Voices at Vespers

Voices at Vespers. Village in the City. , This secluded building on the edge of Rock Creek Park was built in 1911 as the House of Mercy. It provided, as its founders wrote "a refuge and reformatory for outcast and fallen women," especially unwed mothers and girls entangled in prostitution. This home, a mission of St. John's Episcopal Church, trained the young women in domestic skills to prepare them to earn an honest living. Once their babies were born, mothers could keep them or offer them for adoption. Neighbors remembered seeing groups of expectant mothers taking walks in the neighborhood. "At 4pm every afternoon, the girls would sing at vespers," recalled Honora Thompson, who grew up nearby. "Their voices were lovely." , , By 1972 the maternity home had closed, and the facility became the bilingual Rosemount Center/El Centro Rosemount, offering early childhood education and family support. The new name honors the old "Rosemount" estate. Its manor house, once located in the trees beyond Rosemount Center, was demolished around 1890 as Rock Creek Park was created. , , Leading into Rock Creek Park, along Klingle Road, is Canto a la Esperanza ("A Song for Hope"), a mural designed by Jorge Somarriba and painted by members of the Latin American Youth Center in 1988. The mural, featuring, regions of the world and hopes for world peace, covered a wall of graffiti. Until recently, the remnants of an old ford were visible in the creek just south of Klingle Road. Drivers remember the pleasures of splashing through the water on this paved roadway. It was removed to help fish navigate the creek more freely.