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Photo: Senate Photography Studio, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
The Smithsonian's least visited museum, far from the Mall, is a small but superbly exhibited tribute to Anacostia and D.C. "East of the River", and also to African-American history.
The Anacostia Community Museum is a community museum in the Anacostia neighborhood of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is one of twenty museums under the umbrella of the Smithsonian Institution and was the first federally funded community museum in the United States. The museum, founded in 1967, was created with the intention to bring aspects of the Smithsonian museums, located on the National Mall, to the Anacostia neighborhood, with the hope that community members from the neighborhood would visit the main Smithsonian museums. It became federally funded in 1970 and focuses on the community in and around Anacostia in its exhibitions. This museum also houses a library.
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Fort Stanton was the first of dozens in the "Fort Circle" designed to protect the capital from Confederate attacks during the Civil War. All that remains is a historic marker, but the real attraction is the superb view of the capital from this high, grassy hill behind the church parking lot.
Frederick Douglass' house in D.C. In addition to the small museum and gift shop, you may visit the house, but only on a tour. Tours are available by RSVP at 9AM, 12:15PM, 1:45PM, 3PM, and 3:30PM daily.
The heart of historic Uniontown is bounded by MLK Jr Ave, Good Hope Dr, 14th St, and W St SE. In this community of well preserved, wooden, Gothic houses, look especially for the colorful Rosie's Row of townhouses on the north side of U St just west of 13th, and for the 1879 St. Teresa of Avila Catholic Church at 1244 V St SE. The neighborhood is small enough where you could easily cover it on foot from the Frederick Douglass House and downtown Anacostia, and you would race through all there is to see in a car.
Why visit a mental hospital? Because the historic grounds and buildings are beautiful (if a little run-down and creepy). On top of that, you can see some great views from here of the D.C. skyline. The hospital was founded in 1852 as the first major government-run mental institution, and at its peak housed 7,000 patients, which at one point included both President Lincoln's and President Garfield's assassins. The hospital still operates, but on a much reduced scale. The Department of Homeland Security has plans to relocate here in 2021. Construction may have already started, as money for the purpose was requested in the 2016 Federal budget. You aren't really supposed to drive into the facility, but a little smooth talking at the gate may get an architecture buff inside. The east campus, owned by the District instead of the federal government, is being redeveloped. The centerpiece of the east campus is a newly opened arena that became home to the Capital City Go-Go, the NBA G League farm team of the Washington Wizards, in 2018 and the WNBA's (women) Washington Mystics in 2019. (The WNBA season falls during the NBA offseason.) The complex also serves as the practice facility for the Wizards, whose parent company also owns the Mystics and Go-Go.
Much of the museum's content is displayed on a series of panels covering a diverse set of personalities including Estevanico, Omar ibn Said, Hajj Ali, Yarrow Mamout, and Mohammed Alexander Russell Webb. It makes note of America's unique ethnic groups and migration patterns, including the hard to define Melungeons and the immigration of Bosnian Muslims starting in the 19th century. There is an extensive section on the Nation of Islam with old newspapers, photographs and other memorabilia.
The Honfleur Gallery has one foot in the world of international contemporary art, and one foot in Anacostia. The world inside, with its large, beautiful space stocked with a surround sound system and flat screen TVs, looks like it would be more at home in Manhattan than, well, Anacostia. But it is run by a local nonprofit dedicated to promoting the arts in the world just outside, and in bringing them together with its annual East of the River showcase of local artists' work.