Eastland Gardens Civic Association

courtesy Washington Post July 31, 2008

On a recent hot morning, dozens of D.C. kids were not lounging in front of a television, playing Wii or surfing the Internet. They were running, and doing so happily.

"We're teaching them lifetime fitness," said Molly Quinn, a triathlete and executive director of Achieve!, a Washington-based nonprofit group that runs a triathlon camp for inner-city kids in the District.

For six weeks, the youths are meeting for 3 1/2 hours Mondays through Fridays to run, swim, bike and learn about a living a healthy life. The camp is certified by USA Triathlon as an official training program. At the end of the six weeks, the athletes (no campers here) participate in a USA Triathlon-sanctioned triathlon.  click here to read more

courtesy lappjoe.com October 2007

Owen Davis became a friend of my parents when they moved to Kenilworth in the 1960's.  They were impressed with his righteous character and by his concern for his lower income Kenilworth Courts neighbors, whose children shared Kenilworth Elementary with Eastland Gardens children.

During my recent years in Kenilworth doing research on the history of the neighborhood, he became a friend to me as well.  An elderly man with a long memory, I interviewed him about the history of the neighborhood.  It was always a treat to go and knock on the door of the 42nd Street home that he and his wife had moved into on the day of their October, 1939 wedding.  I loved hearing the booming "Who is it?" from his still-deep voice, and then being invited in to sit at his dining room table and chat. click here to read more

courtesy Capitol Community News, November 2006
Washington’s best kept secret is in Eastland Gardens. The vision of Mable Spencer, Elizabeth Marshall, Gaston Briggs, William Williams, Russell Chambers and Clifton Glover came to fruition over seventy years ago when the first Eastland Gardens Civic Association was formed. Though this thriving middle class neighborhood was established in 1929, the residents of Eastland Gardens did not receive municipal services, like mail delivery and police officers on foot patrol, until 1931. click here to read more

courtesy Washington Informer, June 2007
Her first all brick home is located in the Aquatic Gardens community in Northeast Washington, across from a lovely park that includes a tennis court. The neighborhood
is quiet, green and beautiful. Zerline said when she looks out her window at 11 PM and sees the park…she feels like she’s in “the Rock Creek Park of Northeast.” click here to read more

courtesy Washington Post July 2007
Summer has slowed to slog and drag. The heat churns high - scorching, stifling - and green grass cowers. Midsummer is a vampire.

But just beyond Northeast Washington's public housing, beyond broken bottle glass scattered like mosaics of alienation and anger, there lies an Eden.

The lotus are blooming. In the worst months of Washington's summer, as other flowers wither in the exhausting sun, the lotus stretch five feet and higher, reaching for the sky.

Thousands of water lilies are unfolding into lotus blossoms in Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens. Nearly 45 ponds fill with Red Flare and Afterglow, Josephine and Madame Walska, all soft pinks and pure whites, each keeping a promise made by Claude Monet. click here to read more