Calendar of Events
Note: Meetings are usually held on the second Sunday of each month, September through May, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. Currently we are meeting via Zoom, but in-person meetings are held at the Bethesda-Chevy Chase Services Center, 4805 Edgemoor Lane, Bethesda, Maryland, and occasionally at other venues. The meetings are open to anyone. However, certain meetings may require a fee.
Lost Farms and Estates of Washington, D.C.
January 12, 2025 @ 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Speaker: Kim Prothro Williams
Washington, D.C.
(Members will receive a link and passcode.)
TALK DESCRIPTION
Lost Farms and Estates of Washington, D.C. will highlight the transformation of the rural landscape and history of the District of Columbia from before its establishment as the nation’s capital in the late 18th century until the last farm ceased operation in the city in the 1960s.
Most of the farmsteads and country estates in the once-rural landscape of the District have long since disappeared as the modern metropolis has grown well beyond its original bounds. But, traces of that rural cultural landscape do remain in the old country lanes that snake quietly through the city’s grid, or in the occasional old house that sits askew from its neighbors.
Through an examination of these surviving buildings, Kim brings together a history of the once-rural landscape and the seminal moments in time, such as the Civil War and the extension of the city’s street plan beyond the original planned city, that contributed to the eventual elimination of rural Washington.
BIO
Kim Prothro Williams is an architectural historian who has been researching and writing about historic places and communities in and around DC for the past 30 years.
She is the National Register Coordinator at the D.C. Historic Preservation Office where she has studied a diverse range of buildings and communities and has developed a particular interest in the history of planning and the evolution of place.
She enjoys discovering physical remnants of the past that reveal the transformation of their environments and contribute to telling the stories behind the making of place.
Kim is the published author of many neighborhood history and heritage trail brochures, websites, blog posts, and articles dealing with the built environment. She is the author of several books. These include her most recent books, Lost Farms and Estates of Washington, D.C (History Press, 2018) which examines the transformation of Washington’s agricultural landscapes, and Hidden Alleyways of Washington, D.C: A History (Georgetown University Press, 2023) which traces the physical and social origins and history of the city’s alleyways.