Hill Rag | June 2009 | Recreation and ‘Re-creation’ On the Anacostia

Recreation and ‘Re-creation’ On the Anacostia

by: John R. Wennersten

Follow The Water
In dawn’s twilight, sleek racing shells skim across the water against a backdrop of rich green trees on Anacostia’s far shore. For most people this scene should be taking place on more fashionable waters like the Chester River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Instead the Anacostia is providing the recreational venue for an 8-mile row through the heart of Washington, DC. Jim Connolly and his crew of “sweepers” pull their oars in strong measured strokes as the primrose sun gathers strength. “Out in a crew boat,” notes Connolly, “you have a sense of measured discipline. You just concentrate on rowing, on being on the river.”

Until 1988 the river was not always so hospitable to rowers. Public indifference held sway. But Connolly and Carl Cole, another advocate for the Anacostia River, helped establish the Anacostia Rowing Center and Community Boathouse and obtained the use of an old warehouse owned by the Army Corps of Engineers for their racing shells. In 1995 The Capital Rowing Club, needing more room from its crowded facilities at Thompson Boating Center on the Potomac, moved to the Anacostia Rowing Center, and a vigorous new age of community-minded and public service rowing began. The club vigorously reached out to area high schools as well as local universities to bring students down to the river to row and discover the region’s unique watershed. By building a public service component into membership rules, Connolly and club directors have sought to connect all kinds of boating on the Anacostia to adults and children who know nothing of Anacostia save the meanness of its city streets. Also, the community boathouse is host to regattas for high school rowers and Chinese Dragon Boat races put on by the National Capital Area Women’s Paddling Association.

Michael Allen and Melba Black discovered the Anacostia River as part of their quest for an aerobic challenge. Michael Allen, a 59-year-old Denver transplant, exchanged the skiing life for rowing on the river in a delicate one-man shell. He enrolled in the novice course offered by the Capital Rowing Club “because it maintained high standards,” he said. Sculling is not for those with a fear of water. Allen’s scull pitched him in the water five times before he began to get the hang of it. “The real test is the ability to get back into the shell after you have been pitched in the water,” said Allen. But despite his dunkings in the river, he has come down “with no discernable maladies.”

Melba Black, a tall, athletic African-American woman, is part of a growing number of individuals from the black community coming down to the river to row or use a canoe or kayak. When asked why she rows, she replied, “It helps me concentrate my thinking.” Black is an active member of the Capital Rowing Club and works to publicize rowing on the river.

The Anacostia River maintains a recreational diversity that is a far cry from the elite boat clubs and marinas on the Potomac. The Seafarers Yacht Club is one of the oldest African-American recreational boating clubs in the country, and DC Strokes, a rowing clubs for gay and lesbian athletes and their supporters, has found a welcome home on the banks of the Anacostia.

Today, recreation on the Anacostia takes many forms and harkens back to the days when Pierre L’Enfant designed the new capital of Washington. L’Enfant envisioned Washington as a waterfront city filled with parks and pleasant promenades along the Anacostia River.

In the 19th century, the Army Corps of Engineers took the lead in helping to design the Anacostia by developing a plan for a waterfront park extending upriver from Geisboro Point to the District Line on both sides of the river. The engineers envisioned an immense manmade lake to be carved out of the river, some 9 feet deep with walkways and fountains gracing the shorelines. In this plan we can see an outline of what became Kingman Lake and Kenilworth Gardens. The current District government and its Anacostia Waterfront Corporation are now trying to make this early vision a reality.

New Pathways to Recreation
Recreation is a process of restoration and recovery and replenishment by means of a pastime. Recreation also implies relaxation, enjoyment and spiritual rejuvenation. The Anacostia offers a major green space that in the future will be increasingly what park designer Frederick Law Olmsted called “the lungs of the city.”

For a growing capital, Anacostia’s parks, trails, bike paths and waterways offer an unparalleled recreational potential. Much has fallen into place. Hill East, a development near RFK stadium, will offer dramatic river walks and vistas when completed. Poplar Point and the new District baseball stadium will combine sports entertainment with nature walks in the city. Hopefully, laughs Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, “one day you will be able to canoe to work in the city.” Also, Wells, an avid cyclist, is no stranger to District bikeways.

At present the Anacostia Bike trail is incomplete, but District authorities hope to see the project completed in 2010. Sunday bikers take the Green Line Metro to West Hyattsville. From there they have an impressively beautiful trip up though Riverdale and College Park and around Lake Artemesias to Greenbelt. This is an excellent route for a bicycle picnic. When complete the trail will extend from Nationals Park to the Beltway.

Carl Cole has been roaming the woods of the Anacostia and plying its waters since he was a stripling in a Boy Scout troop. He has an interesting take on the region. “Imagine,” he argues, “a large open-membership democratic country club called the Anacostia.” At one end, he notes, the National Arboretum offers solitude and sanctuary for bird watchers, flower enthusiasts, outdoor watercolor artists and paths for casual walking. The Kingfisher Canoe trail can be followed up river or downstream. A short distance away is Langston Golf course, inexpensive and open to all.

Moving down the river, one encounters the sweeping meadows of Anacostia Park, maintained by the National Park Service. (Much of the park is now devolving to District ownership with political contention involved over control and reversion rights.) Here one finds well-used soccer fields, joggers and Frisbee enthusiasts. The Anacostia swimming pool offers a healthy recreation outlet for adults and children, many of whom will learn to swim there. Nearby the Fort Dupont Indoor Ice Arena serves 10,000 kids a year with its “Kids on Ice Program.”

The region also has smaller parks, most of which like Fort Dupont were military forts protecting the capital during the Civil War. Thus, notes Cole, “You have all the amenities of a modern country club and more right here in the Anacostia region. Until recently, few outsiders saw the good parts – well-tended houses on leafy streets often overlooking a beautiful waterfront.”

When nature writer John Burroughs came to Washington, DC, to work as a government clerk during the Civil War in the fall of 1863, he spent much of his time out in the marshes of the Anacostia bird watching. What Burroughs found was a world of nature and relaxation easily accessible to the man on the street. For Burroughs it exemplified the idea that Americans were more than mere “economic men.” They were of an ancient tribe homo ludens – men in the fields of play.

A New L’Enfantian Vision
Today, the Anacostia region is being shaped and planned to conform to an earlier L’Enfantian vision of urban habitat. District residents can take considerable comfort in the fact that they are present at the “re-creation.”

For further information:

Rowing & Boating

Anacostia Community Boathouse Association
www.anacostiabouthouse.org

Andy Rabus, DC Strokes Rowing Club
dcrower@gmail.com

Capital Rowing Club
melbablack@comcast.net

National Capital Area Women’s Paddling Association
Thea Knight
btkkids@verizon.net

Kingfisher Canoe Trail
To obtain a hard copy of this trail map, contact Anacostia Watershed Society
www.anacostiaws.org

General Boating
Seafarers Yacht Club
www.seafarersyachtclub.org

Bicycling the Anacostia

Maryland Trail
Eileen Nivera
Eileen.nivera@pgparks.com

DC Trail
Allen Miller, DC Department of Transportation
Allen.miller@dc.gov

Downloadable bike maps of Anacostia Trail
Anacostiatrails.org

Washington Area Bicyclist Association
www.waba.org

General Nature

United States National Arboretum
www.usna.usda.gov

Watercolor painting
Friends of the National Arboretum
www.fona.org

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens
www.nps.gov

National Capital Garden Clubs Inc.
www.gardencentral.org

Bird Watching
Maryland Ornithological Society
www.mdbirds.org

Sports

Anacostia Pool/Aquatics
dpr.dc.gov

Langston Golf Course
www.golfdc.com

Fort Dupont Ice Arena
www.fdia.org


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Recreation and ‘Re-creation’ On the Anacostia

by: John R. Wennersten
Follow The Water In dawn’s twilight, sleek racing shells skim across the water against a backdrop of rich green trees on Anacostia’s far shore. For most people this scene should be taking place on more fashionable waters like the Chester River on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Instead the Anacostia is providing the recreational venue for an 8-mile row through the heart of Washington, DC. Jim Connolly and his crew of “sweepers” pull their oars in strong measured strokes as the primrose sun gathers strength. “Out in a crew boat,” notes Connolly, “you have a sense of measured discipline. You just concentrate on rowing, on being on the river.” Until 1988 the river was not always so hospitable to rowers. Public indifference held sway. But Connolly and Carl Cole, another advocate for the Anacostia River, helped establish the Anacostia Rowing Center and Community Boathouse and obtained the use of an old warehouse owned by the Army Corps of Engineers for their racing shells. In 1995 The Capital Rowing Club, needing more room from its crowded facilities at Thompson Boating Center on the Potomac, moved to the Anacostia Rowing Center, and a vigorous new age of community-minded and public service rowing began. The club vigorously reached out to area high schools as well as local universities to bring students down to the river to row and discover the region’s unique watershed. By building a public service component into membership rules, Connolly and club directors have sought to connect all kinds of boating on the Anacostia to adults and children who know nothing of Anacostia save the meanness of its city streets. Also, the community boathouse is host to regattas for high school rowers and Chinese Dragon Boat races put on by the National Capital Area Women’s Paddling Association. Michael Allen and Melba Black discovered the Anacostia River as part of their quest for an aerobic challenge. Michael Allen, a 59-year-old Denver transplant, exchanged the skiing life for rowing on the river in a delicate one-man shell. He enrolled in the novice course offered by the Capital Rowing Club “because it maintained high standards,” he said. Sculling is not for those with a fear of water. Allen’s scull pitched him in the water five times before he began to get the hang of it. “The real test is the ability to get back into the shell after you have been pitched in the water,” said Allen. But despite his dunkings in the river, he has come down “with no discernable maladies.” Melba Black, a tall, athletic African-American woman, is part of a growing number of individuals from the black community coming down to the river to row or use a canoe or kayak. When asked why she rows, she replied, “It helps me concentrate my thinking.” Black is an active member of the Capital Rowing Club and works to publicize rowing on the river. The Anacostia River maintains a recreational diversity that is a far cry from the elite boat clubs and marinas on the Potomac. The Seafarers Yacht Club is one of the oldest African-American recreational boating clubs in the country, and DC Strokes, a rowing clubs for gay and lesbian athletes and their supporters, has found a welcome home on the banks of the Anacostia. Today, recreation on the Anacostia takes many forms and harkens back to the days when Pierre L’Enfant designed the new capital of Washington. L’Enfant envisioned Washington as a waterfront city filled with parks and pleasant promenades along the Anacostia River. In the 19th century, the Army Corps of Engineers took the lead in helping to design the Anacostia by developing a plan for a waterfront park extending upriver from Geisboro Point to the District Line on both sides of the river. The engineers envisioned an immense manmade lake to be carved out of the river, some 9 feet deep with walkways and fountains gracing the shorelines. In this plan we can see an outline of what became Kingman Lake and Kenilworth Gardens. The current District government and its Anacostia Waterfront Corporation are now trying to make this early vision a reality. New Pathways to Recreation Recreation is a process of restoration and recovery and replenishment by means of a pastime. Recreation also implies relaxation, enjoyment and spiritual rejuvenation. The Anacostia offers a major green space that in the future will be increasingly what park designer Frederick Law Olmsted called “the lungs of the city.” For a growing capital, Anacostia’s parks, trails, bike paths and waterways offer an unparalleled recreational potential. Much has fallen into place. Hill East, a development near RFK stadium, will offer dramatic river walks and vistas when completed. Poplar Point and the new District baseball stadium will combine sports entertainment with nature walks in the city. Hopefully, laughs Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, “one day you will be able to canoe to work in the city.” Also, Wells, an avid cyclist, is no stranger to District bikeways. At present the Anacostia Bike trail is incomplete, but District authorities hope to see the project completed in 2010. Sunday bikers take the Green Line Metro to West Hyattsville. From there they have an impressively beautiful trip up though Riverdale and College Park and around Lake Artemesias to Greenbelt. This is an excellent route for a bicycle picnic. When complete the trail will extend from Nationals Park to the Beltway. Carl Cole has been roaming the woods of the Anacostia and plying its waters since he was a stripling in a Boy Scout troop. He has an interesting take on the region. “Imagine,” he argues, “a large open-membership democratic country club called the Anacostia.” At one end, he notes, the National Arboretum offers solitude and sanctuary for bird watchers, flower enthusiasts, outdoor watercolor artists and paths for casual walking. The Kingfisher Canoe trail can be followed up river or downstream. A short distance away is Langston Golf course, inexpensive and open to all. Moving down the river, one encounters the sweeping meadows of Anacostia Park, maintained by the National Park Service. (Much of the park is now devolving to District ownership with political contention involved over control and reversion rights.) Here one finds well-used soccer fields, joggers and Frisbee enthusiasts. The Anacostia swimming pool offers a healthy recreation outlet for adults and children, many of whom will learn to swim there. Nearby the Fort Dupont Indoor Ice Arena serves 10,000 kids a year with its “Kids on Ice Program.” The region also has smaller parks, most of which like Fort Dupont were military forts protecting the capital during the Civil War. Thus, notes Cole, “You have all the amenities of a modern country club and more right here in the Anacostia region. Until recently, few outsiders saw the good parts – well-tended houses on leafy streets often overlooking a beautiful waterfront.” When nature writer John Burroughs came to Washington, DC, to work as a government clerk during the Civil War in the fall of 1863, he spent much of his time out in the marshes of the Anacostia bird watching. What Burroughs found was a world of nature and relaxation easily accessible to the man on the street. For Burroughs it exemplified the idea that Americans were more than mere “economic men.” They were of an ancient tribe homo ludens – men in the fields of play. A New L’Enfantian Vision Today, the Anacostia region is being shaped and planned to conform to an earlier L’Enfantian vision of urban habitat. District residents can take considerable comfort in the fact that they are present at the “re-creation.” For further information: Rowing & Boating Anacostia Community Boathouse Association www.anacostiabouthouse.org Andy Rabus, DC Strokes Rowing Club dcrower@gmail.com Capital Rowing Club melbablack@comcast.net National Capital Area Women’s Paddling Association Thea Knight btkkids@verizon.net Kingfisher Canoe Trail To obtain a hard copy of this trail map, contact Anacostia Watershed Society www.anacostiaws.org General Boating Seafarers Yacht Club www.seafarersyachtclub.org Bicycling the Anacostia Maryland Trail Eileen Nivera Eileen.nivera@pgparks.com DC Trail Allen Miller, DC Department of Transportation Allen.miller@dc.gov Downloadable bike maps of Anacostia Trail Anacostiatrails.org Washington Area Bicyclist Association www.waba.org General Nature United States National Arboretum www.usna.usda.gov Watercolor painting Friends of the National Arboretum www.fona.org Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens www.nps.gov National Capital Garden Clubs Inc. www.gardencentral.org Bird Watching Maryland Ornithological Society www.mdbirds.org Sports Anacostia Pool/Aquatics dpr.dc.gov Langston Golf Course www.golfdc.com Fort Dupont Ice Arena www.fdia.org