Anacostia in 1921

The past is not a package one can lay away.

~Emily Dickinson

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This aerial photo from June 26, 1921 shows Anacostia before much of the post-war redevelopment and unfortunate tear-downs in the neighborhood.

1. The U-Street cut-through, before poor planning eliminated the road (formerly called Jackson Street) and the houses that once graced it!

2. The once-human-friendly block that is now the decrepit grocery store and an unnecessarilly large parking lot. I wonder what that larger u-shaped set of buildings was...

3. The current home of a now-empty lot and a corrugated-metal warehouse / health care center thing. Any idea what those two larger (and probably very cool-looking) buildings were?

*Update: the large building on that site was the old Van Buren School, a neighborhood landmark.

4. The residential block - on both W Street and Pleasant Street - that is now the Union Temple baptist church and its ridiculous parking lot.

photo for graphic courtesy of the Washington Post his, via Proquest.

the U Street cut-through

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This street needs to be rebuilt.

- the lot is already used as a pedestrian cut-through.

- construction of the through street would further integrate the areas to the east (pictured towards the right of the aerial) with the rest of historic Anacostia.

- it would provide a safer route to the elementary school.

- the new road, sidewalks, and streetlamps would place a greater emphasis on the adjacent lots.