Construction at the Wok N Roll

[L Verge]

I can't tell you the number of times that visitors have suggested that Surratt House buy the boardinghouse and restore it! We are owned by a government organization that has enough historic sites of its own to maintain - from colonial and federal mansions, the world's oldest operating airport with its own museum, lots of archaeological sites, a late-19th century tenant cabin, a black fellowship hall of the post-Civil War period, two one-room schoolhouses, etc.

The National Park Service takes care of more nationwide sites than they have the money for, and the boardinghouse now sits in close proximity to Washington's big arena, Verizon Center. The land alone is worth a fortune - location, location, location.

And lastly, Surratt House has tried three times now to go higher on the historic sites registry. We are on the National Registry of Historic Places, but would like to be classified as a National Historic Landmark. They reject us each time because "sites related to the assassination that are currently on the registry (Ford's Theatre and the Petersen House) are all we need to remind us of Lincoln's assassination."

We've been open to the public and functioning since 1976. I doubt that the boardinghouse would ever stand a chance of becoming a historical site. It has also been drastically changed - mainly over the past twenty years - and has lost much of its original structure and personality.