: rum,
orange juice and cinnamon.
“It’s a phenomenal house and
phenomenal collection,” said
Grant Quertermous, the new curator of the collections. “The family
kept everything and realized the
significance of what they had.”
The stately home, blooming
rose garden and wide lawn ringed
with trees provided a dramatic
backdrop for the evening’s entertainment: The Sage String Quartet, Sage Jazz band and members
of the Washington National
Opera’s Domingo-Cafritz Young
Artist Program performing songs
popular during the different stages of Tudor Place’s history, such
as “Yankee Doodle” from the late
18th century, “The Battle Cry of
Freedom” from the Civil War and
“I Got Rhythm” from the Jazz
Age.
Tudor Place remained in the
Peter family for six generations
until Armistead Peter III used the
first scenic easement in the United States to provide for preservation of the property. He also created the Tudor Place Foundation,
which, after his death in 1983,
assumed ownership of the site.
The foundation opened Tudor
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Place as a museum in 1988 and
currently maintains the home,
gardens, antique furnishings and
the extensive collection of George
and Martha Washington’s personal possessions — the largest on
view outside of Mount Vernon.
“Armistead Peter III was very
farsighted with his preservation
easement,” said board of trustees
member and Bicentennial Garden
Party chair Marcia V. Mayo. “He
knew the importance of this
place. Tudor Place is history. It’s
heritage. It’s the future, too. It’s a
vehicle to connect the past with
the future.”
Thomas E. Crocker, president
of the board of trustees, said of
the home: “It’s quite a package —
the gardens, the architecture. It’s
a unique, hidden gem in the middle of the city. Lots of public
school kids come through and get
exposure to this family. Six generations lived here, so that’s
unusual.”
For those who missed the
Bicentennial Spring Garden Party,
there are more anniversary celebrations throughout the year. In
addition to regularly scheduled
tours of the house and gardens
available to the public, Tudor
Place has a full calendar of events
ranging from weekly Art in the
Garden classes to Tudor Tots
Tuesdays enrichment events for
children and a brunch for the
grown-ups on June 18.
The next major event is the
Bicentennial Birthday Party, a
family-friendly party scheduled
for Saturday, July 2, from 1 to 4
p.m.
The joint celebration of Tudor
Place’s bicentennial and Independence Day seems fitting for the
home of George Washington’s
adopted family. Partygoers can
tour the gardens, try traditional
yard games, make patriotic crafts
and enjoy birthday cake from
Dog Tag Bakery. Veterans and
military families will be admitted
free of charge.
For more information about
these events, tours, the collections
and the history of this beautiful
home, visit tudorplace.org.
The Georgetown Current
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Board preps
for June 14
election day
Traffic signal tweaks
aim to cut congestion
BRAZILIAN BEATS
■ Transportation: Latest
effort focuses on wards 3, 4
By CUNEYT DIL
Current Correspondent
The D.C. Board of Elections
says it has new and faster ballot
tabulation machines this year, and
promises quicker returns on results
during the night of the June 14
D.C. primary.
Democratic voters next Tuesday will vote
on their party’s ■ VOTERS
nominee for GUIIDE: Profiles
president. The and Q&A’s with
D.C. Demo- council hopefuls.
cratic
Party Pullout.
selected its delegates to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia on May 21
through a caucus. Of the city’s 46
delegates, 20 are pledged, which
means they have to support candidates in proportion to the number
of popular votes they received.
The remaining 26 unpledged delegates — party leaders and elected
officials — aren’t bound to support a particular candidate at the
Democratic National Convention
next month.
Locally, there are five races for
See Election/Page 14
By MARK LIEBERMAN
Current Staff Writer
The latest round of a multiphase optimization project for the
District’s traffic signals swept
across wards 3 and 4 on Friday,
with community leaders largely in
agreement that changes are needed but, in some cases, frustrated at
the lack of concrete information
from city agencies.
The timing for more than 350
signals were upgraded on Friday,
Brian Kapur/The Current
Art Soiree hosted a concert on Thursday at the Ritz-Carlton
in Georgetown. The event featured a variety of music
including samba, bossa nova, maracatu and frevo. Singer
Rose Moraes added lyrics to the Brazilian music at Live
Music Garden, which is part of Art Soiree’s summer concert
series.
By MARK LIEBERMAN
Current Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of GWU
The city grant will allow George
Washington University to install
rain barrels in the GroW garden.
announced last week that nine proposals from a total of 35 applicants
citywide earned the first annual
round of grants.
In addition to the three projects
in Northwest D.C., recipients
include projects at the 8th Street
with the twin goals of reducing
traffic congestion and improving
pedestrian safety. The D.C.
Department of Transportation says
it has assembled data on vehicular
and pedestrian patterns broken
down by day of the week and time
of day. Further adjustments to this
round of signal changes could take
place over the next few months as
the agency takes stock of the optimization impacts.
Last summer, the agency initiated a larger round of signal
upgrades, with more than 650 signals in the downtown area affected. A year later, the Transportation
See Signals/Page 16
Georgetown University
unveils draft campus plan
By BRADY HOLT
Current Staff Writer
RiverSmart program funds local green efforts
Katrina Weinig of Forest Hills
wants to see the Broad Branch
stream restored and converted for
community use. Steve Dryden of
Mount Pleasant has been fighting
since 2013 to preserve the woodlands of Rock Creek Park as a
habitat for avian wildlife. George
Washington University seeks a
more frugal irrigation system for
its network of community gardens.
These environmental efforts
have in common a recent influx of
fund, thanks to the new RiverSmart
Innovation Grant program from the
D.C. Department of Energy &
Environment.
The
agency
Vol. XXV, No. 45
Serving Burleith, Foxhall, Georgetown, Georgetown Reservoir & Glover Park
Arts Park and the East Capitol
Urban Farm in Northeast; at Sousa
Middle School in Southeast; and
three at the Anacostia Watershed
in Southeast.
Proposals for stormwater-related improvement projects that also
contained an educational angle or
community involvement earned
top priority in the selection process, according to the agency’s
Emily Rice.
The agency accepted applications for 60 days — twice the
length of a normal application
process — in order to accommodate as many grant proposals as
possible.
A team of six staffers combed
through each proposal and
See Grants/Page 14
Georgetown University will
continue its current undergraduate
enrollment levels through 2036;
continue moving undergraduates
out of neighborhood rental properties; and gradually increase its
numbers of graduate students, faculty and staff, officials said Monday.
The school that day unveiled its
draft campus plan, which was
developed in partnership with
Georgetown, Burleith and Foxhall
community leaders, as well as
university students. Universities
in residential areas must periodically produce these plans for
review by the Zoning Commission, which ensures that the
schools aren’t causing undue
impacts on their communities.
While campus plans are often
contentious — as Georgetown’s
have been in the past — the school
has most recently been working
closely with neighbors to minimize opposition. The current campus plan, adopted in 2012 and
expiring next year, won unanimous support after the university
agreed to house more undergradu-
Brian Kapur/The Current
The university will beautify this
area by creating a corridor aimed
at accommodating student life.
ates on campus and invest more in
protecting the neighborhood from
noise, trash and traffic impacts.
“Being able to hear each other
and not talk past each other has
enabled us to get to where we are
today,” Chris Murphy, the university’s vice president for government relations and community
engagement, told residents at
Monday’s presentation. A few
dozen residents attended the meeting, and only a handful had any
questions or concerns.
“Three years ago, this room
would have been overflowing
with people complaining about the
conditions on the streets,” GeorgeSee Campus/Page 29
BUSINESS
SPORTS
PASSAGES
INDEX
Student starts eatery
Hop to the top
Tudor at 200
Calendar/30
Classifieds/38
District Digest/4
Exhibits/31
In Your Neighborhood/12
Opinion/8
Korean restaurant on Wisconsin
Avenue NW is new MBA grad’s
real-world lesson / Page 3
Georgetown Day runs past the
competition to sweep the DCSAA
track championships / Page 11
Historic Georgetown mansion
celebrates its bicentennial with
series of events / Page 25
Police Report/6
Real Estate/26
School Dispatches/7
Service Directory/36
Sports/11
Week Ahead/3
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