In this interview, Marvin Kirby talks about his neighbors and memories of living in the Fort Totten community, and the changes gentrification has brought to the neighborhood., Marvin Kirby was born in Washington, DC at Gallinger Hospital, now known as DC General. He grew up in the Harvard Street Northwest area. In 1964, he moved with his wife and children to the Fort Totten neighborhood. He attended Bruce Elementary School, Banneker Junior High School, and Cardozo High School. He served two years in the Army and then attended Cortez Peters Business School. He worked for the federal government for several years.
In this interview, Michael Stanley discusses growing up in Fort Totten in the 1950s. He talks about the close-knit nature of the Fort Totten community and the long-lasting friendships that formed among neighborhood children. He then reflects on his life as a teenager and favorite clothing styles, and participating in the Cadet Core in high school. He reflects on the uniqueness of living in Fort Totten and how it has evolved., Michael Stanley is a native Washingtonian born at Georgetown Hospital where his mother worked. He lived with his family on Savannah Terrace in Southeast Washington until they moved to the Fort Totten neighborhood in approximately 1955 when he was six years old. He attended Keene Elementary School until the sixth grade, then MacFarland for seventh grade and part of eighth grade. Halfway through his eighth-grade year Bertie Backus was opened and he attended there the remainder of eighth grade and ninth grade. He was in the first graduating class of Bertie Backus. He attended high school at Roosevelt. After graduating from high school, he got a job and was later drafted into the Army where he served for two years and nine months. After that he attended college at UDC where he majored in business management.
In this interview, Phillip Purvis recounts growing up in Fort Totten with friends and family, and remembering past businesses that he frequented. He recalls the beginning of gentrification and areas of the city like Barry Farms, East Gate, and Simple City., Phillip Purvis was born in 1955 in Northwest Washington. He grew up in Fort Totten, before moving to Woodridge in 1969. Following high school, he struggled with addiction and homelessness.
In this interview, Vannie Kirby talks about moving to Petworth in Washington, D.C. from North Carolina and raising her children in Fort Totten. She recalls her own childhood in North Carolina and attending Cortez Peters Business School after coming to D.C. Kirby compares and contrasts the neighborhood from when she and her husband moved there in 1964 and how it is at the time she gave this interview. She speaks about shopping downtown, the Fort Totten Civic Association, and changes brought by the Metro., Vannie Kirby was born in Rockingham, North Carolina and moved to Washington, DC to attend business school. Mrs. Kirby and her husband moved to the Fort Totten neighborhood in 1964. She attended Cortez Peters Business School for two years and worked for the Department of Public Health for 31 years. As of this interview, she continues to reside in the Fort Totten area.
