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By Theodore
Fischer, Sidewalk
After four
terms as D.C.'s mayor (with four years off for bad behavior),
Marion Barry is a no-show in Sept. 15's mayoral primary
election. Fight off separation anxiety by visiting various
places where he made his mark and some of his current
hangouts.
SNCC headquarters, 107 Rhode Island Ave. N.W. During
the turbulent 1960s, Barry ran the D.C. office of the Student
Nonviolent Coordinating Committee then located here and lived
in an apartment above the store.
Meridian Hill Park. This was the site of the
rally held in 1969 on the first anniversary of Martin Luther
King Jr.'s assassination during which Barry delivered the
speech that launched him from a street activist to mayor for
(almost) life.
District
Building,
14th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue N.W. On March 12,
1977, Barry, then a City Council member, was shot in the chest
during an attack on the building (left) by Hanafi Muslim
terrorists.
St. Albans School for Boys, Wisconsin and
Massachusetts avenues N.W. This prestigious private school
on the grounds of the Washington National Cathedral is
the alma mater of Barry's son, Christopher.
Ramada Inn Central (now the Howard Johnson Plaza), 1430
Rhode Island Ave. N.W. In December 1988, police en route
to arresting suspected drug dealer Charles Lewis, a Barry
crony and former D.C. government employee, here were called
back because Barry was in Lewis' room at the time.
Vista Hotel International (which became the Westin and
is now the Wyndham Hotel, pictured at top), 1400 M
St. N.W. This is where, on Jan. 18, 1990, the FBI
videotaped the mayor smoking crack cocaine and Barry proceeded
to make "Bitch set me up" the most quotable
Washington sentence since "I am not a crook." If you
can't get in to the scene of the crime (Room 727), have a
legal snort in the hotel's Federal Bar.
"Barry Beach." This is the nickname given to
the front steps of the federal courthouse (Third Street and
Constitution Avenue N.W.) where the press gathered during
Barry's trial for cocaine possession during the summer of 1990
(he was convicted of one of 13 counts). This year, as the
press observed the passage of participants in the special
prosecutor's grand jury held in what is now the E. Barrett
Prettyman Courthouse, the area was renamed "Monica
Beach."
Union Temple Baptist Church, 1225 W St. S.E.
This was the Anacostia destination of the five-coach "buscapade"
that escorted Barry home after his release from a federal
prison in Pennsylvania in 1992.
House of Barry, 161 Raleigh St. S.E. Check out
the unprepossessing Congress Heights home where the mayor and
his fourth wife, Cora Masters Barry, are well protected by a
$100,000 security system.
Omni Shoreham Hotel tennis club, 2500 Calvert St.
N.W. Barry plays tennis at the hotel's private club –
with a team of security guards on hand to make sure nobody
crosses the line.
Hangouts. In the bad old days the mayor was a regular
at This Is It?, a now-defunct strip joint in the old
14th Street red-light district. He's a long-time habitué of The
Players Lounge (2737 Martin Luther King Dr. S.E.), a Deep
South-style soul food restaurant – chittlins, collard greens
– in Anacostia long favored by African-American politicos.
Nowadays he enjoys the nouveau Southern style of Georgia
Brown's on McPherson Square, and lately he has been
seen feasting his eyes on Ebony-class models and
listening to music at BET on Jazz Restaurant.
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