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.

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.