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This is Ethan Norris-Weber with the Humanities, Humanities Truck. On September 8th, 2024 at Adams Morgan Day. Do I have permission to record this? Yes.

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Um, could you tell me your name? Elizabeth Sullivan. Oh, the microphone's here. Do you live in the area? Yes, I live on California Street,

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right down there. Fantastic. And how long have you lived there? There I've lived since 1989. Okay.

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Um, have you lived in other parts of the D.C. area prior to that? Yeah, I moved to D.C. in 1977. Okay. And what brought you to D.C.

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originally? Um. I work in politics, and it seems sort of like the center of my universe. That makes sense. Um, and so in the Adams Morgan

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neighborhood, what are some earliest. Memories of of the neighborhood that you had? Um. Well, the first two weeks I lived on California Street, there were two murders on my block.

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And unfortunately, my parents lived in the same media market. So they're like, what are you thinking? Um, because they were big enough

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to make the news. Um, that was one. Um, I don't know. I had a three year old then, and

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we came to hear Marie read to play, and we went to the parks and saw a lot of the parks, and it was just nice to be able to walk anywhere I wanted to go. Um, would you say that that

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initial memory that you just talked about, did that, um, strongly impact how you viewed Adams Morgan in the later years or. Um, not really.

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I mean, it's calmer now. Um, and but it's just it was what it was. I lived in the city for 12 years

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by then. I didn't, not with a three year old. But that made it a little bit more

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like, Huh? I can't run carrying him anymore. He weighs too much. But, um, it didn't really affect how I thought of it.

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They were kind of contained murders, too. I mean, one was a woman who came home and found her husband in bed with someone else and started

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shooting out all the cars on California Street as he was hiding behind the cars. And it wasn't me he was cheating with.

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So we were all fine. And, um, so I guess, what importance do you hold with the Adams Morgan neighborhood? It's very much a home to me. I know a lot of people in the neighborhood, just most of them

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just to say hello. But a couple of my friends live in Adams Morgan, too. And so over the years, I can

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picture coming to Adams Morgan Day and being down on the soccer field with my six year old son and running into my friend Charles, who picked him up and put him on his shoulders. And Charles had a boy about the same age.

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And, you know, it's just a lot of really fond memories of running into people I know and meeting new people. I mean, I met new people as recently as a week ago or two weeks ago, um, who had just moved in across the alley from me.

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Um, how was that sense of community unique to the Adams Morgan neighborhood at all? Probably not, but I've lived here for so long, I don't know much else. Before here I lived over in, um.

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Thank you, Glover Park. And I knew a couple of people there, but only a few. Um, and in, uh. In what ways do you see Adams

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Morgan as an important neighborhood for the city as a whole? Well, it used to be somewhat more interesting. There were all sorts of

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interesting stores, and now it's mostly bars and there used to be more fun restaurants, but again, they've mostly turned into bars, but. So it's sort of an entertainment

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center for this city. Um, and I assume as these things go, that it'll get more interesting again. There's a whole bunch of open stores or empty stores, I should

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say that somebody's going to want and maybe put something good in there. Um, and could you tell me more about how you've seen the Adams Morgan community evolve as you as

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you've lived here? Yeah. Well, when I moved here, part of why I moved here was on my block of my street. At that time, it was probably one

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third black, one third Latino and one third white. And that's the way I wanted to raise my child is in a multi-ethnic neighborhood. And it's not.

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Well, it's still. Multi-ethnic, but I would say a lot of it was the price of value of places has skyrocketed. Um, it wasn't a very expensive place when I moved here.

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And now it would be. Um, and so there, there are still all those ethnicities, but they are professionals who make a pretty good salary.

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So, you know, lawyers and doctors and I'm just thinking of it, the building I live in alone and, um, architect and stuff like that. So, um, it's changed in that way.

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Um, it was there were a lot of Salvadorans who lived here. And there, it's, it's, um, it's become a lot more white and rich, of which I am only one. But, um, yeah.

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And so it's, it's a little less interesting because there aren't all the people, but I think they're still around. They're just not as obvious. They don't they don't live on my

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in my building or on my street anymore. And do you think that change will continue over, say, the next five years, or how do you think the neighborhood might change? Well, I assume the change will keep happening.

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I don't know what the change will be, but, you know, it's always evolving, and I just I just don't know. Um, is there anything else you'd like to add? Um, this is one of the great things we do is Adams Morgan Day.

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I mean, I think it started in 1978, and I've been coming almost every year except for when I lived in other countries and stuff. But, um, I it feels like the old Adams Morgan a lot more. Although the festival was much bigger and covered, all the

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streets were closed, and it's probably a lot more convenient the way it is than. Fantastic. I really appreciate your time.

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Sure. Good luck. I'll look forward to hearing more. About what you guys do.