Today’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood in Washington, D.C., developed as a “streetcar suburb” in the early 1900s. The new area was defined geographically in 1901 when 16th Street was extended north from Florida Avenue, creating a natural boundary to the east.
The much-anticipated opening of a new streetcar line to Mount Pleasant in 1903 unleashed a building boom. Major developers converged on the neighborhood to respond to the seemingly insatiable demand for housing in convenient proximity to downtown Washington. Along the streetcar route which became Mount Pleasant Street, they built rowhouses, apartment houses and commercial buildings, many with attached dwellings. The vast majority of these buildings are still standing and are protected as contributing structures within the Mount Pleasant Historic District.
Historic Mount Pleasant, a nonprofit organization formed to preserve the history and architectural resources of the neighborhood, is compiling a comprehensive history of the Mount Pleasant commercial corridor. This is a brief overview of our findings to date. The information comes from the National Archives and Records Administration, the Washingtoniana Collection of the D.C. Public Library, the D.C. Recorder of Deeds, and the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. More information about building permits, land titles, and the location of individual businesses over time is available on our website, www.historicmountpleasant.org.
We thank Studio Crowley Hall for its assistance in refining and creating drawings for use here. We welcome comments and questions and plan to prepare a complete summary of our research in 2011.
The 1903 Baist map to the left shows the then undeveloped state of the area that would become the 3000-3200 blocks of Mount Pleasant Street, the new commercial corridor. Mount Pleasant Street is labeled “16 ½ Street,” as it was known immediately after new 16th Street was laid out. There were only a few buildings between Kenesaw (now Irving) Street and Park Road along the new corridor and much open space. Of those buildings, only one remains – represented by the pink square in the center near the number “6.”