Big Plans for D.C.'s Armed Forces Retirement Home

ROCK CREEK CHURCH ROAD to the east of Petworth is one of the District's more beautiful, but quiet, thoroughfares. On one side are blocks of rowhouses, on the other is the aging fence that rings one of the city's largest open spaces. The Armed Forces Retirement Home sits on a 272-acre site to the north of the Washington Hospital Center and to the west of North Capitol Street — and for the most part, it's closed to the general public.

While some planners dream of creating a "Central Park" for the District — tying together the Armed Forces home property, Fort Totten Park and the McMillan Reservoir and abandoned sand filtration plant — a new draft final master plan for the property released this month calls for the introduction of some mixed-use development to the hilly, shaded space where President Abraham Lincoln escaped the downtown heat in 1862 to pen the Emancipation Proclamation.

Part of the reason: Money. The cash-strapped Armed Forces home sold off 46 acres of its land to the Catholic University of America in 2004 for $22 million — and officials are looking to a similar land sale to ensure its financial survival. Although the home is overseen by the Defense Department, it does not receive taxpayer dollars, just "50-cent-a-week paycheck deductions from enlisted military personnel," The Post's Petula Dvorak reported in 2005.

So, parcels of the home's land are slated for redevelopment. The draft final master plan calls for areas at the edge of the property, along its Park Place border with the Park View neighborhood east of Columbia Heights and its southeastern quadrant, pictured at left, adjacent to the cloverleaf interchange between North Capitol and Irving streets near the Washington Hospital Center and Catholic University.

One area of development, near Park Place and Rock Creek Church Road would be zoned for lower-density residential construction. A smaller redevelopment zone (outlined in red at right), at Park Place and Kenyon Street NW, would have a mix of residential, office or institutional use. The largest section slated for redevelopment, the southeastern quadrant, would host a bigger mix of residential, office, retail and, perhaps, a hotel or educational facility.

The changes would prompt a realignment of the property's long-standing walls and fences. Says the report:

A number of historic entrances will be reopened for vehicular traffic and a limited number of pedestrian openings may cut into the historic perimeter elements to facilitate access from the adjacent neighborhood to parks and other amenities. Historic gatehouses and entrance gates should be rehabilitated when possible.

Historic vistas from the retirement home, which sits on Washington's third-highest point, would be preserved as well. The plan calls for much of the site's recognizable bucolic pastures to be preserved, although, as you can tell from the photo rendering below, the transition between open space and new construction could be somewhat abrupt.

Change will not, however, be coming to the Lincoln Cottage. The former president's summer refuge was recognized as a national monument in 2000 and has been restored to its 1860s appearance. The historic site, which is operated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, will open for public tours on Feb. 18.

This draft final master plan is by no means final. A public commenting period comes to an end on Dec. 3. With so many big ideas for such a large site, expect that this development discussion will continue to unfold for months.

» "President Lincoln's Cottage at the Soldiers Home" [Official Site]
» "Protecting a Promise, Renewing the Trust" [AFRH]
» "A Presidential Sanctuary: Restored Lincoln’s Cottage Tells Story of the Emancipation Proclamation" [AIArchitect This Week]

» EARLIER: "Growth Fight Invades Soldiers' Refuge" [WaPo]

Photo by Gerald Martineau/The Washington Post; renderings courtesy Armed Forces Retirement Home

Posted By Michael Grass at 2:19 PM on November 21, 2007 Tagged in Architecture , Brookland , Free Ride , Georgia Ave.-Petworth , News , Planning , Real Estate , The District

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