Photo: Chuck Wagner

As cemeteries go, Congressional Cemetery in Southeast Washington is a popular place. Go there any day of the week, and you'll see couples walking and reading headstones, young children playing and dogs sniffing. On some mornings, you can see women doing tai chi and on some evenings you can peek into the chapel during a community function. The cemetery is an important part of the neighborhood, which means that its renovation has the neighbors in mind.

"At the turn of the last century, there was a real movement to use cemeteries as parks—open spaces and public gardens," says Linda Donavan Harper, chair of the board of Historic Congressional Cemetery, who became the new executive director for Cultural

Historic Congressional Cemetery Chapel Location: 1801 E Street, SE, Washington, D.C. Managed by: Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery Roofing: Relayed existing Buckingham slate roofs, new copper gutters and painting

Tourism DC, last summer. "We're the largest privately held open space on the Anacostia River, so we very much serve as a place for families to come and enjoy being outside. It's a community gathering place."

Download the Newsletter Available in Adobe Acrobat format. Get the free Acrobat reader. Spring 2008 • Congressional Cemetery Renovates and Celebrates—History and Community • Wagner Project Manager Returns To His Alma Mater • Employees: Our Best Asset Spring 2007 • Wagner Slaters Restore 1803 Steeple Winter 2007 • "New" Clyde's Uses 18th & 19th Century Structures Summer 2007 • Most Important Project Underway at Walter Reed Spring 2007 • Wagner Slaters Restore 1803 Steeple Winter 2007 • "New" Clyde's Uses 18th & 19th Century Structures

Now, the cemetery, 200 years old last year, is undergoing a renovation that has improved Congressional's physical and interpretative components, including restoring the chapel, tombs and walkways.

The chapel, built in 1903, holds about 60 people. It was not in the strategic plan for renovation at this time, Harper explains, but once the roof started leaking and it was starting to damage the interior, "it became apparent that we couldn't put it off any longer," she says. "We needed a good assessment and good working relationship with the contractor, and Wagner was great. They let us set up a payment plan, which is really helpful to historic properties when it's not in your budget. Wagner really stepped up to the plate."

Wagner finished the roof in about six weeks. This was the first time that significant work had been done on the roof since it was built, which Harper says is about right, since the lifespan of a slate roof is a century. She says the hope is that the chapel will be used in the future for more receptions, exhibits and a lecture series. Today, it's used for meetings of the Association for the Preservation of Historic Congressional Cemetery (APHCC) and for a small congregation's Sunday church services.

For 70 years, Congressional Cemetery served as the country's national cemetery (until it was replaced by Arlington National Cemetery). It was the place where Congress used to honor its members. Nineteen senators and 71 representatives are buried at the cemetery, which also honors 120 other members of Congress who died while in office. Also, 10 mayors of Washington are buried there, along with conductor and march king John Phillip Sousa and the merchants, bankers and domestics of Washington's early years. "You can really learn the history of this city at Congressional," Harper says. Congressional is also an active, non-denominational cemetery, where individuals can buy a burial site.

The APHCC relies on private donations to maintain and restore the cemetery's buildings, grounds and monuments. If you wish to donate, click on www.congressionalcemetery.org.