. arts and dining .
the LITERARY HILL A Compendium of Readers, Writers, Books, & Events by Karen Lyon
They Paved Paradise… In the 1920 photo, Hans Wunderlich stands on the stoop of his C Street townhouse with his dog Archie at his side. Wunderlich was a German immigrant and cornet player for the US Marine Band. His widow lived in the home, with its jaunty striped awnings, until her death in 1958. It was razed in 1964 to make way for the Hine Junior High School playground and is now the site of senior housing on the newly reopened street. Wunderlich’s home is only one of many buildings—and their stories—surveyed by Hill historian Elizabeth Purcell in her new book, “Capitol Hill: Past & Present.” Presenting more than 80 pages of before-and-after photographs, she digs into Capitol Hill history, exploring what used to be, why it’s gone, and what’s there now. Much of the story is sad: houses torn down to make way for government buildings, churches leveled to accommodate the freeway, businesses destroyed to create parking lots. Fires, riots—and even a rare tornado that damaged the 1200 block of C Street in 1927—also took their toll on the Hill’s older buildings.
But Purcell also points out some bright spots. The destruction of a stately 19th-century building at 500 East Capitol Street in 1972 so outraged local citizens that it led to the establishment of the Capitol Hill Historic District. Frager’s Hardware not only survived its 2013 fire, but moved back better than ever into its restored building. And the Old Naval Hospital’s transition to the vibrant Hill Center has been a boon to the entire neighborhood. Purcell spent nearly a year researching “Capitol Hill,” reaching out to friends, the Historical Society of Washington, DC, and the Library of Congress to unearth the stories behind the Hill’s lost treasures. The result is a book that will intrigue—and sometimes dishearten—history lovers. We can only hope it will also serve as a cautionary tale to future generations about the importance of preserving our past. Beth Purcell is both a past and current president of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society. All royalties from the sale of “Capitol Hill: Past & Present” will be donated to the CHRS. www.chrs.org
Enough Stuff
Kim Roberts has compiled a century’s worth of DC poets and poetry in a new anthology, “By Broad Potomac’s Shore.” Photo by Mark Gann
90 H HILLRAG.COM
Did you ever stop to think about how your favorite Brazilian coffee got here? Hill economist Marc Levinson has. In his insightful new book, “Outside the Box: How Globalization Changed from Moving Stuff to Spreading Ideas,” he describes how world trade evolved and how it is now shifting from goods to services. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Levinson starts by describing how globalization first came about in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, aided by
Local economist Marc Levinson explains the intricacies of globalization and how it has changed our world in “Outside the Box.” Photo by Karen Sayre
the development of canals, steamships, and the telegraph. WWI brought a halt to this first phase—and the Great Depression further “put an end to hopes of recovery”—but after WWII, the Second Globalization was able to capitalize on new, standardized containerships to “supercharge” international commerce. The bubble burst in the 1980s, due in part to shifting exchange rates that “turned banking into a game of three-care monte.” The Third Globalization, fueled by deregulation, saw the rise of international trade agreements, paving the way for more countries, such as China, to become global players. Supply chains began shifting to “value chains,” where production of a given item could involve parts from one country, manufacture in another, and design, finance, and engineering from yet another location. This “age of stuff,” as Levinson calls it, fizzled out after the economic collapse of 2007. Now, he contends, we’ve moving into a Fourth Globalization, in which “moving ideas, services, and people around the world matters more than transporting boatloads of goods.” The reasons why “stuff ” is losing ground are myriad. Levinson points
