Politics and Prose

Comet Ping Pong (often abbreviated as Comet) is a pizzeria, restaurant, and concert venue located on Connecticut Avenue in Washington, D.C.'s Chevy Chase neighborhood. Owned by James Alefantis, Comet has received critical acclaim from The Washington Post, The Washingtonian, New York magazine, the DCist, and Guy Fieri of Food Network's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Comet was founded in 2006 by Alefantis and Carole Greenwood, both of whom also co-owned another restaurant on the same block. The restaurant was involved in a disagreement with the area's Advisory Neighborhood Commission over concerts inside the restaurant in 2008. Alefantis became the sole owner of Comet Ping Pong in 2009 after Greenwood, a chef at both restaurants, left her position as co-owner and executive chef of Comet. The restaurant is the focus of the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, which has been discredited by a wide variety of organizations, including the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia. One Pizzagate activist fired a gun in the restaurant in 2016, and another started a fire in it in 2019. In 2020, the restaurant temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Engine Company 31, also known as the Forest Hills Firehouse, is a fire station and an historic structure located in the Wakefield neighborhood in Washington, D.C. It was listed on both the DC Inventory of Historic Sites and on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011. The brick building was designed by Albert L. Harris and built in 1931.

St. Paul's Lutheran Church is a decorated Gothic Revival-style Lutheran church in northwest Washington, D.C. Currently located off of Connecticut Avenue NW, between Ellicott and Everett Streets, it was originally founded in 1843 as the first English-speaking Lutheran church in the District. St. Paul's is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

The Peter Muhlenberg Memorial is a public monument in Washington, D.C. It honors John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister, Continental Army general, Federalist Era American politician, and member of the prominent Muhlenberg family. The memorial is located in a one-acre park bounded by Connecticut Avenue, Ellicott Street, and 36th Street NW on the eastern edge of Washington's Wakefield neighborhood. Designed by architect John Harbeson, it features at its center a bronze bust of Muhlenberg, sculpted by his descendant, Caroline M. Hufford. Completed in 1980, 52 years after its construction was authorized by Congress, attendees at the dedication ceremony included West German ambassador Peter Hermes. The bronze sculpture of Muhlenberg is displayed on a limestone pedestal and surrounded on three sides by a concrete exedra. The memorial is owned and maintained by the National Park Service, a federal agency of the Interior Department.

Fort Kearny was a fort constructed during the American Civil War as part of the defenses of Washington, D.C. Located near Tenleytown, in the District of Columbia, it filled the gap between Fort Reno and Fort DeRussy north of the city of Washington. The fort was named in honor of Maj. Gen. Philip Kearny of the Union Army, who was killed at the Battle of Chantilly on September 1, 1862. Three batteries of guns (Battery Rossell, Battery Terrill, and Battery Smead) supported the fort, and are considered part of the fort's defenses.

Wakefield is a neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., bounded by Albemarle Street NW to the south, Nebraska Avenue NW to the west, and Connecticut Avenue to the east. It is served by the Van Ness-UDC and Tenleytown-AU station on the Washington Metro's Red Line. The area was first developed in the 1930s by R.B. Warren, who built 100 brick homes between Nebraska and Connecticut north of Albemarle and named the new neighborhood "Wakefield", after the plantation where George Washington was born. This new residential development was part of, and contributed to, the burgeoning growth along Connecticut Avenue. To support the growing population in Wakefield and surrounding neighborhoods, a Piggly Wiggly grocery store was built in 1928 on the west side of Connecticut just south of Albemarle, and the Chevy Chase Park N' Shop - the first modern shopping center and sports complex in the area, with an A&P, Peoples, Woolworth's, Best's, an ice skating rink, and a bowling alley - was built in 1938 on the east side of the same block.Wakefield remains a residential enclave today, in close proximity to the commercial centers at Van Ness, Tenleytown, and Chevy Chase DC. The neighborhood also includes a public school, Ben W. Murch Elementary School, and a fire house, DC Engine Company 31, both built and placed into service in 1930.In May, 2014, the Washington Post reported that Wakefield had become one of the most popular neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. according to the real-estate listing service MRIS. Homes in Wakefield appreciated more than any other neighborhood in the District in the 12 months to July 2015, up 42 percent from $573,433 to $814,045.

Fort Reno was a major fortification of the Civil War Defenses of Washington, located in what is now the Tenleytown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The fort sat on the highest natural point in the District of Columbia. Fort Reno played a part in the only Civil War battle to take place in the District of Columbia, at the Battle of Fort Stevens.

Reno was a town and then neighborhood in Washington, D.C. that existed from the 1860s into the mid-twentieth century on the ground that is now Fort Reno Park in the Tenleytown neighborhood. The town's residents were largely African American, which eventually led to its clearance for Fort Reno Park and Alice Deal Middle School. Its original developers referred to it as Reno City, however this name faded from use before the 1920s.

Fort Reno Park is an urban park in the Tenleytown neighborhood of Northwest Washington, D.C. It is named after Fort Reno, one of the only locations in the District of Columbia to see combat during the American Civil War. The park was established in the 1920s to clear an African American neighborhood called Reno from the site, in what was becoming an affluent white suburban area.Most of the property is owned by the National Park Service, including a community garden, a former community center, and large expanses of grass. The D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation operates a baseball field and several tennis courts at the southwestern corner of the park. Also located within the park are a large reservoir facility operated by DC Water, Alice Deal Middle School, the Reno School, and a former Continuity of Government facility now operated by the Federal Aviation Administration. In addition, the highest natural point in the District of Columbia lies within the park.The bandstand located on the south side of the reservoir has hosted an annual DIY concert series that has been important to the D.C.'s music scene, particularly the D.C. hardcore punk community.

The Ponce de Leon Apartment Building is a historic structure located in the North Cleveland Park neighborhood in the Northwest Quadrant of Washington, D.C. David L. Stern designed the structure in a combination of the Mission Revival and the Spanish Revival styles. The building was completed in 1928. It is an example of 1920s exoticism in a prominent apartment corridor in the city. The exterior features diapered brickwork, terra cotta tile roof, limestone portico and trim, and Moorish arch motifs. The interior features an intact lobby with a decorative plaster ceiling and a terrazzo floor. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1994.

The Reno School is a historic school building located at 4820 Howard Street NW, completed in 1903 to serve the needs of the Reno community in Washington, D.C. Like all public schools in the District at the time, it was segregated and served African American students in the area west of Rock Creek Park and north of Georgetown. The school was closed in 1950 after the Reno community was evicted to create Fort Reno Park and the adjacent Alice Deal Middle School. Subsequently, the D.C. government converted the structure into a Civil Defense office and constructed antenna towers on its grounds. The building later was converted back into a school serving special education students, later called the Rose School after Rose Weintraub Alpher. After sitting abandoned for several decades, preservation groups succeeded in granting the structure historic designation in 2009 ahead of a planned renovation. In 2015, the historic building was restored and incorporated into a wing of the Deal School. While the National Register of Historic Places listing refers to it as the Jesse Reno School contemporary accounts do not reference Civil War General Jesse L. Reno and no formal documentation has been found for this name. Newspapers instead refer to it as the "Reno School" or "Fort Reno School." The neighborhood was named after the fort, which was named after the general.

Temple Sinai is a Reform Jewish synagogue in Washington, D.C.