Anacostia on HGTV Tomorrow

Set your DVRs for tomorrow's episode of HGTV's "My First Sale", which features Historic Anacostia (and me and the house I just sold...).

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I believe the episode will be available online later on as well. Click Here for the description of the episode and to find local TV station listings.

saturday

It was a beautiful, albeit ridiculously hot day for a stroll through the neighborhood. This post is all over the place, so get ready.

Honestly, this building at the corner of Good Hope and 15th would not have been one of Keller Williams "Preferred Properties" even last year. Love that it is now. (I think that there is already a contract on it)


This is what the building was planned to become.


Good ol' Drake's, looking from Good Hope Road. Word from Drake himself is that the restaurant is still coming, and that a new cursive "Anacostia" sign should adorn the front of the building soon.


This is what the old sign looked like. I think the new one will be an exact replica. Should be pretty cool lookin'.

photo courtesy of flickr user ellievanhoutte

This is one of my favorite houses in the neighborhood. It reminds me of New Orleans.


Remember how this playground wasn't finished during the whole HGTV weekend? Well, it's up now.




Yep, this is a sign from 4 years ago. You can add littering to the list of laws Marion Barry has broken.


Remember the Carver Theater building? Turns out they built a sweet giant glass skylight on top.


photos by DG-rad

HGTV report card: Incomplete.*

playground that was never put together

The Bethel Christian Fellowship Child Development Center was supposed to be te recipient of a new play area behind their building at MLK Ave and Pleasant Street, but it is still just a pile of playground parts, a pile of mulch, and a fast-weathering sign about the project.

Rebuilding Together, the organization that partnered with HGTV, has assured me that the project will be completed by the end of the week.



*to be fair, it was pouring rain almost the entire time that HGTV was here, but I still had to make sure that this would be finished...

photos by DG-rad

Hangin' with HGTV's Carter Oosterhouse

(excerpt from my upcoming piece in East of the River)

When Washington, D.C. was voted one of three winners of Home and Garden Television’s (HGTV) Change the World. Start at Home contest, it won help on three revitalization projects: landscaping and cleanup at Anacostia Park along the river, building a new play area at Bethel Christian Fellowship Child Development Center, and renovations and repairs at twelve homes on S Street in the Fairlawn neighborhood, immediately adjacent Historic Anacostia.


Carter and resident Trudy Bloome

On the job Monday was Carter Oosterhouse, host of HGTV’s “Carter Can” (and Nautica cologne model) – a little damp from the rain but still sporting a varsity smile. A native of Northern Michigan and now residing in Los Angeles, this was Carter’s first time in D.C. Only here for the day, he seemed to shrug off the fact that his only view had been through rain-shower windows. “Washington is a beautiful city. I’m glad to have the chance to give back to a city with so much history,” noting that the neighborhood’s history and beauty is evident even on such a gray day.

(for more, check out the May 2008 edition of East of the River!)

photo by DG-rad