Dear Friends,

We are hosting another history walking tour through Bloomingdale and around the perimeter of McMillan Park on Sunday, September 23rd. Once again, we are fortunate to have our neighbor and friend Paul Cerruti leading the tour. Paul has compiled a tremendous amount of historical detail about the park and its role in our neighborhood through the years since it was first opened to the public long ago. The event will cover a lot of the information presented in the history walks that we hosted since 2017, each of which was very well attended and enjoyed! The weather likely will be ideal for this informative social outing. 🌞

The tour will showcase McMillan Park, its vistas, unique history, and connection to historic landmarks in the Bloomingdale neighborhood. The first part of the walk will include information and bonus highlights about the history and development of Bloomingdale in the early 1900’s, much of it in anticipation of the opening of McMillan Park.

The walk will last about two hours and will start at the triangular park opposite the Big Bear Café (corner of 1st St. and R St. NW) on Sunday, September 23rd at 9:30am (rain date Sun., Sept. 30th, 9:30am). Light refreshments will be served and a selection of some of our favorite mounted art photos of McMillan Park offered for sale at the end of the tour, as well as some lovely greeting cards of those same photos!

Please register for the tour by sending an email to restoremcmillan@gmail.com or calling Kirby at 202 213-2690. We are limiting the tour group size to 30 people to ensure that all who join can hear easily and participate fully. So please register early to guarantee that you’ll be able to be part of this special day!

Kindly note, a suggested donation of $20 in advance ($25 on the day of the event) will benefit Friends of McMillan Park’s efforts to save this registered national historic landmark. We greatly appreciate your ongoing support! Even if you are unable to join our tour, please consider making a donation to help support these efforts. You can donate via PayPal (see the “Buy Now” button here: www.friendsofmcmillan.org/merchandise), contribute to our Crowdrise campaign (www.crowdrise.com/savemcmillanpark), or pay in person with cash or credit card with FOMP’s Square account on the day of the event. Thank you in advance for your generous contributions!

We hope to see you for the event!

***** McMillan Park News Updates *****

• The DC Court of Appeals overruled the District Government’s plan to
  demolish most of the McMillan site and construct a huge
  development in a decision dated December 8, 2016 (one
  day after the Mayor’s official groundbreaking event for the
  project). The court also remanded a series of questions
  for the DC Zoning Commission and the Mayor’s Agent for
  Historic Preservation to consider; hearings were
  held on those questions in late 2017. In early 2018,
  those two offices issued their final decisions on the
  remand — siding with the District Government once again and affirming
  the development plan. As a result, Friends of McMillan Park is now
  working to bring these decisions — that we
  obviously disagree with — back to the DC Court of
  Appeals for reconsideration. Dates for oral arguments will
  be set in the near future, and the matter will be presented in two
  parts this time: one proceeding focusing on the preservation
  issues, and one on the zoning issues.
• DMPED/DGS/Gilbane Construction Company has
  commenced historic preservation and rehabilitation/
  stabilization work on McMillan Park’s regulator houses and
  sand silos located in the north and south service courts visible along North Capitol Street. We support this work because it is long overdue
  (the site has been a DC Historic District since
  1991), and the District Government is arguably guilty of demolition
  by neglect if it does NOT do this work. No other parts
  of the site are affected by this work. If you see building
  activity on McMillan, that’s what it is, and that’s
  ALL that it is — no demolition or construction going on.
• Effective September 9, 2018, the Bloomingdale neighborhood is a new Historic District, adjacent to but separate fromMcMillan Park Reservoir Historic District. Please see additional details here.

Thank you for your continued interest in and support of historic McMillan Park!

John Salatti, Kirby Vining, and Hugh Youngblood
Board of Directors, Friends of McMillan Park, Inc.

If you have any questions, please contact restoremcmillan@gmail.com or call 202.213.2690.