In keeping with its goal of building a stronger, kinder, more thoughtful community, the Capitol Hill Community Foundation established the Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project to give our neighborhood a better knowledge of its past and a deeper understanding of the everyday lives of its citizens.

The Project collects oral histories from longtime Capitol Hill residents and former residents to create a permanent, accessible record of the people and events that have shaped our community. As a first priority, the all-volunteer effort focuses on elderly residents whose stories might soon be lost, but its ultimate goal is a many-voiced narrative from across the generations, representing all backgrounds and walks of life and illustrating the richly inter-connected life of our neighborhood over time.

To inform and inspire the broadest possible audience, we actively promote and publicize our collection and also sponsor lectures that explore our neighborhood’s history.

We undertake this Project in the spirit of its namesake, Ruth Ann Overbeck, who devoted much of her life to the exploration of our neighborhood’s history and the preservation of its historic treasures. We share her strongly held belief that a community must know its own past in order to plan wisely for its future, and that the life of even the humblest citizen is worthy of study and respect.