Penn Quarter
Penn Quarter Information
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Penn Quarter is a section of the Downtown area of Washington, D.C., located just north of Pennsylvania Avenue, halfway between the White House and the U.S. Capitol Building. Penn Quarter has experienced gentrification, stimulated by the nearby Verizon Center, which opened in 1997. Penn Quarter is located just south of Washington’s Chinatown.
Penn Quarter is home to some of the best restaurants and entertainment venues in Washington, D.C. Dozens of new restaurants and shops have recently opened for business both on and off of 7th Street. On Thursday afternoons during summer, the FRESHFARM Penn Quarter farmers market is open on 8th Street, just south of E Street. Freedom Forum is constructing a new facility for the Newseum, a Wolfgang Puck white table cloth restaurant, office and television studio space, and rental apartments at 6th Street & Pennsylvania Avenue; the Newseum is slated to open in late 2007 or early 2008. The transformation of the area from an underutilized, sometimes tawdry part of the city’s downtown to a vibrant community is continuing at a steady pace, with the addition of several new condominium and rental apartment buildings, offices and theaters. Penn Quarter is a culturally rich neighborhood with more legitimate theaters (seven currently, nine when two now under construction are completed) and performance spaces and museums than any other neighborhood in the metropolitan area. Only the adjacent National Mall with many Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art can claim to have more than the five museums currently open in Penn Quarter.
Residents also have a number of choices for strenuous activities: from running on the Mall to bowling at Lucky Strike in the Gallery Place development at 7th and H, to working out at the Washington Sports Club, YWCA, the Fit Club at Washington Center, or the new VIDA Fitness in the Verizon Center. Other neighborhood amenities include: several coffee shops; Teaism, a teahouse and restaurant; Cowgirl Creamery on F Street between 9th and 10th, which has a wide selection of cheeses; three salons and day spas: Celadon, Saint Germain, and Toka; Coup de Foudre lingerie; several bookstores; the Landmark E Street Cinema, which shows independent films; Regal Theater; and several ice cream shops: Gifford’s Ice Cream and Candy shop, Haagen Dazs, two Ben & Jerry’s and a Maggie Moo’s. Over the past thirty years the neighborhood has transformed from a sleepy, nondescript part of downtown into a vibrant community with an abundant number of new upscale apartment buildings (The Lansburgh, The Lexington, Historic Row, Avalon at Gallery Place, Meridian, Mass Court) and condominiums (Market Square, The Pennsylvania, Terrell Place, the Clara Barton at Penn Quarter, the Lafayette at Penn Quarter, the Artisan, The Ventana, Mather Studios, 400 Mass, The Myrene, 6th Street Lofts, The Cosmopolitan).