Posts from — July 2008

On the National Park Service website Purple Loosestrife makes the list of the Least Wanted Plants and is classified as an Alien Plant Invader of Natural Areas. Next time you consider buying this plant, English Ivy, or any other weed at Home Depot… please don’t. Please take a moment to consider the above list. The problem is that aggressive non-native plants like Purple Loosestrife thrive in disturbed sites like Kingman Island and disrupt the native ecosystem…basically a wrench in an intricate system that fails to provide anything of value to birds, bugs and other creatures of the area.

Of course there are other plants on Heritage and Kingman Islands (just east of RFK stadium shown below) and on the day that Josh, Lisa and I were there we came across plenty of Poison Ivy Toxicodendron radicans, Silver Maple Acer saccharinum, and Josh’s favorite invasive exotic, Porcelainberry Ampelopsis brevipendunculata (which admittedly does have one of the most beautiful berries I have ever seen).

Since the US Army Corps of Engineers created the islands in 1916 they have been a collection point for the destitute and the dumped. Left to grow largely wild, the result, now open to the public (I think) is a thicket of 100 year old weeds. Perhaps even more impressive and beautiful is the re-establishment of many wetland species along the coasts. The last time I had explored the islands, the mud and geese looked like they might overcome the efforts at regenerating the wetlands. However, beyond my surprise that the islands were open was the view from the footbridge across the Anacostia…

the plants seem to be doing quite well and are reclaiming a fair percentage of land.

Unfortunately the archaic is captured in the opposite view and we are quickly reminded of the very visible hand of destruction. Five fingers, nails stained black from the making of progress.

It is both strange and beautiful to watch a building disappear. Anne Archbold Hall, originally known as Gallinger Hospital Nurses Residence, is fading. The building is part of the now largely abaondoned DC General Hospital in Southeast Washington, and although designated a Historic Landmark in 2006, it is all but forgotten.

The Colonial Revival neoclassical design was constructed in 1932 and added on to in the 1940’s. Anne Archbold Hall was engraved into the limestone entablature in 1952 to honor the benefactor, “an important, local, female philanthopist, a benefactor and compassionate critic of Gallinger Hospital and a contributor to nursing programs and to the nurses’ residence itself.” The Historic Preservation Landmark Designation goes on to note, “Anne Archbold Hall is a site of important to women’s history, as it is very significant as representing the occupation of nursing, one of the few professions widely available to women in the early 20th century and one comprised of nearly all women at the time”

If one goes to look for the building it is there… sometimes. It simply depends on how one searches. On the ground on a sunny summer day it looks like this…

In an aerial photograph it looks like this (highlighted in yellow)…

and on a map it looks like this…

see the big gray area south of RFK stadium and west of the Anacostia. Thats DC General Hospital. It’s roads, entrances, and buildings are missing from the google map.

Walking around the site, unsure of being fenced in or fenced out, trespassing or welcomed feels like something from Cormac McCarthy’s The Road. However, the buildings beauty and strength is undeniable, perhaps highlighted by its overall disrepair and lack of recent human interaction. I want to save this building and find it hard to imagine building new ones when something this beautiful exists.

Kings to come…next stop Kingman Island

exploring the Anacostia 1 here

bumble bees be buzzing around. strolling through the gardens of the boss on a conservative afternoon in the middle of a strange political future. and it seems to me that butter doesn’t fly but certainly enjoys a drink of mountain mint now and again. and the younger of us head to the club where they put leaves in our cocktails (and now its me thats looking backward to Ms. Sullivan drinking leafy concoctions in Venezia).  squint your eyes. Strange how it is snow in the middle of summer. The bees and butterflies love Pycanthemum muticum. Please do touch the leaves… come to our house in Washington DC and crush them between your fingers. Leave more than footsteps and take more than pictures. Pictures are worth only a thousand words, and mountain mint tea is certainly worth more. It will grow in full sun or light shade and especially enjoys the edges of our dwindling woodlands. There is a purity to the green and an ancient to the silver. The plant seems to be at once just born and a century old. The wisdom of my garden is but 3 weeks, but it is rumored that this minty addition will repel mosquitos. Drinks for me and none for them.