From page 2 from the memo NCPC File No. UR-07 “Resolution Modifying the Boundaries and Urban Renewal Plan for the Shaw School Urban Renewal Area”; File UR 07 Modification #6 NDP 2; Records Relating to Urban Renewal; National Capital Planning Commission (1952-), Record Group 328; National Archives Building Washington, DC:
BE IT RESOLVED, that pursuant to Section 6(b) and 12 of the Redevelopment Act, the Commission adopts modified boundaries for the Project Area described as follows:
Beginning at the southwest corner of the intersection of Fifteenth Street, N.W., and “N” Street, N.W., thence along the south line of “N” Street, N.W., the the southwest corner of Thirteenth Street, N.W., and “N” Street, N.W., thence southerly along the west line of Thirteenth Street, N.W., to the southwest corner of “M” Street, N.W., and Thirteenth Street, N.W., thence along the south line of “M” Street, N.W., to its intersection with the north line of New York Avenue, N.W., to the east line of North Capitol Street, thence along the east line of North Capitol Street to the northeast corner of North Capitol Street and Florida Avenue, N.W., thence along the northeasterly and north lines of Florida Avenue, N.W., to the northeast corner of Florida Avenue, N.W., and Georgia Avenue, N.W., thence along the east line of Georgia Avenue, N.W., to the north line of “V” Street, N.W., extended to the east line of Georgia Avenue, N.W., thence along the north line of “V” Street, N.W., extended to intersect the east line of Florida Avenue, N.W., at Ninth Street, N.W., thence in a northwesterly direction along the east line of Florida Avenue, N.W., to the east line of Sherman Avenue, N.W., thence northernly on the east line of Sherman Avenue, N.W., to its intersection with the north line of Barry Place, N.W., thence westerly on the north line of Barry Place, N.W., to its intersection with the north line of Florida Avenue, N.W., thence along the north line of Florida Avenue, N.W., to the intersection of Florida Avenue, N.W., New Hampshire Avenue, and Fifteenth Street, N.W., to the point of beginning.
Good Lord, that is the most confusing piece of geo-legal-gaaaaah I’ve ever transcribed.
That’s really…legal. You should send this to the people at the DCist. A couple of days ago they were having a debate about whether the U Street corridor was in Shaw.
I can’t believe you transcribed all that. 🙂
Neither can I.
It was the DCist post and comments that annoyed the crap out of me, so much so I transcribed page 2…. not pissed off enough to transcribe page 3.
hey, wait, so who over at dcist pissed you off. hope it wasn’t me? 🙂
It wasn’t a single comment, it was the line of thought. I get annoyed when folks can’t grab the concept that Shaw is a big-a$$ neighborhood with a number of components, those components being U Street, Logan Circle, Blagden Alley/Naylor Court, possibly Mid-City (not really sure where the borders are for that) and my own beloved Truxton Circle. And when that confusion rises up then people start effin with where the borders are.
So it became what my grad school profs called “a teachable moment”. So here I am to teach to y’all what I know. These are the borders of Shaw as established by the Federal and District government. I don’t know if any other DC neighborhood (with the exception of G’town) has it’s borders established as so.
Mari — As your own research has shown this established the boundaries of the Shaw “redevelopment district” in 1952. Just because of this declaration doesn’t make it a neighborhood. That is basically stating that before 1952 no neighborhoods existed at all in this area which is defiantly not the case.
1952? Please re-read. 1952 is the date of the NCPC, prior to 1952 it was the National Capital Park and Planning Commission and before that, something else. The NCPC handled a slew of projects in the District and suburbs and Shaw was just one of many. I was trying to use the citation style as suggested by the National Archives…. which is pretty confusing. The date of the document is April 2, 1970.
Also please quote where exactly I said there wasn’t a neighborhood here prior to whatever date. There were houses and people around in 1850 but a neighborhood called and known as ‘Shaw’, I haven’t found any evidence of the area being called that prior to the urban renewal project. I’m talking names and borders. And prior to the urban renewal project it had been called the 2nd District by the Washington Post. I’m curious to know if there are any AfAm publications that called it anything other than Northwest or Mid-City.