Recently blog contributor David Kosub got in touch with Stephanie Mills Trice to share information about her Voices of the DC Fort Totten Storytellers Project. The project was supported by a DC Oral History Collaborative grant in 2018, providing an oral history of the Fort Totten neighborhood, which sits west of the Fort Totten metro station between Fort Totten Park, the Old Soldiers’ Home, and Rock Creek Church Cemetary.

Ms. Mills Trice states,

As a product of Fort Totten, Jules Johnson and I wanted to tell the truths of our childhood fun and the history of African Americans in the 1950s beginning to enjoy the equal opportunity of purchasing homes in the community developed by Morris Cafritz.
➢ 2011 – We met at the PG County Library on September 19th and the idea was born
➢ 2017 ~ I received an email from Marion Woodfork Simmons written on my birth date March 10 to AAHGS members about oral history training and funding opportunities for individuals with family in DC to partner with DCOHC to conduct interviews.
• 1st interviewee – Arnetta Missy Barnes, DC native, 2nd cousin, 94 years young shares OH
• Missy’s father, Frank worked at Hotel Harrington when he passed in 1925 and in her possession was the original 1925 bereavement donation list on the hotel letterhead with the address 11th & E St NW which still is within of walking distance to the Foggy Bottom area.
➢ 2018 ~ After a 7 year hiatus and on a whim, I put in for a DCOHC grant detailing what was envisioned back in 2011 and the powers to be or serendipity itself I was awarded the grant.

Through the journey, we were able to create a network of friends and neighbors who wanted to share their untold life experiences of living in Fort Totten and to-date the collection totals 20 oral histories and still growing. Even more exciting was to end the project with a community celebration at The Modern at Art Place thanks to the Cafritz Foundation the owners and descendants of the developer, Morris Cafritz.

Check out links from the project

Fitting Times Beyond the Fort (video, 15 minutes)
Keep the Story Going with the Fort Totten Storytellers (video, 11 minutes)
Fort Totten Then and Now (National Park Service)
Voices of the DC Fort Totten Storytellers Chew & Chat Celebration Part 1, HumanitiesDC (video, 47 minutes)
Voices of the DC Fort Totten Storytellers Chew & Chat Celebration Part 2, HumanitiesDC (video, 34 minutes)