Linda Barnes · 2002 Honoree

Linda Barnes and her family have been a fixture on East Capitol Street since the late sixties and in our community for even longer. From Monroe, the small town in Connecticut where she grew up, Linda went to Smith College. The summer between her junior and senior years there she married Bart Barnes. After graduation and summer-time graduate work, Linda went to work as a high school English teacher in Holyoke, Massachusetts. But she and Bart wanted excitement, the adventure of moving some place new so Bart, a newspaper reporter, sent resumes all over the country. Almost immediately, a job opened up at the Washington Post and Bart got it. In 1963 he and Linda moved to the Washington area and two years later they bought their first house on the Hill. By the end of the sixties, Linda and Bart, their daughter Kate and twin sons, Michael and David, were firmly established here. Since then, Linda has participated in the community in innumerable ways, both professional and personal.

Her experience restoring a number of houses before moving into her present home led to twenty-five years o real estate brokerage, first as co-owner with John Janke of City Sites and later when they expanded the firm and bought Barbara Held, Inc. That work led to her role as president of the Capitol Hill Brokers’ Council. She joined CHAMPS and served as its president during a time of financial crisis when, for more than half of her stint, there was no executive director, she did everything from writing the newsletter to testifying before the D.C. City Council.

When she became a member of St.Mark’s Episcopal Church in 1972 it wasn’t just as a parishioner. She taught Sunday School, served on the finance committee and the Vestry, co-led the Christian Education program, served two terms as Senior Warden and, most recently, co-led the Worship committee. She worked on the Board of Circle on the Hill, which benefited Friendship House, helped establish Market Day at the Eastern Market and volunteered at her children’s schools. She has been an active board member of the CHAMPS Community Foundation. And, just for fun, she has also worked as a caterer and as an apprentice to a florist.

All these activities have given Linda a huge number of friends and acquaintances in the neighborhood. She fell in love with the Hill for its gardens, location in walking distance of museums and Mall and for its small town feel. But the heartwarming greetings of friends in the drug store, at the bank or as she strolls down the street are the return on an investment she made here in more than real estate.