Urban Turf post: "LeDroit Park: Behind the gate, trustees of history"

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After spending several years in Asia, Cindy Paladines longed to plant roots in a neighborhood. New to DC, she pounded the streets of Northwest searching for a possible home.
       
“I was driving along and pulled up to LeDroit Park at the Sixth and T Street entrance, and immediately a sense of calm came over me,” Paladines recalled.
       
Two years later, Paladines is in the midst of cosmetic changes to a house constructed more than a century ago in LeDroit Park. But she’s holding off on major work out of respect for the home’s – and the neighborhood’s – pervasive sense of history.
     
Eric Fidler, who purchased a two-bedroom, end-unit rowhome in 2009 and is in the process of moving to a new house in the neighborhood, has a similar attraction to LeDroit Park’s history. Not only did he develop the neighborhood blog, Left of LeDroit, he also made it his mission to share and promote the neighborhood’s iconic history and architecture with others.
     
“I joined the civic association and started researching the neighborhood’s history, which turned out to be richer and more fascinating than I had expected,” Fidler said. “I volunteered with Cultural Tourism DC on creating heritage trail markers throughout the neighborhood. I also devised a historical walking tour, which I lead every year for free as part of the annual city-wide ‘Walking Town DC’ event.”
                   
A designated historic district since the 1970s, most of LeDroit Park has not experienced the development booms (and controversies) in places like Logan Circle, Shaw, and the U Street Corridor. In a way, history acts as an armor that gives LeDroit Park residents the benefit of access to development in the surrounding area without having it encroach on their historic homes.
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