St. Elizabeths tour

Today, my mother, sister and I took advantage of the D.C. Preservation League's tour of the St. Elizabeth's grounds. My mom and I grew up in Congress Heights, and my dad grew up in Barry Farm, but none of us have ever really been inside the gates.

The gatehouse, which is under construction.

The original center building

Second story, fourth window from the left, is where poet Ezra Pound lived for years.

You can see clean through the front door to the other side.

They just don't make buildings like this one any more.

Instead, they make buildings like this - the new Coast Guard headquarters. Look at that view.

All of the mentally ill soldiers who died here with no family to claim them were buried on the grounds.

You can see more of the USCG construction from the cemetery.

And then look at this view. This is pointed toward Southwest.

And there, in the background in Northeast, and the Shrine.

We have one of the best views in the city over here.

A home built on the ground for a private, paying patient.

Old greenhouses. They'll be torn down, but replaced with buildings that evoke greenhouses.

I'm pretty interested in seeing how this project turns out, and how it impacts the neighborhood. The tour guy, a gentleman from the GSA, said that just the USCG building will mean 14,000 employees driving to the campus every day; this doesn't even factor in the second and third phases of site redevelopment, which had their funding pulled by the Republican Congress.

But for now, I'm glad they're opening the site up to the public. It's neat to finally see the thing that's taking up all the prime real estate in your neighborhood.