Riggs Park, also known as ''"Lamond Riggs"'', is a residential neighborhood in Ward 4 of

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Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Riggs Park is contained between Eastern Avenue N.E. to the east, Riggs Road N.E. to the south, North Capitol Street N.W. to the north and west, and the Blair Road Community Garden to the north. Riggs Park is adjacent to the neighborhoods of

Queens Chapel Queens Chapel is a mostly residential neighborhood with commercial elements located in Ward 5 of Northeast Washington, D.C. Its namesake is the Queens Family Chapel, the first Catholic parish in DC. It burned to the ground multiple times, the la ...

North Michigan Park North Michigan Park is a neighborhood located in Ward 5 of Northeast Washington, D.C. North Michigan Park is contained between Eastern Avenue N.E. to the east, Gallatin Street N.E. to the north, Michigan Avenue N.E. to the south, and South ...

, and Fort Totten, located in Ward 5 of Northeast Washington D.C. In addition to these neighborhoods, Riggs Park also borders the city/neighborhood Chillum, which is located in

Prince George's County, Maryland ) , demonym = Prince Georgian , ZIP codes = 20607–20774 , area codes = 240, 301 , founded date = April 23 , founded year = 1696 , named for = Prince George of Denmark , leader_title = Executive , leader_name = Angela D. Alsobroo ...

. The WMATA Red Line train tracks pass through the Riggs Park neighborhood when traveling between the Takoma and Fort Totten Metro Stations. In addition to the WMATA Red Line, the

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

MARC Marc or MARC may refer to: People * Marc (given name), people with the first name * Marc (surname), people with the family name Acronyms * MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging, * MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system of ...

, and

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

train tracks, pass through the Riggs Park neighborhood as well.

History

Most of Riggs Park's residents were

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and

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

until the 1960s when most of them began leaving the city to settle in the suburbs. Riggs Park's combination of affordable housing and convenience/proximity to Downtown Washington D.C., attracted many

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

residents to move in.Taylor, Ronald. "Riggs Park: Largely Untouched by War: Area Little Touched by War". ''Washington Post''. August 19, 1973. p. B1. Riggs Park was home to two synagogues in the 1950s, including a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

synagogue named Shaare Tefila Congregation. Shaare Tefila was relocated to

White Oak The genus ''Quercus'' contains about 500 species, some of which are listed here. The genus, as is the case with many large genera, is divided into subgenera and sections. Traditionally, the genus ''Quercus'' was divided into the two subgenera '' ...

in 1965. In 2011, Shaare Tefila was relocated again to Olney, where many young members now live. During the height of the Jewish community, Riggs Park was known as the "Little Tel Aviv" of Washington, D.C. and was home to a large population of young Jewish couples and their families. The Jewish community grew quickly in the 1950s because many Jews who had served in the military were eligible to purchase a home under the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

. As African-Americans began to move to Riggs Park in the 1960s, the majority of Jews in the neighborhood sold their homes and moved to suburban Maryland. By the early 1980s, Riggs Park was home to a large middle-class black population. In 2001, Chevron told residents of Riggs Park that gasoline had spilled just across the Maryland state line 12 years prior and that the fuel had seeped under 169 residents' houses, an elementary school, and a church. Residents filed a lawsuit in United States District Court. Chevron said it had complied with laws by informing the state of Maryland about the leak after its discovery and that it was pumping the gas out of the ground and removing the contaminated dirt. In 2007, the Environmental Protection Agency announced plans to clean up leaked gasoline, to be paid for by Chevron. In 2009, the District of Columbia released environmental test results, and perchloroethylene and methyl tert-butyl ether were detected in shallow groundwater samples. Gasoline was detected in soil samples. Chevron settled a lawsuit with the District of Columbia Department of the Environment in 2011. Chevron agreed to pay for the installation of Vapor Mitigation Systems into 43 homes in Riggs Park.

References

{{Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C. African-American middle class Historic Jewish communities in the United States Jews and Judaism in Washington, D.C. Neighborhoods in Northeast (Washington, D.C.)