Mount Vernon Square is a

city square A town square (or public square, urban square, city square or simply square), also called a plaza or piazza, is an open public space commonly found in the heart of a traditional town or city, and which is used for community gatherings. Rel ...

and neighborhood in the

Northwest 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— ...

quadrant Quadrant may refer to: Companies * Quadrant Cycle Company, 1899 manufacturers in Britain of the Quadrant motorcar * Quadrant (motorcycles), one of the earliest British motorcycle manufacturers, established in Birmingham in 1901 * Quadrant Privat ...

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 ...

The square is located where the following streets would otherwise intersect: Massachusetts Avenue NW, New York Avenue NW,

K Street NW K Street is a major thoroughfare in the United States capital of Washington, D.C., known as a center for lobbying and the location of numerous advocacy groups, law firms, trade associations, and think tanks. In political discourse, "K Street" h ...

, and 8th Street NW.

Attributes

Mount Vernon Square is bounded on the east by 7th Street NW, on the west by 9th Street NW, on the north by Mount Vernon Place, and on the south by a two-block section of K Street NW that is slightly offset from the rest of K Street. In the center of the square is the Carnegie Library of Washington D.C., finished in 1903, as a gift of industrialist

Andrew Carnegie Andrew Carnegie ( , ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the History of the iron and steel industry in the United States, American steel industry in the late ...

. The white marble Beaux-Arts building was originally the central library for Washington, D.C. The building now houses the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., and an

Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell, service and repair various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac desktop and MacBook laptop personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad ta ...

History

The square was in the original

L'Enfant Plan The L'Enfant Plan for the city of Washington, D.C. is the urban plan developed in 1791 by Major Pierre (Peter) Charles L'Enfant for George Washington, the first president of the United States. It is regarded as a landmark in urban design and h ...

for the city but in the early 1800s was divided into four triangles by the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and New York Avenue. The old Northern Liberty Market stood along Seventh Street until 1872, when it was demolished by Governor Alexander Shepherd in a night raid with two to 300 men. The roadways were removed in 1882 at the request of residents who complained that "in its former condition the constant passage of vehicles of all descriptions through the park made it unpleasant and oftentimes dangerous for those frequenting it." The Carnegie Library of Washington D.C. was built in 1903. It was the central library for the city until 1972, when the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library was completed. The library sat abandoned for a decade until it was renovated as a library for the

University of the District of Columbia The University of the District of Columbia (UDC) is a public historically black land-grant university in Washington, D.C., United States. The only public university in the city, it traces its origins to 1851 and opened in its current form in 1 ...

. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the city's furniture stores and more economical department stores such as Goldberg's and Kaufman's were located along 7th Street NW in the

7th Street shopping district Parts of F Street and 7th Street, N.W. and nearby blocks have historically been the heart of the Washington, D.C. Downtown shopping district. In the first half of the 20th century there were numerous upscale large department stores along and nea ...

, most of which was in the neighborhood now known as Mount Vernon Square. Further south, just below today's Chinatown, the 7th Street corridor met the F Street corridor with its more upscale apparel and department stores. In 1999, the library became the headquarters for the Historical Society of Washington, D.C. The City Museum of Washington opened in the library in May 2003, but closed less than two years later. In 2008, a sculpture was installed on the lawn at the south side of the square - "The Hand" created by Jim Fauntleroy in the 1960s for the

Southern Christian Leadership Conference The Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) is an African Americans, African-American civil rights organization based in Atlanta, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. SCLC is closely associated with its first president, Martin Luther King Jr., ...

’s Poor People’s Campaign. The

Washington Convention and Sports Authority Events DC is the official convention, sports and entertainment authority for Washington, D.C.. Events DC is a quasi-public company based that owns and manages the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, CareFirst Arena, RFK Stadium, and Nationals ...

took over the library building in 2011, renting it out for events. The building underwent significant renovations in 2018, to accommodate a new Apple Store and exhibit space for the Historical Society.

Neighborhood and vicinity

Mount Vernon Square also refers to the neighborhood northeast of the square (though the official name for this neighborhood is

Mount Vernon Triangle Mount Vernon Triangle is a neighborhood and community improvement district in the northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C. The neighborhood is located adjacent to Mount Vernon Square. Originally a working-class neighborhood established in the 19th ...

), extending north to O Street and east to New Jersey Avenue. In the early 20th century,

Victorian Victorian or Victorians may refer to: 19th century * Victorian era, British history during Queen Victoria's 19th-century reign ** Victorian architecture ** Victorian house ** Victorian decorative arts ** Victorian fashion ** Victorian literatur ...

-style townhomes occupied the area, and the

was the city's vibrant commercial strip (along with more upscale F Street), until the

Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...

, when the area went into a steep decline. During the 1968 Martin Luther King Jr. riots, the area around the square suffered rioting, arson, and extensive vandalism. In the 1980s, 7th Street was shut down for several years during the construction of the

Green Line (Washington Metro) The Green Line is a rapid transit line of the Washington Metro system, consisting of 21 metro station, stations in Washington, D.C., and Prince George's County, Maryland, Prince George's County, Maryland, United States. The Green Line runs fro ...

- the

Mount Vernon Square Mount Vernon Square is a town square, city square and neighborhood in the Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest Address (geography)#Quadrants, quadrant of Washington, D.C. The square is located where the following streets would otherwise inters ...

station opened in 1991.

Boundaries

The boundaries of the neighborhood are; * On the south,

Chinatown Chinatown ( zh, t=唐人街) is the catch-all name for an ethnic enclave of Chinese people located outside Greater China, most often in an urban setting. Areas known as "Chinatown" exist throughout the world, including Europe, Asia, Africa, O ...

and the

Penn Quarter Penn Quarter is a historic neighborhood of Downtown Washington, D.C., located north of Pennsylvania Avenue, in Northwest D.C. Penn Quarter is roughly equivalent to the city's early downtown core near Pennsylvania Avenue and 7th Street NW, Penn ...

, usually considered the heart of

Downtown Washington, D.C. Downtown is the central business district of Washington, D.C., located in Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest D.C. It is the third largest central business district in the United States. The "Traditional Downtown" has been defined as an area ...

* On the north, M or O Street NW according to the source, and the Shaw neighborhood * From the eastern boundary of the square to New Jersey Ave. is the

neighborhood, often mentioned together with the Mount Vernon Square neighborhood * On the west, either Thomas Circle or 10th St. NW and the Logan Circle neighborhood

Old and new convention centers

In 1977, the city used

eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

to purchase several blocks southwest of Mount Vernon Square. Over the next few years, the homes and businesses on these blocks were razed. The old

Washington Convention Center The Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. was a convention center located at 909 H Street NW, occupying the city block bounded by New York Avenue (Washington, D.C.), New York Avenue, 9th Street, H Street, and 11th Street.Old Washington Convention Center Site
WashingtonPost.com City Guide, Retrieved May 9, 2007 Construction on the center began in 1980, and it opened on December 10, 1982. At , it was the fourth largest facility in the United States at the time. However, during the 1980s and 1990s, numerous larger and more modern facilities were constructed around the country, and by 1997 the Washington Convention Center had become the 30th largest facility.A History of the Washington Convention Center
Washington Convention Center website, Retrieved April 13, 2010 In 1998, construction began on a new larger convention center, occupying several blocks directly north of Mount Vernon Square. The new convention center was completed in 2003, and renamed the

Walter E. Washington Convention Center The Walter E. Washington Convention Center is a convention center located in Washington, D.C., owned and operated by the city's convention arm, Events DC. Designed in a joint venture by the Atlanta-based architecture firm Tvsdesign, Washington ...

in 2007.

Commercial development

Many small businesses existed around Mount Vernon Square before the construction of the convention centers. One of the last businesses to exist on the west side of the square was a

Chinese restaurant A Chinese restaurant is a restaurant that serves Chinese cuisine. Most of them are in the Cantonese cuisine, Cantonese style, due to the history of the Overseas Chinese, Chinese diaspora, though other Chinese regional cuisine, regional cuisin ...

named Nan King (which was one of the first restaurants in the city to serve

dim sum Dim sum () is a large range of small Chinese dishes that are traditionally enjoyed in restaurants for brunch. Most modern dim sum dishes are commonly associated with Cantonese cuisine, although dim sum dishes also exist in other Chinese cu ...

), which was open until 1979. By 2004, Alperstein's Furniture was the only store on 7th Street to survive through the construction of the Metro station and the new convention center. It closed in 2014, with a restaurant moving into its building. On the west side of the square is the 901 New York Avenue office building (headquarters of law firm

Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner LLP, commonly known as Finnegan, is an international intellectual property law firm based in Washington, DC, United States. Finnegan was founded on March 1, 1965, by Marc Finnegan and Douglas Henders ...

), completed in 2003. On the east are two large office buildings, including the headquarters of law firm

Arnold & Porter Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, doing business as Arnold & Porter, is an American multinational law firm. It is a white-shoe firm and among the largest law firms in the world, both by revenue and by number of lawyers. Arnold & Porter was f ...

(opened 2016), and the headquarters for the

Association of American Medical Colleges Association may refer to: *Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal *Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry * Voluntary associati ...

and the

American Dental Education Association The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) is a non-profit organization that works to further the education of Dentist, dental professionals and the advancement of academic dental programs in Canada and the United States. Founded in 1923 as ...

(opened 2014). On the south side is the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel (opened 1986), and the Techworld plaza office development (opened 1989), which is undergoing redevelopment and re-branding as "Anthem Row." Across from the northwest corner of the square is the

Washington Marriott Marquis Marriott Marquis Washington, DC is a luxury hotel located on Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.), Massachusetts Avenue NW, in Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW, Washington, D.C., United States. The hotel is connected to the Walter E. Washingt ...

, the largest hotel in the city, which opened in 2014. The lot at the southwest corner of the square was the former site of the old

development, which opened in 2015.

Historic buildings

There are two historic buildings northwest of the square, Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church and the American Federation of Labor Building. The Mount Vernon Place church was built in 1917, by the

Methodist Episcopal Church, South The Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC, S; also Methodist Episcopal Church South) was the American Methodist denomination resulting from the 19th-century split over the issue of slavery in the Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC). Disagreement ...

. The Labor building was built in 1916 as the headquarters for the

American Federation of Labor The American Federation of Labor (A.F. of L.) was a national federation of labor unions in the United States that continues today as the AFL-CIO. It was founded in Columbus, Ohio, in 1886 by an alliance of craft unions eager to provide mutual ...

. and

References

{{Authority control Buildings and structures completed in 1845 Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Washington, D.C. K Street Massachusetts Avenue (Washington, D.C.) Neighborhoods in Northwest (Washington, D.C.) Squares, plazas, and circles in Washington, D.C. Victorian architecture in Washington, D.C.