Southwest Waterfront
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The Southwest Waterfront is a mostly residential neighborhood in
Southwest The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
The Southwest quadrant is the smallest of Washington's four
quadrants Quadrant may refer to: Companies * Quadrant Cycle Company, 1899 manufacturers in Britain of the Quadrant motorcar * Quadrant (motorcycles), one of the earliest British motorcycle manufacturers, established in Birmingham in 1901 * Quadrant Privat ...
, and the Southwest Waterfront is one of only two residential neighborhoods in the quadrant; the other is
Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...
, which, being east of the
Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. ...
, is frequently, if mistakenly, regarded as being in
Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...
. For that reason, many residents of Southwest Waterfront will refer to themselves as living in "Southwest." Southwest Waterfront is bounded by Interstate 395 to the north,
Washington Channel The Washington Channel is a channel that parallels the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It is located between the Southwest Waterfront on the east side and East Potomac Park on the west side. The channel is long, receives outflow from the T ...
to the west, the
Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. ...
to the south, and
South Capitol Street South Capitol Street is a major street dividing the southeast and southwest quadrants of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It runs south from the United States Capitol to the D.C.–Maryland line, intersecting with Southern Avenue. After it ...
to the east. Politically, Southwest Waterfront lies in Ward 6.


History

Southwest Waterfront is part of Pierre L'Enfant's original city plans. It includes some of the oldest buildings in the city, including the Wheat Row block of townhouses, built in 1793, the Thomas Law House, built in 1796, and
Fort McNair Fort Lesley J. McNair is a United States Army post located on the tip of Greenleaf Point, the peninsula that lies at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. To the peninsula's west is the Washington Chan ...
, which was established in 1791 as "the U.S. Arsenal at Greenleaf Point." Before the federal government's survey and appropriation of the District of Columbia, most of what is now Southwest Waterfront was part of a large slave plantation owned by Notley Young. After the city was established, much of the former Young plantation was purchased by a Bostonian venture capitalist named James Greenleaf, who received a discount on sixty thousand real estate lots in exchange for a promise to build ten new houses on them per year. Greenleaf, however, had not secured the financial backing he had claimed and was unable to finance the promised construction. (He declared bankruptcy in 1797.) As a result, except for a few scattered buildings such as Thomas Law's (a land speculator who was able to put down pounds sterling) and workers' shanties, settlement of the Southwest Waterfront was extremely slow. Despite his crippling of the region's growth, Greenleaf's name was eventually given to the section of land along the bank of the river on which the Arsenal stood. Law himself was the other prominent figure in defining the early character of the Southwest Waterfront. He built its first industrial outpost, a sugar refinery, in 1797. He also initiated the construction in 1802 of the
Washington City Canal The Washington City Canal operated from 1815 until the mid-1850s in Washington, D.C. The canal connected the Anacostia River, termed the "Eastern Branch" at that time, to Tiber Creek, the Potomac River, and later the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Ca ...
, which connected
Tiber Creek Tiber Creek or Tyber Creek, originally named Goose Creek, is a tributary of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It was a free-flowing creek until 1815, when it was channeled to become part of the Washington City Canal. Presently, it flows un ...
, at the western foot of the
National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...
, with the
Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. ...
—then called the "Eastern Branch"—just east of the Arsenal. The canal opened in 1815 but was too shallow and subject to unstable tides to be useful as the industrial pipeline Law had hoped for; instead, it quickly filled with trash and stagnant water, isolating the Southwest from the rest of the city. As a result of Law's canal, the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood was known as The Island. It was further cut off from the city when railroad tracks were built along Maryland Avenue SW. It was known primarily for its brothels, its crime, and its filthy, decrepit alley slums, and was regarded as among the worst neighborhoods in Washington. After the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, with the Canal covered, the Southwest Waterfront became more organized. However, it remained a neighborhood for the poorer classes of Washingtonians. The neighborhood was divided in half by Fourth Street SW—then known as 4 Street— with Scottish, Irish, German, and eastern European immigrants to the west and Blacks to the east. Each half was centered on religious establishments: St. Dominic's Catholic Church and Temple Beth Israel on the west and Friendship Baptist Church on the east. Each half of the neighborhood was the childhood residence of a future American musical star;
Al Jolson Al Jolson (born Eizer Yoelson; June 9, 1886 – October 23, 1950) was a Lithuanian-American Jews, Jewish singer, comedian, actor, and vaudevillian. He was one of the United States' most famous and highest-paid stars of the 1920s, and was self-bi ...
lived on 4 Street and
Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...
was born in a tenement on First Street.) The Waterfront developed 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— but most of the neighborhood was a very poor shantytown of tenements, shacks, and even tents. The latter were frequent subjects of photographs published with captions like, "The Washington that tourists never see." It was also a major traffic hub from Virginia. The
Long Bridge Long may refer to: Measurement * Long, characteristic of something of great duration * Long, characteristic of something of great length * Longitude (abbreviation: long.), a geographic coordinate * Longa (music), note value in early music mens ...
connected horse, stagecoach, and foot traffic from
Alexandria, VA Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. T ...
to Maryland Avenue SW before becoming a railway bridge during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. It was also the access point to the Capital for steamboat lines. The following lines operated from there in 1903: the ''Washington & Potomac Steamboat Company'', the ''Maryland, Delaware & Virginia B.Y. Company'' and the ''
Norfolk & Washington Steamboat Company The Norfolk & Washington Steamboat Company was a steamboat company that transported passengers and freight between Washington, DC and Norfolk, Virginia on the Potomac River. History The company was organized in the Spring of 1889''A Palace Boat ...
''.


Urban renewal

In the 1950s, city planners working with the
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
decided that the entire Southwest quadrant should undergo significant
urban renewal Urban renewal (also called urban regeneration in the United Kingdom and urban redevelopment in the United States) is a program of land redevelopment often used to address urban decay in cities. Urban renewal involves the clearing out of blighte ...
— in this case, the city would acquire nearly all land south of the
National Mall The National Mall is a Landscape architecture, landscaped park near the Downtown, Washington, D.C., downtown area of Washington, D.C., the capital city of the United States. It contains and borders a number of museums of the Smithsonian Institut ...
(except Bolling Air Force Base and Fort McNair), either through voluntary purchases or through the use of
eminent domain Eminent domain (United States, Philippines), land acquisition (India, Malaysia, Singapore), compulsory purchase/acquisition (Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, United Kingdom), resumption (Hong Kong, Uganda), resumption/compulsory acquisition (Austr ...
, evict virtually all of its residents and businesses, destroy many of its streets and all of its buildings and landscapes, and start again from scratch. There was some opposition to the plan, notably from the Southwest Civic Association, because of its emphasis on building luxury housing rather than supplying low and moderate-income dwellings to replace the homes slated for demolition.
John Ihlder John Ihlder was the executive officer of the Washington D.C. Alley Dwelling Authority and its successor agency the National Capital Housing Authority. Prior to those positions, Ihlder was a reporter for the ''New York Evening Sun'', and he also ser ...
, the director of the Alley Dwelling Authority, also spoke out about the plan's failure to provide enough affordable and public housing. However, the redevelopment plans, which had been crafted by architects Louis Justement and Chloethiel Woodward Smith and included modernist buildings, ample green spaces, and plenty of parking, were popular among many city residents and officials, and their appeal eventually won out. Only a few buildings were left intact, notably the
Maine Avenue Fish Market The Maine Avenue Fish Market also known as the Fish Wharf, or simply, the Wharf, is an open-air seafood market in Southwest Washington, D.C., a local landmark and one of the few that remain on the east coast of the United States. It is the oldes ...
, the Wheat Row townhouses, the Thomas Law House, and the St. Dominic's and Friendship churches. The Southeast/Southwest Freeway section of Interstate 395 was constructed where F Street, SW, separated the quadrant's business district from the residential Waterfront neighborhood. The heart of the urban renewal of the Southwest Waterfront was Waterside Mall, a small shopping center/office complex mostly occupied by a
Safeway Safeway is an American supermarket chain founded by Marion Barton Skaggs in April 1915 in American Falls, Idaho. The chain provides grocery items, food and general merchandise and features a variety of specialty departments, such as bakery, d ...
grocery store and satellite offices for the
United States Environmental Protection Agency The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is an independent executive agency of the United States federal government tasked with environmental protection matters. President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970; it be ...
. The
Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest, Washington, D.C. Established in 1950, it was the first racially integrated theater in Washington, D.C. and its founders helped start the U.S. regional theater movement. It is ...
was built a block west of the Mall, and a number of hotels and restaurants were built on the riverfront to attract tourists. The now closed
Southeastern University Southeastern University is a private Christian university in Lakeland, Florida. It was established in 1935 in New Brockton, Alabama, as Southeastern Bible Institute, relocated to Lakeland in 1946, and became a liberal arts college in 1970. It i ...
, a very small college that had been chartered in 1937, also established itself as an important institution in the area. The residential aspect of the project began with a large apartment complex and park called Potomac Place, located on 4th Street between G and I Streets. When
Nikita Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and chairman of the country's Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. During his rule, Khrushchev s ...
visited Washington in 1959, he pointed out to President
Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...
the substandard dwellings that stood on the way from
Bolling Air Force Base Bolling Air Force Base or Bolling AFB was a United States Air Force base in Washington, D.C. In 2010, it was merged with Naval Support Facility Anacostia to form Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling. From its beginning, the installation has hosted elem ...
(where Khrushchev had arrived in the city) to the downtown area; Eisenhower, in response, ordered their driver to pass by Potomac Place to show the
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
Premier that the nation's capital was working to assist its more impoverished citizens.


Present day

Due to its history of urban redevelopment, most of the Southwest Waterfront neighborhood is composed of large cooperatives or condominiums, often containing both townhouses and apartment buildings. Most of the building projects are examples of
Modern Architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
. Constructed in 1962, River Park contains townhouses and a glass and aluminum high-rise building that architect
Charles Goodman Charles M. Goodman, FAIA (November 26, 1906 – October 29, 1992) was an American architect who made a name for his modern designs in suburban Washington, D.C. after World War II. While his work has a regional feel, he ignored the colonial rev ...
designed. Constructed in 1965 in a pinwheel shape with a large courtyard and with town houses in its quadrants,
Tiber Island The Tiber Island ( it, Isola Tiberina, Latin: ''Insula Tiberina'') is the only river island in the part of the Tiber which runs through Rome. Tiber Island is located in the southern bend of the Tiber. The island is boat-shaped, approximately ...
, which architects Keyes, Lethbridge and Condon designed, received the
American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...
award for Multi-Family Residential design in 1966. Carrollsburg was completed in 1967 and developed as a companion piece to Tiber Island by the same architects. In 1968, the Titanic Memorial was moved to the
Washington Channel The Washington Channel is a channel that parallels the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. It is located between the Southwest Waterfront on the east side and East Potomac Park on the west side. The channel is long, receives outflow from the T ...
, near Fort McNair in Southwest Waterfront. The
Washington Metro The Washington Metro (or simply Metro), formally the Metrorail,Google Books search/preview
built the Waterfront Metro station on its Green Line and opened it in 1991. The
District of Columbia Public Library The District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) is the public library system for the District of Columbia, in the United States. The system includes 26 individual libraries including Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (the DCPL's central libr ...
operates a branch library in the neighborhood. The Southwest Neighborhood Library, currently under construction, has an expected completion date in late 2020 and will cost approximately $18 million for the 21,000 sq ft structure. The new Southwest Library will include an outdoor reading porch and an Innovation Lab with 3D printers


Redevelopment

Starting around 2003, the Southwest Waterfront began gentrifying. A number of the neighborhood's apartment buildings began extensive renovations and
condominium A condominium (or condo for short) is an ownership structure whereby a building is divided into several units that are each separately owned, surrounded by common areas that are jointly owned. The term can be applied to the building or complex ...
conversions. Residential and commercial developers started to take a more serious interest in Southwest. In 2004, the city announced that it would build the new
Washington Nationals The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadiu ...
baseball stadium just across South Capitol Street from Southwest. The Southwest Waterfront has been targeted as a site for the next wave of DC redevelopment. Large development projects include a mixed retail-commercial-residential development at Fourth & M Streets SW (Waterfront Station); the expansion and redesign of Arena Stage; and the redesign and overhaul of the waterfront itself, to include residences, office space, hotels, and retail establishments. On March 19, 2014, developers PN Hoffman and
Madison Marquette Madison Marquette Real Estate Services is a Washington D.C.-based investor, developer and operator of mixed-use real estate. Madison Marquette provides investment management, development, leasing and property services to a diverse portfolio of 33 ...
broke ground on a massive redevelopment of D.C.’s Southwest Waterfront into a mixed-use complex named "The Wharf". Stretching across 24 acres of land and more than 50 acres of water from the Municipal Fish Market to Fort McNair, The Wharf, when complete, will feature more than 3 million square feet of residential, office, hotel, retail, cultural, and public uses including waterfront parks, promenades, piers and docks. The first phase of the redevelopment project opened with a four-day series of public events during October 2017.(1)
(2)
In April 2017, the
National Capital Planning Commission The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) is a U.S. government executive branch agency that provides planning guidance for Washington, D.C., and the surrounding National Capital Region. Through its planning policies and review of developmen ...
(NCPC) approved plans for a staircase and bicycle paths through
Benjamin Banneker Park A United States postage stamp and the names of a number of recreational and cultural facilities, schools, streets and other facilities and institutions throughout the United States have commemorated Benjamin Banneker's documented and mythical ac ...
to connect the Mall and
L'Enfant Plaza L'Enfant Plaza is a complex of four commercial buildings grouped around a large plaza in the Southwest section of Washington, D.C., United States. Immediately below the plaza and the buildings is the "La Promenade" shopping mall."The L'Enfant c ...
to the Southwest Waterfront. In addition, the project would add lighting and trees to the area. The NCPC and the
National Park Service The National Park Service (NPS) is an agency of the United States federal government within the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages all national parks, most national monuments, and other natural, historical, and recreational propertie ...
intended the project to be an interim improvement that could be in place for ten years while the area awaited further redevelopment.(1)
(2)
(3)
(4)
Hoffman-Madison Waterfront and the District of Columbia government agreed to invest $4 million in the project in an effort to improve neighborhood connectivity in the area.(1)
(2)
Construction began on the project in September 2017 and was completed during the spring of 2018.


Notable residents

Current and former residents of Southwest D.C. include the late House Representative
John Conyers John James Conyers Jr. (May 16, 1929October 27, 2019) was an American politician of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative from Michigan from 1965 to 2017. The districts he represented always included part of western Detroit. ...
and former Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey.
Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...
lived there while serving as U.S. Vice President, and
Thurgood Marshall Thurgood Marshall (July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American civil rights lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1967 until 1991. He was the Supreme Court's first African-A ...
, Lewis Powell, and
David Souter David Hackett Souter ( ; born September 17, 1939) is an American lawyer and jurist who served as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H. W. Bush to fill the seat t ...
all had homes in Southwest during their tenures on the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
.


See also

*''
DC Waterfront, Maine Avenue ''DC Waterfront, Maine Avenue'' is a painting by Delilah Pierce. It is in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C. in the United States. Pierce used oil paint on board, in 1957, to depict Maine Avenue along the S ...
'' - painting of the area by artist
Delilah Pierce Delilah Williams Pierce (March 3, 1904 – 1992) was an African American artist, curator and educator based in Washington, District of Columbia. Pierce is best known for abstract paintings depicting the natural world. Her work also includes portra ...
*
The Wharf (Washington, D.C.) The Wharf is a multi-billion dollar mixed-use development on the Southwest Waterfront in Washington, D.C. It contains the city's historic Maine Avenue Fish Market, hotels, residential buildings, restaurants, shops, parks, piers, docks and mari ...


Notes


Further reading

*


External links


Southwest D.C. Community Website
{{coord, 38.8812, -77.0164, display=title Historic Jewish communities in the United States Populated places established in 1791 1791 establishments in Maryland