Marie Miles - 615 2nd Street SW, Southwest Washington - 1929
Introduction
Text-to-speech Audio
Images
Photo of a Black woman, likely Marie Miles, with a large dog in the Heurich mansion garden.
Backstory and Context
Text-to-speech Audio
Despite low incomes and inadequate housing, those living in Southwest DC at the beginning of the 20th century built tight-knit communities and organized for better living conditions. After World War I, federal officials became concerned with the neighborhood, which they deemed “shabby” and “crime-ridden.” Rather than creating more affordable housing for the families who had lived there for generations, officials decided to “renew” the area to attract white and middle-income residents.
Marie Miles lived in Southwest during this period of change, commuting between home and work in Dupont Circle for nearly two decades. She became so close to the family that Amelia left Marie money in her will. The two women also enjoyed watching wrestling together. Which wrestlers do you think were their favorites?
We do not know where Marie lived in her early years, but the DC City Directory records her address in 1929 at 615 2nd Street SW, Apartment 1. She then moved around the neighborhood until at least 1950, experiencing first-hand the process of urban renewal. What did Marie think of all the changes? Was she involved in any neighborhood activism?
Sources
Heurich House Museum. "Meet Marie Miles, a Black woman born in Washington, DC in 1889. She worked for the Heurich family from 1927 through the 1950s as a maid." Instagram, February 13, 2021. https://www.instagram.com/p/CLQH1_KhHlx/.
Melder, Keith. “Southwest Washington: Where History Stopped." In Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation’s Capital, edited by Kathryn Schneider Smith, 89-104. 2nd ed. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2010.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLQH1_KhHlx/.