The borders of the "Capitol Hill" neighborhood are often
disputed; all of Lincoln Towers' buildings, though, are in the heart
of any map of the Hill. The central diamond below (bordered by
the US Capitol on the east, Lincoln Park in the West, Stanton Park in
the North, and Seward Square in the South) is the home of most of our
buildings. For general Washington, DC information check out
http://dcpages.ari.net/ or
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/eg/section/main/index.html
Transportation:
With its wide, tree
lined streets, Capitol Hill is definitely a walking neighborhood.
Our three main metro stops are Capitol South, Eastern Market,
and Union Station.
Capitol South: 1st and D Street, SE. Serves the orange and blue lines.
Eastern Market: 7th and Pennsylvania, SE. Serves the orange and blue lines
Union Station: 1st and Massachusetts, NE. Serves the red line.
Union Station is the D.C. hub for Amtrak trains and the Mark trains for commuters and travelers alike. Public buses service the neighborhood as well. Metro and bus information can be found at http://www.wmata.com/default.cfm. Train/Union Station information can be found at http://www.unionstationdc.com.
Zipcar is a great alternative for those of you who
do not have a car, but need one on occasion. If you are not
familiar with the service, Zipcar has a bunch of cars located
throughout the city that you can rent by the hour or day. A
small membership fee is required, but then you can reserve your car
via internet or the phone. It is cheap, environmental and
pretty cool (they include mini coopers in their fleet!). More
info can be found at www.zipcar.com.
Our tenants at 121 12th Street have access to a car
on-site and receive a discounted rate. They also have a pickup
truck or two available for moving furniture into your new
apartment.
Finally, Capitol Hill has plenty of
taxis cruising the streets. Helpful hint: Catch (or get
out of) a taxi in front of the Hart Senate Office Building at 100
Maryland Avenue, NE. Taxi drivers in DC use a zone system to
charge customers and 2nd St., NE is the zone boundary (cross this
line and you pay more!).
Shopping on the Hill:
Groceries... the largest grocery store in the immediate area is the
Safeway at 14th and D Street, SE. Every few blocks has a corner
store in which you can find an amazing array of items crammed into a
relatively tiny space. Congress Market at 5th and East Capitol
is a fine example. A somewhat larger corner store can be found
at the corner of 3rd and Massachusetts Avenue, NE. Eastern
market at 7th Street and North Carolina, SE offers a fine selection
of old fashioned butchers, grocers and an excellent cheese seller.
On the weekends, Eastern Market has an open-air farmers
market.
Gifts and clothing... Union Station
serves as our local mall http://www.unionstationdc.com.
There are also a number of good boutiques along 7th street
between North Carolina and Pennsylvania, SE. The center of
activity along this corridor is Eastern Market. On the
weekends, the market is a major attraction with its crafts vendors
and a flea market in the Hine Junior High School parking lot. This
is also a good starting point for weekend yard sales, as many
families post their sales on posts near the market. Just past
the market on Pennsylvania are a number of antique shops, health food
stores, and other storefronts to satisfy your shopping needs.
Finally, 8th Street, SE is an up and coming retail
corridor with some interesting art boutiques, flower shops, and
restaurants. Check out Homebody at 715 8th Street
for the unique home décor and gifts. Tell Erin and Henriette
we said Hello if you stop by.
Books...
Riverby Books is the best used-bookstore on the Hill, in DC, and
perhaps in the world. Riverby is located at 417 East Capitol
Street and is open every day from 10AM until whenever the locals
decide to get out of their comfy chairs, put down their tea, buy
their books and go home. (Disclosure: We own Riverby, but
are completely unbiased in our opinion of its fine quality). There
are a few other bookstores in the area, but do we really need to
mention them? (Oh, o.k.... if you really want to go somewhere else,
check out Capitol Hill Books right across the street from Eastern
Market or online at http://www.capitolhillbooks-dc.com/chbooksdc/).
Tell 'em we sent you.
Hardware...
Fragers. Period. This is the best local hardware store
any neighborhood could want. Located at 1115 Pennsylvania
Avenue, SE, Fragers has a central store with the usual hardware
supplies, a separate paint store on the corner, and an equipment
rental store for larger projects. But, um, please tell us if you are
planning any projects in our apartments!
Ok, some shopping has to be done off the Hill. We recognize
this, but frown upon those who leave the fold. The shining
beacon of all apartment dwellers is Ikea (www.ikea.com).
The closest blue box is only a 15-20 minute drive out in College
Park, Maryland. For the uninitiated, Ikea is the mecca of
cheap, creative Scandanavian furniture and home goods. No
apartment is complete without an Ektorp, Ivar, and Meshugennah.
They also have good, cheap Scandanavian eats. Mmm, Swedish
meatballs with lingonberry sauce.
Restaurants:
Breakfast... The competition is fast and furious between "Jimmy
T's" and "Market Breakfast" at Eastern Market. On
the weekends, both places attract large crowds and long lines, but
weekdays serve a loyal crowd of locals. Market breakfast is on
the North end of Eastern Market at 7th Street and North Carolina, SE.
Jimmy T's is on the corner of East Capitol and 5th Street, SE.
The hill also boasts a large number of coffee places. Check
out Pennsylvania Avenue between 2nd and 8th to find your own personal
favorite half-caff-decaf-caramel-mochachino. The corner of
Pennsylvania and 7th Street, SE boasts both "Murky Coffee"
and "Bread and Chocolate"... two fine coffee/breakfast
options. Murky has free internet access, so you may have to
fight one of the ibook toting geeks for a seat.
Lunch and Dinner... the above mentioned Pennsylvania Ave. corridor is
a good place to sample a wide variety of lunch and dinner places, as
is 7th Street by Eastern Market (Marvelous Market and Torilla Cafe
are two local favorites). The government crowd tends to hang
out among the dozen or so eateries on Massachusetts Avenue from Union
Station to 4th Street, NE. Our personal favorite for a good,
cheap bagel sandwich is "Bagels and Baguettes" at the
corner of Mass. and 3rd, NE. Say "Hi" to the owner,
Helen, if you go there. Finally, 8th Street, south of
Pennsylvania has a number of good restaurants... check out "Banana
Cafe" for great Cuban/Latin- American food and supposedly great
margaritas. We wouldn't know ourselves, of course.
Culture
and Entertainment:
The obvious choice is
the unparalleled collection of free museums on the Mall (just east of
the Capitol Building). A good map can be seen at
http://smithsonian.org/visit/infocenter/mallmap.htm
In addition, the Hill has plays, poetry readings, and medieval music
at the Folger Shakespeare Library on East Capitol Street
http://www.folger.edu/indexb.html;
free movies and talks at the Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/;
free band concerts at the Marine Barracks every Friday night in the
summers and on the steps of the Capitol (call 224-3121 for
information).
On the pop culture front, the
Hill has its own nine-theater cineplex at Union Station. We have the
required Blockbuster Video on 8th Street, SE, but we're currently
lacking a good independently owned video store with all of the
foreign and independent titles anyone could want... and maybe one of
those little free popcorn machines in the corner? Any
entrepreneurs out there? We have space!
Improving your mind and body... The Capitol Hill Arts Workshop (CHAW)
offers a wide array of photography, painting, dance classes, etc.
They are located at 7th and G Streets, SE. The DC
Recreation Department runs an indoor swimming pool, the Natatorium,
on North Carolina Street behind Eastern market We have a few
private gyms on the hill, as well, including "Results"
which has restored an old school building on D Street, SE, between
3rd and 4th Streets. Results can be found at
http://www.resultsthegym.com/capitol/homepage.html.
St. Marks church offers yoga classes, as does "Dancing
Heart" on 5th and C Streets, NE.
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