U Street (Washington, D.C.)

The area is often referred to as the U Street Corridor,[4][3] and has been known by other names:

• Part of Shaw: The 1966 Shaw School Urban Renewal Area plan covered the neighborhood now commonly known as Shaw, but also the U Street Corridor, Logan Circle, that for decades were also considered part of Shaw.[6][7]
• Cardozo: in the 1990s the U Street Corridor was often referred to as Cardozo/Shaw,[7] a name that the DC planning department still uses.[8][9] Google Maps labels the neighborhood Cardozo. In both cases this is defined as a neighborhood separate from the Shaw neighborhood proper. The Cardozo Education Campus is located adjacent to the U Street Corridor but is actually in Columbia Heights neighborhood.

Row houses after snowfall on Wallach Place

U Street is a largely Victorian-era neighborhood, developed between 1862 and 1900, the majority of which has been designated as the Greater U Street historic district.

At the time of the Civil War, the area was woods and open fields. The Union command chose this area for military encampments including Camp Barker near 13th and R streets and others in what is now the Shaw neighborhood proper. The encampments were safe havens for freed slaves fleeing the South, and thus the area became a popular one for African Americans to settle.[10]

After the war, horse-drawn streetcar lines opened, running north from downtown Washington along 7th, 9th and 14th streets,[11] making the area an easily accessible place to live. The lines were later turned into cable cars. Both blacks and whites lived here, gradually shifting to a predominantly African American population between 1900 and 1920.[10]

The area's oldest buildings are Italianate, Second Empire and Queen Anne-style row houses built rapidly by speculative developers in response to the city's high demand for housing with the post-Civil War growth of the federal government.

Twelfth Street YMCA Building

Until the 1920s, when it was overtaken by Harlem, the U Street Corridor was home to the nation's largest urban African American community.[12] The area was home to the Industrial Bank, the city's oldest African American-owned bank,[13] and to hundreds of black-owned and black-friendly businesses, churches, theaters, gyms, and other community spaces. Natives of the area included jazz musician Duke Ellington, opera singer Lillian Evanti, surgeon Charles R. Drew, and law professor Charles Hamilton Houston.[13]

In its cultural heyday – roughly consisting of the years between 1900 and the early 1960s[13] – the U Street Corridor was known as "Black Broadway", a phrase coined by singer Pearl Bailey.[14] Performers who played the local clubs of the era included Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, and Jelly Roll Morton, among many others.[15] During Prohibition, U Street was also home to many of the capital's 2,000-3,000 speakeasies, which some historians credit for helping integrate a city long divided between black and white.[16]

From 1911 to 1963, the west end of the U Street neighborhood was anchored by Griffith Stadium, home of the District's baseball team, the Washington Senators. The Lincoln Theatre opened in 1921, and Howard Theatre in 1926.[17] Duke Ellington's childhood home was located on 13th street between T and S Streets.

The Green Book, a travel guide for black travelers (1933–1963) listed many sites along U Street NW by Green Book Travelers.[18]

While the area remained a cultural center for the African American community through the 1960s, the neighborhood began to decline following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. on 4 April 1968. The intersection of 14th Street and U Street was the epicenter of violence, 13 deaths and damage to 1,200 homes and businesses during the 1968 Washington, D.C. riots, which rampaged for four days after King's murder.[19] Following the riots, and the subsequent flight of affluent residents and businesses from the area, the corridor became blighted.[20] Drug trafficking rose dramatically in the mid-1970s, when the intersection of 14th and U Streets was an area of drug trafficking in Washington, D.C.[21]

Frank D. Reeves Municipal Center

Following the economic downturn the area faced following the 1968 riots, the community and DC government launched numerous redevelopment efforts.

Examples include:[22]

• The Reeves Center, built in 1986 at 14th and U, which houses city agencies and represented a $50 million investment, and which includes an urban plaza and weekly farmer's market
• Metro and bus stops on U Street for increased accessibility by transit
• Capital Bikeshare stations
• 1998 Department of Housing and Urban Development grants funding "Remembering U Street" signage marking 15 historic properties, as well as façade improvements to 150 dilapidated storefronts on U and 14th streets
• New construction and rehabilitation projects providing more quality, affordable housing, including Section 8-qualifying units and senior citizen communities.

In the 1990s, revitalization of Adams Morgan and later Logan Circle began. More than 2,000 luxury condominiums and apartments were constructed between 1997 and 2007. As the area improved and became more attractive Washingtonians of all races and ethnicities, and of higher incomes and wealth, to live there, the ethnic mix of the neighborhood changed dramatically: in 2000 it was roughly 20% white and 60% black; while by 2010 that had reversed and the it was roughly 60% white and 20% black (see Demographics below).[23]

Redevelopment continued further into the 2000s and 2010s,[20] along with rising concerns about gentrification.[24]

Since 2013, more than 700 residential units have been added to the neighborhood in large luxury buildings with street-level retail. See #Residential below This represents a significant population increase versus the population of 4,572 registered in the 2010 census.

In 2011, U Street NW was designated a Great Street among Great Places in America by the American Planning Association. It is said to have been selected for in recognition of the street return to its grandeur after several decades of difficulties. Once again, the street hosts the arts, food, and businesses. The community works to embrace its historical significance for the African American community of Washington, D.C. during segregation.[25]

On January 4th 2021, the book "Black Broadway" by DC author and journalist Briana A. Thomas was published by The History Press[26] Thomas narrates U Street’s rich and unique history, from the early triumph of emancipation to the days of civil rights pioneer Mary Church Terrell and music giant Duke Ellington, through the recent struggles of gentrification.

• 
  1923 14th St NW before 2014-8 renovation
• 
  1923 14th St NW after renovation
• 
  Retail and new apartment buildings along 14th Street, 2019
• 
  Retail on east side of 14th Street between S and T streets
• 
  Row house at 13th and Wallach with taller new buildings rising in the background, 2010s
• 
  Commercial buildings on the 1600 block

Since 2013 numerous large mixed use residential buildings with retail on the ground floor have been built into the corridor including:[32]

• 13|U (2017, 129 units, 16,000 sq. ft. of retail including RiteAid drugstore branch and restaurant The Smith)[33][34]
• The District (2013, 125 units, Ted's Bulletin restaurant)
• Elysium Fourteen (2016, 56 units residential, Lululemon and Orange Fitness branches)
• Louis at 14th (2014, sold for $76 million, 268 units residential, Trader Joe's supermarket)[35]
• The Harper (2014, 144 units, Madewell clothing store branch)
• Sonnet Apartments, a 2018 288-unit complex as part of the overhaul of the former Portner Place, which was a 48-unit HUD (Section 8) complex[36]