Tree Watering Planned for Saturday

Pitching in to help care for the new trees on New Hampshire Ave near the intersection of Georgia Ave. has been tough.

The trees southwest of Georgia Avenue have been in particular need.

To that end, there has been a call for All Hands on Deck this Saturday at 7:00 am to water this section. If you have the time and ability, gather at the sculpture at the Metro station. The more the better.

The watering will be done with buckets — the water being supplied by Donatelli from the new construction across the street.

Trees in New Hampshire Median Need Your Help!

The trees along New Hampshire Avenue between Georgia and Sherman Avenues are in horrible shape, being stressed due to lack of water. If you live along this stretch of road and would be willing to help keep them watered … the neighborhood and the trees NEED YOUR HELP!

The good news is that Casey Trees will be watering them tomorrow morning.

The bad news is that I alerted DDOT to this Sunday night, and they quickly indicated that they would contact Casey Trees. It wasn’t until the last 12 36 hours, starting with Wayan Vota last night and me this morning that Casey seems to have gotten wind of the problem.

While we have a small victory that the trees will be watered tomorrow, Casey Trees is looking for a neighborhood solution. So, if you live in the area and are willing to assist, please speak up.

You can see from the photo below that Wayan Vota supplied how rough the trees have gotten.

New Hampshire Median Work Expands

I was very relieved to see that the installations of medians on New Hampshire Ave. wasn’t going to only be between Georgia Ave. and Grant Circle. About a week ago they started to do the work below, which is between Georgia Ave. and Sherman Ave.

What I like about it so much is that there won’t be a gap between the streetscaping they are planning to do on Sherman and Georgia Aves. Also, who wouldn’t like some hot pavement replaced by grass and trees. They add so much to a neighborhood.

Get Your Fireworks!!! While They Last

The firework stand on the corner of Rock Creek Church Rd & New Hampshire Avenue is finally open for business … so get them while they last!

Then and Now: 1808 New Hampshire Avenue

Then: Photographed in January, 1912, at the time of the Cromwell-Stotesbury wedding, the double home at 1808 New Hampshire is shown with snow on the ground.  To read about the Cromwell-Stotesbury wedding, which was attended by President Taft, you can read the January 19, 1912 New York Times article here. The limousine in the photograph may be President Taft’s.

Now: Today, 1808 New Hampshire is the location of the Swann House Bed and Breakfast.

S and T Street Triangle Parks Progressing Well

Following up on my April 2nd post, I visited the S and T Street parks yesterday. They seem to be progressing well. The T Street park looks to be nearly done. It has pavers and only appears to be lacking benches. The plantings are small, but all seem to be in.

The T Street park — destined to be the City’s first official dog park — still has a lot of work ahead of it. The infrastructure being installed looks like plumbing, which makes sense to me. Despite the current state of the park, it doesn’t mean that things could wrap up quickly. It all depends on how extensive the renovations yet to complete are.

Accident on New Hampshire Avenue

Petworth News has an interesting post on an accident last night caused by a car speeding away form police after it had been pulled over. The pattern sounds similar to other recent auto crashes in the area. Upon impact, the youths fled the scene. I find it particularly interesting that the new medians, which aren’t even complete, contributed to an accident whith oncoming traffic as the fleeing car turned into the wrong lane and, presumably, couldn’t cross over into the correct lane because of the medians.

For photos and more details, go to the Petworth News post here>>

Following the Progress of the New Hampshire Ave. Medians

Wayan Vota writes: Looking at the new medians going in on New Hampshire Avenue, I see a small problem — the contractor is not digging down to dirt and he’s leaving piles of concrete like this one which will kill anything planted nearby.

Progress on New Hampshire Ave. Medians

More photos from Wayan Vota on the installation of the New Hampshire Ave. medians from the Georgia Ave/Petworth Metro to Grant Circle.

It looks like the medians will have grass and trees … if 4 inches of dirt is all that’s needed to support the grass. For a moment I’d thought that perhaps some areas would be bricked, but the bricks I saw must have been for the curb areas.

On a side note, Wayan also noticed that the trees that were planted on January 8th of this year were outfitted with water bags yesterday.

Median Work on New Hampshire Continues

Following up on Wayan Vota’s post last week that medians were coming to New Hampshire Ave. in Petworth, progress is being made.

Originally, it was assumed that the medians would contain grass and create a tree lined avenue. Right now, I can confirm that this will not be the case for the entire stretch.

The area around the intersection of New Hampshire and Quincy is clearly going to have brick centers. I suspect this is the area above the Metro station, and having plantings on top of it would be problematic.