Mary Ellen Abrecht, a retired D.C. Superior Court judge, moved to Washington in the turbulent 1960s and joined the Metropolitan Police Department.

Gary Abrecht’s interview spans the years 1967 to 2000 and is a warm and poignant recollection of over 30 years working in law enforcement in Washington, DC.

In this 2009 interview, Colleen Cruikshank talks with Sonda Allen, a gold and silversmith who has sold her own jewelry at Eastern Market since the early 1990s under the trade name Turtle's Webb.

Tony Ambrosi was born in 1911 and grew up in Schott’s Place, an Italian enclave in the interior of the block where the Dirksen and Hart Senate Office buildings are now located.

Ernest Antignani came to Washington in the mid-1950s to attend Georgetown University's Foreign Service school.

When Melissa met Hill Rag founder Jean-Keith Fagon, the paper was well established. She joined him and used her MBA skills to manage the business and keep it profitable. 

Joel Bailes plays the piano and the fiddle and Pearl the harmonica with the Capitol Hillbillies, the performing group they founded in 1983. Even if you don’t recognize their names, you probably have enjoyed their music on the Hill.

Georgiana Barnes married and moved to Capitol Hill, or Southeast Washington as it was called then, on Christmas Day 1933.

Linda Barnes moved to Washington as a young bride in 1963, and had lived on East Capitol Street for 35 years when she was interviewed in 2002.

Pauline Bates was born in Alexandria, VA, in 1913, and spent 63 years of her adult life on Capitol Hill, at 506 Seventh Street SE.

Grover Batts came to Washington in 1951, after serving in World War II, and went to work at the manuscript division of the Library of Congress, a position he kept until retirement.

Lola Beaver's life on Capitol Hill revolved around her Costume Shop at Eighth and A Streets NE, which she opened in 1968, not long after the riots.

Michael Berman, an artist and Capitol Hill resident, started selling his work at Eastern Market in 1992, when newcomers had to get in line early to get a spot among the Saturday outdoor vendors.

Roberta Blanchard opened Fairy Godmother book and toy store on Seventh Street SE in 1984. it's still in operation at the same location over three decades later. Prior to that, she'd had children and became involved in the neighborhood.

Bill Boswell’s family lived at 11 D Street SE for 160 years—almost as long as Capitol Hill has been a residential community. As the last Boswell to live there, Bill's interviews cover generations of house, family, and neighborhood history.

Capitol Hill native Rosetta Brooks has taught ballet to two generations of dancers at St. Mark's Church.

A widely respected expert in historic restoration, Dudley Brown had long family connections to Capitol Hill, including his grandmother who ran a boarding house.

Sah Brown served as the dynamic principal of Capitol Hill’s Eastern High School for six years. In this interview, he describes his nontraditional route to a career in education and talks about Eastern’s distinguished history, vibrant present, and supportive community.

In 2010, Chuck Burger received a Community Achievement Award and was interviewed by Stephanie Deutsch in preparation for that.

Leon Calomiris was interviewed by Peter Barker, an American University graduate student researching multi-generational Eastern Market South Hall vendor families.

Helen Carey "backed into" the real esate business when she assisted a friend with the renovation of Georgetown alley dwellings and later managed their rental.

After Sig Cohen moved to Capitol Hill in 1986, his contributions to the neighborhood have included founding the Hill Havurah Jewish Community and participating in the Capitol Hill Group Ministry.

Sally Carlson Crowell, founder of Capitol Hill Arts Workshop, turned her passion for the arts into her livelihood and created a now venerable neighborhood institution.

Tony Cuozzo's father was an Italian immigrant who sold fruits and vegetables from a horse-drawn cart in the Southeast part of Capitol Hill.

Leah Daniels, founder and owner of gourmet kitchenware store Hills Kitchen, which she opened in 2008, was honored with a joint 2014 Community Achievement Award along with her parents, Maygene and Steve Daniels.

This interview with longtime Hill realtor Don Denton conducted by former ANC 6B chair Ken Jarboe focuses on the 2002 creation of the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District (BID). Both Denton and Jarboe were instrumental in the effort that led to the successful establishment of the BID.

Vincent DiFrancesco was born at home in 1916 at 137 B Street SE, also his father's shoe repair shop. His 2013 interview is full of stories of the immediate neighborhood.

George Didden, Jr., had been a member of the Board of National Capital Bank for 50 years when Ruth Ann Overbeck interviewed him in 1990.

Dan Donahue's first experience as a vendor outside Eastern Market was selling bulbs for the Capitol Hill Garden Club. Next he sold plants that he raised on a rooftop in Southwest. 

Ray Donohoe was born at old Providence Hospital and spent his early years at 159 Kentucky Avenue where the exploits of the six Donohoe boys often brought visits from the police whenever mischief occurred.

Since 1991, artist and college history professor Eleanor Drabo has sold jewelry under the name Drabo Gallery at Eastern Market's weekend outdoor operation.

Karin Edgett developed a 2006 branding campaign for Eastern Market and created indoor and outdoor graphic signage that enlivened the temporary market structure after the 2007 fire.

For forty-one years, as a labor of love, Jim Finley ran a no-frills boxing gym on the second floor of his auto repair shop on Tenth Street NE. 

Cynde Tiches Foster's father bought Jimmy T's Place at Fifth and East Capitol Streets SE in 1969, so she began working there while in high school. She and John, a regular customer, met at the restaurant in the early 80s and married in 1991. 

David Fowler's family has farmed and sold produce at Eastern Market since 1873, and before that at the city's Center Market. They were at the market the Saturday after the 2007 fire, not missing a week. 

In this April 2009, interview, Adiante Franszoon told Vera Oye’ Yaa-Anna about his 18 years as a vendor at Eastern Market. 

John Franzén lived on Capitol Hill for "more than two decades before getting involved in the neighborhood." He more than made up for that over the next two decades as he became a vital contributor to Hill organizations.

William (Bill) Griffiths was instrumental in helping his friend John Harrod begin Eastern Market’s Saturday morning craft markets in 1980. In 2004 they teamed to sponsor the weekly tango lessons in the Market’s North Hall that continue to this day.

Marie Guy remembers many details of growing up during the 1930s and 40s behind the Sansalone family grocery store, now the site of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Sidney Hais was born at home in 1914 above his father’s market at Seventh and C NE and remained active on the Hill until the 1980s when he ended his real estate investment activities in the neighborhood. 

When Rosetta Hall Hamm was born, her family was living near South Capitol and D Streets SE. They later moved to E Street SE, so Rosetta has spent almost her entire life on the Hill.

Barbara Held Reich was a realtor on Capitol Hill starting in the late 1950s. 

Only a few people get to be involved with inventing a new genre, but Bob Herrema’s mid-1980s “adaptive reuse” of the former Logan School into condominiums heralded the start of a new approach to renovating older buildings on Capitol Hill. 

Sidney Hoffman spent his earliest years living over his father’s shoe store on H Street NE, and lived in several other locations in Northeast and Southeast during the 1920s. 

Susan Jacobs has been a potter and manager with Eastern Market Pottery for many years. In this 2009 interview, she describes the original studio over the central hall of the Market and tells how it began in the late 1960s. 

Inez and John Jones moved to Capitol Hill in 1959, when John worked for Senator Neuberger. Soon Mrs. Jones founded Congressional Realty and ran it from her Massachusetts Avenue NE home until the mid-1970s. 

Kitty Kaupp arrived on Capitol Hill in 1975 and was awarded a Community Achievement award in 1998, the year of this interview.

Joan and Frank Keenan were among the first wave of young people who came to Capitol Hill in the 1950s to renovate an old house and raise a family. 

Tom Kelly grew up near Stanton Park in the 1920s and 30s and later, with his wife Marguerite, raised four children in the same block where he lived as a child.

Hugh Kelly was a Capitol Hill realtor beginning in the early 1970s. In this interview, he describes his efforts to interest people in the neighborhood at a time when it was considered a place to live for those who couldn’t afford more desirable locations. 

Margot Kelly moved to Capitol Hill in the 1960s because she couldn't find the house she wanted in Northwest. She became involved in rehabilitation of neglected buildings, but unlike most she quickly focused on Eighth Street SE commercial buildings. 

Michael and Joan Kim, owners of Grubb’s Pharmacy, received a Capitol Hill Community Foundation Achievement Award in 2022 for community contributions that became vividly evident during the Covid pandemic.

Len Kirsten owned and operated the Emporium, a gift shop in the 300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, from 1965 to 1975. He carried an eclectic array of traditional items plus up-to-the-minute hip things, aimed at the new folks who were moving to the Hill at the time. 

When John and Elsie Leukhardt were interviewed in 1974, Elsie reminisced about having had the same phone number -- updated as the system changed -- for 70 years.

Andrew Lightman moved to Capitol Hill in 1993 as a graduate student and is now the editor of the HILL RAG newspaper, located across the street from Eastern Market.

Stuart Long is best known as the co-founder of the Hawk and Dove restaurant and bar in the 300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE, started in 1967 and named for that period's prevailing political factions.

Goldie Mamakos was born on the Hill in 1930 at a house where her family and other Greek relatives lived. 

Mangialardo and Sons delicatessen in the 1300 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE has been a Hill favorite for many years. 

Jack Mann's great-great-grandfather opened a brewery and beer garden on Capitol Hill in the late 1850s. It was located at 14th and D Street SE, later the site of the Safeway. 

Jerry Mark grew plants that he sold on the Eastern Market farmer's line starting in 1978.

John "Peterbug" Matthews says his goal is to "save souls and heel people," a play on words that connects his Shoe Repair Academy to activities that benefit those in need, especially children. 

Madonna McCullers moved to the Hill in 1950, where she balanced keeping house for her family with opening and operating her own beauty shop on Massachusetts Avenue.

Florence McGee, a nurse with advanced training, moved to Washington by Greyhound bus with her new husband in 1935. She lived most of the next 68 years in the 600 block of Maryland Avenue NE.

Hattie McLaurin, the granddaughter of a midwife, moved from a North Carolina farm to Washington in 1956, and has lived and worked on Capitol Hill for most of the time since.

Bill McLeod, was Executive Director of Barracks Row Main Street from August 2002 to December 2006, during the period in which the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District was being formed.

Shortly after Jeff Menick was born in July 1947, his family moved to the corner store at 601 E Street SE, which his father operated. The family lived in quarters behind and above the store.

Helene Monberg was a journalist in Washington for over 60 years.

Ellen Moy immigrated from China to Washington, DC, in 1941 and married a man who had been born on Second Street SE. 

Freda Herrmann Murray, about 81 years old at the time of her interview, was born to German parents who operated a grocery, funeral home, and made bottled root beer and ginger ale.

Virginia Myers was born in 1924 in Manassas, VA, but moved to Capitol Hill at age five. 

When Jerre Ness spent his childhood and school years on Capitol Hill, he attended local schools and delivered newspapers to homes since replaced by the Dirksen and Hart Senate Office buildings. 

Jean Noel’s parents met in DC in 1914 and married in 1915. Jean was born at 511 F Street NE and lived in several other houses in that neighborhood until her marriage after World War II.

Peggy O’Brien has lived on Capitol Hill, within a three-block radius of where she lives today, since coming to Washington to attend Trinity College in 1965.

Father Michael J. O'Sullivan was pastor of St. Peter's church on Capitol Hill for 35 years, starting in 1970. 

John Parker was awarded a Community Achievement Award in 2005 for his work with youth baseball programs on Capitol Hill. 

Charlene Patton lived at 1230 North Carolina Avenue NE for over 40 years, starting in 1980—but she'd first lived on the Hill more than 20 years prior.

Susan Perry is a long-time Hill resident who joined the early efforts to establish the Capitol Hill Business Improvement District, using her extensive background in public transportation issues to the benefit of her neighborhood.

Maurine came to Washington as a "government girl" during World War II and later ran a welding business after her husband’s early death. She describes the city with the eyes of a businesswoman, artist, and teacher.

Alexander Pope, Jr. was born in 1925 to parents who ran a funeral business in the Southeast part of Capitol Hill; the business, now operated by his son Alex Pope III, celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2020.

Evelyn Price moved from southern Virginia to Washington, DC, in 1942, and met her husband here. 

Ida Prosky moved to Capitol Hill in 1960 with her husband, actor Bob Prosky, to be near Arena Stage Theater in Southwest, where Bob was a member of the resident company. 

Sharon Raimo began her career in education in the DC public schools on Capitol Hill, working closely with Veola Jackson and the early efforts to establish the Capitol Hill Cluster School.

Frank Reed talks about his role as a founder of Stanton Development, the company behind the reconstruction of the Kresge's and Penn Theater buildings in the 600 block of Pennsylvania Avenue SE.

Curtis “Doc” Robinson served as a Tuskegee Airman in World War II and returned after the war to Washington, DC.

Bill Rouchell, owner of Maison Orleans Bed and Breakfast, was president of the Capitol Hill Association of Merchants and Professionals (CHAMPS) from 2000-2002 when a Capitol Hill Business Improvement District was first considered.

Anwar Saleem was a teenager when the 1968 riots devastated the thriving and diverse commercial and social hub of H Street NE.

Gina Sangster came to Capitol Hill as a child in the early 1960s. In her interview, done via the Zoom app, she describes how her parents, Libby and Gilbert Sangster, started the business that became Antiques on the Hill.

Norman Schroth was born in 1905 and raised at 702 Maryland Avenue NE. He later moved to 404 Seventh Street NE. 

Walter (Wally) Schwartz's father was resident manager of the Plaza Hotel, and later the Carroll Arms Hotel, and Walter grew up sharing an apartment in the hotels with his parents, eating most meals in the hotel restaurant. .

Born in the Bronx in 1929 to Irish immigrant parents, Walter Sheehan attended Catholic schools there and in Colorado before moving to Washington in the 1950s to attend Georgetown University.

Becky and Michael Skinner’s impact on Capitol Hill can be felt from many a youth playing field to the founding of the Two Rivers Charter School to the origination of the Pendragwn Youth Film Festival.

Baird Smith, FAIA, FAPT, Director of Preservation for QUINN EVANS | ARCHITECTS in Washington, DC, was director of the architect/engineering team for the Eastern Market project. 

Duncan Spencer moved to his first home on Capitol Hill in 1965 and has lived in the same East Capitol Street house since 1970.

Jeffry Stallsmith, DDS, had a popular dentistry practice at Sixth and A Streets NE from 1976 to 2013. In 2020, he participated in one of the Overbeck Project's first interviews done via Zoom.

Kris Swanson's work with children from Potomac Gardens eventually produced the Yume Tree on the wall of the 12th Street CVS, and she and her husband, Roy Mustelier, founded the nonprofit Corner Store that provides a venue for local musicians and artists. 

Frank Taylor was born at home in the 300 block of First Street NE in 1903 and moved with his family in 1909 to 909 Massachusetts Avenue NE. 

Nancy Metzger interviewed Frank Taylor four times in 1999, and John Franzén met with him again in 2003 when he discovered a connection he had with Frank's Uncle Ernest Kübel.

Lloyd Thompson grew up in the 1300 block of East Capitol Street after his family was displaced in the mid-1950s by what he calls "urban removal" in Southwest Washington. 

From 1903 until 1935, Norman Tucker's grandfather, Thomas Tucker, owned and operated, with his brother William, Tucker Brothers Fine Groceries, a corner market at 701 D Street SE. Norman's grandfather's family lived behind the store. 

Albert S. Turner was born in Southeast Washington in 1928 and spent most of his childhood at 1210 G Street SE, attending local schools.