History of Our Home in Washington, DC

Brookland and Fort Bunker Hill

 Our home is located in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC and sits along the eastern border of the property owned by Col. Jehiel Brooks.  The Brooks property abutted property owned by the Queen family.

The house faces Fort Bunker Hill Park, the location of one of the Civil War defenses of the city.  During the Civil War, the Army built many structures around the fort.

The fort was built in the fall of 1861 by soldiers from the 11th Regiment Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry on land owned by Henry Quinn and named after the Battle of Bunker Hill of 1775 in Charlestown, Boston, Massachsetts.  It was located between Fort Slemmer and Fort Saratoga and was intended to assist in the defense of the northeast approaches to Washington between Fort Totten and Fort Lincoln. (from Wikipedia)

According to Brookland historian, Robert Malesky, the property is approximately where the guard house was located (near the fort’s sallyport.)  Soldiers were usually held in the guard house for drunkenness, fighting, and slipping off base to go downtown.  Dr. Malesky is a retired professor from Catholic University of America and has written entries at the Bygone Brookland site.

The lot was part of the Leighton & Pairo Subdivision in 1887.  Block 19, Lot 7098, #1 at the corner of Fort and Burns Street, NE

A subsequent subdivision by H.R. Howenstein designated it as Lot 10, Square 1043.

The Monahan Family

The current colonial style house was built in 1925 by Arthur Coleman and Mary Cody Monahan who purchased the property on August 18, 1924, from Herman Otto.  The architect was Louis Rouleau who also designed the house at 1234 Otis Street, NE for another member of the Monahan family.  

Arthur Monahan earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Massachusetts Agricultural College (now the University of Massachusetts Amherst) in 1900 and worked for the Bureau of Education in the Department of the Interior. He was the author of numerous reports on education in the United States.

The Monahans had four children, Esther, Paul, William and John.  Paul served as a 1^st Lieutenant in the Marine Corps during World War II, and married Katherine.  Esther married Walter Wright and moved to Havre de Grace, Maryland.  I wasn’t able to find any additional information about the other two sons.

Mr. Monahan died in on July 2, 1953, and is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery in Washington, DC.  Mary Monhan continued to live in the home until she passed away in 1963 and was buried next to her husband.

On October 29, 1964, the home was sold by the Monahan family (Mary Ann Miller, Helen Monahan, John F Monahan, Marjorie Monahan, William F. Monahan, and Bryon K. Welch), to the Clerics of St. Viator.

The Viatorians

The Clerics of St. Viator is a Roman Catholic order that was founded in Lyons, France in 1831.  The mission of the order is education and catechesis – teaching the Catholic faith.  The Order spread to Quebec soon and sent 3 priests to Illinois in 1865.  They founded St. Viator College and established the Province of Chicago in 1882.  According to the archivist for the Viatorians, the order sent seminarians to study at Catholic University from the 1930s through the 1970s.

The Viatorians bought the properties at 3700 13^th Street, NE, 1234 Otis Street, NE, and 3700 Oakview Terrace, NE.  Seminarians and priests studying at the Catholic University of America lived in the building on Oakview Terrace. 

The story told to me by others was that the Viatorians housed Sacred Heart sisters in the two houses.  The sisters provided housekeeping and laundry services to the seminarians.  We were also told that the sisters placed images of the Sacred Heart above the doors to help protect them.  There are various communities of sisters dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.  I was not able to determine what community lived in our house.

The Sisters moved out in approximately 1973 and the house was rented to the Center of Concern until they purchased it in 1978.

The Viatorians sold the house to the Corporation of the Roman Catholic Clergymen of Maryland on July 2, 1978.  The Corporation was a legal entity for the Society of Jesus, aka the Jesuits.  The sale was managed by C. Edward Jones and John C. Evelius of the law firm, Gallagher, Evelius and Jones, attorneys for the Jesuits and other Catholic organizations.

The Center of Concern

The Jesuits used the house to establish offices for the Center of Concern.  The Center of Concern was a think tank in Washington, D.C., that Jesuit Superior General Pedro Arrupe and National Conference of Catholic Bishops General Secretary Joseph Bernardin (later Cardinal Bernardin) co-founded on May 4, 1971. The Center was created as a joint project of the Society of Jesus and the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (now United States Conference of Catholic Bishops).

Allica-McBee home

By 1998, the Center of Concern had outgrown the space and sold the house to George R. Allica and David E. McBee.  The couple has lived in the house ever since restoring it as a family home filled with love, laughter, the joy of friends, delicious food, and abundant plants. 

The home has been a regular gathering place for family members of both Allica and McBee as well as friends from across the DC Metro area.  These gatherings include an annual Christmas tree-trimming party, a January celebration, milestone birthdays for both George and David, and many cookouts.

We are only the fourth owners of our home.  Not surprising for a home in Brookland that all the owners have been Catholic.  

In 2023 we made a pilgrimage to Portugal, Spain and France.  While we were there we bought a small image of the Sacred Heart.  In homage to the Sacred Heart Sisters, we put the image above our front door.

Among the delights they discovered on the property are a treasure trove of heritage daffodils.  The daffodils were growing in the back garden, between this house and the neighbors along Otis Street.  That house was built by the members of the same Monahan family in 1926.  The backyards connected through a gate in the picket fence that used to separate the properties.

The daffodils had not bloomed for many years.  After the couple relocated over 100 bulbs, they bloomed anew.  One landscaper said they are an old variety of daffodils and the bulbs have not been available for purchase for many years.  They are notable by the double ruffle on the bright yellow blooms.

The couple has done much to maintain and improve the house and property, planting Asian lilies, daffodils, Siberian and Dutch iris as well as azaleas, magnolias and fig trees.

Coolfont Memories

 

Overnight January 26, 2025, there was a big fire at Coolfont, a longtime resort and vacation spot west of Berkeley Springs, West Virginia on Cold Run Valley Road.  The flames took down the twin A-frames that were Treetop House.  Fortunately, no one was injured and firefighters from multiple companies and jurisdictions did a commendable job to put out the fire and keep the flames from spreading.   This is a tough loss for the Omps family that had purchased and rebuilt the resort after the property sat idle for many years.

Having grown up in Berkeley Springs I had a love/hate relationship with Coolfont that eventually evened out as I grew and understood the benefits of having an employer and a destination property to support the local economy.  

Coolfont wasn't just a camping area.  They made a point in their signage and literature that it was Coolfont Re+Creation.  Not merely recreation, but a place to re-create yourself.  In addition to campsites, there were a handful of chalet-style cabins.  Eventually they built a lodge across from Treetop House.

I don’t know exactly when Sam Ashelman moved to Morgan County and bought the Herbert Quick farm property and the acres around there.  It was certainly a going business by the mid1960s.  My uncle, Ed Carroll, brought his family up to visit and they camped there.  My cousin Jon called it Cool-fart, a name that lived on in our family.

I remember going to Coolfont to swim and have picnics with the Nichols family and other friends.  In addition to swimming and fishing, they also rented canoes and paddle boats.  The paddle boats were all named for famous shipwrecks: Titanic, Lusitania, Andrea Doria, there might have been a fourth boat.

 My sister Teresa got a job working in the office in Meadow House.  I don’t know everyone who worked there, but I seem to think that Frani Willard and Al Capen both worked in that building.  One of the features of Meadow House was a glass case that held two black snakes named Bilbo and Frodo.  One day one of the guys who worked at Coolfont walked in and called out, “Hey Teresa!” and flung a long rubber snake at her.  My sister raised her hand and caught it.  I think the guy was disappointed that she didn’t scream.

A few years later my brother Steve started working as a dishwasher at the Treetop House restaurant.  My brother was quite the philosopher it seems.  One of his coworkers told me once that Steve remarked on a very busy day, said, Ours is not to reason why, ours is just to wash and dry.

Coolfont was successful as a rustic resort and campground.  The Ashelmans started to develop the mountainside and subdivided the land into plots.  They aimed to keep the natural wooded environment.  Homes had to blend in with the environment and minimal tree removal. 

My dad, Dwan McBee, was a local insurance agent and he got his Realtor® license and worked on weekends to talk to potential homebuyers.  He had a table set up just inside the main doors of the Treetop House.  He had binders with photos of model homes and map showing the mountainside with all the lots.

It was during this time that I started spending a lot of time at Coolfont.  I’d go with my dad on Sundays.  He would work and I would find a place to read and finish my homework.  In warmer weather I could sit at a table on the deck.  It was a great place to hang out.  There was a string quartet in residence at one point and I could sit and listen to them rehearse and perform.  The music was so exciting.

Frani Willard organized a weekly hootenanny for the guests.  Frani played the guitar and sang.  My dad also played guitar and sang.  Sometimes my sister would join them.  I didn’t go every Saturday night, but I went pretty regularly, and I knew so many of the songs.  Frani would sing a version of Frankie and Johnnie, Charlie ant the MTA, and Clouds.  My dad had a few regular tunes he liked to sing: Scotch and Soda and Smoke that Cigarette. 

Al Capen worked at Coolfont.  I have no idea what his job title was.  He was a writer, photographer, and naturist.  He would take photos and give nature talks.  Al took beautiful photos of trees, wildflowers, and birds.  He was a brilliant storyteller, and he would combine the stories about nature with his slides. 

One series of photographs that left a lasting impression was about trees and barbed wire.  He said that when farmers would clear a field for grazing, they’d run barbed wire around the field to keep the herd from wandering.  The farmers would erect fence posts, but sometimes they would just tack the barbed wire to a tree.  As the trees continued to grow, it often looked as though the trees were chewing on the barbed wire.  Some of the photographs looked like real faces chewing on something.  He’d usually end with a photo of a tree that he said had gotten rid of the barbed wire.  The tree showed a scar in the bark that looked like a big smile!

In 1975 I met a friend who would change my life.  Lorraine Hall and her husband Jack bought one of the mountainside lots and built a home there.  I met Lorraine through a church choral group.  In time I met Jack and their daughter Jeanne and her children, and their son John.  By knowing Jack and Lorraine I saw Coolfont from a different perspective.  Lorraine was friends with Margaret Ashelman.

Through Margaret, Coolfont became a center for Transcendental Meditation.  The Ashelman’s also established the Coolfont Foundation that supported music performances at Treetop House, the Manor House and at the barn.  Among the guest artists who performed at Manor House were pianists Neil Tilkens and Peter Basquin.

After I moved to Washington, DC for work, I 'd meet people who would ask me were I was from.  Many times when I mentioned Berkeley Springs, WV, people would recognize the town from their knowledge of Coolfont.

The Ashelman family continued to own and operate Coolfont for many years.  Eventually they sold the property to another developer who died in a helicopter accident in the early 2000s.  The recession that hit around that time kept any further development until the Omps family bought the property and breathed new life into the resort.

So many people in Morgan County worked at Coolfont and many others who visited and enjoyed the facilities.  These are just some of my memories.