Eddie Becker, 58, discovered the lost history of the Holt House, a crumbling 200-year-old mansion that sat on the property of the National Zoo. The findings led to a forgotten African-American cemetery in Walter Pierce Park where more than 7,000 people were buried shortly after the Civil War. On Sept. 29, Becker will lead the “Slavery and Freedom in Adams Morgan” tour.
How did you get involved?
I came about it in a backwards way. I was just paying attention to what was in front of me, which happened to be industrial [trash bins] that the zoo had placed in Walter Pierce Park. They were packed with trash, blowing all around.
So I called the zoo. And they said, “We’re the Smithsonian, we can do whatever we want. It’s our land and we have plans.” So I said, “What plans?” And they said, “We can’t really tell you.”
So I used the Freedom of Information Act, and they gave me the plans, which included a 2,000-square-foot concrete slab to put their trash transfer station and build a heavy-duty road. In meantime, I had gone to Smithsonian archive, figured that at the top of the hill was a house that may have been built before the 1800s.
How does one rediscover a mansion in the middle of the city?
It was overgrown with vines, like those old jungle movies where someone comes across a lost Mayan village. You need a machete to get through.
Do you have a background in history or did you just happen to be the guy who walked by these trash bins?
I’ve always been fascinating with history, documentation and spending time in archives and libraries. I worked on projects on post-World War II Germany, for “Frontline,”things in Central America, the history of every other continent except for my own neighborhood.
