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| | | Hill Center continues raising renovation funds | | January 18, 2010 | | | | The Hill Center is now closer to its goal of renovating the historic Old Naval Hospital on Pennsylvania Avenue SE as a community center. The center recently won a $150,000 grant from “Save America’s Treasures,” a partnership of federal cultural agencies.
The renovation is expected to cost up to $10 million. The city has committed half the funds, and the Capitol Hill Community Foundation donated $250,000. Organizers are planning a major fundraising effort and are “looking for interested individuals and businesses to underwrite this project,” according a release from the center.
“The project will reanimate the now-dormant building with venues for learning and the arts, meeting rooms for Hill functions, and office space for local non-profit groups,” the release adds.
The building opened in 1866 and served as a Civil War-era hospital, hospital training center, and a home for elderly military personnel. It also served as headquarters for the effort to establish the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday.
The building also has been used as a home for arts groups and social service agencies. Its carriage house still houses offices for the Community Action Group’s counseling services, though the main building has been mostly vacant for over a decade.
Organizers want to start the renovation early this year, but controversy continues over the movement of the Community Action Group out of the carriage house. The city still owns the property, and Mayor Adrian Fenty has said the group will not have to move until the city finds new space for it.
The city awarded the Hill Center the right to develop it in 2007. | | | | | Log in to comment on this article |
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