Section 10-A1501. CONTEXT HISTORY

 

1501.1The Capitol Hill Planning Area has played an important role in the growth of the nation’s capital since the 1700s. The neighborhood itself takes its name from what was once called “Jenkins Hill.” It was here that Pierre L’Enfant sought to locate the “Congress House” or U.S. Capitol Building. L’Enfant’s original vision was that Washington’s major commercial street would extend eastward from the Capitol to the Anacostia River. A deepwater port on the river would become the city’s center of commerce. The eastern section of L’Enfant’s grand design failed to materialize, however, and the city developed to the west. However, the Hill was to achieve its own unique identity. 1501.1

 

1501.2During the city’s early years, privately owned buildings were constructed close to the Capitol, and occupied by artisans and craftsmen. The Navy Yard, to the south of the Capitol, also attracted development. By the time the British burned the Capitol building in 1814, a small community had been established on the Hill. Capitol Hill had cemeteries, an outdoor market, churches, hotels, and taverns. Boarding houses were constructed for members of Congress. 1501.2

 

1501.3At the beginning of the Civil War in 1861, only a few blocks east of the Capitol and south near the Navy Yard had been developed. Most streets were unpaved. Shanties stood side by side with more substantial wood frame and brick dwellings. Horse drawn streetcars served the Hill and the Navy Yard, and connected these areas to the Capitol and Downtown. 1501.3

 

1501.4The neighborhood began to expand after the Civil War. The city had endured and prospered, and investment increased. During the last quarter of the 19th century, brick row houses were built north and east of the Capitol, new stores and banks were established, and streets were graded and paved. A major public works program gave the city-and Capitol Hill-a municipal water supply and sewerage system. A mix of ethnic groups settled in the community, including Italians, Germans, and African-Americans. 1501.4

 

1501.5By the late 1800s, there were houses as far as Lincoln Park, where the Emancipation statue was erected in 1876. Philadelphia Row, completed in 1866 on 11th Street SE, was one of the first large-scale developments in the area. Senators, congressmen, and other public officials lived in the elegant homes around Lincoln Park and along East Capitol Street. More modest homes supported a growing middle class, employed at the Navy Yard and at the federal buildings around the U.S. Capitol. The area’s growth was spurred by the construction of electric streetcar lines in the early 1900s, also giving rise to commercial districts like H Street. 1501.5

 

1501.6The Hill has gone through several cycles of decline and renewal during the last century. During the 1920s, the federal government began renting out many of the houses on Capitol Hill. The neighborhood became less fashionable than the burgeoning area northwest of Downtown, and some of its more prominent residents relocated. By the late 1920s, the National Capital Park and Planning Commission had developed plans for an eastward extension of the National Mall, extending from the Capitol to the Anacostia River. While these plans were not carried out, housing conditions on the Hill continued to deteriorate through the Great Depression and World War II. The 1950 Comprehensive Plan identified\ much of the neighborhood as “obsolete” or “blighted.” Congress funded public housing construction in response, and additional blocks around the Capitol were replaced with new federal offices. 1501.6

 

1501.7Parts of Capitol Hill were already being “gentrified” by the 1950s. Many turn-of-the-century row homes on the blocks just east of the Capitol were restored, bringing a renaissance to close-in neighborhoods. However, the recovery was uneven and was slower to arrive on the eastern edge of the Hill. Parts of the area continued to decline through the 1960s, and H Street was devastated by the 1968 riots. Most of Capitol Hill remained a stable, diverse, economically and racially mixed community through the 1980s and 1990s. Population decline was not as steep as it was in the neighborhoods to the north and east, and the community has remained consistently strong through difficult as well prosperous times. 1501.7

 

notation

The provisions of Title 10, Part A of the DCMR accessible through this web interface are codification of the District Elements of the Comprehensive Plan for the National Capital. As such, they do not represent the organic provisions adopted by the Council of the District of Columbia. The official version of the District Elements only appears as a hard copy volume of Title 10, Part A published pursuant to section 9a of the District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1994, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; D.C. Official Code § 1 -301.66)) . In the event of any inconsistency between the provisions accessible through this site and the provisions contained in the published version of Title 10, Part A, the provisions contained in the published version govern. A copy of the published District Elements is available www.planning.dc.gov.