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5. The Trolley Arrives in Mount Pleasant
Until 1900 Mount Pleasant was still a small village of wood-frame houses about a mile outside the City of Washington. In 1903 the city extended and broadened 16th Street, separating what is now Columbia Heights from Mount Pleasant. At about the same time the trolley lines in downtown Washington reached up to Mount Pleasant along what is now Metrobus Route 42. These changes connected Mount Pleasant with jobs and commerce downtown, ensuring the neighborhood's rapid development.
Most of the rowhouses and apartment buildings in Mount Pleasant were built between 1900 and 1920, shortly after the trolley arrived. Many were architect-designed, evidence of the relative prosperity of this upper-middle-class neighborhood. New stores opened along Mount Pleasant Street, and several churches, Bancroft Elementary School, and the Mount Pleasant Library were built to accommodate the growing population. |