Good Neighbors? A School for the Disabled, Daycare Centers and a Hostel

By Sharon McLoone

St. Coletta’s School has moved from Clarendon to Alexandria to southeast Washington, DC—always looking for local hospitality for the school serving severely disabled children and adults.

While the school now sits at 1901 Independence Ave., SE in Washington with 285 students, it still has a branch on Peyton Street in Old Town serving 120 adults ages 22 and up.

The school’s Chief Executive Officer Sharon Brady Raimo highlights to Washingtonian magazine how when she moved the school from Arlington’s Clarendon neighborhood with two students to 207 South Peyton St., the Alexandria building’s owner didn’t want to sell it to her.

Trammell Crow said, according to Raimo: “…It would undervalue the land, that it was going to be this nonprofit for people with disabilities.”

But after a conversation with U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, who referred her to Joe Kennedy, “the people at Trammel Crow were my very best friends,” said Raimo.

St. Coletta’s expected new neighbor has had a different reception. The entrepreneurs behind a recently approved hostel in Old Town found the owners of the building at 216 S. Peyton St. to be warm to the idea of a hostel in Alexandria, but many neighbors haven’t been.

“A hostel doesn’t fit in with the overall vibe of Old Town,” said one commenter on Hostel in Old Town: Affordable Accommodations or Rowdy Roadhouse. 

“As a non-white parent of 2 kids who attend the daycare next door, no thanks,” said NOVAMomma.

The city's Planning Commission received an email that said: “As a resident of Old Town Alexandria, I am uncomfortable knowing individuals having no ties to our community and sometimes no ties to any community, are invited to this area.”

City Council approved the plan for the hostel on June 15.

What do you think of the proposed make-up of S. Peyton Street? Can daycare facilities, a youth hostel and a school for the disabled make good neighbors?