Freshman on The Hill

photo by María Helena Carey

When my family and I arrived in Capitol Hill, Mary Donovan was the first person we met. Mary has lived on the Hill for thirty years. For her, moving to the neighborhood back in ’79 made sense– she and her husband wanted to be in the city and cut down on commuting. Some of her friends had settled in the neighborhood a few years earlier, so when she moved, she saw herself as a newcomer to the Hill, although one could say she was truly a pioneer in reclaiming one of the city’s oldest and most historic neighborhoods.

While visiting around the area, she fell in love with a wide Victorian boasting a large front lawn– perfect for her two small children. However, not everyone thought that this was such a good idea: “No one could believe I was moving in [to the Hill] with two small kids!” Despite the fact that a lovely, well-appointed home could be obtained for around $24,000 back then –more affordable than Philadelphia or Chicago– most people steered clear. As Mary put it, “Here we were, thirteen blocks from the Capitol, in a beautiful neighborhood, and no one was moving in!”

Thirty years later, living in DC with two young children and a husband who wants to avoid the commute, my experience is in some ways similar and yet completely different from Mary’s. For us, falling in love with a child-friendly and lower-crime neighborhood with its quaint porches and Victorian spires was easy: the moment we started walking around the neighborhood we knew we wanted to call it home. The area was mostly safe and the people we saw walking down the streets were for the most part young families with children.

For Mary, it was the community that kept her going. Between volunteering and fundraising for schools, she found that what was important was finding people who needed each other. Together, they created a core group that, beyond race, could come together and work toward making better schools and looking out for each other. The community lost out when parents, nervous about the school situation, decided to leave the Hill.

For us, schools loom large over our horizon. While it is true that the Cluster Schools that Mary’s generation fought hard to establish are excellent, it is no less true that entering the program involves large amounts of luck. There are more and more families with children moving into the Hill, and not everyone is willing to let luck dictate whether their child will attend the public schools that have a caring community behind them or not. So, the cycle goes on: thirty years after Mary first arrived, some people are still fleeing the Hill as soon as their children hit school age, while the ones who stay are those committed to continue the hard work of making their schools better, one grade at a time.