David Guas, the owner and chef of the Bayou Bakery, Coffee Bar & Eatery on Capitol Hill, has always felt a emotional pull toward the stories of the Civil War. That explains his deep affection for the building that he has painstakingly renovated.
His bakery is at 9th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, on the grounds of the Hill Center. In the Civil War, the building had served as a carriage house for the Naval Hospital next door.
Here, the horses that pulled ambulances for wounded soldiers were kept, rested and fed.
"I've always been a huge Civil War buff," said Guas, a Louisiana native. "I love history. And for me, it was kind of a win-win. With all the uniqueness of the property, the wrought-iron fence, I felt like I was in Jackson Square in New Orleans."
Guas wanted the building to tell its story. He sandblasted decades of paint off walls. He ripped linoleum off the floor to find the original brick, laid out in a herringbone pattern. After workers installed the plumbing required of a modern building, he had the floor carefully reinstalled, in the original pattern.
"The bones were here, but it was pretty beat up. It was raw," Guas said.
The building, it turned out, still held original details. A 1905 sign for Virginia tobacco was found wedged behind a window to keep out the cold. In the ceiling near distinctive wooden hay chutes that had fed Civil War horses, Guas and the builders found oats, barley and dried grains, there for a century and a half.
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The building is now a bustling bakery, where the cuisine offers the flair of Guas' native New Orleans. On Friday, it will be the location of News4's Inauguration Cafe, a behind-the-scenes look at Inauguration Day.
Guas is expecting a bipartisan crowd, there to enjoy a historic day -- in a historic location.
"It's just really a special place," Guas said.
