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Capitol Hill If you have questions about the following data or want more information, contact us at 202-965-3715. If you would like to be included in periodic e-mail updates on this or other neighborhoods, send your name and e-mail address to info@hananhomes.com. As of September 30, 2008, 26 single-family homes were for sale in Capitol Hill with 14 homes under contract, two of which were listed over $l million. Twenty-two homes sold in the third quarter of 2008. In the first half of 2008, 57 single-family homes sold in Capitol Hill. In 2007, there were 107 sales, while 134 homes sold in 2006. The average sale price in the first half of 2008 was $753,502. This compares to $616,523 and $787,166 in 2007 and 2006, respectively. The average list price was $780,007 in the first half of 2008, $627,910 in 2007, and $790,477 in 2006. Listed below are the sales by price range. In the third quarter of 2008, 22 homes were sold.
The earliest buildings still remaining on Capitol Hill have the large bays that extended from the ground to the roof. The townhouses built at the turn of the century, particularly in the north and east of the older sections retained the smooth red brick appearance but without the bays and with less ornamentation. Front doors contain a single expansion pan of beveled glass instead of the four paneled doors of the earlier period, and concrete steps replaced those made of iron. By World War I homes had flat fronts, sometimes with roofed porches extending from the front, and rough-surfaced bricks in shades of pale yellow or gray, and red tiled roofs. Many, if not most of the sidewalks, are bricked and numerous houses have meticulously manicured front gardens. The styles of houses on Capitol Hill range from the early Federal to the late 19th Century Queen Anne, Richardsonian Romanesque styles on to Italianate, Second Empire, Romanesque, and Classical Revival. Beginning in the 1970s residences close to the Capitol Building were bought and renovated or refurbished. Prices rose dramatically, but by the end of the decade prices stalled. While there was a brief surge again in the mid 1980s, it was not until the last few years that prices surged again. New townhouses have been built, mostly beyond the traditional boundaries of Capitol Hill. A few have replaced or are refurbished public housing. Condominiums have increased dramatically in the last few years, some of which are renovations of existing buildings such as schools, larger homes, and apartment buildings. Condominium sales in the Capitol Hill area have risen more than 500 percent in the last eight years. Living on Capitol Hill has become so popular over the last several years that the neighborhood's boundaries are almost obliterated as future homeowners seek to move into the area. Capitol Hill offers its residents the Capitol Building, Senate and House Office Buildings, Supreme Court, Library of Congress, and Botanical Gardens on its western side. Inside and out, the buildings project historic significance and grandeur. The Sewall-Belmont House at Maryland and Constitution Avenues is the headquarters of the National Women's Party and is open to the public. The Navy Yard and Marine Barracks also offer interesting exhibits as well as band performances and dress parades during the summer. East Capitol Street, which was noted as the monumental avenue in the L'Enfant plan for the city, offers a number of impressive era homes. Capitol Hill is blessed with several parks. In addition to a children's playground, Lincoln Park along East Capitol Street has two impressive memorials -- the Emancipation Statue of Lincoln freeing a slave and the statue of Mary McCleod Bethune, the founder of the National Council of Negro Women, surrounded by children. Folger Park and Stanton Park are also on Capitol Hill and The National Mall lies directly east of the Capitol Building. Numerous fine restaurants serve Capitol Hill employees and local residents, both on the Senate side to the North and the House side to the South. There are also several shops, particularly on Pennsylvania Avenue. The Eastern Market at 7th and C Streets is the city's last surviving public market with a farmers and craft market on the weekends. The North Capitol Neighborhood Farmers Market is open on Sundays from June to October. Capitol Hill Day School, a private institution, St. Peter's Interparish School, and Hine Junior High, and Brent and Tyler Elementary Public Schools are located in Capitol Hill. There are tennis courts at Garfield Park and Hine Recreation Center and swimming at the William H. Rumsey Aquatic Center. Metro stations are located at Capitol South and Eastern Market and nearby at Union Station and Federal Center Southwest. Annual events held in the Capitol Hill neighborhood are the House and Garden Tour, Market Day, and Oktoberfest. Capitol Hill has always been a favorite neighborhood of families and singles and in 2005 was named by Washingtonian magazine as one of the top spots for singles. King Charles I issued a charter for the colony of Maryland to Celius Calvert, the Second Lord Baltimore, in June 1632. Over the next 40 years Lord Baltimore granted land of 50 to 20,000 acres to whomever ventured to Maryland. One of those adventurers was George Thompson, who was granted 1,800 acres in 1663. He sold his property to Thomas Notley for 40,000 pounds of tobacco. In 1794, Charles Carroll and Notley Young inherited the estate. The land, 26 years later, was chosen as the site for the US Capitol Building and the Navy Yard. The Capitol was to sit on Jenkins Hill or Jenkins Heights as it was called. Notley Young built barracks for the white laborers constructing the Capitol. Shanties housed slave workers rented by their owners. Master craftsmen lived in two-story frame buildings. Another Carroll named Daniel built the area's first mansion, called Duddington. L'Enfant discovered that part of the Georgian mansion stood where his proposed New Jersey Avenue was to cross and ordered it removed. Carroll refused, and L'Enfant had the building razed. L'Enfant was subsequently fired, and Carroll rebuilt in a close-by location. Thomas Law, who married one of George Washington's step-granddaughters, and William Mayne Duncanson, both men who made fortunes in the East Indian trade and were looking to develop a Washington trade to East India, also built mansions on Capitol Hill. Law built at least 10 buildings. Duncanson's mansion, the Maples, is today's Friendship House. In 1799 the Navy Yard became a major employer for blacks and immigrants. When President Jefferson located the Marine Barracks near the Navy Yard, Italian musicians were brought over to be in the President's Own Band. Just into the 19th century, houses, shops, farmers markets, and churches flourished, particularly near the Navy Yard. In 1814, the British looted the Capitol, camped on its grounds, and set the Navy Yard and ships being built at the Yard on fire. Residents, angered by the lack of protection, looted the remainder of the Navy Yard. Because there was talk of moving the Capitol from Washington, Daniel Carroll, Thomas Law and several other prominent citizens erected a large brick building where the Supreme Court now sits for Congress to work until they could return to the Capitol Building in 1819. Until the Civil War, the area's population grew but much of the land remained undeveloped. White and black Americans and German, Irish and Southern Europeans came to help with the Capitol's expansion. Among the new immigrants were the parents of John Philip Sousa. The Civil War brought prosperity to the Hill. Stephen Flanagan, a tugboat manufacturer, built Philadelphia Row, 16 flat-fronted rowhouses with machine-made pressed bricks. In the early 1870s, Eastern Market, a new market designed by Adolph Cluss, was opened between the Capitol and the Navy Yard. By the turn of the century, the surrounding lots were filled. New buildings were mainly two- or three-story single family dwellings for the middle class government workers. From 1875 until 1895, Charles Gessford from Maryland, was the most prolific builder on Capitol Hill, using a formula of squared bays the full height of the building, and red pressed brick with stone, and, for more expensive homes, adding stained glass windows and slate roofs. Like other parts of the city, growth slowed during the 1893 depression. From the turn of the century through World War II, the neighborhood population exploded. While several buildings were razed to make room for the Library of Congress, Supreme Court, and House and Senate Office buildings, the majority of the late 18th and early 19th Century buildings remained unchanged for years. When the Navy Yard stopped manufacturing weapons after World War II and with the displacements caused by the Southwest Urban Renewal project (see history of Southwest), the neighborhood demographics changed. In 1976 an historic district was designated on Capitol Hill. Today many of the professionals working on the Hill call Capitol Hill their home.
NEIGHBORHOOD BOUNDARIES (Capitol Hill is a legal neighborhood, but its boundaries have extended beyond what the city has defined as its borders as described below.)
Old City Capitol
Hill Neighborhood Association
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