Washington, D.C.

D

Neighborhoods

The once-premier neighborhoods near early federal activity, notably Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, and Capitol Hill, all declined over time. Although they were rediscovered and restored in the second half of the 20th century, in the interim newer communities became popular. In the mid-19th century streetcars began to offer easy commutes to areas outside the city core. At this time, Anacostia’s Uniontown section, where abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass settled after the American Civil War (1861-1865), and LeDroit Park, near Howard University, developed as Washington’s first suburbs.

In the early 20th century, Mount Pleasant, a few miles north of the White House, became popular. With the availability of automobiles, first Cleveland Park and subsequently Wesley Heights and American University Park emerged as preferred residential destinations. Just above the old downtown, the area known as Shaw emerged as the most prominent black section of the city. The concentration of theaters and other social activities there gave U Street the nickname of Black Broadway. Somewhat further above the old city, the Adams Morgan section emerged in the 1960s as one of Washington’s most diverse neighborhoods, with large populations of Latin American and Caribbean immigrants.

Over the years, the suburbs outside the city have grown rapidly. In addition to older areas such as Arlington, Virginia, and Chevy Chase, Maryland, new suburban office and retail complexes have emerged at Tyson’s Corner and Pentagon City in Virginia and Freedom Plaza in Maryland.

III

Population

Washington, D.C., grew slowly from the time of its origins until the Civil War. Its founders expected it to emerge as a great city because of its favored trading site along the Potomac River. However, the city proved incapable of fully exploiting its opportunities—due to, among other things, a lack of federal funding for development—and it lagged behind other major port cities along the eastern seaboard. Washington’s population boomed during the Civil War, rising from a modest population of 61,122 in 1860 to 109,199 only a decade later. During the first half of the 20th century, the federal presence in the city expanded, and population grew with it, reaching a peak of more than 800,000 in 1950.

---

---

The city’s population dropped thereafter, as it lost residents to the suburbs. Nearly 69 percent of the metropolitan population lived in Washington in 1940; by 1960 that number had fallen to 37 percent, and to less than 12 percent in 2000. In 2000 the population of the city was 572,059, and by 2005 it was estimated at 550,521. In contrast, the population of the metropolitan area in 2005 was 5,214,666.

Partly because the District of Columbia was originally formed from slaveholding states, the national capital has always had a significant black presence, approximately 25 percent of the population from its origins until World War II. After the war, many white families relocated to the suburbs, and the city’s demography changed. In 1957 Washington became the first major city in America with a black majority. Between 1950 and 1960 Washington’s black presence grew by nearly 50 percent, from 280,803 to 411,737, while the white population declined by one-third.

Until recently the great majority of the black population was located inside the city. But like an earlier generation of whites, the black middle class began to leave the city and move to the suburbs. In 2000, blacks constituted 60 percent of the city’s population, compared with 30.8 percent white. Asians were 2.7 percent of inhabitants, Native Americans 0.3, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders 0.1 percent, and people of mixed heritage or not reporting race 6.2 percent. Hispanics, who may be of any race, made up 7.9 percent of the population.

During the early 19th century, Washington lacked the industrial base that drew immigrants to other cities, and so the population retained its largely native-born character. In the late 19th century, small Italian and Eastern European Jewish communities formed, creating their own churches and synagogues and associated ethnic institutions. Many descendents of these immigrants left the city for the suburbs in the 1950s, along with much of the rest of the white population. While the Italian Roman Catholic Church, Holy Rosary, still functions near Union Station, few of its parishioners still live in the city. Most of the early synagogues near downtown have left, replaced by black Protestant congregations.

A small Chinese community formed in Washington in the late 19th century. Originally concentrated downtown along Pennsylvania Avenue, Chinatown moved several blocks north to make way for completion of the Federal Triangle office complex in the 1930s. Chinatown still exists along H Street NW, but only about a third of Washington’s 3,000 Chinese listed in the 1990 census live in that area. An additional 37,000 Chinese live in surrounding suburbs. In the suburbs, they are joined by more recent immigrant groups from Asia, most notably Vietnamese, Cambodians, and Lao. Both suburban Maryland and northern Virginia support Asian populations of about 100,000 each.

Hispanics form the other major immigrant group in the area. Although the District of Columbia’s population is about 5 percent Hispanic, the largest number of these immigrants are located in the suburbs: an estimated 90,000 in Maryland and 100,000 in Virginia. In 1991 the Washington metropolitan area ranked tenth in the nation as a destination for new immigrants.

IV

Education and Culture

A

Institutions of Higher Learning

It was George Washington’s dream that the capital city host a national university. Congress, however, was reluctant to fund such an entity. As a result, while a number of institutions have aspired to national roles, none has been favored with a national mandate. Founded in 1789, Georgetown University is the oldest Roman Catholic university in the United States. The George Washington University was founded in 1821 by Baptists as Columbian College. Gallaudet University is the only liberal arts university in the world specifically for deaf and hearing-impaired students. Former Union general Oliver Otis Howard founded Howard University as a predominately black university in 1867. The two other private universities in the city are the Catholic University of America and American University. Also, the city opened the University of the District of Columbia with congressional approval by consolidating a teacher’s college, a city college, and a technical institute.

In the Virginia suburbs are George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College; in the Maryland suburbs are the University of Maryland at College Park, Montgomery College, and Prince George’s Community College. The Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area links most of the area’s public and private institutions of higher learning. Through the consortium, a student enrolled in one institution may take courses provided at another institution.

B

Religious Sites

There are many churches in the Washington area, the most impressive of which is the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, more commonly known as the National Cathedral. Another imposing church is the Roman Catholic Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a blend of Byzantine and Romanesque architecture that stands on the grounds of Catholic University in northeastern Washington. Other famous churches include New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Lincoln worshiped; Saint John’s Episcopal Church, known as the Church of the Presidents because it has been attended by numerous presidents; the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Saint Matthew the Apostle, attended by President Kennedy; and Christ Church, where Thomas Jefferson worshiped. Outside the city is the Washington Temple of the Church of Latter-day Saints, completed near the Capital Beltway in Maryland in 1974.

C

Museums

The most famous museum in Washington is the Smithsonian Institution. With help from a gift from Englishman James Smithson, Congress chartered the Smithsonian in 1846. The Smithsonian is a collection of many different institutions that are world-famous for their art, historical, and scientific collections. The National Museum of African Art was the first museum in the United States devoted exclusively to African art. The National Museum of Natural History houses many of the world’s most famous gems, and the National Museum of American History traces the development of the United States through scientific, technological, and cultural exhibitions. The National Air and Space Museum has aeronautical exhibits that include the original craft used by the Wright Brothers and the Mercury capsule in which astronaut John Glenn orbited the Earth.

The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden contains notable paintings and sculptures by 19th- and 20th-century European and American artists. The Arts and Industries Building and the Freer Gallery of Art house fine collections of American and Asian art. Another major art collection, the National Portrait Gallery, is in a building with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which houses American paintings, sculptures, graphics, folk art, and photographs from the 18th century to the present. Over time, the Smithsonian has evolved from being the so-called nation’s attic into a far-ranging and diverse set of research and educational facilities.

Other important collections in Washington include the National Gallery of Art, one the nation’s chief art galleries, with major collections of European and American paintings; the Dumbarton Oaks Museum, with a collection of pre-Columbian and Byzantine art; the National Building Museum, dedicated to American achievements in architecture, construction, engineering, and design; and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which provides information about the persecution and murder of Jews in Europe during World War II. There are also several venerable private institutions, such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, launched in the 1880s through the bequest of banker William W. Corcoran, and the Phillips Collection, opened in 1921 near DuPont Circle as the city’s first modern-art museum. The Historical Society of Washington, D.C., located in a 19th-century mansion built by beer magnate Christian Heurich, is the only institution dedicated solely to the preservation and interpretation of Washington’s rich local history.

	More from Encarta
	•  Presidential Myths Quiz •  Coffee break: Recharge your brain