to push the traffic burden disproportionately upon Washington, D.C.'s less affluent neighborhoods to the east and south of the Anacostia River
Former D.C. Council-member Charlene Drew Jarvis
Long established D.C. family business - Jarvis Company -
backs ill placed/designed real estate development projects
conflicting with the
Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative (LEDPA) for northern D.C. radial highway, where there is now no such highway, thus shifting traffic burden disproportionately to less affluent areas to the south-east of the Anacostia River.
- "The Hampshires" townhouse development placed directly in the path of connecting the Maryland PEPCO Power Line and the Washington, D.C. B&O corridors for the inside the Beltway extension from I-95, of some 100 new residential dwellings upon what was the open field of the Masonic Eastern Star Home on the northern side of New Hampshire Avenue NE.
- The "Capitol Crossing" Air Rights Project Atop the Downtown I-395 (I-95) Center Leg
that constricts its designed right of way from 4 lanes in each direction plus shoulders by 50% or more to only 2 lanes per direction with apparently reduced shoulders, thus necessitating new parallel tunnels to restore the lost capacity at a likely greater cost than the extra profitability for this real estate project.
PEPCO/B&O I-95
Area of Segment To Connect the B&O and PEPCO Corridors
With Traditionally Open Field of the Masonic Eastern Star Home
Now Filled with "The Hampshires" townhouses
The 'Capitol Crossing' project for a series of new buildings atop the
downtown 'Center Leg' Freeway which would intercept the
PEPCO-B&O Route unnecessarily constricts its right of way from
its design of 8 traffic lanes plus shoulder to only 4 lanes with pinched
down median shoulders.
The Southern Portion of the B&O I-95 Route
With Connection Along New York Avenue To
The Center Leg Freeway,
Plus Connection to East Leg At Right
Constriction of Center Leg Profile From 8 to 4 Lanes
Although Striped For Only 4 lanes, the Design Is For 8 Lanes In Order To Accommodate
Northern Extension,
Plus With 1 Additional Northbound Lane
For Westbound Connection To Cross Town I-66 K Street Tunnel.
Center Leg segments were designed and at least partially built
prior to the mid 1970s mass 'de-mappings' of the connecting segments
http://wwwtripwithinthebeltway.blogspot.com/2015/01/choking-i-395-center-leg.html
Blocking and constricting these routes helped buttress a status quo placing a disproportionate amount of the traffic burden upon the less affluent areas to the south-east of the Anacostia River.
This status quo, of having no grade separated vehicular radial highways anywhere into Washington, D.C. from the north in the area from George Washington Parkway in Virginia, to the Baltimore-Washington Parkway in Maryland, and no such highways for mixed traffic - that is including trucks and other commercial traffic - from I-395 to the southwest, to Route 50 to the east, encourages express traffic to take the Baltimore-Washington Parkway and Route 50 either to the non freeway surface route of New York Avenue NE to get to the Center Leg, or to the antiquated DC 295 Anacostia Freeway built during the 1950s to either connect with the recently replaced 11th Street Bridge with its new direct connections to the antiquated SE/SW Freeway, or to continue south along I-295.
As DC 295 and I-295 respectively pass along the eastern and southern side of the Anacostia River in SE, before the latter turns south to parallel the Potomac River to ultimately connect with the I-495 Capital Beltway just to the east of the Woodrow Wilson Bridge, through what is Washington, D.C.'s least affluent -- and demographically Blackest -- area, such a status quo of no radial freeways anywhere within Washington, D.C. places a disproportionate amount of express traffic through its poorest, Blackest areas.
Coupled with the antiquated design of DC 295 substandard not only with regards to traffic but also with the idea of reconnecting the localities with the Anacostia River waterfront as a locally divisive surface and elevated freeway rather than as say a cut and cover tunnel beneath a local street network, such a status quo makes a mockery of the 1960s slogan used in the political battle to stop the construction of a North Central Freeway along the B&O corridor in northern D.C. in the vicinity of Catholic University of America (the single largest property in that area) "No White Mans' Roads Through Black Mans' Homes".
The two real estate projects at issue are particularly egregious respectively for blocking the
Least Environmentally Damaging Practicable Alternative (LEDPA) for a radial highway into Washington, D.C. from the north- B&O/PEPCO?New Hampshire Avenue, and wasting a significant amount of the existing design capacity of the sole existing freeway route - the Center Leg, so designed sensibly as a tunnel to minimize local impacts - in place to connect with such a route to the north.
The B&O route is what was determined by 1962 to be the best route within Washington, D.C., being the least impactive, being the sole
existing grade separated transportation corridor in northern D.C., largely lined with lightly developed industrial properties, and centrally located between the eastern and western portions of the Capital Beltway, where its southern end could connect most practically with east-west and north south freeways near and withing downtown Washington, D.C. with the least impacts. It was
relatively uncontroversial when proposed under the administration of
U.S. President John F. Kennedy in 1962,
but would become highly controversial -- aka opposed -- following the planning manipulations cir 1963-1967 where
the planning seriously deviated. The JFK Administration report dated November 1, 1962,
Recommendations for TRANSPORTATION in the NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION Finance and Organization A Report to the President for transmittal to Congress by the NATIONAL CAPITAL TRANSPORTATION AGENCY, made
the strict prescription that the north-south segment strictly hug the B&O Railroad. Reportedly an engineering study was to be released in 1963, and JFK's interest in improved planning, along with contemporaneous planning efforts in his native Boston for a segment of that city's proposed Inner Loop Freeway with at least one segment within a tunnel box beneath a pedestrian promenade might have pointed to such a design approach for the I-95 B&O Route North Central Freeway, particularly in the area where it would have passed alongside its neighboring single largest property- Catholic University of America.
Yet no such study would be released before JFK's November 22, 1963 assassination, and
the study that would be released in October 1964 disregarded any such ideas, with conventional design freeways all over the map and with a recommended route generally along the B&O but with serious route deviations in Brookland, D.C. and to the north (for the I-70S segment) cutting all new swaths through charming older residential neighbors displacing some 471 houses in Takoma Park, Maryland for a route that was longer and out of the way! The understandable and justified opposition to that led to
a "supplementary" report for the North Central Freeway being released in November 1966 that was generally faithful to the JFK Administration's B&O Route Concept. To its credit, the 1966 plan added some cut and cover tunnel
segments for the I-70S B&O Route segment where it entered D.C. from
Montgomery County, Maryland at the edge of Blair Park, though it in-explicitly introduced a new routing deviation absent with the 1964 recommended route, at the junction of the Fort Drive I-95 link from Maryland with the B&O, with a bulge a few hundred feet westward into Fort Totten Park.
Nonetheless, the 1966 "Low Level" B&O Route resulted in significantly reduced popular opposition to the freeway, with
a 1967 letter by Takoma Park resident Duncan Wall noting that the controversy "had been somewhat quiescent" prior to the actions of the then newly founded U.S. Federal Highway Authority to withdraw from any commitment to the 1966 plan by announcing their intent to re-open the planning process to consider options from the 1964 report as ostensibly "cheaper". The subsequent re-surge of popular opposition would thus lead to the
U.S.National Capital Planning Commission reversing its traditional support for the North Central and Northeast Freeways by the end of 1968.
Though
talk by officials about possibly reverting to the 1964 planning subsequently ceased, and a 1970 design revision by the D.C. Department of Public Works to reduce the I-95 B&O North Central Freeway dwelling displacement in Brookland from 69 to 34, political opposition had by then been sufficiently stoked, leading to a February 17, 1970 D.C. City Council vote against the B&O Route North Central Freeway. In response, a new study would be commissioned for release in 1971, with discussions of better integrating it into the area with a greater use of decking -- essentially construction of segments as cut and cover tunnels -- featuring new local community amenities including new housing atop, along with a re-thinking of the connecting I-95 Northeastern Freeway segment leading to the consideration and adaptation for the latter of the PEPCO/New Hampshire Avenue Route.
The
PEPCO/New Hampshire Avenue Route -- as the PEPCO corridor itself extends for about 4.2 miles inside the Capital Beltway before ending just south of Ray Road in the vicinity of New Hampshire Avenue about 1,600 feet before the Maryland-District of Columbia line that is about that same distance from the B&O Corridor -- was likewise so acknowledged by the early 1970s as the best option for the segment linking the B&O Route within D.C. through western Prince Georges County, Maryland to the I-95 interchange at the Capital Beltway; the 1971 DeLuew, Cather Weese Study would suggest it as far superior to the routing planned since the 1950s via the headwaters of the Anacostia River- Northwest Branch Park, initially pared in the 1960 Northeastern Freeway Engineering Study with a diagonal route within Washington, D.C. skirting Catholic Sisters College properties before its cir.1963 replacement with the Fort Drive Route between Gallatan and Galloway Streets NE. Although later planning for the Northwest Branch Park-Fort Drive I-95 Route included some cut and cover tunnel segments, the PEPCO alternative was deemed superior for a number of reasons:
- using an already clear cutted of trees 250 foot wide power line transmission corridor, thus almost entirely avoiding parkland while saving many trees
- providing superior geometry for the entry into D.C. for a tunneled connector spur to North Capital Street and to east-west Missouri Street.
- retaining an option geometrically feasible to construct almost the entire route in a depressed below ground level configuration thus reducing its local impacts while providing ultimate opportunity for adding various segments with a "roof" thus converting such to cut and cover tunnel segments.
- having a southern terminus a mere 1,600 feet from the Maryland-District line, which itself was another some 1,600 feet from the B&O corridor, thus placing it just east of the New Hampshire Avenue corridor which is lightly developed strip retail in Maryland, and residential within D.C. To avoid the power
substation at the PEPCO corridor's southern end, the freeway would then cross to New Hampshire Avenue's western (southbound) side, avoiding the sole larger office
building along this strip, and within D.C. be situated to displace fewer dwellings - traditionally only abut 27 1940s construction houses - owing to the presence of the large open field of the masonic Eastern Star Home itself set conveniently far enough to the north as to not block the freeway's path, which would be depressed below ground level (and thus feasible to construct as as an unobtrusive cut and cover tunnel with the field, the dwellings and the commercial area all restored- a point insufficiently if at all stressed by the 1971 report).
- to reduce the impacts upon the area at and near the southern end of the PEPCO corridor where the topography descends into a valley, the 1971 report proposed that the freeway would have a cut and cover tunnel segment beneath that valley, from a point to the north of Ray Road extending southerly to cross to the west side of New Hampshire Avenue.
- by employing the PEPCO right of way, this route would have displaced 0 dwellings within Maryland for the freeway mainline, though about 110 dwellings for the interchanges as then conceived.
The subsequent planning report addressing the PEPCO-New Hampshire Avenue Route, the Prince Georges County Transportation report from 1973 made a number of changes:
- it eliminated the idea of the tunnel at the southern terminus of the PEPCO corridor as too expensive, requiring too much excavation for the lengthy approaches that would have been geometrically required for dropping the freeway beneath the valley, instead substituting an elevated segment crossing over New Hampshire Avenue that would have required inferior horizontal geometry thus introducing a 55 mph design speed segment within what was otherwise a 70 mph design speed freeway.
- it added the idea of a cut and cover tunnel segment, 700 feet in length, to carry it hidden where it would cross Northwest Branch Park.
- it changed the design of the interchanges with reduced footprint to eliminate the residential displacement within Maryland.
- it changed the 4 lane in each direction 4/4 configuration to a triple 2/2/2 configuration with the middle roadway being reversible, thus offering significantly less capacity (25% less total, or 50% less in one direction) while being virtually the same overall width, owing to the extra shoulders.
- it made a variety of proposals anticipating/accommodating the political blockage of the continuation into Washington, D.C., such as having it only as a mixed use (trucks and commercial traffic permitted) freeway from the Capital Beltway to the interchange with Route 193/University Boulevard, and then further south to Route 410/East West Highway as a "Parkway" (excluding trucks and commercial traffic), with any further continuation as a Busway.
All of this would be for naught with the generated opposition to the B&O Route within D.C., hence Maryland Governor Hughes would announce the cancellation of formal consideration for the PEPCO Route announced July 16, 1973.
The Feds would formally "de-map" the D.C. B&;O segment and its connecting segments to the north and to the north-east in 1975. That June 27, D.C. Mayor Walter E. Washington formally requested
these deletions consisting of 5.4 miles from the Interstate System, and that October 3, Federal Highway Administrator
Norbert T. Tiemann and Urban Mass Transportation Administrator Robert E.
Patricelli approved the request. This was done under the
provisions of 23 U.S.C. 103(e)(4), as the first under the 1970s "de-mapping" craze that by then was being primarily sold as a means of gathering
additional funding for constructing the WMATA Rail Transit Network,
never-mind that the 1962 JFK plan had included both freeways and rail transit.
To the south, the B&O Route North Central Freeway - briefly renamed as the Northeastern Freeway with the pre 1973 decision by Maryland to cancel the I-70S segment - was to connect with "Interchange B" at the railyards to the north of New York Avenue, that was to connect with 3 freeways:
- the
"North Leg- East" that would then connect with the
Center Leg that was already completed to the south side of Massachusetts Avenue, and opened to traffic on November 5, 1973, and continue further west via
the "North Leg-West" as the I-66 K Street Tunnel,
- the "East Leg" that would continue to RFK Stadium before turning south and west along the northern side of the Anacostia Freeway to continue into the eastern end of the SE Freeway at Pennsylvania Avenue/Barney Circle that had been completed by 1974
- the New York Avenue Industrial Freeway continuing to the east to the Route 50 Freeway in Maryland.
The position of the D.C. City Council following the late 1960s reversal of support for the B&O Route North Central Freeway had been to remain in favor of constructing the downtown northern and eastern portions of the Inner Loop and the New York Avenue Industrial Freeway. However, following the artificially induced gasoline shortages in late 1973, escalating arguments, such as that such fuel shortages somehow meant that
"by 1990, may well render the private automobile as obsolete as the horse and buggy", would be successfully employed to "de-map" all of the remaining planned freeway segments except the short extension of the Center Leg northwards from Massachusetts Avenue to K Street NW, upon which construction started in 1975, with a design to accommodate the connecting freeway segments.
Indeed for a time during the mid 1970s, the idea was to continue I-95 through Washington, D.C. via the Center Leg to the "North Leg- East" as a cut and cover tunnel along the northern side of New York Avenue to just east of North Capitol Street, and continuing east via a New York Avenue Industrial Freeway towards the interchange with Maryland Route 50, with I-95 there transitioning to a rebuilt Baltimore Washington Parkway to Laurel Maryland with a new connector to existing I-95.
The idea of using a portion of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway for I-95 would be formally dropped in 1976.
Although the I-66 K Street Tunnel had been the plan initially promoted by opponents to the previous version of the cross-town I-66 "North Leg- East" from the 1955 Inner Loop report for a new swath displacing a significant number of buildings paralleling Florida Avenue and U Streets, it was among the first of the subsequent freeway segments following that of the B&O North Central/Northeast Freeway, to fall pry to the 1970s "de-mapping" craze- the other being the theatrically protested I-266 3 Sisters Bridge. D.C. Mayor Walter E. Washington would formally request that action on December 29, 1976, which was approved on April 29, 1977, by Federal Highway Administrator
William M. Cox and Urban Mass Transportation Acting Administrator
Charles F. Bingman, again under the
provisions of 23 U.S.C. 103(e)(4).
By 1978, construction upon the Center Leg segment, with its cut and cover tunnel from Massachusetts Avenue to K Street, was essentially complete, when,
according to Steve Anderson's DC Roads,
"... all that needed to be done was asphalt, electrical, and tiling work in the tunnel - when the District ran out of funds. A break in the impasse came in 1984 when Mayor Marion Barry designated $6.5 million in surplus District and Federal construction funds to complete the remaining work on the Center Leg tunnel. The two northbound lanes of the extension opened to traffic on December 15, 1986, while the two southbound lanes opened on February 6, 1987. Including land takings and air rights, the Center Leg extension cost $84 million to build in 1987 dollars."
That project, started with a design to accommodate both the connections to the west (I-66) and to the north-east, included a design alteration with its 1984-1986 completion of a pair of non-load bearing walls narrowing it to only 2 travel lanes in each direction, with the outboard lanes converted into storage areas. Though despite the obvious option of a continuation to the east via a New York Avenue Industrial Freeway to Maryland Route 50, without using the connecting segment of the Baltimore-Washington Parkway as an interstate highway, both the "North Leg-East" and the "East Leg" segments totally 4.7 miles would be "de-mapped" by 1978, so formally requested that August 7 by Mayor Walter E. Washington, and then on September 8, approved by Federal Highway Administrator
Karl S. Bowers and Urban Mass Transportation Administrator Richard S.
Page. This was done despite the clear need to extend the underground freeway at least to the east of North Capitol Street, a mere one block from the junction of the B&O and New York Avenue railroad industrial corridors, thus leaving the Center Leg ending at the traffic light intersection at 4th Street and New York Avenue NW, thus placing freeway levels of traffic upon the residential area along that Avenue and further east.
Such a decision was sufficiently unpopular to lead to a
1996 proposal through the D.C. Mayor's Office under then Mayor Marian Berry, who had been previously active with the 1960s-early 1970s anti freeway group Emergency Committee on the Transportation Crisis, for a vehicular tunnel connecting the Center Leg to the north-east, not alongside but rather directly beneath New York Avenue, thus avoiding displacing buildings (600+ for the 1971 plan, plus 148 for the segment westerly to connect with the K Street Tunnel segment of I-66), to either just east of North Capitol Street, or further to the vicinity of 7th Street NE. This proposal was alternatively known as the "Ron Linton" plan, and in 1996 included a set of underground ramps to the west to the then not yet constructed D.C. Convention Center. Its idea to place the tunnel entirely beneath New York Avenue required a curved transition to and from the Center Leg wrapping around the rear side of the Bibleway Church complex with a radii presenting a substandard geometry, and perhaps for that reason might not have been designated as an interstate highway. This proposal would have only provided 2 lanes in each direction, despite the Center Leg's design for greater capacity, and that of the width of the New York Avenue right of way being sufficient for at least a 6 lane interstate highway with full shoulders. The plan view shown in the 1996 report would be somewhat murky about the exact configuration of the underground ramp from the northbound Center Leg west to the Convention Center, alas with zero consideration for actual stubs for a revived K Street Tunnel project. The 1996 proposal would be followed by a D.C. Department of Transportation option for a version of the short tunnel to transition to an overpass carrying express traffic over Florida Avenue, as well as a longer tunnel extending to the intersection with Montana Avenue NE.
The general idea of a vehicular tunnel from the Center Leg via the New York Avenue would receive an apparent majority of local public support, particularly for the long and longer versions for separating non-local/express distance traffic from the surface. Yet it would be subverted, particularly regarding the long and longer versions by the authorities only considering such located directly beneath New York Avenue rather than the less disruptive to traffic and more potentially profitable option of alongside the Avenue once east of North Capital Street, taking advantage of the band of lightly developed commercial and industrial properties, including a strip of parking lots, which could then feature a linear park and new real estate development and even an adjacent tunnel box for a parallel WMATA rail transit line extending partially over the railroad chasm to the east of the B&O.
A study report ordered by the U.S. National Capital Planning Commission would go further in disregarding local sentiment by opposing any tunneled connection to the Center Leg with doctrinaire statements against accommodating regional automobile traffic, coupled with arguments that such traffic should either be discouraged altogether or simply diverted to the antiquated DC 295 Anacostia Freeway along the eastern side of the Anacostia through Washington, D.C.'s least affluent areas, with of course no regard for at least reconstructing that freeway as a cut and cover tunnel, both to modernize it for traffic while improving local access to the waterfront. Indeed, though that USNCPC report would fail to recommend any such improvements for DC 295, it included an additional traffic to further divert traffic into that less affluent area by including the suggestion to close the Center Leg's 1975-1986 constructed northernmost segment, with the argument that such traffic should take the antiquated DC 295 freeway to the the new connections to be included with the then being planned replacement 11th Street Bridges.
That project, completed since, would take a further decision to place a greater traffic burden upon the less affluent areas to the east and the south of the Anacostia River, by eliminating the direct freeway connection to the SE Freeway segment extending easterly from the 11th Street Bridges to Pennsylvania Avenue to the north and west of the Anacostia River. The current planning for that now stranded easternmost SE Freeway segment includes threats to amplify this social injustice by further reducing its traffic flow capacity. This is ostensibly for the sake of accommodating new real estate development. However this planning includes at least one variant potentially offering the best of all worlds of erecting a lid atop this current freeway segment to extend the raised topography to the north southward towards the Anacostia River to accommodate new parkland and development, though alas with the existing freeway re-purposed as an underground.parking area for tour buses, rather than as an express connection at least to Barney Circle, or better yet as such a coverway to RFK Stadium-East Capitol Street.
Cover This While Keeping It As A Freeway,
And Extend At Least to RFK Stadium-East Capital Street!
Such a box tunnel freeway continuation, with a local road and promenade atop would serve to improve local pedestrian access to the north-western bank of the Anacostia, while providing an alternative vehicular road to divert some traffic from the existing antiquated surface-elevated DC 295 Freeway to thus facilitate its reconstruction in a new cut and cover tunnel to both better accommodate the additional traffic encouraged by the new 11th Street Bridge's direct connections to the SE/SW freeway and to likewise tremendously improve the local accessibility upon that eastern bank of the Anacostia. But alas,
the planning is way too heavily shewed to favor the more affluent neighborhoods to the west, to bother considering the less affluent ones to the east.
Such is the very type of social injustice planning being supported by that pair of highly questionable real estate development planning decisions undertaken via the Jarvis Company- (1) to construct a new residential townhouse development
"The Hampshires" of some 110 units directly in the path of the connecting segment of the Least Environmentally Damaging Practical Alternative Route for a northern Washington, D.C. radial highway; and (2) to construct an air rights project
"Capitol Crossing" atop the downtown existing intercepting freeway segment for a route to the north with a design that fails to respect its full 8 lane design capacity, reducing that by essentially half, wasting such capacity for increased developer profit with zero consideration of the cost of making up such capacity with a parallel set of freeway tunnels, while furthermore eliminating an existing off-ramp with zero consideration of the costs of a replacement that would be needed with such a direct freeway continuation beyond the Center Leg's current terminus at New York Avenue and 4th Streets.
The Jarvis Company web-site admits to their involvement with these real estate development projects:
http://www.thejarviscompany.com/Projects.aspx
THE HAMPSHIRES
6000 New Hampshire Avenue, NE, Washington, DC
The Hampshires, located in the Lamond Riggs section of Northeast
Washington, DC, is a newly-constructed and unique community of 38
single-family homes and 73 townhomes. The Hampshires features exciting
floor plans, contemporary finishes, and up to 2,700 square feet of
living space. In conjunction with partner Four Points, LLC, The Jarvis
Company acquired and completed the entitlement development of the site
before turning over the construction and marketing of the new homes to
local home builder Comstock.
www.comstockhomes.com/hampshire.php
 |
 |
CAPITOL CROSSING
Land and Airspace Above I-395
Massachusetts Avenue, 2nd and 3rd Streets, E Street, NW, Washington, DC
Capitol Crossing will be a 2.2 million square foot, multi-phase
development, primarily office space, in the East End in Northwest
Washington, DC. This complex development project, which will infill the
air rights above the I-395 Center Leg Freeway and re-connect the street
grid at F and G Streets to how it was designed by Pierre L’Enfant, will
offer tenants the unique ability to grow and expand in LEED Platinum,
trophy buildings. Property Group Partners is the primary developer.
The Jarvis Company is a developer/investor in the project.
http://pgp.us.com/capitol_crossing/index.php
About the Jarvis Company:
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=290559333
The Jarvis Company, LLC is primarily engaged in the real estate
investment and development business. The company also provides strategic
advisory and development consulting services; engages in retail and
hospitality operations; and makes equity investments in real estate and
other ventures on a project-by-project basis. It owns interests in
various mixed-use, commercial, and residential real estate development
projects in the District of Columbia, as well as retail units at Reagan
National and Dulles airports. The company was founded in 1999 and is
based in Washington, District Of Columbia.
About the History of the Jarvis Company on their web site:
http://www.thejarviscompany.com/History.aspx
History of the Jarvis Family
 |
Reverend William Daniel Jarvis
Reverend Dr. William D. Jarvis was a founder and the
first pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church (1903 – 1940). In 1915, the
New Bethel congregation held its first worship service at the church’s
current site, located at 9th and S Streets, NW. Rev. Jarvis retired
from New Bethel in 1940, leaving a rich legacy of Christian outreach and
service. Washington, DC's first elected Congressman, Rev. Walter E.
Fauntroy, was the pastor of New Bethel for 50 years, building on the
legacy of service and community inclusion initiated by Rev. Jarvis. |
 |
Wm. Ernest Jarvis
In 1900, Wm. Ernest Jarvis founded The Jarvis Funeral
Home, which was first located at 2222 Georgia Avenue, NW (across the
street from Howard University) and then later relocated to 1432 U
Street, NW, at the center of the primary business corridor of the day
for black-owned businesses. Jarvis Funeral Home became a mainstay
provider for many prominent African-American families when the time came
to bury a loved one. |
 |
Norman O. Jarvis
The next generation of the Jarvis family was led by
Norman O. Jarvis, who served as the principal undertaker for the Jarvis
Funeral Home and who also served the District of Columbia as a member of
the Judicial Nominating Commission (appointed by President Richard
Nixon), the DC Board of Funeral Directors, and a DC Delegate to the
Republican National Conventions (1960, 1964, 1968). |
 |
Councilmember Charlene Drew Jarvis
In 1979, Charlene Drew Jarvis was elected to the District
of Columbia City Council, as the representative of Ward 4, where she
served for 21 years. During that service, Councilmember Jarvis was the
Chairperson of the Council’s Economic Development Committee, overseeing
much of the important business activity and regulation in the city. Her
work on behalf of the city established the foundation for much of the
resurgence that the District of Columbia is currently experiencing. |
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlene_Drew_Jarvis
Charlene Drew Jarvis (born July 31, 1941 in Washington, D.C.,[1] as Charlene Rosella Drew) is an American educator and former scientific researcher and politician who served as the president of Southeastern University until March 31, 2009.[2] Jarvis is the daughter of the blood plasma and blood transfusion pioneer Charles Drew.[3]
Life
Jarvis earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Oberlin College in 1962, a Master of Science degree in psychology from Howard University in 1964, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree in neuropsychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1971.[1][4]
Ward 4's representative to the Council of the District of Columbia, Arrington Dixon,
won the election for chairman of the council in November 1978, leaving
the Ward 4 seat vacant. Jarvis won the special election to fill the seat
on May 1, 1979. She was then reelected to the council in 1980, 1984,
1988, 1992, and 1996. Jarvis sought reelection again in 2000, but she
was defeated in the Democratic primary by Adrian Fenty who also holds degrees from Oberlin and Howard University.[5][6][7]
So sad particularly that an African-American family business that worked to place a disproportionate traffic burden in Washington, D.C.'s least affluent areas for the sake of a political agenda to push such away from the areas of the largest Roman Catholic school properties.
Residents of Washington, D.C. in particular ought to actively protest at various Jarvis Company facilities, asking those involved with such decisions if they were even aware of the broader picture of the ramifications.
http://www.thejarviscompany.com/
How to reach us:
William Jarvis
The Jarvis Company, LLC
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 202
wjarvis@thejarviscompany.com
202-204-1046
