Green
Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by a com ...
and
Yellow
Yellow is the color between green and orange on the spectrum of light. It is evoked by light with a dominant wavelength of roughly 575585 nm. It is a primary color in subtractive color systems, used in painting or color printing. In t ...
Lines. It is the northeastern terminus of the Yellow Line.
Location
Mount Vernon Square station is located at the border of the neighborhoods of
Downtown
''Downtown'' is a term primarily used in American and Canadian English to refer to a city's sometimes commercial, cultural and often the historical, political, and geographic heart. It is often synonymous with its central business district ( ...
and Shaw in the northwestern quadrant of Washington. Its namesake,
Mount Vernon Square
Mount Vernon Square is a town square, city square and neighborhood in the Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest Address (geography)#Quadrants, quadrant of Washington, D.C. The square is located where the following streets would otherwise inters ...
, is located two blocks to the south at the convergence of New York Avenue and Massachusetts Avenues and 7th, 9th, and K Streets. The station's subtitle is derived from the station's location along 7th Street NW and its proximity to the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. However, the station is only one of five Metro stations underneath 7th Street NW.
Transit-oriented development
Like many other Metro stations in the Washington Metropolitan Area, Mount Vernon Square station has spurred development in its proximity. Most prominent is the Washington Convention Center, although a number of smaller residential and commercial projects have been completed within the surrounding blocks. To the southeast of the station is the Mount Vernon Triangle, a business improvement district (BID) seeing rapid mixed-use growth. To the southwest of the station is the mixed-use CityCenterDC development project, which is home to luxury condominiums and luxury retail franchises such as Louis Vuitton, Moncler,
Gucci
Guccio Gucci S.p.A., doing business as Gucci ( , ), is an Italian Luxury goods, luxury fashion house based in Florence. Its product lines include handbags, ready-to-wear, footwear, accessories, and home decoration; and it licenses its name and ...
,
Hugo Boss
Hugo Boss AG (stylized in all caps) is a designer fashion company headquartered in Metzingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. The company sells clothing, Fashion accessory, accessories, footwear, and Leather, leather goods. Hugo Boss is one of the ...
, Tesla, Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steak House, Fig & Olive and other upscale dining and shopping destinations.
History
Service began on May 11, 1991. The station mezzanine was renovated in 2003 to coincide with the opening of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The renovation included additional faregates and a new street entrance.
In 2003, two redundant elevators near the entrance with escalators were opened and the station is the first station to get redundant elevators.
On January 7, 2007, the fifth car of a six-car train derailed in the tunnel at the interlocking south of the station, sending twenty people to the hospital for minor injuries and significantly damaging a rail car. Service resumed the next day at 5 AM.Monday Metrorail service back to normal after Sunday derailment ''WMATA'' Retrieved September 10, 2008
Since May 25, 2019, Yellow Line trains no longer terminated at this station during rush hours and extended to at all times.
From March 26, 2020 until June 28, 2020, this station was closed due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic.
From October 12, 2021 to October 14, 2021 Blue Line Trains temporarily served this station due to a derailment near the Arlington Cemetery Station.
Since May 7, 2023, the northeastern terminus of the Yellow Line was truncated from Greenbelt to this station, following its reopening after a nearly eight-month-long major rehabilitation project on its bridge over the
Potomac River
The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
and its tunnel leading into .
Name changes
Originally to be named "Federal City College", the station was named Mount Vernon Square–UDC at the time of its 1991 opening, reflecting the establishment of the University of the District of Columbia. The station was renamed Mt Vernon Sq/7th Street–Convention Center in 2001; the "7th Street" helped distinguish that the stop served the new Walter E. Washington Convention Center as opposed to the old
Washington Convention Center
The Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. was a convention center located at 909 H Street NW, occupying the city block bounded by New York Avenue (Washington, D.C.), New York Avenue, 9th Street, H Street, and 11th Street.
Station layout
The station) has a single
island platform
An island platform (also center platform (American English) or centre platform (British English)) is a station layout arrangement where a single platform is positioned between two tracks within a railway station, tram stop or transitway inte ...
accessed from the southwest corner of Seventh and M Streets, NW. There is a pocket track just beyond the station going north, which is currently used to turn Yellow Line trains for service back to Huntington. It is also one of only two underground terminus stations in the Washington Metro, the other being Glenmont. The station also features the "Arch II" design found at Columbia Heights, Congress Heights, Georgia Avenue-Petworth, and Glenmont.