Douglass (Washington, D.C.)

Douglass is a residential neighborhood in

Southeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, Radius, radially arrayed compass directions (or Azimuth#In navigation, azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, ...

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

, on the eastern side of

St. Elizabeths Hospital St. Elizabeths Hospital is a psychiatric hospital in Southeast, Washington, D.C., Southeast Washington, D.C. operated by the District of Columbia Department of Mental Health. The hospital opened in 1855 under the name Government Hospital for th ...

, on the border of the Congress Heights Metro Station. It is bounded by Suitland Parkway SE, Alabama Avenue SE, and Saint Elizabeth's Hospital Campus. The Douglass neighborhood sits atop a hilly ridge that is the highest point in Southeast Washington, The area was once almost entirely dominated by two

public housing Public housing, also known as social housing, refers to Subsidized housing, subsidized or affordable housing provided in buildings that are usually owned and managed by local government, central government, nonprofit organizations or a ...

complexes, Douglass Dwellings and Stanton Dwellings. It is now one of the up-and-coming areas of Washington, DC and experiencing a fair amount of retail investment and

gentrification Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more Wealth, affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has ...

. The areas is close to THEARC (Town Hall Education Arts and Recreation Center), with institutions such as

Trinity Washington University Trinity Washington University is a private Catholic university in Washington, D.C., United States. It was founded as Trinity College by the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in 1897 as the nation's first Catholic liberal arts college for women. T ...

(formerly Trinity College), the School of the Washington Ballet and the Levine School of Music. The area has several new homes developments with houses priced in the $200–400,000 range. The area contains several historic Jewish cemeteries, including the Adas Israel and Elesavetgrad cemeteries and a relatively new Bet Mishpachah Cemetery. The neighborhood is named for the famed American

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the political movement to end slavery and liberate enslaved individuals around the world. The first country to fully outlaw slavery was Kingdom of France, France in 1315, but it was later used ...

Frederick Douglass Frederick Douglass (born Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey, February 14, 1818 – February 20, 1895) was an American social reformer, Abolitionism in the United States, abolitionist, orator, writer, and statesman. He was the most impor ...

, whose homestead, Cedar Hill, sits approximately one mile north of his namesake community. Neighborhoods in Southeast (Washington, D.C.) {{WashingtonDC-geo-stub