Choosing Where to Live in Washington, DC
Leigh, a lawyer in DC, felt that she had never really chosen the housing in which she lived. She and her husband resided in Crystal City, Virginia during their first years of marriage. Following a sabbatical in India, however, they decided to leave behind the inner suburb she never found compelling and purchase a townhouse in DC’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood. They have lived there since April 2017.
In this interview, Leigh discusses why they decided to move into the heart of the city; what they searched for in a home; and how ownership impacts how she feels about her space and her neighbors. She discusses how a home can be an investment but also something one can choose, cherish and enjoy.
How did you decide to move from Crystal City, Virginia to DC?
After we were married, I moved in with my husband who lived in Crystal City, a suburb of DC located in Arlington, Virginia. The area was cheap at the time, which was great when I had student loans, and we stayed there for four years. But I have never felt so uncompelled by a place or so uninterested in walking in a place as I did in Crystal City. It was perfectly safe, but yet there was no appeal either. It’s a disorienting space, bland tall office buildings and apartment buildings, in a flat concrete landscape; near the Potomac River, yet the river is scarcely visible by foot. It also felt unsettled, because I didn’t feel any connection to where I lived other than that it was where I slept. Admittedly, I’d only spent a year of my life previously living in suburbs, so for me they were not a familiar way to live.
We subsequently moved to two cities in India for a year and a half. When we returned, we moved into a rental in the Shaw neighborhood of DC. That was happenstance: a friend who owned the rowhome we lived in put it on the rental market just before we returned to DC, so we signed the lease from Delhi. Living in Shaw really sold both of us on living in the city. I had a mile-long walk to work, which was a lovely way to arrive at the office. We could walk to restaurants for dinner or to the movie theater. And more of our friends are in the city or moving into it.
What did you want in a location once you began looking to buy in DC?
We wanted a walkable neighborhood that was not only residential, but also had access by foot to groceries, hardware stores, and cafes. I had really liked the pedestrian pattern of living in other neighborhoods I’d enjoyed: Hyde Park, Chicago, for university (where the neighborhood had everything one needed, except socks), and in Bangalore and Delhi (where our neighborhoods were better equipped than Hyde Park, but Hyde Park had better bookstores).
We looked at some places a mile or two further north in DC, where it becomes much more residential, with detached homes. I’m really glad those places did not work out — we were afraid of the repair work on some — because these neighborhoods are a mile or two from a grocery store, dry cleaner or coffee shop.
We did, however, want a quiet street, where we could sleep with the windows open in nice weather. I also did not want to live in a neighborhood that was a destination for nightlife: I’d rather visit exciting places than live among them.
We are also both runners and wanted a place that would be good for that. We thought about trying to stay near the Mall, but we ended up next to Rock Creek Park, which is an urban national park with miles of trails, and lots of practice with hills.
What did you want in a house once you began shopping?
I wanted to like the aesthetics of the place in which I lived. I had a list of housing styles I did and didn’t like. Colonials, Georgians, and saltbox homes were out — entirely flat fronts are not my thing. For a long time, we only looked at single-family detached homes, but these kept involving more extensive repairs, further distances to the metro, and longer commutes. Finding a neighborhood we really liked was also quite important, because when your house is small, a good neighborhood becomes your extended space.
I’m also interested in vernacular architecture and adaptations of housing styles to the environment. Many homes and apartment buildings in the cities in India where we lived are built with an emphasis on balconies and porches. Balconies shade the rooms below, insulating them from the sun’s heat, and provide protection from water when it’s raining. Balconies and porches also provide semi-private outdoor space, above the level of the street. Also, in Louisiana, where I’m from, nearly every historical tour of an old building discusses the question of how the space was rendered habitable without modern air-conditioning. Spanish moss insulation, apparently. Ultimately, though, I feel I didn’t see any homes that were either particularly suited or particularly ill-suited for the environment. Instead, what I noticed was that certain neighborhoods felt like they experienced the urban heat island effect more than others.
I also wanted a wood burning fireplace, which we got, and space for an apple tree, which we didn’t. You really need to plant two trees to have an apple tree for fertilization. We have a patio with about 15–20 square feet of garden beds lining its sides. I’d really like a yard — and I’d love a dog — but I can get either a yard or a bad commute or else somehow get money that I don’t have. But, we do have enough outdoor space to sit outside, and (if we can avoid smoking out our upstairs neighbor) make pizza in a portable wood-fired oven.
Tell me about the home you bought.
We’re in a condo-townhouse complex at the very northern tip of Mount Pleasant across from Rock Creek Park. It’s a bit of a hidden location, which is nice because it makes it quieter. I’m in a local book club with people I met through Nextdoor, and when I hosted a meeting, some members said, “I’ve lived in this neighborhood for twenty years and had no idea your house was here.”
The complex was built in 1982, which is nice because there’s no lead paint or asbestos. That was certainly a concern as we looked at other places in need of repair. There are twelve buildings in the complex with three-story townhouses (including a basement) on the bottom level, and condos with one-and-a-half floors on top of them. We live in a townhouse, which feels like a house, until we hear footsteps upstairs, at which point it feels like an apartment. The buildings are red brick with balconies and arched windows.
The complex is U-shaped. This section of Mount Pleasant had gone undeveloped for decades because of its steep slope, and the buildings wrap slightly to accommodate the curve of the street and the terrain. Keeping with the hidden feeling, our front door is not on the street, but instead from the interior of the U.
When you enter our townhouse, there is a kitchen, dining area, living area and then, at the last, double doors leading to the porch. The patio is about six feet above the street even though the door you entered from is within a sunken entrance. We have two bedrooms upstairs, including a master with two closets. The lower level has a utility space, laundry room, and space that can function as a studio apartment.
The elevation of the patio, and the entire street-facing portion of the house, gives us an elevated view out, like from the bow of a ship, while providing privacy, as passers-by on the sidewalk are below eye-level for the patio.
How does Rock Creek Park become an extension of your lived environment?
My seat at the table looks through the patio windows to the park. My view is trees. Especially in good weather, we get great breezes off the park and hear the birds. So even when we’re just at home, it’s framed through the park.
Nature changes the feeling of being in the city. I can run for a mile in stretches of Rock Creek Park without seeing another person. I’m in the city, and yet I finally have solitude. It’s just lovely. If you concentrate, you can hear the roar of cars in the distance. But you can’t hear any specifics. The loudest sounds are squirrels crashing through the undercover. I’ve seen an owl, herons, deer, ducks. It’s really lovely to feel like I’m no longer in the city several times a week.
What is the Mount Pleasant neighborhood like?
We moved from the zip code RentCafe marked as the second-most gentrifying zip code in the nation to the 18th most. So I can try to answer historically without knowing the future.
The neighborhood is a registered historic district, though in DC, it’s relatively easy to get a neighborhood registered as such. Two coffee shops have opened since we moved; none were open at the time we moved in. The neighborhood is changing from a place characterized by pupuserias, taquerias, and dive bars to one with higher-end establishments as well. The neighborhood is predominantly row houses, most set back from the street with small lawns, and tall shade trees cover the area more extensively than is typical in neighborhoods of row houses in DC.
Gentrification is a huge issue. Mount Pleasant has historically received immigrants from the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc, then from El Salvador and Central America. Now we’re just west of one of the most successful commercial redevelopments in the city, and rents and prices are rising for residents and for local stores.
How does living in Mount Pleasant affect your view of DC?
I work downtown, in the federal city, which is what people imagine when they think of DC. It’s the area that L’Enfant designed. But I live in the part of DC that was once Washington County, north of the federal city, on the other side of the road once named Boundary Road. I commute the three miles between the two by bus — above ground, rather than the subterranean metro — which leaves me feeling more connected to the places in between home and work than when I previously had a blind commute by metro. I also appreciate that when I arrive in Mount Pleasant, the layout shifts. The grid of streets is shifted about 15 degrees off of the strict north-south orientation of much of the city, and some streets deviate further to follow the contours of the land, since the area is hilly. It’s a difference that makes arriving home feel like I’ve reached a distinctive place.
Do you feel known by other people in your neighborhood?
I would like to feel that I know or recognize more people — or even that I just ran into some of the same people repeatedly. That said, there are about 10,000 people in my neighborhood, so it is harder to be recognized.
I was really surprised about two months ago, however, when I went to a neighborhood taqueria and the women there asked if I walked by a certain street in the morning. She recognized me from when I used to walk to the Metro to commute to my former job. I like the fact that I’m known by sight at my taqueria and that I am finding places where I know people by sight. I recognize other joggers, for example.
When we lived in Bangalore, the people who ran small shops, like the guy who had a stand selling breakfast foods, would often run accounts for their frequent customers so that they didn’t have to keep paying 15 or 20 rupees every time they came. They kept track of these accounts in their heads. That sense of being recognized and known is part of their customer service as well as how they just operate their business. It’s nice knowing when you walk into a place that you’re recognized. But it also works because that breakfast shop is run by one person. For obvious reasons, we don’t quite have that in the US.
How do you meet and interact with neighbors?
One of the ways we have met neighbors is through the nonprofit Casey Trees. A group of the neighbors organized a team of people to get trained by them to remove invasive species in the area. But I wish I knew more about our neighbors. I enjoy the neighbors in our condo whom I’ve met. I’ve heard of some neighborhoods that do (or did, you know, 30 years ago) things like progressive dinners with neighbors. I’d sign up in a heartbeat to do that here, but I don’t know that it’s happening.
Most of our friends are from elsewhere — we moved here less than a year ago. Right now I have acquaintances but not friends in the neighborhood.
How does owning a home impact you psychologically?
This is the first time in my housing experience where I actually feel like I really got to choose where I live. It’s the first place I’ve lived in where I had a degree of choice beyond concluding the location and the price were adequate.
When we lived in Crystal City, that was a neighborhood my husband had already chosen. When we lived in Bangalore, our colleagues took us to our flat on the night we arrived and told us this was where we’d be living (and we appreciated their taste). When we lived in Delhi, we took the first place we could afford that would take a six-month lease. My apartments in college and law school were all the first place found. Aesthetically, this is also the first place I’ve liked since an apartment I shared with friends during law school.
The other thing I like about being in my own house is the feeling that I’m living in a space I can change. It’s a responsibility, but also a tactile joy. I also have dreams of installing a built-in bookshelf in the living room.
How does the fact that you consider your house an investment impact the extent to which you feel it is also a home?
This is the first place where I have lived that I have really chosen. Investments can be simply practical, but they can also be something you choose. For me, because of the longer time horizon of owning versus renting, it feels more like a home.
Buying a house is a significant financial decision. I almost backed out of it, because I was afraid of having subterranean spaces. I am from Louisiana, where we don’t have basements because they would flood. So there was a level of fear about whether I was making a choice that would hobble or hurt me financially. But I think a house is also just something you can value, cherish and enjoy.
I’m rooting for Amazon HQ to come to DC, both because it would do great things for the value of my investment and because I’m interested in seeing the breadth of jobs and cultural ecosystem of DC expand beyond the current government focus.
How does the transparency of real estate prices in the age of housing websites impact your relationships with neighbors?
Living in a condo townhouse complex, I’ve discussed prices a little bit with my neighbors, and everyone knows or can know what the comps are for my house. It’s actually a really relevant data point since the townhouses are similar.
I would say that I’m very cognizant that I could not afford to move to many other places in my neighborhood.
You learned a lot about the history of your house and neighborhood. Why did it matter to you to learn this history?
I think it goes back to the fact that this is the first time I’ve really chosen where to live. I made this decision, and I wanted to know what I’d chosen.
I was really excited, when I got the condo documents as part of closing, to learn the name of the architect: Jesse Weinstein. I then started researching to figure out what else he had been involved in. It turns out Jesse had partnered with several other architects over the decades who were responsible for some of my favorite buildings, and his daughter, Amy Weinstein, is a notable architect who did the redevelopment of Eastern Market. But I’m also just interested in architecture in general.
I also researched the history of the neighborhood because it’s just what I do. If I can, I find a good historical or architectural (or street food) walking tour when I travel. I wanted to feel that I could do the same for the neighborhood in which I live, but it’s still a work in progress. As the sociologist Andrew Abbott contended in his Aims of Education address for the University of Chicago in 2002, education and knowledge increase your enjoyment of the things you experience.
And, finally, this research seems to be part of being a responsible community member, and respectful of those who lived here before me and with me here now.
Interview conducted March 17, 2018. Interview has been edited for clarity, privacy and brevity. Leigh is a pseudonym to protect privacy.
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