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Articles
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| Hill resident Reich left restoration, charity legacy |
VOICE writes, "By Hannah Rexroth
Longtime Hill resident Barbara Held Reich’s presence left the Hill a few weeks ago, but those who knew her say her neighborhood work will live on.
Reich died on Oct. 13 at age 84. Her contributions to the community helped the Hill become what it is today, said her former co-workers at Coldwell Banker.
“She saw beyond what the neighborhood was then to what it could become,” said Coldwell Banker manager Don Denton. “She was always one of the first ones to support new businesses or schools on the Hill.”
Reich was born in Harrisonburg, Va., and spent most of her early years in Georgetown. She worked in real estate and became interested in Capitol Hill in the early 1950s, when a Georgetown resident asked for her help in selling his home in order to move to Philadelphia Row. "
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Reich talked about the condition of the Hill when she first discovered it during an interview with Megan Rosenfeld for the Capitol Hill History Project on March 7, 2002. “The facades of the houses were beautiful, but they were not well cared for,” Reich said. “And it was considered the wrong part of town.”
She then dedicated herself to restoring the area.
“I think her goal was to see what we have now,” Denton said. “A thriving, federal Victorian neighborhood. This is what she envisioned it being.”
Reich was one of the earliest renovators on the Hill.
“She was involved with restoration before anybody else was doing it, back in the days when people were fleeing the Hill,” said Adrian Bernie, a Coldwell Banker broker and one of Reich’s former employees. “She provided the first example of the great community that the Hill could become.”
She helped form Market Row, Barracks Row and the more recent Capitol Hill Association of Merchants and Professionals, known as CHAMPS, which promotes professional and business activities in the neighborhood
Reich was concerned with restoring the Hill, but she had a deeper concern for less fortunate residents. She joined the board of Sasha Bruce Youthwork, an organization that works with runaway and homeless teenagers, when it was founded in 1974.
“She was like the angel of our organization,” said founder and executive director Debbie Shore. “She was totally committed to our mission of helping youth and families in crisis.”
In the early 1990s, Reich felt limited by the influence she could have in the real estate business and left to do charity work full time, Bernie said.
Reich’s religious beliefs were the force behind her concern for others, according to Shore. “Her faith translated into a deep commitment to social justice,” Shore said. “From the moment I met her, I was inspired. Her commitments were so obvious; I thought the world of her. She had a kind of live, active faith that is extremely rare.”
According to her friends, Reich also had a rare personality.
“She had so much vibrancy,” Shore said. “There was a certain uniqueness about her that made her stand out. Everything that she did, she did with great aplomb. She was very much a woman ahead of her time, and she will be greatly missed.”
Memorial donations can go to Christ Church Georgetown at 3116 O St. NW or to The Shakespeare Theatre at 516 8th St. SE.
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Posted on Nov 15, 2007 20:01pm.
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