Northminster Presbyterian Church, once located at 11th and RI Ave |
Logan Circle residents who find themselves washing their
cars religiously at the car wash and laundromat on the southwest corner of 11th
Street and Rhode Island Avenue may experience a sense of deja vue, as it was
once the site of the elegant Northminster Presbyterian Church.
The building featured a corner entrance
facing the intersection, with a shortened square tower and large balustrades
above. It was built at a cost of $75,000
following a building permit that was issued on October 1, 1907.
With the address of 1100 Rhode Island Avenue, the church was
formally dedicated in the spring of 1908, when it had 209 members. The congregation was organized in 1906 as a
result of a merger of the old North and the Assembly Presbyterian
congregation. The Northminster church
facility would have ties to a home on the same block, at 1120 Rhode Island
Avenue, until the church building suffered a disastrous fire in 1935.
Site of the Northminster Church Today at 11th and RI Ave |
The home at 1120 RI Ave was built in 1895 for Dr. Frederic Maxcy, an
employee of the Marine Hospital on Capitol Hill, who also had a practice at the
house until his death about 1908. It was
purchased in 1920 by Frank M. and Ella M. Thompson; she having been a teacher
at the Northminster Church Sunday school since its opening in 1908.
Mrs. Thompson had succeeded her husband as the President of
the Iowa Circle Citizen’s Association in 1921 (later known as the Logan Circle
Citizen’s Association). At the time of
her election, she was the first woman in the city to hold such an office,
according to a newspaper account that appeared in The Washington Star on May
30, 1949.
Quotes attributed to her in the article could have been
pulled from reports in the InTowner newspaper today on contemporary neighborhood issues,
such as “delinquent parents” that allow their children to roam free, suggesting
an 11 p.m. curfew, and that “the parks should be preserved and the slum houses
cleaned up.”
Apparently her axiom struck a chord with area residents, and
she was elected to 30 consecutive terms, serving from 1921 to 1951! Among myriad civic duties and involvement,
she was a founder of the idea to restore the Decatur House on Lafayette
Square. She also opened up her house at
1120 Rhode Island Avenue beginning in 1921 to board the pastor of the
Northminster Presbyterian Church, Reverend Hugh Kerr Fulton. He remained there until 1930, when he was
replaced by Reverend Robert C. Simmons.
Just five years later, on Sunday morning, January 6, 1935, a
janitor at the church named Benjamin Jackson, 27, noticed smoke emulating from
the floor, ran to 1120 RI Avenue to sound an alarm, having first brought two
children outside that had been the first to show up for Sunday school class,
taught by Mrs. Thompson.
Just 20 minutes later, the fire had grown so intense that
the roof collapsed, trapping three firemen inside. Named Frank Bailik, William Fielder, and
Volnay Burnett, the three men were pulled alive but injured from the rubble by
fellow firemen. In all, five alarms had
been called, bringing about 20 pieces of fire fighting equipment to the
scene.
With an estimated $35,000 in damage to the structure, the
Northminster Presbyterian Church congregation decided to meet at the Thompson
home at 1120 RI Avenue for the next several months. In fact, they worshipped there while the fire
department was fighting the blaze on the same block on that fateful January
day. In addition, two families that had
been living in the adjacent home at 1110 RI Avenue were forced to flee their
residence during and following the disaster.
The fire had started in the boiler room of the church, and large trees
on the site had hampered the efforts of firemen to raise ladders to fight the
flames.
The Washington Times of May 4, 1935 carried a photograph and
caption indicating that the shell of the church was being torn dawn. By November 6, 1938, the Northminster
Presbyterian Church congregation was able to lay a cornerstone for their new
structure at 7720 Alaska Avenue at the corner of Kalmia Road, N.W., on land it
had owned and operated as a mission since 1926, where it remains to this day.
Their former site at 11th and RI Avenue remained
vacant for some time, becoming a corner store, car wash and laundromat by the
1960s.
3 comments:
Yes,This church has huge historic value.Third Presbyterian changed its name to Northminster Presbyterian Church
The current Northminster Church is in NEED of members who live, work reside in NW Washington and Silver Springs, Md .
Memebership is down to 150 familes as the last male minister passed in 2011 . The church now has a female pastor.
To the webmaster please include a photo of the 'current' Northminster Church located at Georgia and Alaska Avenues NW , Washington, DC please.
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