Digging Up History and Making It Fresh

Earlier this month our first Neighborhood Profiles workshop wrapped up a blast of discoveries, lives and upturned hideaways, from Washington’s old Brookland monastery and tavern west to Route 66 and on to the Kentucky-Tennessee border. I was lucky to have a group with wide-ranging curiosity and skills for exploration, and help from George Mason University’s Center for History and New Media for trying out new tools for local historians and storytellers. It was indeed a blast.
    Our venue itself was dripping with history: the Old Naval Hospital, recently converted into the Hill Center. Less than a year into its new life, it already draws a range of local groups its halls, which date back to the Civil War. It had high ceilings and odd transoms that peer down into the rooms from grand stairwells. The room across the hall from ours was the Walt Whitman room.
    Thanks to The Writer’s Center and the Hill Center for their support in creating the workshop. Hope to see you there the next time we offer it. For more about the workshop see my post on the Writer's Center blog.