photo test
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2026 Photo Contest Winners
We are thrilled to announce the winners of this year’s CHRS Photo Contest. First Place goes to Jasmine Padgett for her picture, “Family Business,” an interior shot of the beloved East Capitol restaurant Jimmy T’s Place.
Thank you to everyone who submitted entries; there were 78 in all. The 10 winning images will be on display at Coldwell Banker Realty, 350 7th St SE.
Many thanks to this year’s judges: Joe Himali, DC history and real estate; Gary Mintz, 2025 contest winner; William Hauck, Frame of Mine, Barracks Row; and Marianna Sotomayor, The Washington Post.
Tickets are on sale for our annual Capitol Hill House & Garden Tour May 9-10
The annual Capitol Hill House & Garden Tour will be held on Mother’s Day weekend, May 9-10. After focusing on the northeast side of the Hill last year, this year we are highlighting the southeast side, with its lovely parks and even older homes.
The 2026 tour will include eight homes, three semi-public buildings and a newly installed native plant garden. Some homes have been part of the tour before but now have had fresh and unique updates. Tickets are available through Eventbrite.
Refreshments from local DC vendors will be offered in the lobby of 507 8th Street SE on Barracks Row, which will also operate as tour headquarters. “The 507,” as it is known, serves as an event venue and also the offices of Taoti Creative. The building itself has been many things over the years — some more reputable than others, which we have lots of information about — and we are so pleased to be able to introduce this space to those who have not seen its new iteration.
Homes on the tour feature both historic and more modern layouts and interiors. A few of the homes are on lightly used streets. Some are homes you may have always wondered about due unusual exterior shapes or paint colors. We have standalones, corner lots, clapboards, and former boarding houses. We have an infamous alley, an infamous business and one with some curious collections.
We also are featuring stately and well-behaved stops, such as the Capitol Hill Presbyterian Church and the Hill Center at the Old Naval Hospital, both of which have graciously offered their locations as rest stops and will also offer tours of their buildings. The church is a beautiful example of Gothic architecture with impressive stained glass windows, and the Hill Center has made a few changes to its outdoor garden.
The tour, as always, is pedestrian-friendly. This year’s map will take you through some of the beautiful parks south of Pennsylvania Avenue, and CHRS will provide information about them in the tour catalog.
Tickets are on sale via Eventbrite on April 1. CHRS members will receive a discount code to purchase tickets for $30 each. The regular advance non-member price is $40, and the price increases to $50 on the weekend of the tour. Interested in volunteering as a docent? No experience is necessary and training will be provided. All docents who sign up for a minimum of a two-hour shift will be given a free ticket to visit the other tour stops. Click here or contact the CHRS House Tour Committee at caphillhousetour@gmail.com for more information.
Spring Poetry Invitational
The snow is gone. The Muse has descended and actually found a parking space. So, for April, which is National Poetry Month, she invites local Baudelaires and Emily Dickinsons to submit brief poems to CHRS celebrating our lives and houses on Capitol Hill.
The Muse, as she will, has guidelines:
1. The joys and foibles of Capitol Hill life must be your theme
2. Be spring-oriented — she no longer wishes to contemplate winter
3. Write a minimum of three lines (haiku) to a maximum of 14 lines (sonnet)
4. Submit your poem by Wednesday, March 18, at midnight (à la Poe) to caphrs420@gmail.com with “Poem” or “Poetry Submission” in the subject line
5. Choose any format, free verse to rigid meter, blank verse to rhyme. But if you label your poem a haiku, it must be a haiku; if a limerick, a limerick, etc.
6. The Muse will award a special prize (TBD) for wittiest use of the word “mortar”
2026 Photo Contest
Each year, CHRS asks for your best shots of Capitol Hill – from its antique homes to lovely parks and everything in between. This year’s deadline has been extended to Sunday, March 8, 2026.
Anyone can participate in the contest as long as the photos were taken in the neighborhood. All photos will be considered for this juried contest. There will also be a student section, and all of those entries will be inherent winners.
Winning photographs will be displayed at the Coldwell Banker Realty office at 350 7th Street SE — just down the street from Eastern Market. All young person/student entries will be displayed. CHRS will hold an opening reception sometime in April.
Here are the rules:
1. Photos must have been taken on Capitol Hill;
2. Photos must be submitted via the Google form in the highest resolution possible, by 11:59 pm on March 8, 2026;
3. Each submission must include a title, the photographer’s name, email address, and a note saying whether they are over or under 18.
4. Individuals can submit no more than two photos. We will only look at the first and second images an individual has submitted.
Members of the CHRS photo subcommittee will cull submissions to roughly 10 images that will then go to the judges.
Pictures posted here are 2025 entries.
In addition to having their photo displayed, the first-place winner will receive free tickets to our annual Capitol Hill House and Garden Tour. Honorable mentions will receive a free year’s membership to CHRS.
