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Washington D.C.- Shaw - We've got a newly-renovated one bedroom unit that has a great layout for roommates who need their privacy but also need a one-bedroom sized rent. In this apartment, we've put a door on the living room, so it can be used as a second bedroom. Studio apartments, lofts, and efficiency apartments also available. View More Listings -->
Shaw Information
Shaw is a neighborhood in central Washington, D.C. It is roughly bounded by M
Street NW to the south; New Jersey Avenue NW to the east; Florida Avenue NW to
the north; and 11th Street NW to the west--although there is a westward
panhandle that extends to 16th Street between S Street and Florida Avenue. Shaw
once included the areas of smaller neighborhoods, such as Logan Circle and
Truxton Circle, but in recent years those neighborhoods have grown into their
own and become separate from Shaw.
Shaw grew out of freed slave encampments in the rural outskirts of Washington
City. It was named after Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, the commander of
the 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry.
Shaw thrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as the pre-Harlem
center of African-American intellectual and cultural life. Howard Theological
Seminary received its first matriculates in 1866; by 1925, Professor Alain Locke
was advancing the idea of "The New Negro," and Langston Hughes was descending
from Le Droit Park to hear the "sad songs" of 7th Street. The most famous Shaw
native to emerge from this period—sometimes called the Black Renaissance of
DC—was Duke Ellington.
Following the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. on April 4,
1968, riots erupted in many D.C. neighborhoods, including Shaw, Columbia
Heights, and the H Street NE Corridor. The 1968 Washington, D.C. riots marked
the beginning of a decline in population and development that would condemn much
of the inner city to a generation of economic decay.
Shaw, like Logan Circle, is a mostly residential neighborhood of 19th century
Victorian row houses. The allure of these houses, Shaw's central location, and
the booming D.C. housing market have begun to transform Shaw through
gentrification. According to Census records from 1970, 92% of Shaw's residents
were black; in 2000, 56% were black. Shaw's notable place in African American
history has made the recent influx of affluent professionals particularly
controversial.
Since around 2001, a number of Ethiopian restaurants and retail businesses have
either opened or moved from nearby Adams Morgan into Shaw, settling in
particular on the once desolate block of 9th Street NW between U and T Streets.
This influx of Ethiopians has revitalized the corridor, prompting a members of
that enterprising community to lobby the city to officially designate the block
as "Little Ethiopia." Shaw residents, however, have loudly expressed opposition
to the proposal, feeling that such a designation would unfairly isolate that
area from the historically African American Shaw. As of 2006, there has been no
resolution to the conflict.
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