Anonymous wrote:Love it. The main issue is schools and commute. We're in a corner of the Hill with a good elementary school and easy walk to the metro (around 15 minutes) and I can also walk to my office in about 45 minutes.

Yes, a 45 minute walk to a DC office in August would be delightful! I’d need to shower and change my clothes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to send any future children to private school, I would say its a great choice for all of the pros stated by others. However, for the last 20 years people have said that the middle and high schools on the Hill are improving and will be an option. Nope. Until a sizable # of Hill families send their children to SH, Jefferson, Eliot-Hine and Eastern, it will never happen. Middle and high school will be a reality for your family sooner than you realize and when the choice has to be made, not enough families are choosing their in-bound options. Not a criticism, just an unbiased observation.

I’m new to Capitol Hill. Have the elementary schools such as Brent, Maury and LT been highly regarded for the last 20 years? Was Maury a top DC elementary school 20 years ago? I don’t doubt your observations. Just curious about the histories of the elementary schools.

I've been here 17 years. Brent has been good a while. Maury has been solid for 10-12 years or more, LT took a little longer, but a larger number of families are hanging in there at LT and those families are now at SH. Before you all attack me, I'm estimating based on what I saw when I moved here and have observed with a 10 year old and an 8 year old.

No attack but the ones that wind up at SH most likely weren't able to lottery into Basis or Latin. But regardless of the reason, I agree there are more going to SH. However, how many that don't get into Walls go to Eastern?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to send any future children to private school, I would say its a great choice for all of the pros stated by others. However, for the last 20 years people have said that the middle and high schools on the Hill are improving and will be an option. Nope. Until a sizable # of Hill families send their children to SH, Jefferson, Eliot-Hine and Eastern, it will never happen. Middle and high school will be a reality for your family sooner than you realize and when the choice has to be made, not enough families are choosing their in-bound options. Not a criticism, just an unbiased observation.

I’m new to Capitol Hill. Have the elementary schools such as Brent, Maury and LT been highly regarded for the last 20 years? Was Maury a top DC elementary school 20 years ago? I don’t doubt your observations. Just curious about the histories of the elementary schools.

I've been here 17 years. Brent has been good a while. Maury has been solid for 10-12 years or more, LT took a little longer, but a larger number of families are hanging in there at LT and those families are now at SH. Before you all attack me, I'm estimating based on what I saw when I moved here and have observed with a 10 year old and an 8 year old.

Got it. Thanks for replying. We are inbound for LT and hope to snag a pk spot next year. We also have a baby. Hope to also send them to SH.

It's a 5 minute village. Anything you might want to do is only about 5 minutes away and generally multiple options. You end up hardly leaving the village.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to send any future children to private school, I would say its a great choice for all of the pros stated by others. However, for the last 20 years people have said that the middle and high schools on the Hill are improving and will be an option. Nope. Until a sizable # of Hill families send their children to SH, Jefferson, Eliot-Hine and Eastern, it will never happen. Middle and high school will be a reality for your family sooner than you realize and when the choice has to be made, not enough families are choosing their in-bound options. Not a criticism, just an unbiased observation.

I’m new to Capitol Hill. Have the elementary schools such as Brent, Maury and LT been highly regarded for the last 20 years? Was Maury a top DC elementary school 20 years ago? I don’t doubt your observations. Just curious about the histories of the elementary schools.

I've been here 17 years. Brent has been good a while. Maury has been solid for 10-12 years or more, LT took a little longer, but a larger number of families are hanging in there at LT and those families are now at SH. Before you all attack me, I'm estimating based on what I saw when I moved here and have observed with a 10 year old and an 8 year old.

Anonymous wrote:If you can afford to send any future children to private school, I would say its a great choice for all of the pros stated by others. However, for the last 20 years people have said that the middle and high schools on the Hill are improving and will be an option. Nope. Until a sizable # of Hill families send their children to SH, Jefferson, Eliot-Hine and Eastern, it will never happen. Middle and high school will be a reality for your family sooner than you realize and when the choice has to be made, not enough families are choosing their in-bound options. Not a criticism, just an unbiased observation.

I’m new to Capitol Hill. Have the elementary schools such as Brent, Maury and LT been highly regarded for the last 20 years? Was Maury a top DC elementary school 20 years ago? I don’t doubt your observations. Just curious about the histories of the elementary schools.

If you can afford to send any future children to private school, I would say its a great choice for all of the pros stated by others. However, for the last 20 years people have said that the middle and high schools on the Hill are improving and will be an option. Nope. Until a sizable # of Hill families send their children to SH, Jefferson, Eliot-Hine and Eastern, it will never happen. Middle and high school will be a reality for your family sooner than you realize and when the choice has to be made, not enough families are choosing their in-bound options. Not a criticism, just an unbiased observation.

We’ve lived in Capitol Hill for 17 years and now have a middle-schooler and a high-schooler. We’ve periodically been tempted to move elsewhere where we could get good neighborhood middle and high schools and more space for our money. But we love Capitol Hill too much. The neighborhood has changed enormously in our time here, and is much more family-friendly than it was.

Things like grocery shopping, restaurants, bars — all have exploded and it’s a very vibrant neighborhood. Eastern Market functions as the heart of the Hill and is a unifying feature.

Of course, there are some major holes in the commercial environment. If I (a man) had to buy an item of clothing on the Hill, I wouldn’t know where to start (I guess there is some stuff in Union Station?). For a while, the bookstore scene was nonexistent, though now we have a couple really cool stores (East City and Solid State — assuming they survive Covid).

The really big downside, of course, is what the hell to do with your kids after elementary school. Stuart-Hobson is not a terrible middle school choice, but only a part of the Hill feeds into it. For years, people have been saying the other options — Eliot-Hine and Jefferson — are on the verge of acceptability, but that doesn’t seem to be happening yet. High school is also a problem. I think there’s a good chance that things might be different in 10 years, but no guarantee.

We decided to send our kids to privates specifically because we like our neighborhood too much to leave.

Feels like a small town. Often run in to people you know while out walking or doing errands.
Enjoy biking to do errands.

Cons: row house a few down rented out to people who smoke pot on front and back porch often so cant keep windows open or hang out on porch sometimes.

Pros: Very walkable, parks, some lovely homes and people, relatively affordable compared to other areas of the city

Cons: Lots of petty crime, fair amount of violent crime