CSNA led a ten-year effort to create and designate the Greater U Street Historic District which was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.  The creation of the Historic District has protected our neighborhood's history and allows us to capitalize on our unique assets of the past.

CSNA’s efforts have also saved individual buildings — Historic Landmark Designations led by CSNA have saved the Exeter Building, 1332 U Street ; the Oswego Building, 1330 U Street (now Urban Essentials); and the First African New Church at 10th & W Streets, NW .

The Greater U Street Historic District, extends roughly from 16th Street on the west to 7th Street on the east and from S Street on the south to Florida Avenue on the north, and includes over 1500 historic buildings.

View a map of The Greater U Street Historic District. (PDF file) (538 KB)

Here is the introduction from the brochure, "The Greater U Street Historic District," by the DC Historic Preservation Office.

Once described as a “city within a city” for its early-to-mid-20th-century days as Washington’s preeminent African-American community, the Greater U Street Historic District is currently a thriving residential and commercial neighborhood of northwest Washington. The district’s main artery, U Street, flows through the center of the neighborhood, offering a variety of stores, restaurants, small businesses, night clubs and other entertainment venues in renovated 19th and early 20th-century buildings.

Some of these buildings, which today cater to a diverse crowd of residents and tourists, were built by and for the African-American community as fraternal organizations, theaters, and jazz clubs, earning U Street its national designation as “Black Broadway” and a reputation as a center of African-American life. Leaders in the civil rights movement, law, education, music, the arts, and humanities were residents, founders, and frequent patrons of U Street and its establishments.

On all sides of U Street, the surrounding grid of streets is defined by cohesive collections of 19th-century residential row houses punctuated by individual churches, corner stores and schools.

These buildings, the majority of which were built between 1870 and 1905, are typical of the city’s post-Civil War speculative development and preceded the area’s rise as the center of Washington’s African-American community. U Street, itself, is noted for its many commercial and institutional buildings, many of which were constructed after 1900 by and for African Americans.

The buildings of U Street, as well as several other African-American landmarks in the area, represent the continuing legacy of the history and culture of Washington’s African-American population.

The Greater U Street Historic District, listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1998, extends roughly from 16th Street on the west to 7th Street on the east and from S Street on
the south to Florida Avenue on the north, and includes over 1500 historic buildings.

Read the complete brochure, "The Greater U Street Historic District," by the District of Columbia's Historic Preservation Office. (PDF file) (1 MB)

View a map of The Greater U Street Historic District. (PDF file) (538 KB)