There is no better way to see America than on foot. And there is no better way to appreciate what you are looking at than with a walking tour. Whether you are preparing for a road trip or just out to look at your own town in a new way.Each walking tour describes historical and architectural landmarks and provides pictures to help out when those pesky street addresses are missing. Every tour also includes a quick primer on identifying architectural styles seen on American streets.The Capitol Hill Historic District takes its name from the hill, which rises in the center of the FederalCity and extends eastward. This hill, which in 1790 was called Jenkins Hill or Jenkins Heights, wasthe site chosen by Pierre L’Enfant for the placement of the “Congress House,” a site which L’Enfantcharacterized as a “pedestal waiting for a superstructure.” In accordance with this plan, the US CapitolBuilding was situated upon the crest of the hill facing the city. Stretching easterly behind the CapitolBuilding along wide avenues lies the residential area known as Capitol Hill. Capitol Hill, one of theoldest residential communities in Washington, has grown from a small boarding house communityfor members of Congress to an area of more than 150 squares embracing a number of separateneighborhoods.Capitol Hill is the largest residential historic district in the District of Columbia. Almost every streetis composed of rowhouses of different stylistic varieties and periods forming a continuous wall brokenonly by street intersections. Side by side exist early 19th century manor houses, Federal townhouses,small frame dwellings, ornate Italianate bracketed houses and the late 19th century press brickrowhouses with their often whimsical decorative elements combining Richardsonian Romanesque,Queen Anne, and Eastlakian motifs.In the early years of the Republic few Congressmen wished to establish permanent residence in thecity. Instead, most preferred to live in boarding houses within walking distance of the Capitol. Nothingremains of this community today, having been razed to house the Capitol support buildings.Thosesupport buildings are indicative how the government has ballooned in recent times. For more than100 years the business of Washington was conducted almost exclusively inside the Capitol Buildingitself. The Supreme Court? Go to the Capitol. The Congressional library? Inside the Capitol. Yourrepresentative’s office? Inside the Capitol. Today there are a half-dozen major office buildings and a fewsatellites for the Congress alone. The Supreme Cout and library have their own buildings on the site ofmany of those early boarding houses.The street pattern in Capitol Hill has remained faithful to the original 1791 L’Enfant Plan for theFederal City, a plan that called for grand diagonals superimposed over a standard grid pattern. EastCapitol Street, a monumental avenue running east from the Capitol to the banks of the AnacostiaRiver, still provides a major focus for the area and serves as the division between the northeast andsoutheast sectors of the city. This walking tour will begin at the top of old Jenkins Hill...