The history of Washington, DC is complex, and the history of historic districts in the city has been as well, starting with the first historic district designation of Georgetown in 1950. Over time, as you can see in this 2014 historic district map, the number and coverage of historic districts has grown greatly (though many of the larger districts pictured are National Parks, e.g. Rock Creek Park). The main point of interest for this project is the timing of historic district designation: in my analysis, neighborhoods are usually only designated as historic after a process of gentrification, even in the case of Georgetown.
- A working paper from this project was presented at the APPAM Regional Student Conference in April 2016
- A poster presenting this working paper’s analysis of historic districting across the city and in Shaw and U Street in particular won the ‘Best PhD Student Poster’ award from American University’s Metropolitan Policy Center at the MPC 2016 Annual Lecture
Riordan Frost 