Washington Post: Rich with history, D.C.’s Barracks Row keeps reinventing itself. By Hope Hodge Seck

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Photo by Capitol Hill Business Improvement District.

Eleven years ago, Ned Ertel’s 9-year-old son Alexander got an abrupt introduction to some unconventional D.C. neighbors. While playing outfielder at Tyler Elementary, he watched a hit ball sail beyond the diamond and into the Silent Drill Platoon, a unit of Marines famous for precision maneuvers with unloaded ceremonial rifles.

“He didn’t know what to do, because they were all standing in formation, and they had guns,” Ned Ertel recalled with amusement. “They made a rule eventually that, if you hit [the ball] into the Marines, it’s a ground-rule double.”

That’s life on Barracks Row, home to the Marine Corps’ top officer and its oldest active outpost, Marine Barracks Washington. It’s a place where marches by John Philip Sousa, who was born on Barracks Row, fill the air on summer evenings. The neighborhood is just as well known, however, for its exciting restaurant district opposite the barracks. And that space, locals say, is thriving, with new business openings and events.

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