This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the
United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
An editor deleted the entire history section without explanation. The last version read thus:
Southwest is part of
Pierre L'Enfant's original city plans and includes some of the oldest buildings in the city, including the Wheat Row block of townhouses, built in
1793, and
Fort McNair, which was established in
1791 as "the U.S. Arsenal at Greenleaf Point."
Prior to
1847, much of the
Virginia portion of the District of Columbia, including the town of
Alexandria, was included in Southwest.
After the
Civil War, the Southwest Waterfront became a neighborhood for the poorer classes of Washingtonians. The neighborhood was divided in half by
Fourth Street SW, then known as 4 1/2 Street; Scotch, Irish, German, and eastern European immigrants lived west of 4 1/2 Street, while freed blacks lived to the east. Each half was centered around religious establishments: St. Dominic's Catholic Church and Temple Beth Israel on the west, and Friendship Baptist Church on the east. (Also, each half of the neighborhood was the birthplace of a future American musical star —
Al Jolson was born on 4 1/2 Street, and
Marvin Gaye was born in a tenement on First Street.)
Waterfront developed into a quite contradictory area: it had a thriving commercial district with grocery stores, shops, a movie theater, as well as a few large and elaborate houses (mostly owned by wealthy blacks). However, most of the neighborhood was a very poor
shantytown of tenements, shacks, and even tents. These places, some of them in the shadow of the
Capitol Building, were frequent subjects of photographs that were published with captions like, "The Washington that tourists never see."
In the
1950s, city planners working with the
U.S. Congress decided that Southwest should undergo a significant
urban renewal — in this case, meaning that the city would declare eminent domain over all land south of the mall (except Bolling Air Force Base and Fort McNair); evict virtually all of its residents and businesses; destroy all streets, buildings, and landscapes; and start again from scratch. Only a few buildings were left intact, notably the
Maine Avenue fish market, the
Wheat Row townhouses, and the St. Dominic's and Friendship churches. The Southeast/Southwest Freeway was constructed where F Street, SW, had once been.
The rebuilt Southwest featured a large concentration of office and residential buildings in the
brutalist style that was then popular. It was during this time that most of the Southwest Federal Center was built. The heart of the urban renewal of the Southwest Waterfront was
Waterside Mall, a small shopping center/office complex mostly occupied by a
Safeway grocery store and satellite offices for the
Environmental Protection Agency. The Arena Stage was built a block west of the Mall, and a number of hotels and restaurants were built on the riverfront to attract tourists.
Southeastern University, a very small college that had been chartered in 1937, also established itself as an important institution in the area.
However, urban renewal was largely a failure in Southwest. Although some upscale apartment buildings and a fairly affluent townhouse complex, Capitol Park, was built in the
1970s, most of the neighborhood remained run-down, low-income, and somewhat dangerous. This situation intensified in the
1980s and the
1990s, when Washington had among the lowest per capita incomes and highest crime rates in the nation.
Starting around
2003, however, the Southwest Waterfront began gentrifying. H20, an enormously popular nightclub, opened on the riverfront, while a number of the decrepit and unattractive apartment buildings began extensive renovations and
condominium conversions. Residential and commercial developers began to take a more serious interest in Southwest with the announcement in
2004 that the city would build the new
Washington Nationals baseball stadium just across South Capitol Street from Southwest. The Southwest Waterfront has now been earmarked as the site of the next wave of cityside gentrification.
While I agree that the text has problems, I don't agree that the entire thing should be deleted without explanation. Instead, I reproduce it above so that we can improve it, beefing up the sourcing and toning down the POV. Thanks.
Doctor Whom01:00, 21 November 2006 (UTC)reply
"Five neighborhoods"--original research?
The article claims that while Southwest "is frequently referred to as a neighborhood in and of itself... it actually contains five separate neighborhoods." According to whom? The section describing the five "neighborhoods" is unreferenced, and includes a military base as one of the putative neighborhoods. Lacking an official definition for what constitutes a neighborhood of DC, we should follow reliable sources. So who's saying this? Is it just realtor hype? --
BDD (
talk)
18:35, 8 September 2015 (UTC)reply
This article is within the scope of WikiProject United States, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of topics relating to the
United States of America on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the ongoing discussions.
An editor deleted the entire history section without explanation. The last version read thus:
Southwest is part of
Pierre L'Enfant's original city plans and includes some of the oldest buildings in the city, including the Wheat Row block of townhouses, built in
1793, and
Fort McNair, which was established in
1791 as "the U.S. Arsenal at Greenleaf Point."
Prior to
1847, much of the
Virginia portion of the District of Columbia, including the town of
Alexandria, was included in Southwest.
After the
Civil War, the Southwest Waterfront became a neighborhood for the poorer classes of Washingtonians. The neighborhood was divided in half by
Fourth Street SW, then known as 4 1/2 Street; Scotch, Irish, German, and eastern European immigrants lived west of 4 1/2 Street, while freed blacks lived to the east. Each half was centered around religious establishments: St. Dominic's Catholic Church and Temple Beth Israel on the west, and Friendship Baptist Church on the east. (Also, each half of the neighborhood was the birthplace of a future American musical star —
Al Jolson was born on 4 1/2 Street, and
Marvin Gaye was born in a tenement on First Street.)
Waterfront developed into a quite contradictory area: it had a thriving commercial district with grocery stores, shops, a movie theater, as well as a few large and elaborate houses (mostly owned by wealthy blacks). However, most of the neighborhood was a very poor
shantytown of tenements, shacks, and even tents. These places, some of them in the shadow of the
Capitol Building, were frequent subjects of photographs that were published with captions like, "The Washington that tourists never see."
In the
1950s, city planners working with the
U.S. Congress decided that Southwest should undergo a significant
urban renewal — in this case, meaning that the city would declare eminent domain over all land south of the mall (except Bolling Air Force Base and Fort McNair); evict virtually all of its residents and businesses; destroy all streets, buildings, and landscapes; and start again from scratch. Only a few buildings were left intact, notably the
Maine Avenue fish market, the
Wheat Row townhouses, and the St. Dominic's and Friendship churches. The Southeast/Southwest Freeway was constructed where F Street, SW, had once been.
The rebuilt Southwest featured a large concentration of office and residential buildings in the
brutalist style that was then popular. It was during this time that most of the Southwest Federal Center was built. The heart of the urban renewal of the Southwest Waterfront was
Waterside Mall, a small shopping center/office complex mostly occupied by a
Safeway grocery store and satellite offices for the
Environmental Protection Agency. The Arena Stage was built a block west of the Mall, and a number of hotels and restaurants were built on the riverfront to attract tourists.
Southeastern University, a very small college that had been chartered in 1937, also established itself as an important institution in the area.
However, urban renewal was largely a failure in Southwest. Although some upscale apartment buildings and a fairly affluent townhouse complex, Capitol Park, was built in the
1970s, most of the neighborhood remained run-down, low-income, and somewhat dangerous. This situation intensified in the
1980s and the
1990s, when Washington had among the lowest per capita incomes and highest crime rates in the nation.
Starting around
2003, however, the Southwest Waterfront began gentrifying. H20, an enormously popular nightclub, opened on the riverfront, while a number of the decrepit and unattractive apartment buildings began extensive renovations and
condominium conversions. Residential and commercial developers began to take a more serious interest in Southwest with the announcement in
2004 that the city would build the new
Washington Nationals baseball stadium just across South Capitol Street from Southwest. The Southwest Waterfront has now been earmarked as the site of the next wave of cityside gentrification.
While I agree that the text has problems, I don't agree that the entire thing should be deleted without explanation. Instead, I reproduce it above so that we can improve it, beefing up the sourcing and toning down the POV. Thanks.
Doctor Whom01:00, 21 November 2006 (UTC)reply
"Five neighborhoods"--original research?
The article claims that while Southwest "is frequently referred to as a neighborhood in and of itself... it actually contains five separate neighborhoods." According to whom? The section describing the five "neighborhoods" is unreferenced, and includes a military base as one of the putative neighborhoods. Lacking an official definition for what constitutes a neighborhood of DC, we should follow reliable sources. So who's saying this? Is it just realtor hype? --
BDD (
talk)
18:35, 8 September 2015 (UTC)reply