History

Mentions of Shaw in the Evening Star, October 31 – November 6, 1926. Searched for "Shaw Junior High", "Rhode Island avenue", "Ninth street", "Seventh street".

No clips matched this week.

No usable mentions in the Evening Star for October 31 – November 6, 1926 (11 matching pages searched). Some weeks a neighborhood just isn't in the paper. Clips are machine-read text (OCR) from scanned Evening Star pages on the Library of Congress's Chronicling America, lightly cleaned (line-break hyphens rejoined, stray symbols removed); misspellings are the scanner's. Newspapers this old are public domain. Each clip links to its page at loc.gov. Clips that mention race, covenants, deed restrictions or slurs are skipped automatically (keyword list: race, races, racial, colored, coloured, negro, negroes, white only, whites only, for whites, white people, white persons, white residents, caucasian, segregation, segregated, covenant, covenants, restricted, restriction, restrictions, plus a list of slurs), because they need an editor's context; legal notices and lists of private individuals are skipped too.

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  7th & O St NW · after 1933Northern Market, Seventh & O Streets Northwest, Washington, District of Columbia, DC
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  1005-1023 7th St NW · after 19331005-1023 Seventh Street Northwest (Commercial Buildings), Washington, District of Columbia, DC
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  Mount Vernon Square, 8th & K St NW · after 1933Washington Public Library, 8th & K Streets Northwest, Mount Vernon Square, Washington, District of Columbia, DC
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  7th St & Massachusetts Ave NW · ca. 1921[People's Drug Store, Washington, D.C., looking south on Seventh Street, N.W., from Massachusetts Avenue]
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  7th St & Rhode Island Ave NW · c1911 Nov. 20[Exterior of McKinley Manual Training School, 7th Street and Rhode Island Avenue, Washington, D.C.]
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  7th St & Florida Ave NW · 1942 AugWashington, D.C. Display window at 7th Street and Florida Avenue, N.W.
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  7th St & Florida Ave NW · 1942 AugWashington, D.C. Street corner, 7th Street and Florida Avenue, N.W.

Photographs from the Library of Congress (Historic American Buildings Survey; National Photo Company Collection; Prints & Photographs Division; Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection), each with no known restrictions on publication or in the public domain, per the Library. Titles are the Library's, written when the photos were catalogued; some use the language of their time. Each links to its record.

Allen Y. Lew Place NW2023

Honors: Allen Y. Lew, DC city administrator who built the convention center

The DC Council's Allen Y. Lew Place Designation Act of 2023 renamed Mount Vernon Place between 7th and 9th streets for Lew, who came from New York in 1996 to build the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and later oversaw the ballpark and Audi Field. The convention center's address is now 801 Allen Y. Lew Place.

Earlier: Mount Vernon PlaceSources: D.C. Law 25-34, Allen Y. Lew Place Designation Act of 2023 (D.C. Law Library) · Mount Vernon Place Officially Renamed Allen Y. Lew Place (Events DC, 2023)

Blagden Alley and Naylor Court19th century

Honors: Thomas Blagden and Dickerson Nailor, 19th-century residents

The squares between 9th, 10th, M and O streets appear in city plans by 1792, with alley layouts by 1794. The alleys were later named for residents Thomas Blagden and Dickerson Nailor, whose spelling changed. Blagden Alley's crowded dwellings drew housing reformers; the area became a historic district in 1990.

Sources: The Hidden History Inside Washington, D.C.'s Blagden Alley (National Trust for Historic Preservation) · Blagden Alley/Naylor Court Historic District (DC Historic Sites, DC Preservation League)

Florida Avenue NW1890

Honors: State of Florida

Shaw's northern edge was Boundary Street, the 1791 limit of the Federal City. It was graded in 1869-70 and renamed Florida Avenue by the Board of Commissioners on January 14, 1890, after property owners complained that the name 'Boundary' depressed land values.

Earlier: Boundary StreetSources: Florida Avenue - Wikipedia · List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia

New Jersey Avenue NW1791 (L'Enfant plan)

Honors: State of New Jersey

With Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania avenues, New Jersey Avenue is one of the four state-named avenues that radiate from the U.S. Capitol in L'Enfant's plan; it forms Shaw's eastern side.

Source: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia

New York Avenue NW

Honors: State of New York

A major state-named avenue running from 15th Street near the White House into Maryland, where it becomes the John Hanson Highway, and carrying U.S. 50 east of 6th Street. It and Massachusetts Avenue cross at Mount Vernon Square on Shaw's southern edge.

Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Mount Vernon Square - Wikipedia

Rhode Island Avenue NW

Honors: State of Rhode Island

One of DC's state-named avenues, running from M Street and Connecticut Avenue through Logan Circle and out to Maryland, carrying U.S. 1 for much of its length. Shaw Junior High School, which gave the neighborhood its name, stood at 7th Street and Rhode Island Avenue from 1928.

Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Behind the Name: Shaw (DCist, 2011)

Ridge Street NW

The Mount Vernon Square Historic District brochure says reformers who fought squalid alley housing had alleys such as Ridge, Morgan and Kirby widened into legal city streets, which keep their late-19th-century look. It points to the 400 block of Ridge for surviving pre-Civil War frame houses.

Earlier: Ridge alleySource: Mount Vernon Square Historic District brochure (PDF hosted by DC Preservation League)

Shaw1960s (from the school's name)

Honors: Shaw Junior High School, named for Col. Robert Gould Shaw of the 54th Massachusetts

Until the 1960s the area was called Midcity. In 1966 planners used the enrollment zone of Shaw Junior High School, named for the white commander of the Black 54th Massachusetts Regiment, to define the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area. The school, organized in 1919, had moved to 7th Street and Rhode Island Avenue in 1928.

Earlier: MidcitySources: Behind the Name: Shaw (DCist, 2011) · Shaw (Washington, D.C.) - Wikipedia

Still looking for a reliable source on Wiltberger Street NW, Marion Street NW, French Street NW, Warner Street NW, Columbia Street NW, Franklin Street NW, 7th Street NW, 9th Street NW. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.

• Barbara Taylor Hunter interview, part 1, April 2012Barbara Taylor Hunter · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  Hunter describes the fashion and culture of Shaw and Howard in the 1960s, campus political groups and the music scene, and how the 1968 riots changed the neighborhood: lost buildings, departing families and rising housing costs. A former teacher, she also talks about Shaw's schools.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · fashion, Howard University, 1968 riots, schools
• Yvonne Baskerville interview, April 2012Yvonne Baskerville · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  Baskerville discusses her schooling at Dunbar, the segregated Black high school, her shock at the news of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, and her run-ins with the city's rats.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · Dunbar High School, segregation, 1968
• Kenneth Tolliver interview, April 2012Kenneth Tolliver · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  A DC native compares the 1968 riots to a battle scene, notes that many destroyed businesses never came back, and sees gentrification as an issue Shaw has faced ever since. He also talks about Fides House, a neighborhood community center.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · 1968 riots, gentrification, Fides House
• Mill Butler interview, April 2012Mill Butler · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  Butler describes going out to the Howard and Republic theaters and explains how car dealerships left the neighborhood after the 1968 riots because they could no longer get insurance.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · Howard Theatre, Republic Theater, car dealerships, 1968 riots
• Jacqueline Rogers Hart interview, April 2012Jacqueline Rogers Hart · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  Born in Washington, Hart returned from fashion school in New York to work as a secretary and was at a law firm when the 1968 riots broke out. She reflects on how Shaw has changed, costing more and no longer as close-knit as it was.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · 1968 riots, cost of living, neighborhood change
• Ibrahim Mumin interview, June 2012Ibrahim Mumin · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  Mumin recalls student activism at Howard that pushed the university toward the community and drew him to Shaw, Fides House, and the clubs and restaurants he frequented. He reflects on why the 1968 riots happened, the flight of businesses and middle-class whites, and Shaw's economic and cultural future.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · student activism, Howard University, 1968 riots, Fides House
• Elizabeth Williams Frazier interview, April 2012Elizabeth Williams Frazier · 2012 · transcript · remembers the 1960s

  Frazier moved to Shaw as a child in 1963 and attended Shaw Junior High. She remembers a close-knit community where everyone knew each other, Fides House as a place for food and clothing, hearing of King's assassination, and blocks that stayed in ruins for years after the riots.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · Shaw Junior High School, Fides House, 1968 riots
• Karen Keegan-Isard interview, part 1, May 2012Karen Keegan-Isard · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  Keegan-Isard describes moving to Washington with her husband and eventually to Shaw, the community bank he founded in the neighborhood, and her experience of the 1968 riots.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · community banking, 1968 riots
• Alexander Padro interview, June 2012Alexander Padro · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s, 1980s

  A longtime Shaw organizer reflects on the causes and effects of the 1968 riots and on urban renewal led by churches and large housing projects rather than businesses, including disputes between community groups and the redevelopment agency. He also touches on the crack epidemic.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · urban renewal, 1968 riots, community organizing, crack epidemic
• Betty May Brooks-Cole interview, May 2012Betty May Brooks-Cole · 2012 · video · remembers the 1960s

  Brooks-Cole describes U Street's entertainment venues for Black Washingtonians, including the Howard and Republic theaters and acts such as Chuck Brown and the Four Tops, segregated department stores, and her fright at being on 7th Street in the middle of the 1968 riots.

  At Dig DC, DC Public Library (South of U Oral History Project) · Howard Theatre, Republic Theater, segregated stores, 1968 riots

Search the archives yourself: The People's Archive, DC Public Library · Historic Chevy Chase DC Oral History Archive · Humanities Truck Community Archive, American University · Tenleytown Historical Society · Boundary Stones (WETA) · Glover Park History: Oral History and Reminiscences · Cleveland Park Historical Society Oral Histories · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · hometown DC (DC History Center) · Hola Cultura: Adams Morgan History · Citizens Association of Georgetown · Peabody Room, Georgetown Neighborhood Library (DC Public Library) · Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum Archives: A Right to the City Exhibition Records · Ruth Ann Overbeck Capitol Hill History Project · Mosaic Theater H Street Oral History Project · Library of Congress, Manuscript Division · Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Naval History and Heritage Command, Navy Department Library · The Catholic University of America Archives · Bygone Brookland · Dig DC, DC Public Library · hometown DC (HumanitiesDC / Historical Society of Washington, D.C.) · Dig DC, DC Public Library's digital repository · A Right to the City exhibition records, Anacostia Community Museum Archives (Smithsonian) · Rainbow History Project Digital Collections · Palisades Community Association · Forest Hills Connection (neighborhood history series). Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.

• DC Historic Preservation Office, Historic Data on DC Buildings (HistoryQuest), CC BY 4.0
• Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), Chronicling America, Library of Congress; public domain

History data refreshed Nov 1.