Washington DC
Southwest Waterfront

The Southwest Waterfront in Washington, D.C., was an important part of Pierre L’Enfant’s master plan for the District, as he tried to achieve George Washington’s vision of a political capital that would double as a maritime center. The neighborhood features some of the District’s oldest structures, such as the Thomas Law House, completed in 1796, and Fort McNair, which served as the site of the trial of conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Cut off by sewage canals from the rest of the District, the area evolved in the mid-to-late 1800s into a low-income neighborhood in which formerly enslaved African Americans and recent immigrants from Europe lived side by side. After World War II, however, a misguided urban renewal effort drove out thousands of Black residents, a tragic chapter in local history. In recent years, the Southwest Waterfront has undergone a resurgence as a residential neighborhood that is fostering an ethnically and economically diverse population. The housing stock includes 1960s mid-century modern condominium towers with views of the water.