Country United States Quadrant Northwest Advisory Neighborhood Commission ANC 4C; ANC 4D Elevation 57 m | State/District District of Columbia Ward Ward 4 Time zone EST (UTC-5) Area code Area code 202 | |
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Restaurants Petworth Citizen & Reading, Chez Billy, Slim's Diner, Red Derby, Himitsu | ||
Petworth is a residential neighborhood in the Northwest quadrant of Washington, D.C.. It is bounded to the east by the Soldiers’ Home and Rock Creek Church Yard and Cemetery, to the west by Arkansas Avenue NW, to the south by Rock Creek Church Road NW and Spring Road NW, and to the north by Hamilton Street NW.
Contents
- Map of Petworth Washington DC USA
- History
- Community events
- Petworth Neighborhood Library
- Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School
- Truesdell Education Campus
- Powell Elementary School
- Charter schools
- Local businesses
- Public art
- Historic places
- References
Map of Petworth, Washington, DC, USA
Petworth is represented on the Council of the District of Columbia by the Ward 4 council member: since May 2015, Brandon Todd. Muriel Bowser served as Ward 4 councilmember until she became the city's mayor on January 2, 2015.
History
Petworth was the name of the 205-acre country estate of John Tayloe III, bequeathed to his son Benjamin Ogle Tayloe, located at the northeast corner of 7th Street Pike (later known as Brightwood Avenue, now Georgia Avenue) and Rock Creek Church Road. In 1887, it was sold by Tayloe's heirs to developers for $107,000. In 1889, developers registered “Petworth” with the District surveyor as a 387-acre plat of subdivision containing the former Tayloe estate and the Marshal Brown estate. In 1893, additional real estate deals formed "West Petworth," from land west of Brightwood Avenue, including the Ruppert Farm, which was sold for $142,680, the 20-acre Burnaby tract, and a 14-acre property known as Poor Tom’s Last Shaft. In 1900, Henry J. Ruppert sold an additional 31.7 acres west of Brightwood and Iowa Avenues and south of Utica Street (now Allison Street) to the District for a proposed municipal hospital.
The neighborhood bloomed with the expansion of the streetcar line up Georgia Avenue from Florida Avenue to the Washington, D.C., line at Silver Spring, Maryland.
Many of the thousands of similar brick row houses in the neighborhood were constructed by Cafritz Builders and by D.J. Dunigan Company in the 1920s and '30s. Dunigan donated the land that became the site for St. Gabriel's Church and School next to Grant Circle.
Today, the neighborhood is primarily residential with a mix of townhouses and single-family homes. It is served by the Georgia Ave-Petworth station on the Washington Metro's Green Line and Yellow Line. Petworth borders to two expanses of historic greenspace, Rock Creek Cemetery and the US Soldiers' and Airmens' Home (now known as the Armed Forces Retirement Home).
Community events
Since 2006, the Upshur Street Arts and Crafts Fair has been an annual event in December.
The Petworth Community Market, a weekly Saturday farmer's market, is held along 9th Street between Upshur and Taylor Streets from May through October. The market features produce, local vendors, and prepared foods.
The Petworth Jazz Project is a free music series of jazz performances held at Petworth Park at 8th and Taylor Streets from May through September.
Since 2014, the Celebrate Petworth street festival has been held annually during the late spring or early summer on Upshur Street between 8th and 9th Streets. It is scheduled this year for June 4, 2016.
From 1993 to 2011, the DC Caribbean Carnival parade was held annual each June along Georgia Avenue, passing through Petworth en route to Howard University.
Petworth Neighborhood Library
The two-and-a-half story Georgian Revival Petworth Neighborhood Library building opened in 1939 at the corner of Georgia Ave. NW, Kansas Ave. NW, and Upshur St. NW. In addition to providing access to DC Public Library general circulation items, the library’s collection includes a Spanish Language collection, job and employment literature, and Adult Basic Education materials. In June 2009, the library underwent a two-part renovation and re-opened on February 28, 2011.
Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School
Roosevelt Senior High School enrolls students in ninth through 12th grade. The high school is also home to Roosevelt S.T.A.Y. program, an alternative academic and career/technical program that will lead to a high school diploma or vocational certificate. The high school, located at 13th and Upshur streets NW, was built in 1932 to accommodate 1,200 students. In 2013-15, it received a $121 million renovation, during which classes were held at the nearby MacFarland Middle School campus on 13th Street NW. The school reopened for the 2015-16 academic year.
During the renovation, The American Panorama, a 1934 New Deal–funded fresco by the Baltimore-born artist Nelson Rosenberg, was uncovered in the school cafeteria in fall 2013. The fresco was restored as part of the renovation.
Truesdell Education Campus
Truesdell Education Campus enrolls 480 students (2013-2014) in grades pre-kindergarten through eighth grade.
Powell Elementary School
Powell enrolls students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade. The school opened in 1929 as a two-story brick building on Upshur St. NW near 14th St. NW, and was expanded in 1959 with a second structure. As of 2016, the school is undergoing a $42 million modernization and expansion.
On March 4, 2014, President Barack Obama visited Powell, where he announced the fiscal year 2015 budget and spoke about Powell’s early childhood education program. “We know — and this is part of the reason why we’re here today — that education has to start at the earliest possible ages,” Obama said. “So this budget expands access to the kind of high-quality preschool and other early learning programs to give all of our children the same kinds of opportunities that those wonderful children that we just saw are getting right here at Powell.”
Charter schools
Local businesses
In recent years, Petworth has seen more commercial establishments courting its growing urban population.