Back To The Past: A Historical Snapshot Of Shaw And Mt. Vernon Triangle

African-American Culture and Intellectualism at Shaw

Growing out of freed slave encampments in the rural outskirts of DC, Shaw was originally called "Uptown" because it was above the city's boundary at the present-day Florida Avenue. The "Shaw" moniker was given during the Urban Renewal Era, taking its namesake from Shaw Junior High School (in turn, named after Civil War Col. Robert Gould Shaw).

The neighborhood thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, becoming a hub for African-American intellectualism and culture. Howard Theological Seminary—which would become Howard University—was receiving its first matriculates in 1866 and by 1925, professor Alain LeRoy Locke (left) was writing papers on the concept of "The New Negro." The neighborhood also attracted poet Langston Hughes (center), who came to hear 7th Street's "sad songs." But the most famous Shaw native who would thrive during the Harlem Renaissance was composer, pianist and bandleader Duke Ellington (right).

Wealth and War at Mt. Vernon Triangle's Douglas Row

The initial development in what is now Mount Vernon Triangle occurred in 1810 after Congress charted the 7th Street Turnpike, which extended 7th Street from Center Market (where the National Archives Building now resides) to the Maryland border. Prior to the Civil War, most of the houses were fairly modest, but Douglas Row (pictured) was a major exception.

By 1856, the street featured the massive homes of two senators and Vice President John C. Breckinridge. Douglas Row was used as a hospital during the Civil War and even housed Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman when the war concluded. The neighborhood was also the site of Stanton Hospital, one of the city's largest wartime hospitals.