Adams Morgan

History

When the District of Columbia was created in 1791, Robert Peter and Anthony Holmead held the land comprising modern-day Adams Morgan. These tracts were north of the original planned City of Washington and were undeveloped or lightly farmed. As D.C.'s population expanded, the land was divided into estates purchased by wealthy residents, including Meridian Hill, Cliffbourne, Holt House, Oak Lawn, Henderson Castle, a part of Kalorama, and the horse farm of William Thornton.

After the American Civil War, these estates were subdivided and the area slowly grew. Once city layout plans were finalized in the 1890s, subdivisions developed more rapidly, and Adams Morgan grew into attractive, largely upper- and middle-class neighborhoods. In the early 20th century, the area was home to a range of people, from the very wealthy along 16th Street to white-collar professionals in Lanier Heights to blue-collar residents east of 18th Street NW.

After World War II and Brown v. Board of Education, racial desegregation began. When D.C. was formally desegregated, some white people abruptly left, others stayed and worked to integrate, and African American and Hispanic people moved in. With cheaper housing, the area also became home to artists and social activists. In 1948, Charles Lazarus founded Toys "R" Us in Adams Morgan.

In the early 1950s, before desegregation, the neighborhood was considered 'ritzy.' Pursuant to the 1954 Bolling v. Sharpe ruling, district schools were desegregated in 1955. The Adams-Morgan Community Council, comprising both Adams and Morgan schools and the neighborhoods they served, formed in 1958 to implement this desegregation progressively. The boundaries were drawn through four existing neighborhoods—Washington Heights, Lanier Heights, Kalorama Triangle, and Meridian Hill—naming the resulting area after both schools.

In 1955, Herbert Haft founded Dart Drug in Adams Morgan. In the late 1960s, residents worked with city officials to plan and construct the Marie H. Reed Recreation Center, an elementary school and recreational complex named after the minister and civic leader. In 1967, the Ambassador Theater opened; it closed in 1969. After the 1968 Washington, D.C., riots, white flight continued.

Neighbors formed the Adams Morgan Organization to protect tenants and local parks from developers. In the 1980s, Hazel Williams operated Hazel's, which featured live blues and jazz, and its soul food made it a favorite of Dizzy Gillespie and Muhammad Ali when they were in Washington, D.C. The January 20, 2005 counter-inaugural protest included a march through Adams Morgan. From 2010 to 2012, the city reconstructed 18th Street NW with wider sidewalks, more crosswalks and bicycle arrows, resulting in a more pedestrian-friendly thoroughfare.

In September 2014, the American Planning Association named Adams Morgan one of the nation's 'great neighborhoods,' citing its intact Victorian rowhouses, murals, international diversity, and pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly streetscape. In 2021, many local businesses attempted to disband the local business improvement district but were unsuccessful.

Geography

The name Adams Morgan, once hyphenated, is derived from the names of two formerly segregated area elementary schools—the older, all-black Thomas P. Morgan Elementary School (now defunct) and the all-white John Quincy Adams Elementary School, which merged in 1955 following racial desegregation. The Morgan School was named after City Commissioner Thomas P. Morgan. Adams Morgan is bounded: to the south by Florida Avenue NW and the Dupont Circle neighborhood; to the southwest by the Duke Ellington Bridge and by Connecticut Avenue NW and Kalorama-Sheridan; to the north by Harvard St. and Mount Pleasant; to the east by 16th Street NW and Columbia Heights. Reed-Cooke is often considered a sub-neighborhood of Adams Morgan, consisting of the easternmost area between Columbia Road and Florida Avenue, but it can also be considered part of the Meridian Hill neighborhood.

Education

The District of Columbia Public Schools is the public school system. Part of the neighborhood is assigned to Oyster-Adams Bilingual School (K-8), part is assigned to Marie Reed Elementary and Columbia Heights Education Campus, and part is assigned to H.D. Cooke Elementary and Columbia Heights Education Campus. The entire neighborhood is assigned to Jackson-Reed High School. Oyster-Adams Bilingual, the neighborhood K-8 school, was formed in 2007 by the merger of John Quincy Adams Elementary School in Adams Morgan and James F. Oyster Bilingual Elementary School in Woodley Park. The Adams campus serves grades 4-8 and the Oyster campus serves grades Pre-Kindergarten through 3. The Marie Reed Elementary School, with its Learning Center, built in 1977, was extensively remodeled and reopened in 2017.

In popular culture

Adams Morgan is where jumbo slice pizza, an oversized New York-style pizza popular as a late-night meal, was popularized. The neighborhood also saw the rise of the D.C. hardcore punk rock scene, which later spread nationally and globally. Madam's Organ Blues Bar was described as a popular hangout by Playboy and Stuff and featured on the Wild On! travel series on E!. In the Showtime series Homeland, the main character states she lives in Adams Morgan. Scenes from the 2010 movie How Do You Know were filmed there. The neighborhood is mentioned in the Netflix series Taken as the location of a car bomb. In the 1993 film In the Line of Fire, Clint Eastwood's character lives in Adams Morgan.