1801 HISTORY

1801.1 In 1662, the first land grant in the Washington area was made to George Thompson on land along the east bank of the Potomac River, extending from Blue Plains to what is now the St. Elizabeths Campus. The land was farmed as a tobacco plantation until 1862. In 1863, a portion of the tract was leased by the government as an army post called Camp Stoneman. The post became a resort after the Civil War, until it burned down in 1888. Other late 19th century uses in Far Southeast/Southwest included a racecourse, a one-room schoolhouse on what is now Congress Heights School, and dairy farms. St. Elizabeths Hospital was founded in 1852, growing into the largest federal behavioral health facility in the country by 1940; more than 7,000 residents lived there at its peak.

1801.2 Present-day Anacostia was established as Uniontown in 1854 as a bedroom community for Navy Yard workers. The neighborhood was a Whites-only community until abolitionist Fredrick Douglass purchased his home on Cedar Hill in 1877. Many of the original wood frame and brick homes, along with some of the original commercial structures along Good Hope Road SE and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE still remain today and are protected through their designation as a 25-block historic district.

1801.3 By the turn of the century, the expanding national capital began to spread east of the Anacostia River. A seawall was constructed to protect the Anacostiashoreline, and storm sewers were installed. In 1908, Washington Steel and Ordnance Company—best remembered as the steel plant—arrived at the foot of what is now Portland Street SE. The Army developed an airfield on the still rural land near the shoreline in 1917, with a ferry connection to Hains Point established a year later. The compound would eventually become Joint Base Anacostia- Bolling.

1801.4 Large farms still persisted through the 1920s and 30s. Winding roads follow the natural contours of the land and reflect the area's development during a time when great suburban growth was occurring beyond District limits. The grid and diagonal road system that characterizes much of the rest of Washington, DC was not followed, resulting in a more organic pattern of development.

1801.5 The Second World War was a period of great change in Far Southeast/ Southwest. The population grew by over 200 percent during the 1940s, as neighborhoods like Bellevue and Washington Highlands were developed. The wartime growth of Bolling Field and the Naval Research Laboratory fueled demand for housing, with thousands of garden apartments constructed. One of the complexes developed during this period was Barry Farm. Once literally a farm, the site was part of a 375-acre tract established in 1867 to provide freed slaves with an opportunity to become homeowners.

1801.6 After the Second World War, apartments continued to be constructed. The arriving residents included many households displaced from urban renewal activities west of the Anacostia River. The influx of new residents was coupled with the closure of wartime industrial uses, such as the Navy armaments factory in Congress Heights. The combined effects resulted in a long period of economic and population decline, which started in the late 1950s and continued for four decades. By 2000, nearly one in six housing units in the Planning Area were vacant, and more than one in three residents lived in poverty.

SOURCE: District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984, effective April 10, 1984 (D.C. Law 5-76; 31 DCR 1049 (March 9, 1984)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Element Amendment Act of 1984, effective March 16, 1985 (D.C. Law 5-187; 32 DCR 873 (February 15, 1985)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-129; 37 DCR 55 (January 5, 1990)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1989 NCPC-Recommended Amendments, and Closing of Public Alleys in Square 669, S.O. 88-452, Act of 1990, effective May 23, 1990 (D.C. Law 8-132; 37 DCR 2213 (April 6, 1990)); as amended by District Government Land Use Temporary Amendment Act of 1994, effective October 1, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-190; 41 DCR 5360 (August 12, 1994)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendments Act of 1994, effective October 6, 1994 (D.C. Law 10-193; 41 DCR 5536 (August 19, 1994)); as amended by District of Columbia Comprehensive Plan Act of 1984 Land Use Amendment Act of 1994, effective March 21, 1995 (D.C. Law 10-235; 42 DCR 30 (January 6, 1995)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 18, 1996 (D.C. Law 11-110; 43 DCR 530 (February 9, 1996)); as amended by Second Technical Amendments Act of 1996, effective April 9, 1997 (D.C. Law 11-255; 44 DCR 1271 (March 7, 1997)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 1998, effective April 27, 1999 (D.C. Law 12-275; 46 DCR 1441 (February 19, 1999)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 1999, effective April 12, 2000 (D.C. Law 13-91; 47 DCR 520 (January 28, 2000)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2006, effective March 8, 2007 (D.C. Law 16-300; 54 DCR 924 (February 2, 2007)); as amended by Technical Amendments Act of 2008, effective March 25, 2009 (D.C. Law 17-353; 56 DCR 1117 (February 6, 2009)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2010, effective April 8, 2011 (D.C. Law 18-361; 58 DCR 908 (February 4, 2011)); as amended by Comprehensive Plan Amendment Act of 2021, effective August 21, 2021 (D.C. Law 24-20; 68 DCR 006918 (July 16, 2021)).