19th century ), which was founded in the area in 1821. Once farmland on the estate of the Holmead family (called "Pleasant Plains"), Columbia Heights was part of
Washington County, in the District of Columbia; it was within the District but outside the borders of the
City of Washington. In 1815, William J. Stone purchased a 121-acre tract of the Holmead estate—east of present-day
Georgia Avenue, and north of modern Florida Avenue—and established his estate known as the Stone Farm. Nearby, construction of the first building for Columbian College, now
George Washington University, was completed in 1822 on the campus which was bounded by Columbia Road, 14th Street, Boundary Street (the original name of Florida Avenue) and 13th Street. The area began developing as a
suburb of Washington soon after the
American Civil War, when
horse-drawn streetcars delivered residents of the neighborhood
downtown. The northern portion of modern-day Columbia Heights (i.e., north of where Harvard Street currently lies) was, until the 1880s, a part of the
village of
Mount Pleasant. The southern portion still retained the name of the original
Pleasant Plains estate, though it was also known as "Cowtown." In 1871, Congress passed the
D.C. Organic Act, which eliminated Washington County by extending the boundaries of Washington City to be contiguous with those of the District of Columbia. Shortly afterward, in 1881–82,
Senator John Sherman, author of the
Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, purchased the land north of Boundary Street between 16th Street and 10th Street, including the Stone farm, developing it as a subdivision of the city and calling it Columbia Heights in honor of the college at its heart. (The neighborhood's eastern, major traffic artery, Sherman Avenue, is named after its early developer.) Much of Sherman's purchase was land belonging to Columbian College. The college moved to the center of Washington's downtown business district and in 1904, changed its name to
The George Washington University, in an agreement with the George Washington Memorial Association. By 1912 Columbian, now George Washington, relocated its major operations to Foggy Bottom. The federal government purchased some of the college's former land and built
Meridian Hill Park in the early 20th century.
20th century Upscale development in Columbia Heights circa 1900 was designed to attract upper level managers of the
Federal government,
U.S. Supreme Court justices, and high-ranking
military officers. An imposing mansion, Belmont, marked the entrance to the neighborhood between Florida and Clifton Streets. The mansion was emblematic of the confidence that the affluent placed in the concept that Columbia Heights represented the ideal suburb. In the early 1900s, many of Washington's wealthiest residents lived in the neighborhood. Residents included authors
Jean Toomer,
Ambrose Bierce,
Sinclair Lewis,
Chief Justice Melville Fuller, and Justice
John Marshall Harlan. In 1901, the Commissioners of the District of Columbia renamed streets all over the District in accordance with a newly adopted street-naming system. Roanoke Street, Yale Street, Princeton Street, Kenesaw Avenue, and Whitney Avenue were renamed Euclid Street, Fairmont Street, Girard Street, Irving Street, and Park Road respectively. In 1902, there was a building boom in North Columbia Heights, with the expansion of the streetcar down 11th St, 14th St and 16th St. Homes were being built for between $2,000 and $5,000 and a total of five million dollars' worth of homes were being built. In 1904, the Columbia Heights Citizen's Association published an illustrated brochure entitled "A Statement of Some of the Advantages of Beautiful Columbia Heights." 1904 was also the year that Congress authorized changing the names of streets to align with the alphabetical and orderly naming convention of the Old City (i.e., below Boundary Street, now Florida Avenue). By 1914, four streetcar lines served the section providing transportation to downtown Washington in twenty minutes. The neighborhood also became the home of the
Washington Palace Five professional basketball team. The popularity of the neighborhood resulted in the construction of several large apartment buildings during the beginning of the twentieth century that changed the suburban character of the area into a more urban and densely populated district. As of mid-century, however, Columbia Heights retained much of its upscale residential appeal, supporting establishments such as the ornate
Tivoli Theatre movie house (completed in 1924). , built by
Murphy & Olmsted in 1922
J. Willard Marriott and his wife opened an
A&W Root Beer franchise on 14th street in 1927, before creating the
Marriott hotel chain. The neighborhood was adjacent to Washington's thriving middle-class
Black community and came to be home to some of its most notable citizens by the 1930s. In 1949, during the era of racial segregation in the public schools, Central High School, a white high school that bordered the southern edge of Columbia Heights, did not have enough students. It was renamed as
Cardozo High School and designated as a "colored" high school to accommodate the growing Black population in the neighborhood. Significant demographic changes began in the late 1940s when Black residents began to buy apartment buildings previously owned by whites, and in the 1950s Black people bought individual homes in ever increasing numbers. The neighborhood was a strong Black middle-class enclave in Washington, along with the nearby
Shaw neighborhood and
Howard University, through the mid-1960s. The neighborhood was featured in various clips, and as the home of protagonists Helen and Bobby Benson, in the 1951 film
The Day the Earth Stood Still. In 1968, following the assassination of
Martin Luther King Jr., the
1968 Washington, D.C., riots ravaged the 14th Street corridor in Columbia Heights, along with the commercial
U Street corridor nearby, and many other Washington neighborhoods to the east. Many middle-class residents moved out to the suburbs, resulting in a drop in business. As a result, many homes and shops remained vacant for decades. In addition to Black people, the neighborhood had an increasing number of
Latino immigrants and their descendants as residents.
21st century , a mall that opened in 2008. In 1999, the city announced a revitalization initiative for the neighborhood focused around
Metro’s Columbia Heights station, which opened in September of that year. The opening of the Metro station served as a catalyst for the return of economic development and residents. Nearby,
Giant Food supermarket opened, and
Tivoli Square, a commercial and entertainment complex, dating from the 1920s was renovated. There had already been positive developments along lower 14th Street and the U Street corridor. On March 5, 2008,
DC USA, a
shopping mall across the street from the Columbia Heights Metro station opened. It includes many stores and restaurants as well as 1,000 spaces of underground parking. As of 2018, approximately 22% of the housing stock in the neighborhood was reserved for low income renters. ==Geography==