Where do you live in D.C.? #16

Where do we live in D.C?

Our neighborhood is today a nice, relatively bland corner of Washington, D.C.  

A recent article in The Washington Post by columnist John Kelly (no relation to the President's Chief of Staff) featured some of D.C.'s infamous neighborhoods from the past.  (You can already guess that our corner of D.C. was once one of those infamous neighborhoods.)  

One notorious area of D.C. was called Bloodfield.  The area is south of the Capitol Building.  Today, the neighborhood is home to the Nationals Park baseball stadium.  In the past, however, the neighborhood was home to another national pastime--knife and gun fights and drunken brawls.   

Another notorious neighborhood was Murder Bay, home to scores of brothels and bars.  "In the late 1800s its tarpaper-roof shacks were overrun with gamblers, robbers and drunks. 'All branches of crime flourished,' remembered one reporter. 'Boys were given lessons in porch-climbing and pocket-picking.'"

Murder Bay in Washington, D.C.  

Another name for Murder Bay was Hooker's Division, named for the Civil War army camp where General Joe Hooker's soldiers once lived.  A nearby resident was the President.  The White House sits about a block away from the edge of Hooker's Division.  Below, you can read more Hooker's Division.

Today, the area is known as Federal Triangle, home to several federal agencies (Commerce, Justice, IRS, National Archives) and also the Trump International Hotel.  Ironic.  

Aerial photo of Federal Triangle, once Murder Bay and Hooker's Division

Where do we live in D.C.?  We live next to White Chapel, one of those infamous D.C. neighborhoods.  White Chapel was a small neighborhood comprised of houses and shacks in alleys between 24th and 25th streets and M and N Streets, NW.  (We live at 25th and M Streets.)  The origin of the name White Chapel is unclear and the name is misleading.  The inhabitants of the alleys were “at almost constant warfare with the police” in the 1880's.

Here are photos of White Chapel's alleys today--a tame place in 2018 compared to the 19th Century.  

White Chapel:  Alley between 24th and 25th Streets, looking north toward N Street (2018)

White Chapel:  Alley between M and N Streets, looking east toward 24th Street (2018).  The building on the right is The Fairmont Hotel.

Thanks for visiting some of D.C.'s notorious neighborhoods with us.  Thanks also to Washington Post columnist John Kelly and his June 19, 2018 article.

P.S.  A funny neighborhood name was Swampoodle.  "This catchy name for the once-Irish neighborhood north of Union Station and straddling North Capitol Street seems to be making a comeback.  A 1963 story in the Evening Star claimed that it was coined by a newspaper reporter who had to slosh through numerous “swamps and puddles” on his way to cover the opening of St. Aloysius Church in 1859. Swamps and puddles?  Swampoodle."  Who knew?