Existing comment:
Modernization:
Bridges connecting the area to the central city have always been important to residents in Far Southeast. Also of importance to residents was the extension of paved streets, which provided access to major roads and relief from the muddy, often hilly terrain. In 1890, the rebuilding of the Eastern Branch (Pennsylvania Avenue) Bridge brought a new wave of development and land sales in Far Southeast. As the central and southwestern parts of the city developed in the 1880s, another land boom began. Increasing land values prompted several landowners to subdivide their farmland into suburban lots and sell them to would-be homeowners. Anacostian H.A. Griswold sold over 200 subdivided lots right next to Uniontown. His success prompted other landowners in the area to do the same.
New communities sprang up east of the river. One of the most successful investors in the 1890s was the Bliss-Havemeyer syndicate, which purchased land along the Eastern Branch. The land was a tract known as Danforth's Farm, originally purchased in 1807 from Anthony Addison by William Marbury and still owned by Marbury's family. Randle Highlands, adjacent to Pennsylvania Avenue and developed by Colonel Arthur Randle, was another new residential development. Dr. Arthur Christie, owner of Fairlawn, a 120-acre plantation near Anacostia, installed bear pits, wandering peacock, and dog kennels, and made the place a showcase in the region. Later Fairlawn was divided into building lots of developed in 1911.
In 1898, Colonel Randle's electric trolley company installed tracks across the Navy Yard Bridge for trolley cars. The route went from the Navy Yard all the way down Nichols Avenue and south up Asylum Hill past St. Elizabeths Hospital through the rural countryside. The access provided by this trolley line allowed Randle to develop the old Giesborough tract into the residential community of Congress Heights.
Businesses flourished in Far Southeast, especially in the communities of Good Hope, Uniontown, and Barry Farm. Business establishments settled primarily along Good Hope Road and Nichols Avenue, and these two thoroughfares became the main business corridors of Far Southeast by the turn of the 20th century. |