Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah Synagogue

Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah--the National Synagogue

Located at 1600 Jonquil Street NW, Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah Synagogue describes itself as "the National Synagogue." The synagogue is a merger of two congregations whose respective histories date back to the late 1880s and early 1890s.

Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah is a merger of two congregations originally founded in the late 1800s

Founded in 1886, Ohev Shalom was formed by a group of Russian Orthodox Jews who fled their homeland under the despotic rule of Czar Alexander III. The congregation originally met on the second floor of Myer's Clothing store in the 1100 block of 7th Street NW. Established in 1892, Torah Talmud was a group of 28 families in southwest Washington who gathered daily to hold minyans. They first met in Isaac Levy's clothing store at 4 1/2 Street SW. In 1958, the two congregations merged and in 1960, they dedicated the Ohev Shalom Talmud Torah Synagogue at 16th and Jonquil, where they've gathered ever since.

The synagogue is located directly across the street from last week's featured church--the Tifereth Israel Congregation.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Baha'i Faith Center

The Baha'i Faith Center

The Baha'i Faith Center at 5713 16th Street NW is a multi-national faith reflecting the diversity of the world at-large and communities in particular. The Baha'i faith is one of the youngest monotheistic religions in the world. Founded in the 1800s in Persia by Baha'u'llah, the Baha'i emphasize the spiritual unity of humanity and see religious history as a series of messengers or prophets sent by God/Allah/Yahweh at appropriate and needful times in human history.

Prior this location, the Baha'i Center of Washington was located down on Massachusetts Avenue in a building that is now owned and occupied by the Human Rights Campaign.

UPDATE at 8:30 p.m.: I just realized that I mixed up the Baha'i Faith Center with the B'nai Brith. It is the latter that use to be headquartered down on Mass Ave. The B'nai Brith is a Jewish humanitarian, human rights, and advocacy group. After selling their building to the Human Rights Campaign, they relocated to 2020 K Street NW. My apologies for any confusion.

Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist

Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist : Definitely not brutalist architecture

Unlike its brutalist counterpart down on 16th and I Streets NW, the Fourth Church of Christ, Scientist on 16th Street NW just above Kennedy looks like a suburban rambler. A Google search for information about this church yielded a website for a congregation with a similar name down in the Columbia Heights neighborhood. This church is in Crestwood and I am unable to find a fixed address or specific information about this congregation. Regardless, it's on 16th Street and is part of my continuing series on the Churches of 16th Street.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Sixth Presbyterian Church of Washington

Sixth Presbyterian Church at 16th and Kennedy Streets NW

Moving forward with my series The Churches of 16th Street, this is the Sixth Presbyterian Church of Washington. Located at 5413 16th Street NW at Kennedy Street, this congregation has been ministering in the Nation's Capital for more than 150 years. While the church has a website, there isn't a lot of information about their history in the city. The congregation describes itself as a "welcoming, inclusive congregation of diverse cultures and talents ministering in the nation's capital."

Sixth Presbyterian: A congregation of inclusion

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhist Temple

Located on the corner of 16th Street and Blagden Avenue NW is the Nipponzan Myohoji Japanese Buddhist Temple. The Nipponzan Myohoji was founded by Nichidatsu Fujii. Fujii Guruji opened a temple in China in 1918. In the 1930s, he visited India and met Mahatma Ghandi. At the end of World War II, and in response to the nuclear bombings of Horoshima and Nagasaki by the Americans, Fujii Guruji spent the rest of his life working to abolish nuclear arms. The dojo in Washington, D.C., was opened in 1974.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Church of Christ

Church of Christ

Continuing the Churches of 16th Street series, this is the Church of Christ located at 4801 16th Street NW. I couldn't find a website for this particular congregation. If anyone knows the history of the church and this location, please let me know.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Seventh Day Baptist Church

Seventh Day Baptist Church: Like their counterparts, the Seventh Day Adventists,
they worship on Saturdays. That's where the similarities end.

This past spring, I started a twice-weekly series called The Churches of 16th Street. The series featured a picture and information about a different church on 16th Street NW every Wednesday and Saturday. In June, I suspended the series because the weather was warming up and I was getting out and photographing more. As we move into the late fall and early winter months, it's getting dark earlier and the weather is a bit nippier, which means I'm not going out as frequently. So, today, I'm resuming posts about the remaining churches I haven't featured in this series. I'll post in this series once a week, on Saturdays.

To start (or restart) us off, this week's church is the Seventh Day Baptist Church. Located at 4700 16th Street NW, this congregation was established in 1946. I couldn't find information about how long they've been worshiping at their current location. What makes this gathering of Baptists unique from their broader Baptist counterparts is, Seventh Day Baptists worship on the biblical Sunday--what is known on the calendar as Saturday--rather than on calendar Sundays. In this sense, they are akin to Seventh Day Adventists, but that's as far as the similarities run. To learn more about Seventh Day Baptists, visit this information page on the church's website.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

Thunderstruck

Memorial to Guglielmo Marconi in Mt. Pleasant

If you ever want to read a great true crime/historical piece, pick up a copy of Erik Larson's Thunderstruck. It's the story of Guglielmo Marconi and the invention of transatlantic, wireless communication that resulted in solving a murder and solidifying wireless as the primary means of communication between Europe and North America.

This memorial to Marconi is located in Mt. Pleasant at Lamont and 16th Streets NW. I couldn't find any information regarding how this bust memorializing Marconi came to be in Washington, in general, and at this location, in particular. If anyone has any information about this statue, let me know.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential

19th Street Baptist Church

19th Street Baptist Church: Contagious Christianity since 1870!

Located at 4606 16th Street NW is one of Washington's oldest Baptist churches--19th Street Baptist Church. In March 1802, a group of Baptists joined together and began creating a religious community that would grow in prominence over the next 200 years. Six months after the initial members gathered, they acquired a plot of land at the corner of I and 19th Streets NW. They built a church and named it 19th Street Baptist Church. For more than 135 years the church met downtown, but in 1975 it moved to its current location on 16th Street. Despite its move from 19th Street to 16th Street, the church hasn't changed its name.

While the church's website includes a picture with D.C. mayor, Adrian Fenty, I don't know if this is actually where he goes to church. It's only a few blocks from his home, but then so too are a number of other churches.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

Simpson-Hamline United Methodist Church

Simpson-Hamline UMC

Simpson-Hamline United Methodist Church is located at 4501 16th Street NW. The website listed for the church is incorrect and no other specific information could be located about this particular church or its community. If anyone has any information about this church, please let me know!

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

Meridian Hill Park

Meridian Hill Park includes this beautiful stepped fountain. Built in the 1930s, it utilized concrete conglomerate--considered an innovative medium for sculpture and park fountains at the time.

Originally the site of a mansion built by John Porter, Meridian Hill Park in northwest Washington lies exactly on the meridian line surveyed by Benjamin Banneker in Jones Point, Virginia, in 1791 thereby setting the first official boundary stone for the District of Columbia.

In the 19th century, the park was the site of Columbia College, which later became The George Washington University. During the Civil War, Union soldiers camped on Meridian Hill. In the early 20th century, the land was bought by the U.S. government and plans were drawn up for a formal garden park meant to rival the royal parks and gardens of Europe. In 1933, the grounds were transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) and in 1936, the park was completed. In 1969, it was suppose to be renamed Malcolm X Park, but Congress wouldn't ratify the name. Still, some long-time residents of the city refer to it as such, while most newer residents continue to call it Meridian Hill.

The park includes statues of James Buchanan, 15th POTUS; Dante Allegri;
and Joan D'Arc. (Click on images to enlarge.)

For many years, the park was a lovely oasis in the city, but in the 1970s and 80s, Meridian Hill fell prey to crime and the drug trade. Open air dealing was not an uncommon site and the area was considered unsafe, especially after sunset. In 1990, a group of citizens banded together to form the "Friends of Meridian Hill Park" after a teenager was murdered in the park. Their work, in conjunction with the NPS, has restored the park to its former glory. Today, the park is again a clean, relatively safe gathering place for residents and visitors.

The stepped fountain as seen from the terrace above. Note in the distance,
the Washington Monument peeking over the top of the apartment building in the foreground.

The park features a beautiful, cascading water fountain and statues of President James Buchanan, Dante Allegri, Joan D'Arc, and an unusual memorial to an unknown Naval officer, William Schvelte. There is also a pavilion on the northeast side of the park and a temporary stage structure on the terrace above the water fountain. It is there during the summer months that a group of musicians congregate and beat their drums on Sundays.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 6/08

Iglesia de Dio Pentecostal Emanuel Church

Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Emanuel Church

Iglesia de Dios Pentecostal Emanuel Church is located at 4411 16th Street NW. The church does not have a website, so there is no additional information for this particular church and its congregation.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

National Church of the Nazarene

National Church of the Nazarene: Shepherding the Nation's Capital

The National Church of the Nazarene (4401 16th Street NW) serves four demographically unique congregations and provides services in English, Spanish, Haitian, and Congolese. While the congregation's website provides little information other than meeting times, the church is a part of the larger Church of the Nazarene body. According to the larger church's information site, this congregation was established in 1917.

The Church of the Nazarene is an off-shoot of the Wesleyan tradition and is described as an evangelical Christian denomination. The church's core values include "to make Christlike disciples in all nations." While the largest concentration of Nazarenes live in the U.S., more members actually live in countries outside the U.S. and the church claims membership in 151 "world areas."

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church: A congregation in the Greek Orthodox tradition

St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church (4335 16th Street NW) is a Greek Orthodox congregation and is next door to Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church on 16th Street. St. George's is named for 3rd century A.D./C.E. soldier and martyr George of Anatolia. George refused to renounce his Christian beliefs and was tortured and beheaded in 303 B.C. Today, he is the patron saint of Aragon, Catalonia, England, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Palestine, Portugal, and Russia and an annual feast day--April 23--commemorates his martyrdom.

Although St. George's Church has a well-developed website, it doesn't provide a specific history of the congregation or its building. Nevertheless, the church appears to be actively engaged in the lives of its parishioners and they in the life of the church. In addition to the traditional parish council, the church also has a choir that sings Russian and Byzantine melodies and a cantor who chants in Arabic; the Fellowship of Saint John the Divine where, according to the church's website, "If you exceeded your teen years, (and you no longer know everything), the Fellowship is where you want to be for your continued self development both socially, as well as spiritually"; and the Ladies Myrrh Bearing Society. (Click on images to enlarge.)

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church--a lovely old Gothic church

Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church is located at 4300 16th Street NW. The congregational annual report from the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America--the governing body of most Lutheran congregations in the U.S.--lists Grace Church as being organized in 1876. Unfortunately, the congregation's website provides very little historical information, (though it does mention that the church was built in the 1920s) and most of its information is currently under construction.

Regardless, this is a lovely stone church in the Gothic style. An older, also scanty website provides a picture tour of the interior, which includes a beautiful three-pane set of stained glass windows above the church's altar. Services are available in English and Oromo--an Ethiopian language.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

Northwest Community Church

Northwest Community Church:
Pointing the world to Christ, one heart at a time

Northwest Community Church (4100 16th Street NW) is a non-denominational church affiliated with the Church of God. A movement started in 1881, the church places emphasis on unifying God's people and encouraging holy living. The church's founders "sought to forsake denominational hierarchies and formal creeds, trusting solely in the Holy Spirit as their overseer and the Bible as their statement of belief.... Their aim was not to establish another denomination but to promote primary allegiance to Jesus Christ so as to transcend denominational loyalties."

The Northwest Community Church was established in 2006 and is an outgrowth of the National Memorial Church of God--one of 25 national churches in Washington, D.C. Due to declines in members and shifting demographics, the larger church closed it doors and encouraged the establishment of smaller congregations. This specific congregation has chosen a mission focused on pointing the world to Christ. They sum up their mission in four words: reaching, growing, loving, and worshiping.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

Saints Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church

Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church:
Preserving the beauty and grandeur of the Greek Orthodox tradition

In 1918, a group of Greek immigrants gathered and formed a religious community "in keeping with its political and philosophical convictions." With a $25,000 contribution from Demetrios Theophilatos, a wealthy ship owner, the Greek community in Washington purchased a church at 6th and C Streets SW. The parish searched for a priest to lead their congregation and Father Nicholas Menides took up the calling. Thus was born Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church. Like many other Greek Orthodox congregations in the U.S., this one was aware of and influenced by the political atmosphere in their homeland of Greece. This influence resulted in divisions within the congregations, which led the congregation of Constantine & Helen to align themselves with the Autocephalous Church of America and Canada. Over the years, the church grew and was politically and socially active in Washington, D.C.

In 1954, the church moved from southwest D.C. to a new church at 16th and Upshur Streets NW (4115 16th Street NW) and their church was consecrated in 1960. At one point, the church's sanctuary was heavily damaged by a mysterious fire. According to Constantine and Helen's website, the fire "reduced the Holy Week Cross to charcoal--but wonder of wonders, the figure of Christ remained untouched!" This Greek Orthodox church has a long and respected history in the city and has been the site of many historical events within the congregation and visits from many notable dignitaries, including Kings George and Paul of Greece, Prime Minister Konstantinos Tsaldaris, and First Lady Betty Ford. The church was also the site of the last divine liturgy delivered by Archbishop Athenagoras before his ascension to the Ecumenical Throne--the Greek Orthodox equivalent of papal ascension to the Holy See in the Roman Catholic Church.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 4/08

Numbers

Numbers on a Metro bus stop sign

This month's theme for City Daily Photo bloggers is Numbers, so I scoured my archives to see if I could find anything with numbers in it that didn't include a shot of the front of my house. What I found was this picture of a Metro Bus sign. Metro, which is short for WMATA, which is the acronym for Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, is the transportation system that serves the Washington Metropolitan Area with busses and subways.

I'm not a registered City Daily Photo participant, (even though I manage to post as little as one and as many as 20+ photos per entry per day.) The result of my non-participation is, I never know what the month's theme is until I look at the blogs of those who are registered.

To see a full list of participants in City Daily Photo, visit anyone of these excellent blogs: BostonScapes, Quincy Daily Photo, Chicago Daily Photo, Cheltenham Daily Photo, Paris Daily Photo, Köln-Journal, and Vienna Daily Photo. These are just a sample of the more-than-175 photo and city enthusiasts around the world who post pictures of the places they live and work on a daily basis!

Trinity AME Zion Church

Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church: Serving This Present Age

Founded in 1883, Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church (3505 16th Street NW) was originally located at 10th and V Streets NW. In 1909, Trinity A.M.E. and North Washington Church of Mount Pleasant merged, creating one congregation. In 1983, the church moved to its present location on 16th Street and, the church's website indicates, they paid off their mortgage in 1991.

The church is engaged in a number of ministries, including adoption support, Christian education, men's and women's ministries, and pastor's aid. My personal favorite is the Ministry of Culinary Affairs. I'm assuming that means church suppers and the like. If I attended this church, that's the ministry I'd want to be on! In truth, though, that's probably the church's soup kitchen for the homeless and downtrodden. That said, I'd still want to be on that committee.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08

St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church

St. Stephen and the Incarnation: "a committed, intentional [congregation]...
work[ing] in partnership to share gifts, to nurture the faith, and to grow together in the love of Christ"

St. Stephen and the Incarnation Episcopal Church (1525 Newton Street NW) is the merging of two parishes: St. Stephen's and The Incarnation. The former was founded in 1892 and was located at 14th and Irving Streets NW. The latter was founded in 1867 and met at 12th and N Streets NW. In 1925, the two parishes merged into one and began growing in numbers and diversity over the last eighty odd years. For many years, the church's congregation was largely white, middle class, but over time the make up of the church began to reflect the integration of the surrounding neighborhood and migration of black families into the northern sections of the city. In the 1950s, St. Stephens and the Incarnation became the first integrated Episcopal church in the city.

In addition to its involvement in local issues, the church has also been actively engaged in civil rights, women's rights, and anti-war movements. Located just blocks from the riots that broke out in Washington after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was killed in Memphis, St. Stephens held the first requiem eucharist. According to the church's website, "The church was so full that people coming in could hardly find a place to stand, yet when the prayers began a reverent silence enveloped the congregation, and we could plainly hear the wail of sirens, the sound of gunshots, and the fearsome sound of men running as fast as they could, soles beating on the pavement."

Unlike most Episcopal parishes which are led by a priest, St. Stephen's is led by a group of lay people and volunteer clergy under the guidance of a senior priest. The church believes such shared leadership and ownership will lead to a stronger community.

Photo copyright: D.C. Confidential, 2/08