Breaking Ground at The Hill Center
The Hill Center, which broke ground at a ceremony on Sunday, June 13, and is scheduled to open in July 2011 at the site of the Old Naval Hospital at 9th Street and Pennsylvania Ave SE, will be home to a campus-like facility that will offer residents “lifelong learning and cultural enrichment” opportunities, thus giving back to the community that watched the building go from a stately hospital to a block of urban blight.
The Hill Center groundbreaking, which featured a performance by The United States Navy Band, offered attendees a chance to hear about the building’s history and celebrate its future as a cultural center for the community. The free ice cream and beverages were welcome tokens for coming out into the sweltering heat.
Mayor Adrian Fenty at Hill Center Groundbreaking
Speakers at the event included Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mayor Adrian Fenty, DC Council Chairman Vincent Gray and DC Councilmember Tommy Wells, reminding those in attendance that it’s an election year here in the District.
Also on hand were Rear Admiral Thomas R. Cullison, USN, Rear Admiral Richard R. Jeffries, USMC, and members of the Old Naval Hospital Foundation, including Old Naval Hospital Foundation President, Nicky Cymrot .
“It was a wonderful tribute to the interest the military, political leaders and the Capitol Hill Community has in the Hill Center project,” said Cymrot.
Now that the physical work of creating the Hill Center within the walls of the Old Naval Hospital is underway, The Old Naval Hospital Foundation is focusing on what programs and opportunities the Hill Center will offer the community. Along with offering educational and enrichment programs, the Hill Center will also be home to office and meeting space for local non-profits and a family-friendly café in the carriage house, which is located on the property.
“We are inviting community members to tell us what they would like to see offered at the Hill Center,” says Cymrot.
To share your ideas for the Hill Center, email info@hillcenteronh.org.
Community members came to a belated community meeting called (belatedly) by the ANC when the Hill Center wanted the ANC to endorse their concept drawings for a city Historic Preservation Review Board meeting.
Community members made several wise suggestions: After school classes on food, including healthy snacking, for neighborhood public school kids; classes on how to eat healthy on a food stamps-and-low-income diet; classes on how parents can best help their kids succeed at school.
At a subsequent “community meeting” with the Hill Center, I asked what they’d learned from the previous comments by community members. To a person, all the Hill Center officials drew a blank. They had not listened to, had not heard, had not recorded and would not incorporate the views of the community expressed at the previous meeting.
At the second meeting, it was also interesting to hear a former Council Member, on the Hill Center Board, say there would be no liquor license for the Hill Center, while the Hill Center Board’s Chair, Nicky Cymrot, say, “Oh, yes there will be a liquor license.”
Nobody wants anything but success (and soon!) for the Hill Center, but cutting corners when it comes to rules and regulations will lead to delays and failure, and refusing to listen to the views of the community will lead to a divisive and controversial Hill Center, rather than something all can embrace with enthusiasm.
Hill Center, clean up your act!