Howard Team to Study Walter Pierce Park

The Howard University archaeological team has received a $200,000 grant from the city to conduct a ground-penetrating radar survey at Walter Pierce Park in Adams Morgan to determine where graves are located. The measure was approved by the D.C. Council and was included in the fiscal 2009 budget.

GPR uses radar pulses to image the subsurface. The noninvasive technique transmits information about soil disturbances, which is recorded by the device on graph paper.

Beginning this fall, the team will use this technique to locate graves and other vulnerable cemetery features across the seven-acre site.

The grant will be made to the nonprofit organization Washington Parks & People. The Kalorama Citizens Association, which has provided financial and other support to the project, will continue to be involved. The grant also calls for funding for signs at the Calvert Street and Adams Mill Road entries to the park to mark its historical significance, as well as money to plan a commemorative space for the more than 7,000 people buried there.

Woodson High to Receive $110 Million Replacement

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) and other city officials gathered last week at H.D. Woodson High School in Northeast Washington to celebrate the impending construction of its replacement.

This summer, city officials will demolish the 35-year-old, nine-story school at 5500 Eads St. NE -- nicknamed the "Tower of Power" -- and construct a $110 million, 250,000-square-foot building. The exterior will include masonry and "glass curtain" walls, and the interior will reflect the school's emphasis on science, technology, engineering and math, officials said. The school will open in 2010.

The old building is being torn down because of longstanding problems with the heating and cooling system, escalators and elevators, stemming from deferred maintenance.

-- Compiled by JILLIAN S. SOWAH