Grant Circle

History

Originally called Sheridan Circle, the name was changed to Grant Circle in 1889 to honor Ulysses S. Grant, the Union general who led the North to victory in the Civil War and later became a two-term U.S. president. The neighborhood newsletter, the Grant Circular, gets its name from this traffic circle. In 1895, the circle was still unpaved, the area around it was thick with trees, and the only business was a long-abandoned peanut stand. During an 1906 excavation of a sand pit at the circle and Illinois Avenue, a cave-in buried several workers.

James Major, an African-American man, was trapped under sand that broke his neck and killed him instantly; others were buried up to their necks but survived. By 1920, the surrounding blocks were fully built up, and the 40-foot roadway around the circle was paved the following year. The 1.8-acre park inside the circle is managed by the National Park Service as part of Rock Creek Park. Petworth Methodist Episcopal Church purchased land at the southern junction of Grant Circle and New Hampshire Avenue for a new building, completed in 1916.

Designed by M.F. Moore, it followed the architectural style of John Wesley's era. Petworth Catholic Church went up on the circle's northwestern side, between Varnum and Webster streets, in 1920. Grant Circle was one of the first spots in Washington to get the double-globe "Bacon lamppost," a Beaux-Arts design approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts in 1924.