1915 DCCapitol Hill and the east · 12 photographs
Anacostia and the river
The neighbourhood across the Anacostia River, its bridges and flats, and Bolling Field.
History
Anacostia began as Uniontown, laid out in 1854 as one of Washington’s first suburbs across the river. Frederick Douglass lived at Cedar Hill on the hill above it from 1877 until his death in 1895. The marshy Anacostia Flats along the river were later reclaimed as Anacostia Park, and in 1918 the Army opened Bolling Field on the river’s east bank, on an airfield first set up in 1917.
What's there now
Anacostia is a historic district; Cedar Hill is the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site. The riverbanks are parkland.
Then and now
The low marshy shores of the early photographs are now parkland, and freeways run along the river where there was open ground.
Photographs 12, oldest first
Nearby: The Navy Yard · Washington Barracks and the War College · The Library of Congress · The Capitol · The Southwest waterfront