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How Chinatown was built, from DC's historic building permits, and what the newspaper said about it a hundred years ago this week.
| Decade | Buildings |
|---|---|
| 1870s | 19 |
| 1880s | 125 |
| 1890s | 126 |
| 1900s | 53 |
| 1910s | 48 |
| 1920s | 55 |
| 1930s | 26 |
| 1940s | 18 |
| 1950s | 18 |
| 2010s | 8 |
Each record is one building listed on a historic DC building permit; a single permit can cover many buildings. The busiest decade is highlighted in the chart.
In 1890, Darby & Davis built 16 buildings on the 1100 block of 5th Street NW under 1 permit, designed by T. Franklin Schneider. The largest permit covered 16 buildings at an estimated $250,000 in total.
Mentions of Chinatown in the Evening Star, November 7–13, 1926. Searched for "Mount Vernon place", "Ford's Theater", "Pension Office", "Seventh street", Chinatown.
“A little social gathering last night at 633 Fifth street northeast ended in a rutting and chair-tossing affair, with Mr. and Mrs. .lames Caparrotta of 747 Seventh street southeast, hear* ipg th brunt of the attack, according to poilce reports today.”See page 23 at loc.gov ↗
“Mr. Henderson owned premises 522 Tenth street, assessed at $31,400; had 1 trust notes of $4,000 and cash of $220.”See page 12 at loc.gov ↗
““Stop talking about it. x'ou will be suspected of being a rum runner.” “Any man,” said Hi Ho, the sage of j Chinatown, “can enforce prohibition to a valuable degree simply by refus j jug to buy from a bootlegger." Nothing Unusual.”See page 8 at loc.gov ↗
“… The underlying principles to which we attribute tIMW&I&Z there was a small, unpretentious store located at much of our success remain unchangedtwenty-oat 824 Seventh Street, and known as Peoples Pharmacy. years ago when a customer entered our one smalt Wjdujjffl From this small beginning has grown one of the storecourteous, helpful service plus fair …”See page 11 at loc.gov ↗
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.
![Old Ford's Theatre, 10th St. N.W., Washington D.C. (where Lincoln was shot), [between 1871 and 1880]](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/cwpbh/03500/03579r.jpg)
![Patent Building, Washington, D.C., [between 1900 and 1906]](https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/service/pnp/det/4a10000/4a10000/4a10700/4a10712r.jpg)
Photographs from the Library of Congress (Brady-Handy photograph collection; National Photo Company Collection; Detroit Publishing Company photograph collection; Historic American Buildings Survey), 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.
Mount Vernon Place, the block north of Mount Vernon Square between 7th and 9th streets, was renamed by the Allen Y. Lew Place Designation Act of 2023. Lew built the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Nationals Park and Audi Field; a renaming ceremony was held September 25, 2023.
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)Washington's first Chinatown grew in the 1880s on the south side of Pennsylvania Avenue. When the Federal Triangle was built in the early 1930s it moved to H and I streets between 5th and 8th, around 1931. The Friendship Archway, built with sister city Beijing, followed in 1986; fewer than 300 Chinese residents remained by 2017.
Source: Chinatown, Washington, D.C. - WikipediaOriginally B Street. Its western section was greatly lengthened and widened between 1925 and 1933, and it received its present name on February 26, 1931, after nearly being named Jefferson Avenue.
Earlier: B StreetSource: Constitution Avenue - WikipediaToday it runs from 7th to 3rd Street; parts that once reached 12th Street were wiped out by the Federal Triangle. This stretch was originally named Louisiana Avenue, while the first Indiana Avenue, from 3rd to 1st Street, was demolished in the mid-1960s for the Labor Department and the Center Leg Freeway.
Earlier: Louisiana AvenueSource: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - WikipediaOne of two avenues passing through three quadrants. An 1809 law against roaming swine made Massachusetts Avenue the line beyond which pigs could run loose, marking the northern limit of the settled city near Mount Vernon Square.
Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Mount Vernon Square Historic District brochure (PDF hosted by DC Preservation League)L'Enfant's Reservation 8, where Massachusetts and New York avenues meet. By the 1830s the area was the 'Northern Liberties', and its market stood here from 1846. An 1867 report calls the site Mount Vernon Place; after the market was removed the neighborhood took the name Mount Vernon, part of a long habit of honoring the first president.
Earlier: Reservation 8, Northern Liberties (area)Sources: Mount Vernon Square Historic District brochure (PDF hosted by DC Preservation League) · Mount Vernon Square - Wikipedia · History (Mount Vernon Triangle CID)Short for Pennsylvania Quarter. In the late 1980s a neighborhood association formed through the Pennsylvania Avenue Development Corporation hired a PR firm and ran focus groups to rebrand the area, choosing a name meant to evoke Paris's Latin Quarter or New Orleans's French Quarter. It took many years to catch on.
Source: After Years of Revitalization, Penn Quarter's Personality Shines (Washington Diplomat)One of the four avenues radiating from the Capitol, it forms the Federal Triangle and links the Capitol with the White House. Chinatown first grew along its south side in the 1880s, and Penn Quarter's name comes from it.
Sources: List of state-named roadways in Washington, D.C. - Wikipedia · Chinatown, Washington, D.C. - WikipediaOnce an inner-block alley in the Mount Vernon neighborhood. Reformers fighting alley slums had Ridge, Morgan and Kirby alleys widened into legal streets, and the 400 block of Ridge still shows pre-Civil War frame row houses, according to the historic district brochure.
Earlier: Ridge alleySource: Mount Vernon Square Historic District brochure (PDF hosted by DC Preservation League)Still looking for a reliable source on Mitch Snyder Place NW, 4 1/2 Street NW, Banner Lane NW, Pierce Street NW, G Place NW, 1st Terrace NW, Mount Vernon Triangle. We don't publish a name's story until we can cite one. Know it? Tell us.
Chow grew up in the 1950s on North Capitol Street, a mile from Chinatown, where his father ran a laundry. He recalls Lady Bird Johnson's beautification work in Chinatown, the Chinatown Courtesy Patrol and Creative Workshop, working at Chinatown Tropicals, the 1968 riots, and changes brought by gentrification.
At Dig DC, DC Public Library (DC Oral History Collaborative: Chinatown Voices) · Chinese Americans, Chinatown Courtesy Patrol, 1968 riots, gentrificationBorn in 1953 to immigrants from Taishan, Lee grew up in the center of Chinatown above his father's grocery. He recalls the Lee Family Association, a youth program he ran in Chinatown in 1971, school in a mostly Black neighborhood, and the decline that began with the convention center and arena.
At Dig DC, DC Public Library (DC Oral History Collaborative: Chinatown Voices) · family grocery, Lee Family Association, youth programs, convention centerMei came from Hong Kong at age 7 and lived near Chinatown. She talks about other Chinatown kids, the Chinatown program at Calvary Baptist Church, helping at her grandfather's laundry, Chinese holidays, and her belief that another Chinatown could spring up elsewhere.
At Dig DC, DC Public Library (DC Oral History Collaborative: Chinatown Voices) · immigration, Calvary Baptist Church, family laundry, Chinese holidaysLuk came from Hong Kong at 5 and helped make noodles at his father's Chinatown restaurant. He discusses relations between Chinese and Black residents, children's programs in Chinatown including the Chinese Young Club, and generational differences between immigrants and their children.
At Dig DC, DC Public Library (DC Oral History Collaborative: Chinatown Voices) · family restaurant, Chinese Young Club, race relationsLee came from Hong Kong as a baby and grew up above his father's laundry. He recalls the Lee Family Association, sports with other Chinatown kids, the family's move to the suburbs, and the decline of DC's Chinatown, which he hopes to see preserved.
At Dig DC, DC Public Library (DC Oral History Collaborative: Chinatown Voices) · family laundry, Lee Family Association, Chinatown's declineSearch 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) · Foggy Bottom Association History Project: Oral Histories · George Washington University Special Collections Research Center · Woodley Park Community: A Sketch of Our Past · Empower DC: Ivy City · Power of Preserving the Black Deaf Experience (Dig DC) · Gallaudet University Archives. Summaries are ours; the recordings and their rights stay with each archive.