Mt. Pleasant guided walking tour this Saturday, U Street next Saturday

If you'd like to learn about Mt. Pleasant or U Street and enjoy the nice weather, it sounds like these are great options.

Washington Walks, a really cool local group that leads walks around town (they lead the enjoyable Columbia Heights Drinkabout from time to time, where you visit historical places and enjoy some beers at local bars) is doing a MtP walk this Saturday and a U Street walk next Saturday. Here's more from them.

AUGUST 17, 2013

Mount  Pleasant

MEET IN FRONT OF THE CHARTER SCHOOL AT 3047 15TH STREET, NW 

Highlights “Village in a City" Mount Pleasant Heritage Trail

Founded after the Civil War, Mount Pleasant began its identity as a village of influential business people and land owners.  As Washington expanded northeast and northwest of its original boundaries, the quiet village evolved into a fashionable streetcar suburb.  By the 1970s it had become a haven for immigrants and today represents the heart of D.C.’s Latino community.  It is here you can shop in a genuine bodega, dine on Salvadoran specialties or explore the neighborhood farmers’ market on Saturday mornings (where the walk will conclude). You’ll pass Mount Pleasant’s trademark row houses and apartment buildings, its restored public library, and the community’s artistically restored police and fire call boxes.  Also make sure to note the path President Teddy Roosevelt took to skinny-dip in Rock Creek Park.

• All walks begin at 11:00 a.m. and last two hours unless noted.
•  All walks take place rain or shine.
• Cost $15 per person unless noted (age three and younger free)

AUGUST 24, 2013

U Street

MEET OUTSIDE U STREET/CARDOZO METRO STATION’s 13^th Street exit

Explore the neighborhood that was shared by African American intellectuals, business leaders, and families of all economic levels.  The businesses they owned and the houses they lived in are featured on this walk.  U Street was dubbed “Black Broadway” for the numerous movie theaters, nightclubs and ballrooms frequented by jazz musicians like Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey, Jelly Roll Morton, and Duke Ellington himself.  You’ll see a theater and club where these performances took place.  The first full service YMCA for African Americans; one of the few hotels that welcomed a black clientele; and the first memorial to African American soldiers who fought in the U.S. Civil War are on the walk route, as are homes occupied by the Ellington family as Duke grew up.  You'll stand on the corner where riots started that extinguished the heyday of the area--but only temporarily.

Sounds fun! The tour leader for the MtP one, Amy, also led one of the Drinkabouts I was on, and it was a good time.