H Street (Washington, D.C.)

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

H Street NE was home to 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.

In 2002, the District of Columbia Office of Planning initiated a community-based planning effort to help revitalize the corridor. Because it is 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 Streets NE), the Central Retail District (between 7th and 12th Streets NE), and the Arts and Entertainment District (between 12th and 15th Streets 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 had languished since the 1968 riots – was 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 are in residence) – 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. Each year, area retailers participate in the H Street Festival. In December 2007, the area was profiled in "The New York Times". [http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/travel/16DayOut.html?ex=1355461200&en=d7d4396870d6a3a7&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss]

H Street NW

In Northwest Washington, H Street is the main street in Chinatown and one of the major east-west streets downtown. When Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House was closed to vehicular traffic in the 1990s, crosstown traffic that had formerly used Pennsylvania Avenue was rerouted to H and I streets. The street also passes Lafayette Park and through the George Washington University campus and the Foggy Bottom neighborhood before terminating at Rock Creek.

References

External links

* [http://www.washingtonian.com/blogarticles/artsfun/afterhours/5363.html Meet Me On H Street: A Guide to Nightlife in the Atlas District] ", "Washingtonian", September 26 2007.
*http://www.bakerprojects.com/hstreetne/pdf/1_H_St_2ContextHistory_lr.pdf
* [http://planning.dc.gov/planning/cwp/view,a,1285,q,571665,planningNav,%7C32341%7C.asp H Street NE Strategic Development Plan]
* [http://www.greatstreetsdc.com/corridors2.asp H Street at the Great Streets website]
* [http://frozentropics.blogspot.com Frozen Tropics: A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill]
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/gallery/2006/04/03/GA2006040301828_index_frames.htm?startat=1 "Winds of Change Blow Uneasily on H Street"] , April 4, 2006, "The Washington Post"
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/03/AR2006040301762.html "Whose H Street Is It, Anyway?"] , April 4, 2006, "The Washington Post"
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020801004.html "Turning Northeast's H Street into Main Street"] , February 9, 2006, "The Washington Post"
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34449-2004Jun11.html "H Street NE, the Next Hot Spot"] June 11, 2004, "The Washington Post"
* [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/24/AR2007062401276.html "Road to a Retail Makeover"] June 25, 2007, "The Washington Post"
* [http://www.festivalonh.org "H Street Festival"] September 15, 2007, "Festivalonh.org - Raphael Marshall and Kwasi Frye"