As new luxury apartment buildings pop up one after another in the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood, the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and the National Building Museum are reminding their neighbors what the area used to look like. “District II,” the historical society’s follow-up to last winter’s popular “District” exhibition of Chris Earnshaw’s Polaroids from the 1960s and ‘70s, features more of Earnshaw’s photos, plus those of fellow local photographers Bill Barrett and Joseph Mills. The images span from the 1960s through the ‘80s, capturing both the physical and social architecture of the old neighborhood.
Bill Barrett, 800 H St. NW
Barrett, who died in 1997, was a freelance architectural photographer in the 1960s. He documented the landscape for clients like the National Capital Planning Commission and the National Park Service, and was often sent to photograph buildings that were in danger of demolition. The Atlantic Construction & Supply Co. building, seen here, is long gone. In fact, so is the rest of the block. Only one row house is still standing today — the white one next door, which now houses a souvenir shop.
Joseph Mills, ‘Inner City’
While Barrett’s work focuses solely on buildings, Mills’ work looks at people. Mills says he started taking street photographs in the 1980s as a kind of coping mechanism. “I was in a bad state and trying to relate to others like that,” he says. “Mount Vernon Square just happened to be where I could find people I could relate to, people I felt comfortable with, the destitute.” Mills says he would walk the same paths through the neighborhood day after day, each time noticing new places, people and things, training himself to see what others just walked past. “The eye sees better than the mind,” he says. “Sometimes you have to catch up with the eye.”
Chris Earnshaw, 800 block of K Street NW
“Mount Vernon Square was envisioned by [Pierre] L’Enfant as the center of the city, and I was fascinated by the worn character of the neighborhood as a boy,” Earnshaw says. “It was like a magical world for a young child.” Earnshaw particularly loved the variety of people he’d meet in the “so-called shabby neighborhood.” Inspired by Barrett’s photography, Earnshaw wandered the streets from the ‘60s through the ‘80s, chatting with people and snapping photos. This topless go-go joint was across the street from the Carnegie Library, before that side of the block was demolished to make room for office buildings.
National Building Museum, 401 F St. NW; through Feb. 12, $10.
More things to do in D.C. this week
