The long-shuttered gates of the old St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast D.C. will be opened Saturday for the second time this summer in what is to be the largest of several community events designed to unite the campus with its neighborhood ahead of the campus’ planned redevelopment.
For four hours, the east campus of the former mental hospital will play host to a menagerie of live music performances, interactive art booths and outdoor galleries, a farmer’s market and other community-centered events. Mayor Vincent Gray, Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Victor Hoskins, and Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry will kick off the events at 10 a.m., followed by a tour of the historic hospital at 11 a.m.
The campus has long been slated for redevelopment but as the city gets closer to breaking ground, officials said they want to ease the site into its surroundings.
“This is to begin to deliver on the vision of the site from the master plan, to begin to create it as an asset,” said Ethan Warsh, a project manager in the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development.
Since its founding in 1852, the hospital has been a walled-off island in Southeast Washington. At first surrounded by rolling hills, the institution continued in isolation even as a community slowly grew around it. Warsh said many residents have memories associated with the campus, whether it was as an employee there or of a family member housed there. But he said it always carried that “stigma” of being a mental hospital in the middle of a neighborhood.
“There are very symbolic divisions that were created in the community,” Warsh said. “And absolutely what we’re trying to do is begin to remove those.”
The District is redeveloping the 183-acre east campus to attract new retail, residents and businesses and is scheduled to break ground next year when federal workers are slated to move to the redeveloped west campus. Located in Ward 8 across the Anacostia River, the development aims to bring new life to a community long passed over by developers.
In a similar move to reopen the campus to the community, the city is weighing three proposals to design and build a building that would provide space for a range of events and activities as well as retail space. The pavilion would open while construction starts on the first phase of the east campus development.
