CRHS Founder,
Dr. Janelle Goetcheus

The first floor of CRHS undergoes renovations in 1983

The clinic in the 1980s at its current location,
1660 Columbia Road

Dr. Don Martin and Ellen Martin at the clinic in the early 1990s

Sister Emeline Cunningham,
CRHS' first nurse, at the
annual Christmas party

• 1975: Dr. Janelle Goetcheus, a family physician from Marion, Indiana, was awaiting a visa to serve as a medical missionary in Pakistan. She and her husband, Allen, a Methodist minister, and their three children came to Washington, D.C. to visit friends at the Church of the Saviour. They visited the Jubilee Housing apartments, a low-income housing project in Adams Morgan sponsored by the church, and had the opportunity to meet and talk to the tenants. Janelle recalled, “That was an eye-opening time for me because I knew there were health needs overseas, but I had never heard anybody talk about health needs in the inner city.” By the time a visa came through, the family has already decided to move to the District.
  
  

• 1976: The Goetcheus family relocated to the District. Janelle admitted, “I didn’t know exactly what was to come next.”
  
  

• 1979: CRHS opened on March 1st in a two bedroom apartment, at the corner of Ontario Road and Columbia Road. The first month’s rent was donated by one family, while furniture was donated by a local branch of the Herman Miller furniture company. Sister Marcella Jordan, CRHS’ first social worker, described the set-up of the apartment as: “one bedroom became an exam room, while the other served as a conference room and office for the counselor. The living room was the reception area with a partition for a small office for Dr. Goetcheus. I provided social services in the hallway. I would step into the bathroom when I needed to make confidential phone calls.”
  
  

• 1982: CRHS moved to its present two-story location at 1660 Columbia Road, in the heart of Adams Morgan.
  
  

• 1981: Dr. Don Martin and the late Ellen Martin arrived at CRHS to serve as a medical provider and CRHS’ first Director of Operations, respectively. Dr. Martin still serves as a provider today. CRHS began to provide practitioners for another community center that serves the poor and homeless, So Others Might Eat (SOME).
  
  

• 1983: CRHS expanded by more than fifty percent, adding four new examination rooms.
  
  

• 1985: Christ House, CRHS’ sister agency, opened across the street as an in-patient respite care facility for homeless people. Dr. Goetcheus also helped found the Health Care for the Homeless Project, which originally operated out of CRHS but quickly expanded into a separate organization. Later, the Health Care for the Homeless Project would become Unity Health Care, Inc.
  
  

• 1996: Dr. Goetcheus was recognized as a Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine.
  
  

• 2002: CRHS received the status of federally-qualified Community Health Center and began to operate in the evenings and on Saturday mornings. The mental health program was established.
  
  

• 2004: CRHS added dental services through a contract with a local dental provider.
  
  

• 2005: CRHS formed its first Health Disparities Collaborative program to treat the clinic’s diabetic patient population.
  
  

• 2007: CRHS completed a second renovation to expand its lab, two exam rooms, and adminsitrative offices.
  
  

• 2010: CRHS merged with Unity Health Care, Inc, which had expanded from its 1985 origins as the Health Care for the Homeless Project into a large network of community health centers that deliver health care to the underserved throughout Washington, DC. With its common origins and common mission to CRHS, this natural partnership will help CRHS continue delivering health care to the poor for many years to come.