H Street (Washington, D.C.)

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The H Street Corridor is a commercial district at the heart of the Near Northeast neighborhood (also known as Old City, Capitol Hill North, and Cap Valley) in Northeast Washington, D.C. It was one of Washington's earliest and busiest commercial districts, but after World War II, the neighborhood went into decline.

H Street NE, was the route of one of Washington's oldest streetcar lines, and ridership peaked at 3.3 million riders a month. H Street was also the location of the first Sears Roebuck store in Washington. Businesses in the corridor were severely damaged during the 1968 riots and the region has never fully recovered.

In 2002, DC Government's Office of Planning initiated a community-based planning effort to help revitalize the corridor. Because the corridor in nearly 1.5 miles long, the resulting H Street NE Strategic Strategic Development Plan divided H Street into 3 districts : the Urban Living district between 2nd and 7th St NE, the Central Retail District between 7th and 12th St NE and the Arts and Entertainment District between 12th and 15th St NE.

In the mid-2000s, the Arts and Entertainment District began to revitalize as a nightlife district. The Atlas Theater, a Moderne-style 1930s movie theater that has languished since the 1968 riots, has been refurbished as a dance studio and performance space, and is now the anchor of what is now being called the Atlas district. H Street NE has also recently become home to the H Street Playhouse, a black-box theater (where Theater Alliance and Forum Theatre (DC) are in residence); and live music venues such as the Red and the Black and the Rock & Roll Hotel; and restaurants and bars, such as the Argonaut, Showbar Presents the Palace of Wonders, the Pug, and H Street Martini Lounge. Washington entrepreneur Joe Englert, who also owns other bars and restaurants around the city, owns a number of the establishments, including The Red and the Black, the Rock & Roll Hotel, the Argonaut, and the Palace of Wonders. More such establishments are planned for the future. The most recent restaurant, Dr Granville Moore's, had its soft opening on August 4, 2007. Each year the area retailers participate in the H Street Festival. In December 2007, the area was the subject of a New York Times article.[1]

[edit] H St NW

In Northwest, H Street is the main street in Chinatown and one of the major east-west streets downtown. When Pennsylvania Avenue was closed to vehicular traffic in front of the White House, the crosstown traffic that had formerly used Pennsylvania Avenue was rerouted to H and I streets. The street also passes Lafayette Park, at least three prominent hotels, various office buildings, through the George Washington University campus and the Foggy Bottom neighborhood before terminating at Rock Creek.

[edit] External links

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