The point of this site is to share information about the history of the neighborhood. I have a pile of documents relating to this neighborhood and Shaw as a whole. I should try to get more documents such as the 1969 report I found out. Though it doesn’t say a lot, it does talk about the one square, Sq. 551, which is bounded by R , Florida Ave, 1st, Q and 3rd Streets. Before the Florida Avenue park and the Northwest Cooperative, there were individual homes, a dairy and the old Mt. Sinai church.  According to the report the houses on the block were too dilapidated for repair and were best torn down, the diary produced too much truck traffic, and the whole block (with the exception of the Mt. Sinai property) should be redeveloped. It appears Mt. Sinai obtained the properties between it’s old building and the corner at 3rd and Q, where the newer building sits today. This may be of interest to members of Mt. Sinai and residents of the Co-Op.

The document is from the National Archives and Records Administration in their collection relating to the National Capital Planning Commission.

A few months ago I posted on my Twitter page, yes, this its has a Twitter page, the census numbers for the neighborhood.

In 1940 the number of residents topped at about 8,235. The last census taken found 3,028 residents. That's way less than half of the 1940 numbers. Why? I have several  theories, one being that we don't live that way anymore. There aren't a lot of large families under one roof. People have roommates, no longer keeping boarders in the house. Families who rent, usually rent separate units that may be in the basement, or a completely separate floor, not several rooms in the same house. Boarding houses are a rare thing in DC in the 21st century. No we 21st century residents are different. We have smaller families, or we live alone. We don't crowd into bedrooms and we don't rent out extra rooms often for income.

I should compare number of dwelling units, because I think the numbers comparing 1940 and 2010 won't be terribly different. If the number of units aren't too different, then what does that say about housing and density? 

This was originally published on the Inshaw Blog on January 9, 2013.

I swear that I've written about Lucky C. Young before but I have not found him on my blog. Maybe it was one of those posts that never made it past the draft stage.

There are many houses in Truxton Circle that have housed more than one household. Several homes were built as two flat units, so when I was cleaning up data for the 1930 census it wasn't so unusual to have two households at 1203 New Jersey Avenue NW. What was unusual, and why I thought there was some clean up needed, one household was listed as Black and the other white. The first family were the African American Chambers family, with a father, mother and their 17 year old daughter. At the very end of the page were the Youngs, Lucky C. and his wife Estelle and they were clearly listed as white. Considering everyone else on the 1200 block of NJ Ave was Black, the Youngs didn't seem right, so I researched them.

I could not find anything on Estelle Young. She was 27 at the time and the census doesn't show how long she and Lucky were married.

Lucky C. Young was a different story.  He was a driver, born in 1905 in South Carolina, however, he wasn't white. Later WWII records list him as a Negro widower, and a driver, so I knew I had the same person even though his race and marital status had changed. Between the 1930 census and getting enlisted, a 1937 city directory had him living at 1508 6th St NW, only a few blocks (walking distance) from his old NJ Ave digs. That ends what I could find using Ancestry.com's website.

Switching over to ProQuest (at fine Public Libraries everwhere) Lucky C. Young finds nothing but trouble. In 1950 he was caught up in an embezzlement court case involving the Capitol Cab Co. The case was dismissed. In 1964 his violent death was reported. He was shot October 10th near the unit or 100 block of Q St NW (nw vs ne is debatable) in his cab, a few blocks from his home at 47 Randolph Pl NW. November 19th he died at a hospital. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery and his murder was unsolved. Looking at the 1960 City Directory he listed there with his 2nd(?) wife Irene B. Young.

What I find very interesting about Mr. Young are his movements around the neighborhood. He doesn't stay put, but he stays 'around'. Cities are dynamic place with people constantly on the move. He was in DC, as far as I could tell, for decades, but not in the same place. So I wonder what or even how does this case reflect on the lives of other Washingtonians. 

I love hearing from residents that you've used this website and learned a little something about where you live, be it your house or just learning about your street. Most people look at the history of their own address, and that is good too. What really impressed me this week was someone took the census data and mapped it out so people can see the changes in population, race, age and gender from 1880 to 1940 by going to http://www.unit201.net/tc1/ .

Mapping is not one of my talents, so I am very happy when others take their talents and make use of this data. If you have made use of this website and it is something that can be shared with everyone, please contact me at mari at inshaw dot com.  

Well there are now about 100 maps on the Truxton Circle site ranging from microfilm and hard copies found in the Washingtonia Division at the Martin Luther King DC Public Library at Gallery Place to aerial maps created by the U.S. Geological Survey (a government agency) in the 1950s.

Whereas the census data can tell about the social and demographic changes of the neighborhood the maps show changes in property lines, streets, courts and alleys the come and go, as well as houses that do the same. See Square 519 (bounded by Florida Ave, 3rd, R and 4th Sts NW) that begins with the German Glorius family in 1887 taking up the whole block and as we move into the 20th century the family has divided the block into lots and later sells the majority of the property to Harry Wardman, a developer. We also see blocks that in no way resemble their current layout. From the start Square 551changes, where there were a few houses here and there in 1887, it builds up in 1903 and 1909 with more housing along 1st St NW where there were none and more housing appears in the alleys. By 1924 a bunch of warehouses and between 1951-1952 we see trucks and a small light industrial area. There is more to the story, but here it's just the beginning to learning about the thousands of stories this neighborhood holds.