Southwest (Washington, D.C.)

Color-enhancedUSGSsatellite image ofWashington, D.C.,with the crosshairs in the image marking the quadrant divisions ofWashington, D.C.,with theU.S. Capitolat the center of the dividing lines. To the west of the Capitol is theNational Mall,visible as a slight green band in the image. The Southwest quadrant is the smallest, located mostly on a fairly narrow strip of land along thePotomac River,which is the large river running from the upper left corner to the bottom center of the image.

Southwest(SWorS.W.) is the southwesternquadrant of Washington, D.C.,the capital of theUnited States,and is located south of theNational Malland west ofSouth Capitol Street.It is the smallest quadrant of the city, and contains a small number of named neighborhoods and districts, includingBellevue,Southwest Federal Center,theSouthwest Waterfront,Buzzard Point,and the military installation known asJoint Base Anacostia–Bolling.

Geography

Fort McNair,aUnited States Armypost in Southwest

Southwest has the following districts and neighborhoods:

• theSouthwest Federal Center,also called theSouthwest Employment District,is the area between the National Mall and the Southeast/Southwest Freeway (Interstate 395).
  • Southwest Federal Center contains theSmithsonian Institutionmuseums along the south side of the Mall—including theHirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden,theNational Museum of African Art,theFreer Gallery of Art,theArthur M. Sackler Gallery,theNational Air and Space Museum,theUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum,and theNational Museum of the American Indian—as well as theUnited States Botanical Gardens,L'Enfant Plazaand a large concentration of federalexecutive branchoffice buildings for departments as well theHouse office buildings;
  • Southwest Federal Center is inWard 2.
• theSouthwest Waterfront,also calledNear Southwest,is between I-395 andFort Lesley J. McNair.
  • Southwest Waterfront is a primarily residential neighborhood. It also is home to several Washington DC marinas, including the Washington Marina, The Capitol Yacht Club, the Gangplank Marina, and the James Creek Marina.
  • It is also home to theMaine Avenue Fish Market,Arena Stage,the Washington Marina,Fort McNair,andHains Point;EastandWest Potomac Park,a conjunction of two national parks between I-395 and theNational Mallthat contain theTidal Basin,theJefferson Memorial,and theFranklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial(West Potomac Park continues intoNorthwestand includes theLincoln MemorialandWorld War II Memorial,both of which straddle the Southwest/Northwest boundary);
  • Southwest Waterfront is inWard 6,except for the unpopulated East and West Potomac Parks, which are in Ward 2.
• Buzzard Point,a largely under-developed industrial area betweenSouth Capitol Streetand Fort McNair.
  • Buzzard Point containsAudi Field,home of localMLSteamD.C. United,winner of 4MLS Cups.It is also home to theMatthew A. HensonEarth Conservation Center. Prior to 2013, Buzzard Point was the home of theU.S. Coast Guard,which was headquartered in a building at the confluence of thePotomacandAnacostiaRivers. The headquarters then moved to the formerSt. Elizabeths Hospitalcampus inSoutheast WashingtonnearJoint Base Anacostia-Bollingto a building renamed theDouglas A. Munro Coast Guard Headquarters Building.
• the area of Southwest that is south and east of the Anacostia River containsJoint Base Anacostia-Bollingtogether with theNaval Research Laboratoryand theBlue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant,Job CorpsCenter, and Fire Department Training Center.
  • Bolling is inWard 8.
• theBellevueneighborhood occupies all of the Southwest land between South Capitol Street (to the east) and theAnacostiaand Potomac rivers (to the west and north). Included is the small Hadley Hospital.
  • Bellevue is in Ward 8.

Transportation

TheBlue,Orange,andSilverlines of theWashington Metrohave the following stations in the Southwest Federal Center:Smithsonian,L'Enfant Plaza,andFederal Center SW.

TheGreen linehas a stop in the Southwest Federal Center at L'Enfant Plaza and in the Southwest Waterfront atWaterfront;additionally, theNavy Yard – Ballparkstop is one block outside the eastern boundary of the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood.

History

Before 1950

Southwest is part ofPierre 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, andFort McNair,which was established in 1791 as "the U.S. Arsenal at Greenleaf Point."

Before 1847, much of theVirginiaportion of the District of Columbia, including the town ofAlexandria,was included in Southwest.

After theCivil 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 41⁄2Street; Scotch, Irish, German, and eastern European immigrants lived west of 41⁄2Street, while freed blacks lived to the east. Each half was centered on religious establishments: St. Dominic's Catholic Church andTalmud Torah Congregationon the west, and Friendship Baptist Church on the east. (Also, each half of the neighborhood was the childhood home of a future American musical star — the first home ofAl Jolson,whose father was thecantorof Talmud Torah Congregation,after his family emigrated from what is nowLithuaniawas on 41⁄2Street, andMarvin Gayewas 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 poorshantytownof tenements, shacks, and even tents. These places, some of them in the shadow of theCapitol Building,were frequent subjects of photographs highlighting the stark contrast.

1950s rebuilding

12th St. tunnel underI-395in Southwest

L'Enfant Plazain Southwest

In the 1950s, city planners working with theU.S. Congressdecided that Southwest should undergo a significanturban renewal— in this case, meaning that the city would declareeminent domainover all land south of the National Mall and north of the Anacostia River (except Fort McNair); evict virtually all of its residents and businesses; destroy all streets, buildings, and landscapes; and start again from scratch. The seizure of the entire area, including well maintained properties, was upheld by theUnited States Supreme CourtinBerman v. Parker.Justice William Douglasemphasized the squalor and segregation the area suffered, noting that the area was 98% black while 58% of dwellings had outside toilets.

Only a few buildings were left intact, notably theMaine Avenuefish market, theWheat Rowtownhouses, theThomas Law House,and theSt. Dominic'sand 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 thebrutaliststyle 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 and office complex, which housed satellite offices for theUnited States Environmental Protection Agency.TheArena Stagewas 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. Following a proposal by Chloethiel Woodard Smith and Louis Justement,renewal in Southwest marked one of the last great efforts of the late Modernist movement. ArchitectI. M. Peideveloped the initial urban renewal planand was responsible for the design of multiple buildings, including those comprising L’Enfant Plaza and two clusters of apartment buildings located on the north side of M St. SW, initially called Town Center Plaza). Various firms oversaw individual projects and many of these represent significant architectural contributions. ModernistCharles M. Goodmandesigned the River Park Mutual Homes complex. Likewise,Harry Weesedesigned the new building forArena StageandMarcel Breuerthe Robert C. Weaver Federal Building,located at 451 Seventh Street, SW, to house the newly establishedU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development,and the Hubert H. Humphrey Federal Building. The Tiber Island complex, which was designed as a replica of the adjacent Carollsburg Condominium and Carrollsburg Square, were designed by Keyes, Lethbridge & Condon, and won anAmerican Institute of Architectsaward in 1966.

However, urban renewal did not fully succeed in Southwest for many of the reasons that plagued other Modernist renewal efforts. Areas 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. The Southwest urban renewal has been called "a case study of everything urban renewal got wrong about cities and people."

Recent redevelopment

While many of the residential neighborhoods of Southwest remained both highly mixed-race and mixed-income, around 2003, the wave of new development occurring throughout D.C. reached Southwest including a number of apartment building renovations andcondominiumconversions.Nationals Parkstadium, located on the east side of South Capitol Street and thus in Southeast, opened for theWashington NationalsMajor League Baseballteam in 2008, construction having cost more than $611 million. As part of the Capitol Riverfront revitalization efforts, high rise office buildings and condominiums have been constructed. Developers have created a waterfront greenspace The Yards, and a waterfront bike trail is planned. Public Housing projects continue to occupy the area between the Waterfront metro and the Nationals Park stadium.

The Wharfopened its first phase in 2017 and its final phase in 2022.

On April 16, 2010, the new Waterfront Safeway (including a sushi bar).Along Water Street, "The Wharf"includes restaurants, shopping, theaters, public piers, hotels, and high-rise housing; the first phase opened in October 2017 (seeRedevelopment of Southwest Waterfront) with phase twoslated to deliver in early 2022.

L'Enfant Plazahas also undergone a facelift, with new retail and hotels, as well as office renovations having been completed in the late 2010s.In April 2017, theNational Capital Planning Commission(NCPC) approved plans for a staircase and ramp that will travel through a grassy slope inBenjamin Banneker Parkto connect L'Enfant Plaza to the Southwest Waterfront and to add lighting and trees to the area. The NCPC and theNational Park Serviceintended the project to be an interim improvement that could be in place for ten years while the area awaits redevelopment.Hoffman-Madison Waterfront (the developer of "The Wharf" ) and the District of Columbia government agreed to invest $4 million in the project in an effort to improve neighborhood connectivity in the area. Construction began on the project in September 2017.

Notable residents

Notable past and present residents of Southwest Washington, D.C. include:

• John Conyers,former U.S. Representative
• Marvin Gaye,Motownsinger and songwriter
• Denyce Graves,opera singer
• Dennis Hastert,formerSpeaker of the U.S. House of Representatives
• Hubert Humphrey,formerU.S. vice presidentandU.S. Senator
• Kay Bailey Hutchison,formerU.S. Senatorand U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO
• Al Jolson,former singer and actor
• Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick,U.S. Representative
• Thurgood Marshall,formerU.S. Supreme Courtassociate justice
• Lewis F. Powell Jr.,former U.S. Supreme Court associate justice
• Charles H. Ramsey,formerPhiladelphiaandWashington, D.C.police commissioner
• Paul Simon,former U.S. Senator and U.S. Representative
• David Souter,former U.S. Supreme Court associate justice
• Strom Thurmond,former U.S. Senator

See also

• NE –Northeast, Washington, D.C.
• SE –Southeast, Washington, D.C.
• NW –Northwest, Washington, D.C.

External links

• Southwest D.C. Community website
• Southwest D.C. real estate website
• Southwest Heritage Trail (pamphlet)