Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg was a housing project on Capitol Hill in Southeast Washington, D.C., bounded by Virginia Avenue, M Street, 2nd Street, and 5th Street, SE. Arthur Capper was known to the residents as "Capers." [1] First built in 1958, the project consisted of the Arthur Capper Senior, Arthur Capper Family, and Carrollsburg Family developments, and housed 707 households. [1] The project's architect was Hilyard Robinson. It was named for Kansas Senator Arthur Capper who, as chair of the District of Columbia Committee, helped create the first housing authority in D.C.
The Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg project was well known for its sports teams, including the semi-pro football team Washington Stonewalls which was founded in 1946 by Ben Wright. By 1995, the team was recognized as the oldest "continuously operating" [2] semi-pro football team in the United States. The team's first coach was Richard Perry and notable former players include former Major League Baseball player Maury Wills and Luke C. Moore, a DC Superior Court judge for whom a D.C. Public School is named. [2] [3] The Arthur Capper Recreation Center was the team's practice field and where the team sometimes hosted teams from other predominately black neighborhoods in Washington, DC as well as teams from different states. [2]
The Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg community was also known for musical groups and the Arthur Capper Recreation Center.[ citation needed ] In 1970, the Martin Luther King Jr. Food Cooperative was opened and operated by and for the residents. [4] One of the prominent leaders was Beatrice Gray.
While it was officially named after Senator Arthur Capper, its nickname, "Capers," likely referred to Helen T. Capers. Helen T. Capers was the playground coordinator for decades at the Lincoln Playground located at 6th and L Streets, SE.
In 2001, D.C. received a $34.9 million Hope VI grant to redevelop the 23-acre Capper/Carrollsburg public housing project as a mixed-income community. [5] The new buildings at the site are now called Capitol Quarter. [6]
According to Faye Harrison, the 2007 American Anthropological Association Program Chair, "In response to Hope VI’s plan to demolish Capers’ 707 units, Friends and Residents of Arthur Capper and Carrollsburg was founded in 1999. The neighborhood watchdog organization aims to protect the rights of residents in the relocation process." [7] Anu Yadav wrote a play called "Capers" based on her work with this group and her research in the community. [8] The D.C. Humanities Council funded this work. Parts of the play appeared in the film "Chocolate City." [9]
In 2007, the new Arthur Capper Seniors Building opened with 162 units. The Capper residents have been waiting for ten years for the rebuilding of the Arthur Capper Recreation Center, which is now being called the Community Center.
Today, the Arthur Capper community has a Facebook page and a website with an oral history project. [10]
Adams Morgan is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., centered at the intersection of 18th Street NW and Columbia Road, about 1.5 miles (2.54 km) north of the White House. Notable establishments in the neighborhood include the Washington Hilton and Madam's Organ Blues Bar. Notable residential buildings include Euclid Apartments, Fuller House, Park Tower, Meridian Mansions, and the Pink Palace. Embassies in the neighborhood include the Embassy of Lithuania, the Embassy of Poland, the Embassy of the Central African Republic, the Embassy of Gabon and the Embassy of Cuba. Notable public artwork in Adams Morgan includes Carry the Rainbow on Your Shoulders, The Servant Christ, and The Mama Ayesha's Restaurant Presidential Mural.
Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is named. Like the other quadrants of Washington, D.C., Southeast encompasses many named neighborhoods, of which Anacostia is the most well known. Anacostia includes all of the Anacostia Historic District that was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. Often the name Anacostia is incorrectly used to refer to the entire portion of the city that is southeast of the Anacostia River. The Anacostia Business Improvement District is responsible for the development of the area.
Southwest is the southwestern quadrant of Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, and is located south of the National Mall and west of South Capitol Street. It is the smallest quadrant of the city, and contains a small number of named neighborhoods and districts, including Bellevue, Southwest Federal Center, the Southwest Waterfront, Buzzard Point, and the military installation known as Joint Base Anacostia–Bolling.
Columbia Heights is a neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C., United States. It has diverse demographics, the DC USA shopping mall and many restaurants, BloomBars, Meridian Hill Park, Howard University, Banneker Recreation Center, and All Souls Church.
Shaw is a central neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. Shaw and the U Street Corridor historically have been the city's black social, cultural, and economic hub, witness to Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and numerous riots, marches, and protests that fought to achieve racial equality in Shaw and the entirety of America. The District of Columbia has designated much of Shaw as the Shaw Historic District, and Shaw also contains the smaller Blagden Alley-Naylor Court Historic District, listed on the National Register.
The U Street Corridor, sometimes called Cardozo/Shaw or Cardozo, is a commercial and residential district in Northwest Washington, D.C., most of which also constitutes the Greater U Street Historic District. It is centered along a nine-block stretch of U Street from 9th to 18th Streets, which from the 1920s until the 1960s was the city's black entertainment hub, called "Black Broadway" and "the heart of black culture in Washington, D.C.". After a period of decline following the 1968 riots, the economy picked up with the 1991 opening of the U Street Metro station. Subsequent gentrification diversified the population, which is 67% non-Hispanic White and 18% African American. Since 2013, thousands of residents have moved into new luxury apartment buildings. U Street is now promoted as a "happening" neighborhood for upscale, "hip", and "eclectic" dining and shopping, its live music and nightlife, as well as one of the most significant African American heritage districts in the country.
HOPE VI is a program of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. It is intended to revitalize the worst public housing projects in the United States into mixed-income developments. Its philosophy is largely based on New Urbanism and the concept of defensible space.
Fairlington is an unincorporated neighborhood in Arlington County, Virginia, United States, located adjacent to Shirlington in the southernmost part of the county on the boundary with the City of Alexandria. The main thoroughfares are Interstate 395 which divides the neighborhood into North and South Fairlington, State Route 7 and State Route 402.
Barry Farm is a neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., located east of the Anacostia River and is bounded by the Southeast Freeway to the northwest, Suitland Parkway to the northeast and east, and St. Elizabeths Hospital to the south. The neighborhood was renowned as a significant post-Civil-War settlement of free Blacks and freed slaves established by the Freedmen's Bureau. The streets were named to commemorate the Union generals and Radical Republicans who advanced the rights of black Americans during the Civil War and Reconstruction: Howard Road SE for General Oliver O. Howard; Sumner Road SE for Massachusetts Senator Charles Sumner; Wade Road SE for Ohio Senator Benjamin Wade; Pomeroy Road SE for Kansas Senator Samuel C. Pomeroy; and Stevens Road SE for Pennsylvania Congressman Thaddeus Stevens. The neighborhood name is not a reference to the late former mayor of Washington, D.C., Marion Barry, but coincidentally has the same spelling.
Bellevue is a residential neighborhood in far Southeast and Southwest in Washington, D.C., United States. It is bounded by South Capitol Street, one block of Atlantic Street SE, and 1st Streets SE and SW to the north and east; Joliet Street SW and Oxon Run Parkway to the south; Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, Shepherd Parkway, 2nd Street SW, and Xenia Street SW to the west. Bellevue was created from some of the earliest land patents in Maryland, and draws its name from a 1795 mansion built in the area. Subdivisions began in the 1870s, but extensive residential building did not occur until the early 1940s. Bellevue is adjacent to a number of federal and city agency buildings.
Capitol View is a neighborhood located in southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States. It is bounded by East Capitol Street to the north, Central Avenue SE to the southwest and south, and Southern Avenue SE to the southeast. Still overwhelmingly African-American, it is a thriving middle class neighborhood. Parts of the neighborhood became one of the city's most violent and drug-ridden areas in the 1980s and 1990s. The Capitol View neighborhood has seen several large, poorly maintained public housing projects demolished in the 2010s. The government of the District of Columbia partnered with private real estate developers to construct the Capitol Gateway mixed-use development between 2000 and 2010.
Washington Highlands is a residential neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., in the United States. It lies within Ward 8.
Northeast Boundary is small neighborhood located in the northeast quadrant of Washington, D.C., in the United States. Along with the Capitol View neighborhood, it is the easternmost neighborhood of the District of Columbia.
Navy Yard, also known as Near Southeast, is a neighborhood on the Anacostia River in Southeast Washington, D.C. Navy Yard is bounded by Interstate 695 to the north and east, South Capitol Street to the west, and the Anacostia River to the south. Approximately half of its area is occupied by the Washington Navy Yard, which gives the neighborhood its name. The neighborhood is located in D.C.'s Ward 6, currently represented by Charles Allen. It is served by the Navy Yard – Ballpark Metro station on the Green Line.
Kenilworth is a residential neighborhood in Northeast Washington, D.C., located on the eastern bank of the Anacostia River and just inside the D.C.-Maryland border. A large public housing complex, Kenilworth Courts, dominates the area. The neighborhood is famous for the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens, a national park whose centerpiece is a series of ponds carved out of Anacostia River marshland. Visitors come especially during June and July to see the beautiful blooming water lilies and lotus flowers. In 1895 the name “Kenilworth” was first applied to the area by white real estate developer Allen Mallery, who named this neighborhood after Kenilworth Castle in England, the ruins of which can still be seen today in Warwickshire. Kenilworth Park, which includes the Kenilworth-Parkside Recreation Center, also carries the neighborhood name, though most of the park's area is actually located adjacent to the modern neighborhoods of Parkside and Eastland Gardens.
Marshall Heights is a residential neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. It is bounded by East Capitol Street, Central Avenue SE, Southern Avenue, Fitch Street SE, and Benning Road SE. It was an undeveloped rural area occupied by extensive African American shanty towns, but the neighborhood received nationwide attention after a visit by First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt in 1934, which led to extensive infrastructure improvements and development for the first time. In the 1950s, Marshall Heights residents defeated national legislation designed to raze and redevelop the neighborhood. Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom visited the area in 1991, at a time when Marshall Heights was in the throes of a violent crack cocaine epidemic. Limited redevelopment has occurred in the neighborhood, which was the site of two notorious child murders in 1973.
Sixteenth Street Heights is a large neighborhood of rowhouses, duplexes, and American Craftsman and American Foursquare detached houses in Northwest Washington, D.C..
Woodland is a small residential and industrial neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Woodland lies in Washington's Ward 8, among the poorest and least developed of the city's wards. Like the neighborhoods around it, Woodland is almost exclusively African American. Woodland is bounded by Ainger Place SE to the north; Alabama Avenue SE and Knox Place SE to the east; Hartford Street SE to the south; and Langston Place SE, Raynolds Place SE, and Erie Street SE to the southwest. Fort Stanton Park forms the northwest and northern border of the neighborhood.
Potomac Gardens, known to some of its residents as "The Gardens", is a housing project located at 1225 G Street SE, in Capitol Hill, Southeast, Washington, D.C., thirteen blocks to the southeast of the United States Capitol building.
Housing in Washington, D.C. encompasses a variety of shelter types: apartments, single family homes, condominiums, co-ops, and apartments considered public housing. Washington, D.C. is considered one of the most expensive cities in which to live in the United States — in 2019, it was ranked in the top 10 of American cities with the most expensive homes.
