There was no door knocking for me today.
As this is likely my only free Sunday until after Christmas, I chose to not only go to the Noyes Park Halloween Parade and Party but also to the Greater Brookland Garden Club gathering to discuss prepping the garden for Winter. I joined earlier this year but never had the time to attend. Until today. It was at a house in Woodridge with the most stunning house perched high on a hill and it looked like a villa out of the South of France or Italy. The original owner who built it was a stone mason from Italy. He also created the fountain you see in the main photo. Its hard to see the scale of it but its huge.
From the day I moved to Brookland back in 2004, I’ve always said: “This is one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in all of DC.” It’s wildly diverse in architecture; the gardens are stunning and sometimes when I drive down a street lined with falling leaves in Autumn, I forget I’m in DC because it could look like a little suburb town in another state.
Brookland was a “secret” for a really long time. Back in the early 2000s many people didn’t want to cross over N. Cap into Northeast DC fearing it was “dangerous.” And when I bought my house, I had friends say with wide eyes: “Congratulations(?)” They said it with that weird uptilt to their voice like… they weren’t sure.
I threw a giant backyard party the second year I was here and a few friends said they were nervous to walk to their cars –that were literally across the street. It was funny to me because after they all left, and on most nights, I’d sit on my front porch sipping tea and listening to crickets.
That was 22 years ago and its changed immensely and its harder to hear the crickets at night, but I still love the beauty of this area and the people that are as wild about green space, gardens, and beneficial bugs as I am.
Did you know that homes with gardens here in Brookland have uniquely oversized yards and gardens because the original neighborhood was named and designed by a famous 19th century horticulturist? Brookland is one of the few places in the urban center of DC where single-family houses feature deep, wide setbacks specifically intended to give every resident enough space to maintain a personal garden.
And who wouldn’t want that?
–Elise for ANC5b03