After being boarded up for years, the government-owned Chesapeake House at the southwest corner of Fort Reno Park is undergoing renovations expected to wrap up in 2020. One of the few vestiges of the predominantly African American neighborhood that sprang up around Fort Reno after the Civil War, the building dates to 1937 — around the time most of the Reno City neighborhood was being purchased by the government for demolition. Developer Urban Investment Partners agreed in 2017 to fund the restoration as part of a community benefits package for its nearby mixed-use project. (Photo by Chris Kain)

With renovations on tap for boarded-up building at Fort Reno Park, community explores uses for vestige of a demolished neighborhood

By James Marshall On Sep 19, 2019 Last updated Sep 27, 2019

Renovations to the boarded-up Chesapeake House — a historic but empty building in the southwest corner of Tenleytown’s Fort Reno Park — should be completed by 2020, National Park Service officials told community members at a recent meeting about the park’s future.

The Sept. 7 meeting explored a number of possible uses for the two-story brick building: a Park Service welcome center; a museum devoted to local history; a community center; or maybe some combination thereof. While the Park Service owns the Chesapeake House — which it acquired from the District of Columbia in 2010 — real estate developer Urban Investment Partners agreed to fund its restoration as a part of the community benefits package associated with the firm’s development of a mixed-use apartment building nearby at 4620-4624 Wisconsin Ave. NW.

As of June 2018, plants had completely hidden the building’s Chesapeake Street facade. (Photo by Chris Kain)

The house has not had a tenant since the 1990s and remained vacant after the Park Service acquired it because of lack of funding, an agency official said.

Ward 3 DC Council member Mary Cheh, who attended the meeting, said the Chesapeake House could be used to highlight the rich local and Civil War history of Fort Reno. But opening the property to the public is her most pressing priority.

“I want it to be open and available for public use,” Cheh said. “It’s been sitting there [and] it’s kind of an eyesore.”

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3E (Tenleytown, American University Park and Friendship Heights) arranged the financial contribution of Urban Investment Partners during the 2017 approval process for its Wisconsin Avenue project. In his Zoning Commission testimony, ANC 3E chair Jonathan Bender pointed to previous failed attempts to rehabilitate the building, stating: “The National Park Service has a massive maintenance backlog, and they’ve made clear that absent external funds, the building would remain a vacant shell.”

Now, the National Park Service and ANC 3E are working with community members to narrow down a proposal for the site. Rock Creek Park superintendent Julia Washburn said two ideas have gained the most support: an event space for the arts and public meetings is one of them; a Fort Reno history museum about Washington’s Civil War defenses and Reno City, a predominantly African American settlement around Fort Reno following the war, is the other.

Fort Reno was among the 68 forts defending Washington by the end of the Civil War. While Union forces never had to fend off a direct attack from Confederates at Fort Reno, the site played a pivotal supporting role in the 1864 Battle of Fort Stevens, east of today’s Rock Creek Park in the Brightwood neighborhood.

Fort Reno was strategically built upon Washington’s highest point, offering vast views of the region. In July 1864, scouts at the fort spotted Confederate troops approaching Washington from Rockville, Maryland, and warned the Union troops at Fort Stevens. President Abraham Lincoln was present for the Union’s winning effort at the two-day Battle of Fort Stevens, the only Civil War battle to take place in the District.

Some community members at the meeting, which took place at Woodrow Wilson High School, noted that the Civil War history of Fort Reno is more widely known than Reno City’s history. A Wilson High student coalition — which envisions Chesapeake House serving as a community center and educational resource for the school — is pushing for a greater emphasis on the African American settlement.

“There’s a lot of history around [Chesapeake House] with gentrification and Reno City,” said Wilson junior Luke Widenhouse, a member of the Coalition for Chesapeake Community Center. “It’s important that we also recognize that, which I think is one of our primary goals with Chesapeake Community Center … to actually be able to understand the history of Fort Reno, both good and bad.”

Following the Civil War, Reno City developed as a rural community of land-owning African Americans at the present-day site of Fort Reno Park. Neil Flanagan, who is writing a book about the history of the Reno community, said that type of settlement was rare during Reconstruction.

A view from across 41st Street NW shows the second-story porch on what was originally a residential building. The federal government bought it in 1950 as part of its push to transform Reno City into a park; the DC government later shared ownership for several decades and used the building as a youth center and ANC office into the 1990s. (Photo by Chris Kain)

Reno City was a thriving neighborhood until the 1920s and ’30s when developers and government officials devised a plan to expel its residents in order to build a park on the land, Flanagan wrote in a 2017 Washington City Paper article. While most of the Reno City buildings were demolished, Chesapeake House — built in 1937 at the corner of 41st and Chesapeake streets NW — slipped through the cracks.

“Despite the brain trust of brilliant planners who were on the planning board that took Reno, they accidentally overlooked a building permit. That was the Chesapeake House,” Flanagan said with tongue in cheek. “They meant to freeze all building permits on the land.”

Chesapeake House initially served as a private residence, with the first floor rented out to a plumbing business, according to the Park Service. The federal government bought the house in 1950 as a part of its continued push to transform Reno City into a park.

The District of Columbia and the Park Service shared ownership of the lot starting in 1973. Three years later, the Chesapeake House started a two-decade period of hosting meetings for community groups including ANC 3E, the Northwest Youth Alliance and Neighborhood Planning Councils 2 and 3, which were the hyperlocal government bodies that first organized the summertime Fort Reno concert series, featuring indie and punk bands.

Local musician and producer Ian MacKaye recalled the building serving as a youth center in the 1970s, when he was a student at Wilson and worked for the neighborhood planning councils.

“Mostly for the Wilson kids, it was a big hangout,” said MacKaye, who went on to front the DC punk bands Minor Threat and Fugazi.

Discussions on the future of Chesapeake House, according to ANC 3E member Tom Quinn, will continue through the fall at the commission’s meetings, which take place on the second Thursday of each month. Park Service officials said they would also continue to solicit public input on the topic.

For Marc Minsker, an English teacher at Wilson High School who serves as the faculty adviser for the Coalition for Chesapeake Community Center, preserving the history of Reno City and re-establishing the Chesapeake House as a youth center remain priorities.

“It already existed as a community center,” Minsker said. “I would love to see that happen again.”