Shaw Historic District
The Shaw Historic District stretches north of downtown along the old streetcar lines on 7th, 9th, and 11th Streets.
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The Shaw Historic District accounts for the larger of two remaining fragments of a once-contiguous neighborhood surrounding Mount Vernon Square, which developed mostly after the Civil War. The original neighborhood was an economically and racially mixed community, with buildings of diverse quality in a rich variety of architectural styles.
Rowhouses dominate a streetscape punctuated by churches, apartment buildings, and a few commercial strips. Owner-built homes are scattered throughout, but most of the housing stock is speculative construction, reflecting late-19th century mass-production technology and a taste for more elaborate building forms and embellishments. There are approximately 450 contributing buildings, dating from about 1833 to 1932.
DC Inventory: July 22, 1999, as part of an expanded district including the Blagden Alley/Naylor Court Historic District (effective September 7, 1999)
National Register: September 9, 1999 as Mount Vernon West Historic District
DC Inventory designation amended December 16, 1999 to create a separate Shaw Historic District
