This DC women’s housing organization offers more than somewhere to live
On a recent trip back to D.C., a woman who once lived at Thompson-Markward Hall returned with her 7-year-old son.
She asked Executive Director Jennifer Sharp if she could show her son the room she lived in. She described to him what it was like living in the relatively small and simple space. She told stories about friends congregating there and spending time exploring the city during the weekends.
Sharp was struck by the anecdotes and wondered whether the woman’s son may one day share the stories with his own family.
Many women have similar stories. For more than 130 years, the women’s housing organization has offered temporary, safe and affordable housing to young women planning to live in D.C.
Just steps from the Supreme Court, the latest iteration offers women a place to stay without a lease and provides easy access to networking and friendship.
“A lot of women coming here from around the country, maybe in small rural areas, it can be intimidating to come into Washington, D.C., and to say ‘You can come here’ and the Capitol is right there,” Sharp said. “The Supreme Court is right there, like we are in the heart of everything, and it’s such a cool location. It’s so safe and it’s so affordable, and our residents, they love it.”
The concept originated with Mary Gause Wilkinson, who Sharp said, during the height of the Civil War, recognized that women without husbands or male relatives had difficulty finding a place to live. In 1887, it received a Congressional Charter and became known as Young Women’s Christian Home.
Seven years later, Thompson-Markward Hall reached a point at which it didn’t need federal funding anymore. That’s still the case today.
Initially, the space was housed at Bessie Kibbey’s childhood mansion, which she donated, along with a nearby property. After almost 30 years there, the facility’s board received a notice of eminent domain. A new hall was built on Capitol Hill.
Now, women 18 to 34 can apply to live at Thompson-Markward Hall. The space is usually full most of the year, and women can stay for as long or short as they would like, with no lease required.
There’s space for 120 people, with 24-hour security and breakfast and dinner provided daily, except Saturdays. Women mainly have furnished, private rooms with communal bathrooms and a communal dining hall. Male visitors aren’t allowed on the residential floors.
“When you walk into the dining room at dinner time, there’s groups of women chatting and sharing about their day and breaking bread together, which is just really cool,” Sharp said. “And they have an opportunity to meet women they may not ever have met.”
There are organized events and communal living spaces for residents to gather and watch movies or complete puzzles. The space is affordable, too. In the more than eight years Sharp has been the executive director, the organization has only raised fees by one or two dollars per night.
“We have been doing that forever,” Sharp said. “We have always kind of operated on a relatively bare bones budget, which has helped us to keep the costs low.”
The current building is a century old, and Sharp said they’re beginning to ask for donations and support, with the goal of offering more women the chance to make memories that they can one day share with their future children.
“I hope they walk away with a very memorable experience in D.C., a one-of-a-kind experience,” Sharp said. “And we hope they continue to tell people about us, so other women can continue to have that experience.”