"When I landed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to report on Capitol Hill as a junior in college, I immediately reached for my phone, fingers shaking as I typed out texts to everyone I knew. I couldn't wait to live out my dream of becoming a political reporter-and then, reality sunk in. I had to find an affordable place to live for three months, no small feat in DC."
"Inside TMH, the living room felt frozen in time. A golden chandelier hung from the ceiling, a grand piano commanded the center of the room atop a red-patterned carpet, and newspaper clippings boasting about Eleanor Roosevelt's appearances at the dorm lined the hallway walls. (In 1934, she came to dedicate a new convalescent wing, and three years later returned to celebrate the home's 50th anniversary)."
"While I can't say I was fond of the bathrooms, which occasionally flooded, or the menus that left vegetarians without many options, I came to love living at TMH. Every day, when I walked past the dorm to Union Station, I looked forward to seeing what new protest fliers had been pasted to the lamp posts overnight. Every night, I had friends to sit with at dinner."
A college student secured a three-month reporting internship on Capitol Hill and needed affordable housing in Washington, D.C. She lived at a long-standing women's dormitory, TMH, noted for antique décor, a grand piano, a golden chandelier, and hallway newspaper clippings recounting Eleanor Roosevelt's visits. The building had maintenance issues, occasional flooded bathrooms, and limited vegetarian options, but offered daily communal dinners and proximity to campus protests that fostered community. TMH originated in 1862 when Mary Wilkinson established housing for women displaced by the Civil War, while wartime government jobs expanded opportunities even as legal and financial constraints complicated independent living.
Read at Washingtonian - The website that Washington lives by.
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