Fairlawn is a

working class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colo ...

and

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Com ...

residential neighborhood in

southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

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, ...

, United States. It is bounded by Interstate 295,

Pennsylvania Avenue Pennsylvania Avenue is a diagonal street in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, that connects the White House and the United States Capitol and then crosses the city to Maryland. In Maryland it is also Maryland Route 4 (MD 4 ...

SE, Minnesota Avenue SE (between Pennsylvania Avenue SE and Naylor Road SE), Naylor Road SE (between Minnesota Avenue SE Good Hope Road SE), and Good Hope Road SE.

History

The

Nacotchtank The Nacotchtank were an indigenous Algonquian people who lived in the area of what is now Washington, D.C. during the 17th century. The Nacotchtank village was within the modern borders of the District of Columbia along the intersection of the ...

Native Americans were the first settlers to inhabit the area now known as Fairlawn, living and fishing along the nearby

Anacostia River The Anacostia River is a river in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States. It flows from Prince George's County in Maryland into Washington, D.C., where it joins with the Washington Channel to empty into the Potomac River at Buzzard Point. ...

. Captain John Smith was the first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

an to visit the region in A.D. 1612, naming the river the "Nacotchtank".Rountree, Helen C.; Clark, Wayne E.; and Mountford, Kent. ''John Smith's Chesapeake Voyages, 1607–1609.'' Charlotte, Va.: University of Virginia Press, 2007. Burr, Charles R. "A Brief History of Anacostia, Its Name, Origin, and Progress."
''Records of the Columbia Historical Society.'' 1920. War and disease decimated the Nacochtank, and during the last 25 years of the 17th century the tribe ceased to exist as a functional unit and its few remaining members merged with other local

Piscataway Piscataway may refer to: *Piscataway people, a Native American ethnic group native to the southern Mid-Atlantic States *Piscataway language *Piscataway, Maryland, an unincorporated community *Piscataway, New Jersey, a township *Piscataway Creek, Ma ...

tribes.Cantwell, Thomas J. "Anacostia: Strength in Adversity." ''Records of the Columbia Historical Society, Washington, D.C.'' 1973/1974. European settlement in Southeast Washington first occurred in 1662 at Blue Plains (now the site of the city's sewage treatment plant just to the west of the modern neighborhood of

Bellevue Bellevue means "beautiful view" in French. It may refer to: Placenames Australia * Bellevue, Western Australia * Bellevue Hill, New South Wales * Bellevue, Queensland * Bellevue, Glebe, an historic house in Sydney, New South Wales Canada ...

), and at St. Elizabeth (now the site of St. Elizabeths Hospital

psychiatric hospital Psychiatric hospitals, also known as mental health hospitals, behavioral health hospitals, are hospitals or wards specializing in the treatment of severe mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, eating disorders, dissociat ...

) and Giesborough (now called

Barry Farm Barry Farm is a neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C., located east of the Anacostia River and bounded by the Southeast Freeway to the northwest, Suitland Parkway to the northeast and east, and St. Elizabeths Hospital to the south. The neig ...

) in 1663.Bryan, Wilhelmus Bogart. ''A History of the National Capital from Its Foundation Through the Period of the Adoption of the Organic Act.'' New York: The Macmillan Company, 1914. In 1663, Lord Baltimore granted ownership of the majority of the area on the south bank of the Anacostia River to George Thompson. The area became part of the District of Columbia in 1791. Congress passed the Residence Act of 1790 to establish a federally owned district in which would be built the new national capital, and

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of ...

picked the current site in 1791 (a choice ratified by Congress later that year).

William Marbury William Marbury (November 7, 1762 – March 13, 1835) was a highly successful American businessman and one of the " Midnight Judges" appointed by United States President John Adams the day before he left office. He was the plaintiff in the landma ...

, a wealthy Georgetown merchant who later was a party in the landmark ''

Marbury v. Madison ''Marbury v. Madison'', 5 U.S. (1 Cranch) 137 (1803), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court case that established the principle of judicial review in the United States, meaning that American courts have the power to strike down laws and statutes t ...

'' Supreme Court case, purchased much of the "Chichester tract" some time in the late 18th or early 19th century. The growth of the

Washington Navy Yard The Washington Navy Yard (WNY) is the former shipyard and Weapon, ordnance plant of the United States Navy in Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast Washington, D.C. It is the oldest shore establishment of the U.S. Navy. The Yard currently serv ...

created the need to provide housing for the many new employees working at the facility, but little land was available for new construction in the area and housing prices were high. Consequently, in 1818, the privately owned " Upper Navy Yard Bridge" was built over the Anacostia River at 11th Street SE.Croggon, James. "Old 'Burnt Bridge'."
'' Evening Star.'' July 7, 1907. This

toll bridge A toll bridge is a bridge where a monetary charge (or '' toll'') is required to pass over. Generally the private or public owner, builder and maintainer of the bridge uses the toll to recoup their investment, in much the same way as a toll road ...

was designed to permit easy access to Anacostia so that housing could be constructed on the eastern shore of the Anacostia River. A road was built from the bridge to the town of

Upper Marlboro, Maryland Upper Marlboro, officially the Town of Upper Marlboro, is the seat of Prince George's County, Maryland. Aso of the 2020 census, the population was 652. although Greater Upper Marlboro is many times larger. Etymology Upper Marlboro was establ ...

, and named Upper Marlborough Road (called Good Hope Road SE today), while another road ran roughly parallel to the river and was named Piscataway Road (then in the late 19th century "Asylum Road" and in the 20th century "Nichols Avenue", and is now Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE).Senkevitch, Anatole. ''Old Anacostia, Washington, D.C.: A Study of Community Preservation Resources.'' School of Architecture, University of Maryland. 1975. In the late 1820s or early 1830s, Marbury sold his land to Enoch Tucker, a farmer who rented out part of the land to

tenant farmer A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...

s and built his home near the intersection of Upper Marlborough Road and Piscataway Road. Developers John Dobler, John Fox, and John W. Van Hook purchased the 240-acre (97.2 hectare) area immediately southwest of Fairlawn from Enoch Tucker on June 5, 1854, for $19,000 and immediately subdivided the property into lots for houses."A New Historic District." ''Washington Post.'' March 5, 1978.Gillette, Howard. ''Between Justice and Beauty: Race, Planning, and the Failure of Urban Policy in Washington.'' Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006. Naming the area Uniontown (it is the neighborhood of

Anacostia Anacostia is a historic neighborhood in Southeast Washington, D.C. Its downtown is located at the intersection of Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. It is located east of the Anacostia River, after which the neighborhood is na ...

today), the development became Washington's first "suburban" community.Evelyn, Douglas E.; Dickson, Paul; and Ackerman, S.J. ''On This Spot: Pinpointing the Past in Washington, D.C.'' 3rd rev. ed. Sterling, Va.: Capital Books, 2008. Van Hook (the lead developer) renamed streets in the area after former presidents: Upper Marlborough Road was now called "Harrison Street," and Piscataway Road now known as "Monroe Street". Dr. Arthur Christie, a wealthy Englishman, purchased 50 acres (20.25 hectares) of land on the north side of Harrison Street (now the lower portion of Good Hope Road SE) and named his estate Fairlawn. The Fairlawn neighborhood derives its name from Christie's estate. Racially restrictive covenants were used in early 20th century Fairlawn to keep the neighborhood exclusively

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

. A

Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., that covers general interest topics with a particular emphasis on national politics. Its broadsheet daily edition is distributed throughout ...

real estate advertisement from October 1911 listed "NO NEGROES" as one of the neighborhood's supposed "advantages". Fairlawn remained largely undeveloped farm and woodland until 1940. Uniontown/Anacostia,

, Congress Heights, and Randle Highlands were the focus of most housing and retail development. Even these communities remained isolated from one another, and most of the land between them was forest until

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

.Benedetto, Robert; Donovan, Jane; and Du Vall, Kathleen. ''Historical Dictionary of Washington.'' New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. The oppressive need for housing during the war, brought about by a massive influx of federal workers to the capital, led to extensive building of homes in Fairlawn and the linking of the neighborhood with other parts of southeast D.C. The southern part of the Washington Metro's Green Line was originally designed to pass over the 11th Street Bridges to the intersection of Good Hope Road SE and Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE.Sisler, Peter F. "Decades of Frustrating Debate Kept Green Line Sidetracked." ''Washington Times.'' December 27, 1991.Burgess, John. "Metro to Halt Start of Leg To Rosecroft." ''Washington Post.'' March 18, 1982.Feaver, Douglas. "Metro Choices Detailed." ''Washington Post.'' October 18, 1977.Vesey, Tom. "Green Line War Heats Up Again." ''Washington Post.'' June 23, 1982. The site of the Anacostia Metro station at this intersection led to concerns that the Metro station would destroy the character of historic Anacostia and Fairlawn, and after pressure from the federal government Metro moved the site of the station to its current location on Howard Road SE.

Notable establishments and place names in Fairlawn

Two public schools, Anacostia Senior High School and Kramer Middle School, are located in Fairlawn. Naylor Road School, a private school (grades K through 8), is also in the neighborhood. The Anacostia Branch of the

District of Columbia Public Library The District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) is the public library system for the District of Columbia, in the United States. The system includes 26 individual libraries including Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (the DCPL's central libr ...

is located in Fairlawn at 1800 Good Hope Road SE. The large Marbury Plaza apartment building complex (2300 and 2330 Good Hope Road SE) in the Fairlawn neighborhood is named for William Marbury. Naylor Road SE is named for the Naylor family, whose farm constituted much of southern and southeastern portion of Fairlawn. Good Hope Road SE is named for the town of Good Hope, D.C., founded in 1820 around a tavern located near the current intersection of Good Hope Road SE and Alabama Avenue SE.''Anacostia Historic District.'' D.C. Historic Preservation Office. Office of Planning, District of Columbia. Washington, D.C.: March 2007.
Accessed 2009-12-26. The Anacostia Gateway building (1800 Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE) was built by the District of Columbia in Fairlawn at the intersection of Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue SE and Good Hope Road SE.Hedgpeth, Dana. "Moving Metro Office Could Spur Growth." ''Washington Post.'' August 8, 2005. As of January 2010, it houses the D.C. Department of Housing and Economic Development. The Anacostia Gateway building will be a terminus of the Anacostia Line of the

DC Streetcar The DC Streetcar is a surface streetcar network in Washington, D.C. , it consists of only one line: a segment running in mixed traffic along H Street and Benning Road in the city's Northeast quadrant. The streetcars are the first to run in ...

trolley system, under construction as of December 2009.Sun, Lena H. "Streetcars Could Be Running on D.C. Roads by Late Next Year." ''Washington Post.'' July 13, 2008; Young, Joseph. "Streetcars Set to Run Again in the District." ''Washington Times.'' August 26, 2009; Hohmann, James. "Anacostia Streetcar Track Installation Begins." ''Washington Post.'' September 20, 2009. The easternmost portion of Fort Dupont Park runs along T Street SE, Naylor Road SE, and Altamont Place SE in the Fairlawn area. The park adjoins Fort Stanton Park at Good Hope Road SE.

References

External links

Fairlawn Citizens Association

And Now, Anacostia

Anacostia Online, calendar, shops, etc.
{{Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. 1940 establishments in Washington, D.C. African-American history of Washington, D.C. American middle class Neighborhoods in Southeast (Washington, D.C.) Working-class culture in Washington, D.C.