Bicycle Lane, DC Circulator, National Baptist Church, Mount Pleasant, Washington, DC
Even though I was in California this week, I have to stay true to the purpose of this blog, which is to highlight the Washington, DC community. This week’s photograph was taken in the Adams Morgan neighborhood facing the Mount Pleasant neighborhood.
In the distance, you can see the National Baptist Church, and in the foreground, you can see one of the impacts of the Live Well DC campaign, a bicycle lane. Bike lanes in Washington, DC, have been doubled in the past year thanks to collaboration between the Department of Health and the Department of Transportation. These improvements make using the United States’ largest bicycle sharing system, Capital Bikeshare, that much easier.
The National Baptist Memorial Church surprisingly doesn’t have its own Wikipedia page, but I did find this blurb about it from a brochure posted in the DC Historic Preservation Office:
Consecration of the unfinished Bible School House on January 1, 1909, the first step in their building program, was illuminated by automobile headlights. They provided their pastor with an automobile, the ‘Gospel Car,’ to make his rounds. Upon receiving a better offer from another church, he noted: “How can I leave a people who love me enough to give me a Christmas gift of a Ford Touring Car.” He did leave, however, shortly thereafter.
You can also see one of our communities’ favorite other alternative modes of transportation, the DC Circulator, traveling on a predictable route with GPS location only a text message away…
Capital bikeshare Dupont Circle
Capital Bikeshare at 14th and U streets
These are two of the Capital Bikeshare stations. The one at 14th and U is, I think, meaningful to our city. 42 years after the riots that destroyed Washington, DC ( this blog post touches on these ), started here, these are a new symbol of wellness and healing.