Mount Pleasant, Washington, D.C.
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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (April 2009) |
| Mount Pleasant Historic District | |
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| U.S. National Register of Historic Places | |
| U.S. Historic District | |
 Mount Pleasant Street NW, the commercial corridor of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood
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| Location: | Roughly bounded by 16th Street, Harvard Street, Adams Mill Road, and Rock Creek Park |
| Added to NRHP: | October 5, 1987 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 87001726[1] |
Mount Pleasant is a neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C., capital of the United States. The neighborhood is bounded by 16th Street, NW and the Columbia Heights neighborhood to the east, Rock Creek Park to the north and west, and Harvard Street, NW and the Adams Morgan neighborhood to the south. The neighborhood is home to approximately twelve thousand people, or about 2% of D.C.'s population. Today, Mount Pleasant is a diverse community of affluent people, middle class wage earners, working class people, and immigrants.
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[edit] History
In 1727, Charles Calvert, 5th Lord Baltimore (then governor of the Maryland Colony) awarded a land grant for present day Mount Pleasant to James Holmead. This estate also included the present-day Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Park View, and Pleasant Plains neighborhoods. James's son, Anthony, inherited the estate in 1750 and named it Pleasant Plains. After the United States Congress created the District of Columbia in 1791, Pleasant Plains estate became part of Washington County, a section of the District lying between what is now Florida Avenue and the Maryland border. The Holmeads began selling tracts of the Pleasant Plains estate until they had sold everything. Today, the family name is preserved in Holmead Place, a short street located west of 13th Street between Spring and Park Roads NW, in what is now Columbia Heights.
During the Civil War, New England native Samuel P. Brown purchased 73 acres (300,000 m2) of land between 14th and 17th Streets, NW. Brown built a house and allowed a wartime hospital to be constructed on his land. After the War, he began selling his land in parcels, and called it Mount Pleasant Village because the area was the highest elevation land in the original Pleasant Plains estate. Brown sold all his land until all he retained was the land around his house at 3351 Mount Pleasant Street, NW [2]. His house was demolished in the 1890s.
Most of the original settlers built wooden frame houses and farmed their tracts, growing their own food. Stores and other businesses opened around what is today the intersection of 14th Street and Park Road, NW. Although Mount Pleasant was within the District of Columbia, it was separated from the City of Washington by vacant land and was rural by comparison. Settlers laid out early roads such as Adams Mill Road, Mount Pleasant Street, Newton Street, and Park Road, to follow local custom and to accommodate local needs and land ownership. Since Mount Pleasant's street grid is distinct from the city's cartesian grid, some of its streets appear to have been laid haphazardly, with several intersecting city streets at odd or severe angles.
In the 1870s, a horse-drawn streetcar began traveling from the 14th and Park intersection to downtown Washington City, creating the first streetcar suburb in the District of Columbia. Mount Pleasant ceased to be an independent and separate place in 1878 after the city's boundaries became coterminous with those of the District. Mount Pleasant developed rapidly as a streetcar suburb after the opening of the streetcar line around 1900. Many houses and apartment buildings were constructed between 1900 and 1925. In 1925, the District built the Mount Pleasant Library funded by Andrew Carnegie to serve the growing community. Mount Pleasant was marketed to middle to upper middle class people. Actress Helen Hayes, Washington Senators' pitcher Walter Johnson, and US Senator Robert LaFollette made their homes in Mount Pleasant.
The neighborhood entered a period of transition in the 1950s. Mount Pleasant was racially segregated like most of Washington, D.C. at the time. When an African American Howard University professor moved into a prestigious Park Road home, some white residents began to leave the neighborhood. This form of suburbanization, often referred to as White flight, continued after the 1968 riots. Affluent professionals began returning to the neighborhood in the early 1980s. According to the Washingtonian magazine, housing prices rose nearly as fast as any area of metropolitan Washington. Many homes were renovated, and some projects were featured in local and national magazines. A one million dollar "green" renovation was featured in a National Public Radio story.
Spanish speaking immigrants began settling in Mount Pleasant in the 1960s, many from El Salvador and the Dominican Republic. Businesses catering to Hispanics and Latinos developed along Mount Pleasant Street. In 1991, an incident between a police officer and a Latino led to rioting along Mt. Pleasant Street. As a result, the Metropolitan Police Department began to engage in an outreach effort to the Latino population. Since then, many Latino immigrants have moved to more affordable D.C. neighborhoods east of Mount Pleasant, and in the suburbs.
[edit] Population
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The current population of Mount Pleasant is almost evenly divided; about one-third Caucasian, one-third Hispanic, and one-third African-American. The western four-fifths of the area is a largely wooded enclave bounded on two sides by Rock Creek Park, where there are about 1200 row houses, many include one or two apartments. A few of the original 19th century wood-frame houses remain, mostly north of Park Road. Recently, these properties sold for prices between $800,000 and $1.2 million, more than most neighborhoods near a Metro station. The eastern border of Mount Pleasant, along 16th and Mount Pleasant Streets, is marked by mid-rise apartment buildings. These buildings offer rental housing to employees working for non-profits, students, and working class people. There is a four-block commercial corridor with convenience shopping in the neighborhood along Mount Pleasant Street. In 2008, a large retail development was completed in Columbia Heights, just east of Mount Pleasant.
[edit] Education
District of Columbia Public Schools operates public schools.
District of Columbia Public Library operates the Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood Library.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. 2009-03-13. http://www.nr.nps.gov/.
- ^ http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/usr_doc/344431_MP_eng_SPRD.pdf Cultural Tourism DC
- ^ "Hours & Locations." District of Columbia Public Library. Retrieved on October 21, 2009.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Mount Pleasant, Washington, D.C. |
- ANC1D, The Mt Pleasant Advisory Neighborhood Commission
- All-Ways Mt Pleasant
- Mt Pleasant Branch Library
- Hear Mt Pleasant
- Friends of the Mount Pleasant Library
- Historic Mt Pleasant
- Mt Pleasant Main Street, Inc.
- Mt Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance, and Forum
- Mt Pleasant Project, documentary photography
- Mt Pleasant Yahoo Group
- Mt. Pleasant Business Assocation
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