What do Langston Hughes, Tallulah Bankhead, Ezra Pound, Roald Dahl and John F. Kennedy have in common? Find out at DC Writer’s Homes, an epic online database of places connected to DC literati. What started as a quirky hobby for friends and literary historians Kim Roberts and Dan Vera resulted in a resource gathering facts which might otherwise have been lost over the years. Explore the impressive list by neighborhood, literary genre, or fun subcategories like ‘radicals,’ ‘showbiz,’ ‘hosts of literary salons,’ or ‘spies and their families.’
The hours one could spend reading these fascinating tidbits about our famous residents are dwarfed by the steps you can rack up visiting the spots they laid their heads. JFK, for example, couch-surfed seven DC locations, from a house he shared during his time in the U.S. House of Representatives to the White House. The Y at 1816 12th Street NW has a re-creation of the single room in which Langston Hughes would have lived in 1925. (The nearby Busboys and Poets bookstore at 14th and V Streets, NW, is named for Hughes, who worked as a hotel busboy to subsidize his poetic life.) Two of Clara Barton’s residences are open to the public: one in the Glen Echo Chautauqua and the other at 437 Seventh St. N.W., home to the Office of Missing Soldiers she helmed post Civil War.
To really nerd out, click ‘Also of Interest’ for other locations, like cemeteries, churches, parks, and restaurants, of literary import.
