History

Mentions of L'Enfant Plaza in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for "Southwest Washington", "Neighborhood House", Southwest, "Maine avenue".

Clips are machine-read text (OCR) from scanned Evening Star pages on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, lightly cleaned (line-break hyphens rejoined, stray symbols removed); misspellings are the scanner's. Newspapers this old are public domain. Each clip links to its page at loc.gov. Clips that mention race, covenants, deed restrictions or slurs are skipped automatically (keyword list: race, races, racial, colored, coloured, negro, negroes, white only, whites only, for whites, white people, white persons, white residents, caucasian, segregation, segregated, covenant, covenants, restricted, restriction, restrictions, plus a list of slurs), because they need an editor's context; legal notices and lists of private individuals are skipped too.

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  Bureau of Engraving and Printing · [between 1909 and 1932]Bureau of Engraving and Printing
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  Bureau of Engraving and Printing · [between 1909 and 1932][Horse-drawn wagon outside Bureau of Engraving and Printing building]
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  Bureau of Engraving and Printing · [between 1909 and 1932][Employees at their workstations at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing]
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  6th St SW · [1925]Texas Company, 6th St., Southwest, [Washington, D.C.]

Photographs from the Library of Congress (National Photo Company Collection), each with no known restrictions on publication or in the public domain, per the Library. Titles are the Library's, written when the photos were catalogued; some use the language of their time. Each links to its record.

4th Street SW1934

Until 1934 this was 4½ Street, with 7th Street the main shopping street of old Southwest, where Black residents to the east and Irish, Italian and Jewish residents to the west traded. Attorney Harry S. Wender led a campaign to repave it and rename it Fourth Street, celebrated with an integrated parade.

Earlier: 4½ StreetSource: The Heyday of Four-and-a-Half Street (Southwest Heritage Trail marker, via Duke Migration Memorials)

Banneker Circle SW and Benjamin Banneker Parkcircle by 1970; park 1971

Honors: Benjamin Banneker, 18th-century Black mathematician and almanac author

Dan Kiley designed the 10th Street Overlook at the south end of L'Enfant Promenade, finished in 1969. The DC Council had already named the circle around it Banneker Circle and asked the Park Service to rename the overlook too, which it did in 1971. Wikipedia notes the site has no specific link to Banneker himself.

Earlier: Tenth Street OverlookSource: Commemorations of Benjamin Banneker - Wikipedia (Benjamin Banneker Park section)

Delaware Avenue SW

Honors: State of Delaware

One of the four state-named avenues centered on the Capitol. It survives in broken pieces, including a stretch in Southwest Waterfront between Canal and H Streets and a one-block section near the Rayburn House Office Building.

Source: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia

Independence Avenue SW1934

Originally South B Street, laid out in the L'Enfant plan and built in Southwest between 1791 and 1823. Congress renamed it Independence Avenue in 1934; it was later extended west from 14th Street to Ohio Drive.

Earlier: B Street (South B Street)Source: Independence Avenue (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia

L'Enfant Plaza1954 (name proposed); 1968 (dedicated)

Honors: Pierre Charles L'Enfant, planner of the capital city

New York developer William Zeckendorf proposed the name in February 1954 for a cultural center planned within the urban renewal of Southwest. The plaza along Independence Avenue honors Pierre Charles L'Enfant, who drew the first street plan for Washington, and was dedicated in 1968. L'Enfant Promenade runs above 10th Street SW.

Source: L'Enfant Plaza - Wikipedia

Maine Avenue SW

Honors: State of Maine

A state-named diagonal that runs from Independence Avenue and 17th Street along the Southwest Waterfront to 6th and M Streets. It gave its name to the Maine Avenue Fish Market, which opened in 1805 and is described as the oldest continuously operating fish market in the country.

Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Maine Avenue Fish Market - Wikipedia

Pearl Street SW2017

Honors: The 1848 escape attempt aboard the schooner Pearl

In 2017 a street at The Wharf was named Pearl Street to commemorate the Pearl incident. On April 15, 1848, 77 enslaved people tried to escape Washington aboard the schooner Pearl, the largest recorded nonviolent escape attempt in U.S. history.

Source: Pearl incident - Wikipedia

Raoul Wallenberg Place SW1985

Honors: Raoul Wallenberg, Swedish diplomat who rescued Jews during the Holocaust

The stretch of 15th Street SW where the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum stands was renamed for Raoul Wallenberg in 1985; a plaque on site gives an Act of Congress dated December 19, 1985. He was posthumously granted American citizenship in 1981.

Earlier: 15th Street SWSources: Museum Praises Recognition of Holocaust Rescuer Raoul Wallenberg by US Congress (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum) · Raoul Wallenberg Place (Read The Plaque)

The Wharf2017

Formally District Wharf, this mixed-use development stretches about a mile along the Southwest Waterfront from the Francis Case Memorial Bridge to Fort McNair, taking in the historic fish market. The first phase opened in October 2017 and the last in October 2022. Its pedestrian plaza is called District Square.

Source: The Wharf (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia

Still looking for a reliable source on Makemie Place SW, Wesley Place SW, Riley Street SW, Sutton Square SW, Parker Row SW, School Street SW, Capitol Square Place SW, Wharf Street SW, District Square SW. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.

• John Lucas interview, 1983-03-19John Lucas · 1983 · audio

  Lucas, born in Southwest in 1885, describes community life in his youth: farms, housing, the cost of living, segregation, entertainment and crime. He also covers what he saw during urban renewal, including businesses relocating, better living conditions and new roads and transit. Recorded for Dolores Smith's film project 'Southwest Remembered.'

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · Southwest before urban renewal, segregation, housing, urban renewal
• Mignon Coates interview, 1983-06-18Mignon Coates · 1983 · audio

  Coates, born and raised in Southwest, remembers the neighborhood before urban renewal: its schools and businesses, the talent among the people she grew up with, and the central place of church. Urban renewal forced her out and separated her from loved ones.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · schools, churches, local businesses, displacement
• Mr. and Mrs. Walter Butler interview, 1983-06-12Mr. and Mrs. Walter Butler · 1983 · audio

  The Butlers, former Southwest residents, recall the community before urban renewal: recreation, living conditions, schools, clubs and businesses from their childhood, and misconceptions about the area. Many residents could not return after redevelopment, so former neighbors keep in touch through reunion picnics.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · childhood, recreation, clubs and businesses, reunion picnics
• Mary Jefferson interview, 1983-02-20Mary Jefferson · 1983 · audio

  Jefferson draws on her years in show business to recall musicians and dancers she knew in Southwest and the neighborhood's club and hall scene. She also describes how urban renewal wiped out livelihoods and broke the relationships that had helped the community get by.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · music and nightlife, show business, urban renewal
• Betty Shapiro interview, 1983-05-13Betty Shapiro · 1983

  Shapiro describes growing up in the largely Jewish part of Southwest, a hard-working, close community, until she left the city at 14. She also talks about other Jewish communities around DC, the area's few amenities before urban renewal, and the arrival of white and Black newcomers.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · Jewish Southwest, childhood, urban renewal
• Reverend Norman Haddad interview, 1983-02-24Rev. Norman Haddad · 1983 · audio

  Father Haddad, a priest at St. Dominic Church, talks about Southwest's places of worship before urban renewal and residents' joint efforts to save the community they had built. He says churches and parks gave the neighborhood a family feeling that faded after redevelopment.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · St. Dominic Church, churches, parks, urban renewal
• James Banks interview, 1984-11-29James Banks · 1984 · audio

  Banks, former Director of Relocation for the Redevelopment Land Agency, talks about the families he moved during Southwest's urban renewal, his job of placing them in new housing, the problems he ran into, his conversations with residents, and the costs and benefits of the redevelopment.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · Redevelopment Land Agency, relocation, housing, urban renewal
• Morris Engle interview, 1985-04-14Morris Engle · 1985 · audio

  Engle, former owner of the Southwest restaurant Harrigan's, describes his unsuccessful efforts to save small family businesses during urban renewal and his dealings with officials who could have helped displaced owners. He also tells stories of racial integration in the neighborhood.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library ('Southwest Remembered: A Story of Urban Renewal' Oral History Project) · small business, Harrigan's restaurant, displacement, integration
• Vanessa Ruffin-Colbert interview, 2017-08-22Vanessa Ruffin-Colbert · 2017 · audio · remembers the 2010s

  Ruffin-Colbert, a native Washingtonian who has spent much of her life in the Southwest home where she was born, talks about her community work with local children and families, neighborhood problems, redevelopment and construction, and her role connecting residents with public officials. She is also passionate about the arts.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (Buzzard Point Oral History Project, DC Oral History Collaborative) · community advocacy, redevelopment, arts, youth and families
• Thelma D. Jones interview, 2017-09-26Thelma D. Jones · 2017 · audio · remembers the 2010s

  Jones talks about moving to Washington and living in Southwest, the World Bank's summer jobs program for youth, the history of the Southwest Neighborhood Assembly and her work on its task forces, the Southwest Neighborhood Small Area Plan, the breast cancer fund she founded, and changes in the neighborhood.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (Buzzard Point Oral History Project, DC Oral History Collaborative) · Southwest Neighborhood Assembly, youth jobs, small area plan, redevelopment

Search the archives yourself: The People's Archive, DC Public Library · Historic Chevy Chase DC Oral History Archive · Humanities Truck Community Archive, American University · Tenleytown Historical Society · Boundary Stones (WETA) · Glover Park History: Oral History and Reminiscences · Cleveland Park Historical Society Oral Histories · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · hometown DC (DC History Center) · Hola Cultura: Adams Morgan History · Citizens Association of Georgetown · Peabody Room, Georgetown Neighborhood Library (DC Public Library) · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Archives: A Right to the City Exhibition Records · Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project · Mosaic Theater H Street Oral History Project · Library of Congress, Manuscript Division · Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Department Library · The Catholic University of America Archives · Bygone Brookland · Dig DC, DC Public Library · hometown DC (HumanitiesDC / Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) · Dig DC, DC Public Library's digital repository · A Right to the City exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · Palisades Community Association · Forest Hills Connection (neighborhood history series). Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.

• DC Historic Preservation Office, Historic Data on DC Buildings (HistoryQuest), CC BY 4.0
• Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Chronicling America, Library of Congress; public domain

History data refreshed Nov 1.