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LeDroit Park home of the first black congressman elected post-reconstruction is for sale

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A local developer has restored the former home of the first African American elected to Congress after reconstruction, placing the LeDroit Park property on the market for $2.05 million.

Built in 1873 by architect and LeDroit Park founder James McGill, the fully detached, corner lot house at 419 U St. NW was home to Illinois’ Oscar Stanton De Priest — who at one point was the sole voice in Congress for 12 million blacks. He was the first black congressman elected by a non-southern state.

De Priest was a Chicago-based developer who jump started his political career as a member of the board of commissioners of Cook County, Illinois. He won a seat on the Chicago City Council in 1914 and was elected to Congress in 1928, serving three terms from 1929 to 1935, the year he died.

District Design & Development (D3) purchased the property for $1.075 million in 2017 and took two years to renovate it, making sure to keep intact McGill’s Beau-Arts design and architecture. It was among the first…

Read the full story from the Washington Business Journal.

Sonic Drive-In to open its first restaurant in Northern Virginia’s I-95 corridor

Fast-food chain Sonic Drive-In has filed plans to build a new restaurant in Prince William County, its first outpost along the Interstate 95 corridor in Northern Virginia. The 1,400-square-foot restaurant, with two drive-thru lanes, 12 pull-up ordering stalls and a dining patio, will be located at 4115 Talon Drive in Dumfries, part of the Barracks Row at Quantico commercial development less than a mile northwest of the I-95 interchange at state Route 234. The location “will constitute a flagship Sonic design that will serve as a benchmark for future restaurant drive-thru development,” according to a written narrative accompanying the application, filed by Noah Klein of Venable LLP.
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