Shaw, Washington, D.C.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shaw is a neighborhood located in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. It is roughly bounded by M Street, NW to the south; New Jersey Avenue, NW to the east; Florida Avenue, NW to the north; and 11th Street, NW to the west--although there is a westward panhandle that extends to 16th Street between S and U Streets, NW. Shaw once included nearby neighborhoods, such as Logan Circle and Truxton Circle, but in recent years those neighborhoods have grown into their own and become separate from Shaw.
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[edit] History
Shaw grew out of freed slave encampments in the rural outskirts of Washington City. It was named after Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commander of the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.
The neighborhood thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the pre-Harlem center of African American intellectual and cultural life. Howard Theological Seminary received its first matriculates in 1866; by 1925, Professor Alain LeRoy Locke was advancing the idea of "The New Negro", and Langston Hughes was descending from LeDroit Park to hear the "sad songs" of 7th Street. The most famous Shaw native to emerge from this period—sometimes called the Harlem Renaissance—was Duke Ellington.
Following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4, 1968, riots erupted in many D.C. neighborhoods, including Shaw, Columbia Heights, and the H Street, NE corridor. The 1968 Washington, D.C. riots marked the beginning of a decline in population and development that would condemn much of the inner city to a generation of economic decay.
Shaw is a mostly residential neighborhood of 19th century Victorian row houses. The architecture of these houses, Shaw's central location, and the stability of D.C.'s housing market have transformed the neighborhood through gentrification. According to U.S. Census records from 1970, 92% of Shaw's residents were black; in 2000, 56% were black [1] Shaw's notable place in African American history has made the recent influx of affluent professionals particularly controversial.[citation needed]
[edit] Infrastructure and landmarks
Shaw is served by the Mt. Vernon Square Metro, Shaw/Howard Univ and U St/African-Amer Civil War Memorial/Cardozo Green Line Metro stations.
Among Shaw's many landmarks are Ben's Chili Bowl, the Lincoln Theatre, the Twelfth Street YMCA Building, and the north portion of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
[edit] "Little Ethiopia" controversy
Since 2001, a number of Ethiopian restaurants and retail businesses have either opened or moved from nearby Adams Morgan into Shaw, settling in particular on the once desolate block of 9th Street, NW between U and T Streets. This influx of Ethiopians has revitalized the corridor, prompting members of the Ethiopian American community to lobby the city government to officially designate the block as "Little Ethiopia". Shaw residents, however, have expressed opposition to the proposal, feeling that such a designation would unfairly isolate that area from the historically African American Shaw. [2]
[edit] Education
District of Columbia Public Schools operates public schools.
District of Columbia Public Library operates the Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Community Library.[3]
[edit] References
- ^ A Bittersweet Renaissance, Paul Schwartzman, The Washington Post. February 23, 2006
- ^ Shaw Shuns 'Little Ethiopia', Paul Schwartzman, The Washington Post. July 25, 2005
- ^ "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: U Street/Shaw |
- Shaw DC
- Shaw Main Streets
- Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2C
- Cardozo-Shaw Neighborhood Association
- Washington, D.C. Beyond the Monuments: U Street/Shaw
Coordinates: 38°54′40.1″N 77°1′18.9″W / 38.911139°N 77.021917°W
