A HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT BETWEEN DC'S CAPITOL HILL AND ANACOSTIA, ONCE CALLED 'EAST WASHINGTON HEIGHTS'

The gentlemen of 'East Washington Heights', had big plans for the land between the Hill and Anacostia. [Photo from PennAveEast.com]

If I had a nickel for every time someone in the blogosphere outright dismissed the authenticity of this blog's title, Capicostia, ..or asked me what the hell it pointed to in Washington, D.C. - well, I wouldn't be publishing an obscure blog on a Friday night, let me tell you...

Ha.

In the 1980s, at Jefferson Junior High School in DC's Southwest Waterfront District, ..if your East-of-the-Anacostia-River home's close proximity to the John Philip Sousa Bridge, the Anacostia River beneath it or Capitol Hill on the other side of that bridge ..confused you enough to think you actually lived on Capitol Hill...no worries! If you said it out loud in a classroom, after being told that by sympathetic elders, hoping to give your or their egos, a boost, ..there was always someone happy to correct you - tp talk you down..."Nau-uuw, son. Capitol Hill on the other side! [Laughing.] You in Cappa-costia."

For some, the mysterious, unchartered district, between Capitol Hill and Anacostia, that we sometimes referred to as 'Cappa-costia' - Gangsta-costia, Gat-icostia (gun reference), Killa-costia, Murda-costia, Blacka-costia, just as much - stretched all the way over the Anacostia River, to what has now been re-branded by developers and business associations, as 'Barracks Row'. During Washington's 'Chocolate City' years, the Marion Barry Era, the mythical-as-Atlantis country flowed furiously over the West Bank of the Anacostia, to all the places that DC's black population regarded as firmly, unwaveringly culturally African American. The Cappa-costia handle, one of many, was a culturally motivated stratagem intended to assert territory, enforce socio-political unity and discourage the disassociation of residents, who aspire to identify with and empower a growing, affluent population...one that Black Washington felt threatened by.

Conceptually speaking, what's always interested me about the idea of 'Cappa-costia' is that it plainly speaks to an understanding, held by its residents (us), that our home is its own thing, ..distinct from its better-known neighbors, the Hill and Anacostia proper.

It's Southeast for most of us and juzz Sowfeest for some of us, ..Seven Bee for the politicos (as in ANC-7B), ..Naylor-Dupont on the books, Downtown, ..Far Southeast for DC's West-of-Anacostia middleclass,  ..but it's not and never has been 'Anacostia'.

ANC-7B or Capicostia ..was called East Washington Heights, once.

Seven Bee and Anacostia (or ANC-8A) are two culturally, politically and socially different places, and have been for a very, very long time. I have attached a link to a chapter excerpt from a book, by noted Southeast-resident, DC historian, Jim Byers. The link, while associated with the Pennaveeast.com website, is marked as 'Not secure' by MS Edge software; so, visit at your own risk...

East Washington Heights...Jim Byers

Posted by Capicostia

Edgar Miraculous (Mel) Dyer, Capicostia's publisher, without his fine, coyote-hatin' Goldiweiller, Kirby (now moved on to that big, coyote-hatin' hate group in the Sky) continues a somewhat bleaker, dogless existence in the Capitol Hill area of Washington, DC. He has been an active member of the Latino Culture Council of the Capitol Area (El Consejo de Cultura Latina – La Zona del Capitolio), the Kiwanis Club of Capitol Hill and the Board of Directors for both Total Care Services, Inc. and YMCA Capital View.