Burn, Baby, Burn - 1968
The 13th and D NE Safeway, a local institution, came to an abrupt end during the 1968 riots. The store's contents were looted and the building was burned and damaged beyond repair. Hechinger's operated a giant lumberyard a few blocks away at Maryland, 15th and Benning Road, and in the 1970s the local Safeway moved next door to it where it remains to this day.
Old School Style - 1968 to mid 90's
Meanwhile, Kingsman Elementary School, site of present-day Options Public Charter School, continued to educate neighborhood children. The adjoining property remaining after removal of the damaged commercial buildings and parking lot became known as Kingsman Field.
Kingsman Elementary School closed around 1993 and gradually fell into disrepair, suffering extensive vandalism and neglect. While minimal maintenance was performed on the building itself, the grounds and by extension Kingsman Field were mowed and cleaned periodically by DCPS. As time went by, community members interested in using some part of the Field for recreation began to clear areas for leisure activities.
Urban Campouts and Sports on the Hill - mid 90's to early 2000's
In the mid 1990s the North Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association (NLPNA) began to organize annual overnight "Urban Campouts" on the Field for area children under the watchful eyes of neighbors, MPD and US Marines stationed at the 8th Street SE Barracks. As younger families with children began returning to the area, Sports on the Hill organized children's baseball and soccer leagues using the Field as its home location. Neighborhood children, youth and adults used the old basketball courts for unofficial-yet enthusiastic-basketball games. Residents and parents mowed and cleaned the Field as needed. And, throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, Kingsman Field also began to host a growing number of dogs whose owners took advantage of the fencing to let their dogs play and exercise off-leash.
Neighbors Fight to Save Kingsman Field From Developers - early 2000's
The Kingsman School facility went on the market in the early 2000s as DCPS sought to liquidate unused properties. A business school, moderate-income housing, and an outpost for Children's Hospital were proposed. Meanwhile, NLPNA spearheaded a grassroots initiative to separate the actual school property from the ambiguously titled Field so that the community could continue to enjoy the use of an open green space for organized and casual recreation.
Options Public Charter School's bid won out over commercial and mixed-use proposals. Working closely with District government and Councilwoman Ambrose's office, the Field was officially declared separate and distinct from the school property. Sports on the Hill and Councilwoman Ambrose's office also attempted to close the southern end of the dead-end alley parallel to 13th Street and to have that parcel and an identical one from Pepco's property incorporated into the Field. Unfortunately, that effort came to a standstill and the land transfer was never finalized.
Control of Kingsman Field passed to DPR by 2002 and a design for renovation was presented to the community for input. In 2003 Kingsman Field closed completely for a renovation lasting about nine months but enthusiastic dog owners continued to exercise their dogs off-leash at Kingsman during early morning and late-afternoon hours. Dog owners helped keep a watch for suspicious activity in the area and several dedicated dog owners swept the Field of litter at dawn every morning-making it a safer and more enjoyable space for children, adults and dogs.
No Dogs Allowed - It's the Law! - 2004 to 2007
The renovation of Kingsman Field replaced fences, installed underground sprinklers and a water fountain, added benches around the perimeter, performed slight re-grading of the land, and laid new sod. After a re-opening in May 2004, Kingsman Field quickly reverted to being maintained by the various groups of citizens who used its new but minimally changed amenities. NLPNA worked with Trees for Capitol Hill to bring two planting waves of disease-resistant Zelkova trees around the Field. Sports on the Hill worked with local residents to plant some spring bulbs along the D Street fence as well as three climbing roses and a few dwarf Nandinas and some perennials in the alley along the Field's fence near to the D Street baseball diamond. Generous neighbors tended the new plantings and provided regular waterings to help everything to thrive.
In 2005, the westernmost portion of the Field was closed for over a year, despite heavy use by Sports on the Hill peewee leagues, to be used as construction staging for an adjacent condo development. After its reopening in 2007, Sports on the Hill began to use the Field again -but dog owners had already been chased off by a small but aggressive group of diligent anti-dog neighbors. As a result, dog owners no longer kept the Field clean and unsavory activities returned to the Field. On any given day local children heading to the basketball court had to navigate a maze of trash, pipes and syringes, and groups of local card sharks gambling (or engaging in other nefarious activities) in secluded corners while graffiti and a pervasive atmosphere of neglect clouded this formerly cheerful and active community gathering place.
Release the Hounds - 2008
In 2007, after years of organizing by DC dog owners, the District promulgated revised regulations allowing for legal, enclosed, off-leash dog parks in the city. Bill Schultheiss, ANC 6A-06 Commissioner, often speaks of being inspired to run for ANC Commissioner based on his frustrating experiences pushing back against the dog ban at Kingsman Field. In late 2007, Bill contacted area residents whom he knew to be proponents of a legal dog park at Kingsman, including Rebecca Borden, an enthusiastic dog park proponent, and Melynda Majors, a decade-long resident he used to encounter on the Field daily when he was exercising his vivacious Rottie Veda while she was letting her ancient basset hound, Agnes Marie, enjoy her daily sniff of the perimeter of Kingsman Field. (Sadly, both are now in doggie heaven.)
Bill asked Rebecca and Melynda to spearhead an effort to develop a proposal to DPR for establishing a legal dog park at Kingsman Field and both jumped at the effort. Using Bill's email list with several dozen members which had been nominally established in 2003 by area dog owners, Rebecca and Melynda developed and began to circulate a petition in support of the dog park. Over the next few months they eventually built an inclusive and well-organized neighborhood advocacy group-Hill Hounds-bringing together a nine-member steering committee and increasing the group's membership of dog-loving Hill residents from fewer than 40 in Fall 2007 to more than 300 by Spring 2009.
Throughout the spring of 2008, Hill Hounds worked to articulate the clear need for a dog park and turned the frustration of people who had been chased (literally!) out of the Field to massive community support for a dog park at Kingsman Field. Hill Hounds came together with three design proposals for a dog park at the Field supported by over 1,000 petition signatures. The proposal was submitted to DCDPR in April of 2008 and city approval was granted in late August 2008 for a dog park on the asphalt area adjacent to Kingsman Field.
Hill Hounds has been approved as a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and it is negotiating final dog park details with DPR. We are actively raising funds to augment DPR's initial baseline building costs in order to provide extra amenities for the Kingsman Field dog park such as benches, water fountains and waste stations. We are hopeful that the planning process will be completed by 2009, with our new, legal, official Kingman Field Dog Park to open hopefully in 2009 or 2010-thus bringing Kingsman Field full circle, from neighborhood gathering spot to dirty, depressing, neglected eyesore back to upbeat neighborhood gathering place. We hope to see you there!